The Precipice Read online

  Surprised, Dan said, “I didn’t know that.”

  “There hasn’t been much publicity about it. The New Morality and their ilk have a pretty tight grip on the news media.”

  Dan studied her face for a long, silent moment. Dr. Cardenas was physically youthful, quite attractive, a Nobel laureate, the leader in her chosen field of study. Yet she seemed so indignant.

  “Well, anyway,” he said, “I’m grateful that you’ve taken the time to see me. I know you’re busy.”

  She broke into a pleased smile. “Your message seemed kind of…” she fished for a word, “… mysterious. It made me wonder why you wanted to see me in person, rather than by phone.”

  Dan grinned back at her. “I’ve found that it’s always easier to discuss matters face-to-face. Phones, mail, even VR meetings, they can’t replace person-to-person contact.”

  Cardenas’s smile turned knowing. “It’s more difficult for someone to say ‘no’ to your face.”

  “You got me,” Dan replied, raising his hands in mock surrender. “I need your help and I didn’t want to tell you about it long-distance.”

  She seemed to relax somewhat. Easing back in her chair, she asked, “So what’s so important that you came up here to see me?”

  “Down here. I came in from Selene.”

  “What’s your problem? I’ve been so wrapped up with this Mars work that I haven’t been keeping up with current events.”

  Dan took in a breath, then started, “You know I’m the head of Astro Manufacturing.”

  Cardenas nodded.

  “I’ve got a small team ready to build a prototype fusion rocket, using nanomachines.”

  “A fusion rocket?”

  “We’ve tested small models. The system works. Now we need to build a full-scale prototype and test it. We’re planning a mission to the Asteroid Belt, and—”

  “Spacecraft have gone to the Belt on ordinary rockets. Why do you need a fusion system?”

  “Those were unmanned vehicles. This mission will carry a crew of four, maybe six.”

  “To the Asteroid Belt? Why?”

  “To start prospecting for the metals and minerals that the people of Earth need,” Dan said.

  Cardenas’s face turned stony. Coldly, she asked, “What are you trying to accomplish, Mr. Randolph?”

  “I’m trying to save the Earth. I know that sounds pompous, but if we don’t—”

  “I see no reason to save the Earth,” Cardenas said flatly.

  Dan gaped at her.

  “They got themselves into this greenhouse mess. They were warned, but they paid no attention. The politicians, the business leaders, the news media… none of them lifted a finger until it was too late.”

  “That’s not entirely true,” Dan said softly, remembering his own struggles to get the world’s leaders to recognize the looming greenhouse cliff before it struck.

  “True enough,” Cardenas replied. “And then there’s the New Morality and all those other ultraconservative cults. Why do you want to save them?”

  “They’re people,” Dan blurted. “Human beings.”

  “Let them sink in their own filth,” Cardenas said, her words dripping acid. “They’ve earned whatever they get.”

  “But…” Dan felt completely at sea. “I don’t understand…”

  “They exiled me.” She almost snarled the words. “Because I injected nanomachines into my body, they prevented me from returning to Earth. Their fanatics assassinated anyone who spoke in favor of nanotechnology, did you know that?”

  Dan shook his head mutely.

  “They attacked Moonbase, back before it became Selene. One of their suicide killers blew up Professor Zimmerman in his own lab. And you want me to help them?”

  Shocked by her vehemence, Dan mumbled, “But that was years ago…”

  “I was there, Mr. Randolph. I saw the mangled bodies. And then, when we won and even the old United Nations had to recognize our independence, those hypocritical ignoramuses passed laws exiling anyone who had accepted nanomachines into her body.”

  “I understand that, but—”

  “I had a husband,” she went on, blue eyes snapping. “I had two daughters. I have four grandchildren in college that I’ve never touched! Never held them as babies. Never sat down at the same table with them.”

  Another woman might have burst into tears, Dan thought. But Cardenas was too furious for that. How the hell can I reach her? he wondered.

  She seemed to recover herself. Placing both hands on her desktop, she said more mildly, “I’m sorry for the tirade. But I want you to understand why I’m not particularly interested in helping the people of Earth.”

