“And now you’ve implanted yourself with one of ’em,” Pancho said, her voice hollow.
Nodding slowly, Amanda said, “Martin thinks I’m carrying his son. But it’s Lars’s.”
“If he finds out he’ll kill you both.”
“That’s why I had it done here. Doug made the arrangements for me, brought together the proper medical personnel, even provided security.”
Pancho glanced at Stavenger with new respect. “That’s one way to spit in Humphries’s eye,” she muttered.
He shrugged. “I did it for Amanda, not to spite Humphries.”
Yeah, sure, Pancho retorted silently.
Aloud, she said, “You’re playin’ with nitroglycerine, Mandy. If Humphries even suspects—”
Amanda silenced her with a flash of her eyes. “He won’t rest until he’s killed Lars,” she said, her voice low but hard, determined. “But even if he does, I’ll bear Lars’s son.”
Pancho let the breath sag out of her.
“It’s the only way I can get back at him,” Amanda said. “The only way I can express my love for Lars.”
“Yeah, but if Humphries even suspects—”
“He won’t,” Stavenger said flatly. “Amanda’s traveled here as part of my team, completely incognito.”
“Only the three of us know about it,” said Amanda.
“What about the medics?”
Stavenger answered, “They don’t know who Amanda is. I fly the team up from Earth and then back again. They don’t stay here.”
“Only the three of us know about it,” Amanda repeated.
Pancho nodded, but she thought about Ben Franklin’s dictum: Three people can keep a secret—if two of them are dead.
LUNAR CABLE CAR 502
Pancho had to grin as she walked up to the cable car along with the other passengers returning to Selene. Above the car’s front windows someone had stenciled the car’s route in blood-red letters: To Hell and Back. None of the other tourists or resident Lunatics seemed to pay any attention to the lettering. Pancho shook her head at their indifference to the unknown graffitist’s sense of humor.
Amanda had left the Hell Crater complex as she had arrived, as part of Douglas Stavenger’s small, private entourage. She had slipped a beige snood over her golden hair, and an equally bland, shapeless mid-calf coat over her dress. No one would see the parade of animated figures circling her waist. She blended in with the rest of Stavenger’s people. Unless someone was specifically searching for her, no one would notice her among the others who boarded Stavenger’s special cable car.
Pancho had decided not to go with them. The lantern-jawed face and tall, long-limbed figure of Astro Corporation’s board chairwoman were known well enough that there was a small but real chance that she might be recognized by news reporters—or snoops from Humphries Space Systems. No sense taking unnecessary risks, she decided. So Pancho spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the casinos, enjoying herself. For an hour or so she piled up a considerable score on one of the computer games, but eventually the law of averages caught up with her. When she sank back to break-even, Pancho called it a day and strolled over to one of the better restaurants for a solitary dinner. Gambling was fun, she thought, but losing wasn’t. And the longer you play, the better the odds favor the house.
She always ate too quickly when she was alone. Feeling full yet unsatisfied, Pancho made her way back to the cable car airlock. “To Hell and back,” she muttered to herself as she climbed through the cable car’s hatch and strapped herself into a seat up front. She looked forward to watching the lunar scenery whipping past, and besides, with her back to most of the other passengers there was less chance of her being recognized. I’ll get a good look at the Straight Wall, she thought.
The overweight Asian-American who settled into the seat beside her, though, stared at her for a few moments after he clicked his safety harness over his bulky shoulders. Then, as the car jerked into motion and glided past the airlock doors, he said, “Pardon me, but aren’t you Pancho Lane? I saw your picture in the financial news net a few days ago and…”
Pancho didn’t have to say a word. She couldn’t. The man prattled on nonstop about his own small company and his great admiration for an executive as lofty as Pancho and how he had come up to Selene from the big refugee center at SeaTac, in the States, to try to clinch a deal with Astro Corporation.