Venator’s preliminary data retrievals had led him to anticipate stubbornness. “Very well, I’ll try to explain. To begin indirectly: Do you support the Habitat project?”
“You mean putting L-5 in Lunar orbit?” The voice quickened. “Of course!”
“I should think your members all ought to,” Venator pursued.
Matthias scowled. “Some among us have Lunarian sympathies. That’s their right.”
“Do they include Kenmuir?” Venator intensified his timbre. “Doesn’t he care about other Terrans who hope to go where he’s gone, make their lives where he’s made his?”
“Spare the oratory, por favor,” Matthias said.
Venator assembled words. “It’s no secret how hostile most Lunarians are to the Habitat. Nor is it a secret that Kenmuir not only pilots for the Venture, he has … close personal ties to his employer.” Venture, Venator, passed through him. What an ironic similarity. “We have reason to believe he came to Earth on her account.”
“To sabotage the project?” scoffed Matthias. “Pragmatic, I’m an old man. Not much time’s left me to spend on stupid games.”
Venator suppressed irritation. “My apologies, sir. I’d no such intention. Nor do I accuse Kenmuir of anything unlawful. It’s only—the potentialities, for good or ill—“ He let the sentence trail off, as if he forbore to speak of spacecraft and meteoroids crashed with nuclear-bomb force on Earth, malignant biotech and nanotech, every nightmare that laired at the back of many a human skull.
“What ill?” the Rydberg snorted. “At worst, the Habitat gets cancelled. I agree that for a small minority of us, that would be a disaster, or at least aheartbreaking setback. But let’s have no apocalyptic fantasies, eh? Kindly be specific.”
That was no easy task when Venator could not hint at the truth. “We’re trying to understand the situation,” he said carefully. “It appears the Lunarian faction has something in train. But what? Why don’t they proceed openly, through normal politics or persuasion? Call this a bugaboo if you wish,4>ut the Peace Authority dares not stand idly by. Events could conceivably get out of hand, with disastrous consequences.” So had they done throughout history, over and over, always; for human affairs are a chaotic system. Not until sophotectic intelligence transcended the human had there been any hope of peace that was not stagnation, progress that was not destruction; and how precarious was still the hold of the steersman’s hand! It was encouraging to see the white head nod. “At the same time, we have no legal grounds for direct action. We cannot prove and in fact we do not claim that Captain Kenmuir, or any particular person, has evil intentions. They may be … misguided. Inadequately informed. As we ourselves are at present.”
“You may be on a false trail altogether.”
“Yes, we may. Without more information, we cannot just assume that. You know what duty is.”
“What would you have me do?”
“Tell me what Kenmuir wanted of you.”
The face congealed. “It’s normal for consortes to pay respects at Guthrie House when they get the chance.”
“I doubt that Kenmuir was making a pilgrimage or seeking help in a private difficulty. Else why has he disappeared?”
Matthias sat unyielding. “The Trothdom honors the confidences of its consortes.”
Venator eased his manner a little. “May I guess? You keep a secret here. You have for centuries, the same as you’ve kept that historic spacecraft.”
“We’re far from being the only association that has its mysteries, sanctuaries, and relics,” Matthias said low.
“I’m aware of that. But did Kenmuir perhaps ask you what the secret is?”
Silence responded.
Venator sighed. “I don’t suppose I may ask the same thing?”
Matthias grinned. “Oh, you may. You won’t get an answer.”
“If I came back with an official order and asked?” Venator challenged.
Implacability: “Still less would you get an answer. If necessary, I’d blow out my brains.”
Venator shaped a soundless whistle. The fire spat sparks. “Is it that large a thing?”
“It is. To us.” Matthias paused. “But not to you. Nothing important to you. So much I will say.”
“If you did tell me, and if you’re right about that, which you probably are, I’d take the secret with me to my cremation,” Venator promised.
“Would you? Could you?”