  Dan replied, “Then how about helping the people of Selene?”

  Her chin went up a notch. “What do you mean?”

  “A working fusion drive can make it economical to mine hydrates from the carbonaceous asteroids. Even scoop water vapor from comets.”

  She thought about that for a moment. Then, “Or even scoop fusion fuels from Jupiter, I imagine.”

  Dan stared at her. Twelve lords a-leaping, I hadn’t even thought of that. Jupiter’s atmosphere must be loaded with hydrogen and helium isotopes.

  Cardenas smiled slightly. “I presume you could make a considerable fortune from all this.”

  “I’ve offered to do it at cost.”

  Her brows rose. “At cost?”

  He hesitated, then admitted, “I want to help the people of Earth. There’s ten billion of them, less the millions who’ve already been killed in the floods and epidemics and famines. They’re not all bad guys.”

  Cardenas looked away from him for a moment, then admitted, “No, I suppose they’re not.”

  “Your grandchildren are down there.”

  “That’s a low blow, Mr. Randolph.”

  “Dan.”

  “It’s still a low blow, and you know it.”

  He smiled at her. “I’m not above a rabbit punch or two if it’ll get the job done.”

  She did not smile back. But she said, “I’ll spin this Mars work off to a couple of my students. It’s mostly routine now, anyway. I’ll be back in Selene within the week.”

  “Thanks. You’re doing the right thing,” Dan said.

  “I’m not as sure of that as you are.”

  He got up from his chair. “I guess we’ll just have to see where it all leads.”

  “Yes, we will,” she agreed.

  Dan shook hands with her again and then left her office. Don’t linger once you get what you want. Never give the other side the chance to reconsider. He had Cardenas’s agreement, no matter that it was reluctant.

  Okay, I’ve got the team I need. Duncan and his crew can stay Earthside. Cardenas will direct the construction job.

  Now to confront Humphries.

  SELENE

  “And he’s madder’n hell,” Pancho finished.

  Dan nodded somberly as they rode an electric cart through the tunnel from the spaceport to Selene proper. Pancho had been at the spaceport to meet him on his return flight from Nueva Venezuela, looking worried, almost frightened about Humphries.

  “I guess I’d be ticked off, too,” he said, “if our positions were reversed.”

  The two of them were alone in the cart. Dan had deliberately waited until the four other passengers of the transfer ship had gone off toward the city. Then he and Pancho had clambered aboard the next cart. The automated vehicles ran like clockwork along the long, straight tunnel.

  “What do you want to do?” Pancho asked.

  Dan grinned at her. “I’ll call him and arrange a meeting.”

  “At the O.K. Corral?”

  “No,” he said, laughing. “Nothing so grim. It’s time he and I talked about structuring a deal together.”

  Frowning, Pancho asked, “Do you really need him now? I mean with the nanotech and all? Can’t you run this show yourself and keep him out of it?”

  “I don’t think that would be the smart thing to do,
” Dan replied. “After all, he did start me off on this fusion business. If I tried to cut him out altogether he’d have a legitimate gripe.”

  “That’s what he expects you to do.”

  Dan watched the play of shadows over her face as the cart glided silently along the tunnel. Light and shadow, light and shadow, like watching a speeded-up video of the Sun going across the sky.

  “I don’t play the game the same way he does,” he said at last. “And I don’t want this project tied up by lawyers for the next ninety-nine years.”

  Pancho grunted with distaste. “Lawyers.”

  “Humphries brought the fusion project to me because he wants to get into Astro. I know how he works. He figures that he’ll finance the fusion work in exchange for a bloc of Astro’s stock. Then he’ll finagle some more stock, put a couple of his clones on my board of directors, and sooner or later toss me out of my own company.”

  “Can he do that?”

  “That’s the way he operates. He’s snatched half-a-dozen corporations that way. Right now he’s on the verge of taking over Masterson Aerospace.”

  “Masterson?” Pancho looked shocked.

  Dan said, “Yep. Half the world drowning and the rest cooking from this double-damned greenhouse, and he’s using it to snatch and grab. He’s a goddamned opportunist. A vampire, sucking the life out of everything he touches.”

