The security chief was standing behind his desk, flanked by a wall of display screens, most of them blank.
“She was here,” he said, punching a keypad on his desktop, “with Mr. Tsavo.”
One of the screens lit up to show Pancho and Tsavo in the bedroom. Nobu watched Pancho spill her champagne, go to the lavatory—and then the screen flared with painful brilliance.
Blinking, a red afterimage burning in his eyes, Yamagata said through gritted teeth, “I don’t want to know where she was. I want to know where she is now.”
The security chief wiped at his tearing eyes. “She must have gone up into the construction area. The surveillance cameras on those levels haven’t been activated yet.”
Before the exasperated Yamagata could say anything, the security chief added, “I’ve ordered all the airlocks sealed and placed guards at all the space suit storage areas. She can’t get outside.”
Nobu thought, That’s something, at least. She’s trapped inside the base. We’ll find her, then. It’s only a matter of time.
We make an unlikely invasion force, Fuchs thought as he and his three crew members walked purposively through the flowering garden toward Humphries’s mansion.
But that might be a good thing, he realized. The more unlikely we appear, the less seriously the guards will take us. We might still have surprise on our side.
Not for long, he saw. A pair of men were striding down the winding path toward them, both of them tall, broadshouldered, with the hard-eyed look of professional security guards. They were clad in identical slate-gray tunics and slacks: not quite uniforms, but close enough. Fuchs wondered what kinds of weapons they carried.
“What are you doing here?” the one on the left called, raising a hand to stop Fuchs and his people.
“Emergency maintenance,” said Fuchs, slowing but not stopping. “Water stoppage.”
“We didn’t get any emergency call,” said the other one. He was slightly shorter, Fuchs saw, and looked somewhat younger.
“It registered on our board,” Fuchs lied. Stretching out an arm to point, he said, “You can see the problem from here, up on your roof.”
The shorter one turned almost completely around. The other glanced over his shoulder. Fuchs launched himself at the older one, ramming his head into the man’s midsection. He heard a satisfying “Oof!” and the two of them went down, Fuchs on top. Nodon kicked the man in the head and he went limp. Getting to his feet, Fuchs saw that Amarjagal and Sanja had knocked the other one unconscious as well.
Swiftly, they tied the two men with their own belts and dragged them into the bushes, but not before taking their guns and communicators.
Fuchs looked over one of the pistols as they ran toward the mansion. Laser pistols. Fuchs remembered how the rock rats had turned their handheld tools into makeshift weapons, years ago. These were specifically designed as sidearms. Nodon held the other gun.
“STOP WHERE YOU ARE!” boomed an amplified voice.
Fuchs yelled back, “This is an emergency! Quick! We haven’t a moment to lose!”
The front door of the mansion opened as they raced up to it, and another pair of guards in identical slate-gray outfits—one of them a woman—stepped out, looking puzzled.
“What’s going-”
Fuchs shot the man and before she could react Nodon shot the woman. The infrared laser beams were invisible but Fuchs saw the smoking little circular wound in his man’s forehead as he slumped to the ground.
“Come on,” Fuchs said, waving his crew forward. Amarjagal and Sanja stopped long enough to take the guns from the unconscious guards, then they stepped over their inert bodies and into the mansion’s entryway.
I’m in his house! Fuchs marveled. I’m actually in Humphries’s home! He realized he hadn’t expected to get this far.
A woman in a black servant’s dress came out of a door down the hall, carrying a silver tray laden with covered dishes. Fuchs rushed toward her. When she saw the gun in his hand she gave out a frightened squeak, dropped the tray with a loud crash, and fled back into the kitchen.
“Never mind her,” Fuchs snarled. “Find Humphries.”
Finally ending her video tour of the ship, Edith returned to her cabin. She felt tired, but decided to review what she had shot and mark the scenes for future editing.