“Everyone at Guthrie House will be arrested, you know. You’ve probably destroyed your beloved Fireball Trothdom. Did you intend that?”
Fireball Enterprises had destroyed itself in bringing down an evil, the spaceman thought. For the first time, he wondered what agonies of soul Matthias was undergoing.
“Something may yet be salvaged,” Venator urged. “Cease acceleration, admit boarders when they match velocity, and come back to discourse like reasonable human beings.”
“Will the world listen in?” Kenmuir demanded. “What guarantees of that can you give us?”
“None. You would see through any trick we attempted, as suspicious as you are. How can I persuade you that this is not a matter which ought to be public?”Kenmuir’s lips pulled back from his teeth. “That would be difficult, wouldn’t it?” Inwardly he thought Matthias’s choice had been easy, set beside this that he must make. Were he and Aleka in the right?
“Every minute you let go by, you’re in worse trouble,” Venator said, “What cause do you imagine you’re serving? Lilisaire’s? What she intends—we have reason to believe—could cost millions of lives. Do you want them on your conscience?”
“No. If you’re telling the truth. Are you?” Now Kenmuir could speak the name. “Your people lied about Proserpina for lifetimes.”
“There are good reasons to keep that confidential, till the world is ready. I—no, the cybercosm will be glad to explain them to you, in privacy.”
“Will it? Or will we—my partner and I—simply disappear?”
Venator sighed. “You’ve been watching too many historical dramas.” Sternly: “Consider this an ultimatum. If you surrender now, clemency is possible, for you and for Fireball. Later, I fear not.”
“What about the Covenant, and our rights under it? I tell you again, we want total disclosure. Otherwise you’re in worse violation than we could ever be.”
“The Covenant makes provision for emergencies—“ Venator broke off. After a half minute, while Earth dwindled and Luna grew: “You are determined.”
“We are,” Kenmuir said to him and to himself.
“Your record suggests you mean that. I shall not let you talk a delaying action.” Venator laughed softly. “Nor shall I wish you luck. But may you survive. I’d like to talk candidly with you, intelligence to intelligence. Ave atque vale.”
The light went out. “Transmission ended,” the ship said.
Kenmuir glanced once more at Earth, If he “could broadcast, rouse those who loved freedom—But the signal must go through satellite relays if it was to have any chance of being heard, and they were under control.
And how many on the planet would especially care?
Matthias had said he felt the walls closing in, all his life. Kenmuir had not, until lately. At least, not in the upper part of his mind. Down below, had he too sensed that he was caged?
Was he?
He shook the questions off, as a dog shakes off the water of a cold river, and began unharnessing. “It should be a steady run,” he told Aleka, “but we’d better have spacesuits on, in case.” He’d definitely need his.
She nodded. Under two gravities, the dark hair fell straight and thickly past her face. “ ‘Ae.”
They went aft. For a few minutes before donning the gear, they kissed.
When they returned, he called for data on pursuit. They were few and the probable errors were high, but instruments did appear to show two or three vessels bound through an intercept cone for his deep-space course. How they proposed to stop Kestrel, short of ramming, he didn’t know. But they were of modem design with far more delta v. If necessary, they could hound her till she exhausted her reaction mass, then draw alongside.
He began entering the detailed instructions that would enable Aleka to take command. “I hope I’m not too clumsy with you,” he said into his communicator, impulsively, foolishly.
“You haven’t Kyra’s skill,” Kestrel answered, “but your hands feel much like hers.” 1 he ship neared Luna.
By then it was certainly clear to the hunters that they had been deceived and this was in fact her destination. But they could not stop her. All spacecraft capable of interception were now too distant to arrive in time. There were no missiles available that she could not dodge. Those emplaced on the Moon were few and slow, intended for unlikely targets, such as a large meteoroid on a catastrophic orbit. Constabulary and Peace Authority forces were doubtless on full alert, but that was of no immediate help.