  “So what are you gonna do?”

  “Keep his investment in the fusion project to a minimum,” Dan said. “And keep the fusion project separate and apart from Astro Corporation.”

  “Good luck,” she said glumly.

  Dan grinned at her. “Hey, don’t look so worried. I’ve been through this kind of thing before. This is what the corporate jungle is all about.”

  “Yeah, maybe, but I think he’ll get rough if he doesn’t get his way. Real rough.”

  With a brash shrug, Dan replied, “That’s why I keep Big George around.”

  “Big George? Who’s he?”

  Dan had made his quick trip to Nueva Venezuela without George. He didn’t feel the need for a bodyguard once he was off-Earth. In fact, he hadn’t seen the Aussie since they’d arrived together in Selene for his meeting with Doug Stavenger.

  “I’ll have to introduce you to him.”

  The cart reached the end of the tunnel and stopped automatically. Dan and Pancho got off; he grabbed his travel-bag and they walked to the customs inspection station. Dan saw that the two uniformed inspectors were still checking the quartet of people who had arrived on his flight On the other side of the area, by the entrance gate, an elderly couple was saying goodbye to a young family with two children, one of them a tot squirming in her mother’s arms.

  “So whattaya want me to tell Humphries?” Pancho asked ‘He’ll wanna know how you did with Dr. Cardenas.”

  “Tell him the truth. Cardenas is joining the team. She’ll be here in a few days.”

  “Should I tell him you want to set up a meeting with him?’

  Dan thought it over as they stepped up to the customs desk. “No,” he said at last “I’ll call him myself as soon as we get down to our quarters.”

  Humphries seemed surprised when Dan called him, but he quickly agreed to a meeting the very next morning. He insisted on having the meeting in the Humphries Space System’s suite of offices, up in the same tower on the Grand Plaza that housed Doug Stavenger’s office.

  Dan accepted meekly enough, laughing inwardly at Humphries’s gamesmanship. He tried to phone Big George, got only his answering machine, and left a message for George to call him first thing in the morning. Then he undressed, showered, and went to bed.

  He dreamed about Jane. They were together on Tetiaroa, completely alone on the tropical atoll beneath a gorgeous star-strewn sky, walking along the lagoon beach while the balmy wind set the palm trees to rustling softly. A slim crescent of a Moon rode past scudding silvery clouds. Jane was wearing a filmy robe, her auburn hair undone and flowing past her shoulders. In the starlight he could see how beautiful she was, how desirable.

  But he could not speak a word. Somehow, no matter how hard he tried, no sound would come out of his mouth. This is stupid, Dan raged at himself. How can you tell her you love her if you can’t talk?

  The clouds thickened, darkened, blotted out the Moon and stars. Beyond Jane’s shadowy profile Dan could see the ocean stirring, frothing, an enormous tidal wave rising up higher, higher, a mountain of foaming water rushing down on them. He tried to warn her, tried to shout, but the water crashed down on them both with crushing force. He reached for Jane, to hold her, to save her, but she was wrenched out of his arms.

  He woke, sitting up and drenched with sweat. His throat felt raw, as if he’d been screaming for hours. He didn’t know where he was. In the darkness of the bedroom all he could see was the green glowing numerals on the digital clock on the night table. He rubbed at his eyes, working hard to remember. Selene. I’m in the company suite in Selene. I’m going to see Humphries first thing in the morning.

  And Jane’s dead.

  * * *

  “You’ve been quite a busy fellow,” Humphries said, with obviously false joviality.

  Instead of meeting in his personal office, he had invited Dan to a small windowless conference room. Not even holoviews on the walls, only a few paintings and photographs of Martin Humphries with celebrities of various stripes. Dan recognized the current President of the United States, a dour-faced elderly man in black clerical garb, and Vasily Malik of the GEC.

  Leaning back relaxedly in the comfortable padded chair, Dan said, “I guess I have been on the go quite a bit since we last met.”

  Sitting across the table from Dan, Humphries clasped his hands together atop its gleaming surface. ‘To tell you the truth, Dan, I get the feeling you’re trying to screw me out of this fusion operation.”

  Laughing, Dan said, “I wouldn’t do that, Marty, even if I could.”

  Humphries laughed back at him. It seemed more than a little forced to Dan.

  “Tell me something,” Dan said. “You didn’t stumble across Duncan by accident, did you?”

  Humphries smiled more genuinely. “Not entirely. When I started Humphries Space Systems I went out and backed more than a dozen small, long-shot research groups. I figured that one of them was bound to come through with something. You ought to see some of the kooks I had to deal with!”

  “I can imagine,” Dan said, grinning. He’d had his share of earnest zanies trying to convince him of one wild scheme or another over the years.

  “I got lucky with Duncan and this fusion rocket,” Humphries went on, looking pleased with himself.

  “It was more than luck,” Dan said. “You were damned smart.”

  “Maybe,” Humphries agreed. “It only takes one swing to hit a home run.”

  “And it doesn’t cost much, either, at the laboratory stage.”

  Nodding, Humphries said, “If more people backed basic research we’d get ahead a lot faster.”

  “I should’ve done it myself,” Dan admitted.

  “Yes, you should have.”

  “My mistake.”

  “Okay then, where do we stand?” Humphries asked.

  “Well… you financed Duncan’s original work.”

  “Including the flight tests that you saw,” Humphries pointed out.

  Dan nodded. “I’ve been trying to put together the financing for building a full-scale spacecraft and sending a team out to the Belt.”

  “I can finance that. I told you I’d put up the money.”

  “Yep. But it’d cost me a good chunk of Astro Corporation, wouldn’t it?”

  “We can negotiate a reasonable price. It won’t cost you a cent out of pocket.”

  “But you’d wind up owning Astro,” Dan said flatly.

  Something flashed in Humphries’s eyes for a moment. But he quickly put on a synthetic smile. “How could I take over Astro Manufacturing, Dan? I know you wouldn’t part with more than fifteen-twenty
percent of your company.”

  “More like five or ten percent,” Dan said.

  “Even worse, for me. I’d be a minority stockholder. I wouldn’t even be able to put anybody on the board—except myself, I imagine.”

  Dan said, “H’mm.”

  Hunching closer, Humphries said, “I hear you’re going the nanotech route.”

  “You hear right,” Dan replied. “Dr. Cardenas is returning to Selene to head up the job.”

  “I hadn’t thought about using nanomachines. Makes sense.”

  “Brings the cost down.”

  “Makes my investment smaller,” Humphries said, straight-faced.

  Tired of the fencing, Dan said, “Look, here’s the way I see this. We bring Selene in as a third partner. They provide the facilities and nanotech personnel.”

  “I thought you were recruiting retirees,” Humphries said.

  “Some,” Dan admitted, “but we’ll still need Selene’s active help.”

  “So we’ve got a third partner,” Humphries said sullenly.

  “I want to form a separate corporation, separate and apart from Astro. We’ll each be one-third owners: you, me, and Selene.”

  Humphries sat up straighter. “What’s the matter, Dan, don’t you trust me?”

  “Not as far as I can throw the Rock of Gibraltar.”

  Another man might have laughed grudgingly. Humphries glared at Dan for a moment, his face reddening. But then he got himself under control and shrugged nonchalantly.

  “You don’t jsvant to let me have any Astro stock, do you?”

  “Not if I can help it,” Dan said pleasantly.

  “But then what are you bringing into this deal? I’ve got the money, Selene’s got the personnel and facilities. What do you offer?”

  Dan smiled his widest. “My management skills. After all, I’m the one who came up with the nanotech idea.”

  “I thought it was Stavenger’s idea.”

  Dan felt his brows hike up. And his respect for Humphries’s sources of information. He didn’t get that from Pancho; I didn’t tell her. Does he have Stavenger’s office bugged? Or infiltrated?

  “Tell you what,” said Dan. “Just to show you that I’m not such a suspicious sonofabitch, I’ll chip in five percent of Astra’s stock. Out of my personal holdings.”