Robert Sawyer - Mindscan

I drew her even closer, hugged her, feeling the soft exterior and the hardness beneath. “Thank you.”

“How long till they call you back?”

“I said thirty minutes, but I doubt they’ll be that patient, and—”

As if on cue, the phone rang. I glanced down at the call display, which said “Long Distance” again. I’ll say.

“Hello?” I said, after touching my cell’s speakerphone button.

Two seconds of digital silence, then: “Mr. Sullivan, thank you for picking up. Sorry to ring you back so soon, but we really—”

“No, that’s okay. I’ll come.”

“—need to have an answer from you. The situation up here is—you will? Brilliant! Brilliant! I’m delighted. We’ll—”

“There’s one condition. Karen Bessarian gets to come with me, too. Over.”

Silence, then: “You mean the Mindscan version of her? Why? Her—um, well…”

“We know her original has passed on. But she’s my friend, and I want her with me. Over.”

“Mr. Sullivan, I’m not authorized—”

“I’ll pay for it myself,” said Karen.

“—to make arrangements for anyone else. This is going to be—what’s that? Well, if you’ll cover the costs; I assume that’s Ms. Bessarian speaking. But I warn you, ma’am, we’re planning to use an express rocket; an extra fifty kilograms will cost … Anna? Give me a sec … approximately six million dollars. Over.”

I smiled at Karen. “The six million dollar woman.”

“No problem,” she said.

“Well … all right, then,” replied Smythe. “All right. But, again, we’re using an express cargo rocket—fastest way to get here. They’re uncrewed, and not designed for passengers. It won’t be a comfortable trip. Over.”

“What is comfort, anyway?” said Karen. “Neither of us need padded chairs. We’re a ware of the temperature, but indifferent to it. How long will the trip take?”

“You have to say, ‘Over,’ ” I added helpfully.

“Um, over,” said Karen.

The time lag, then: “Twelve hours.”

Karen snorted—something I wasn’t aware we could still do. “I’ve spent longer on airplane flights.”

“Then it’s settled,” I said. “We’ll go. You said you’d send a car for us? Over.”

“Will do. What’s the address there?”

Karen told him.

“Great,” said Smythe. “We’ll get it all arranged. You’re on your way to the moon.”

On my way to the moon…

I shook my head.

On my way to the fucking moon.

The videophone in the moonbus bleeped again. “All right,” said Gabriel Smythe, as soon as I’d answered. “All right. He’s on his way. Jacob Sullivan is on his way here.”

“By cargo rocket?” I asked.

“He will be, yes. He’s en route to Florida now.”

“When will he be here?”

“In fourteen hours.”

“Well, then, there’s not much for us to do until he gets here, is there?” I said.

“You can see that we’re cooperating,” said Smythe. “We’re doing everything we can to help you. But fourteen hours is a long time. You’ll have to sleep.”

“I don’t think so. I can still pull an all-nighter when need be. And I’ve taken some pills. Ask Dr. Ng. I told her I was suffering from extreme drowsiness; she gave me some uppers.”

“Still,” said Smythe, “things can only get more complex in fourteen hours. And three detainees is a lot to manage. Do you think you could see yourself clear to letting one of them go? A show of good faith, perhaps?”

I thought about this. Strictly speaking, I perhaps didn’t need any hostages—after all, I could take out the whole of High Eden just by blowing up the moonbus. And Smythe was right: three was a lot of people to control. But I didn’t want to change any parameters. “I don’t think so,” I said.

“Come now, Jake. It’s going to be a lot easier for you if you only have to worry about two other people. Or one…”

“Don’t press your luck, Gabe,” I said.

“All right, all right. But surely you can let one hostage go?”

Damn it, three was a lot to look after. Plus, soon enough, I’d have to feed them…

“You probably want Brian Hades,” I said. “You can’t have him.”

“We’ll gratefully accept anyone you care to send out, Jake. Your choice.”

I looked around at my crew. Hades had a defiant expression on his round face. Chloe Hansen looked terrified; I wanted to say some soothing words to her. I shut off the phone.

“What about you?” I said to Akiko Uchiyama. “You want to go?”

“You want me to beg?” she said. “Fuck you.”

I was taken aback. “I—I’m not trying to be mean here.”

“You’re fucking us over, you son of a bitch. Not to mention everyone who cares about us.”

“I was going to let you go.”

“ Was . The benevolent tyrant.”

“No, I mean if you—”

“Let me go. Or don’t let me go. But don’t expect me to fucking thank you for it.”

“All right,” I said. “You can go. Cycle through the airlock.”

Akiko looked at me for a second, no change in her facial expression.

“But when you get back home,” I added, “wash your mouth out with soap.”

She got up from the chair she’d been sitting in and headed for the airlock. I watched her cycle through, then went back to the videophone. “Smythe,” I said.

There was a pause. “Smythe’s not here just now,” said the voice of the female traffic controller.

“Where the hell is he?”

“The washroom.”

Lucky bastard—although I wondered if that was really true, or if they were playing more mind games with me. “Well, tell him I’ve just sent him a present.”

The rocket’s cargo hold was cylindrical, about three meters long, and a meter in diameter. It made steerage look elegant.

“How, um, how do you want to be arranged?” asked Jesus Martinez, the muscular, bald man who was overseeing the loading of cargo.

I looked at Karen. She raised her eyebrows, leaving it to me. “Face to face,” I said. “There’s no window, so it’s not like there’ll be anything to look at.”

“There’s no light, either,” said Jesus. “Not once the hatches are sealed.”

“Can’t you throw in some glowsticks?” I said. “Luciferin, something like that?”

“I suppose,” said Jesus. “But every gram costs money.”

“Put it on my tab,” said Karen.

Jesus nodded. “Whatever you say, Mrs. Bessarian.” He told a man standing near him to go get the glowsticks, then, turning back to us: “You realize we’ll have to strap you in for the first hour, while you’re undergoing steady acceleration—although you can undo the straps later if you like. As you can see, we’ve already lined the chamber with padding. Your bodies are durable, but the launch will be rough.”

“That’s okay,” I said.

“All right,” said the man. “We’re at T-minus sixteen minutes. Let’s get you in there.”

I entered the vertical cylinder of the hold, and positioned myself against the far curving wall. I then opened my arms, inviting Karen to step into them. She did so, and she slipped her arms around me. Why shouldn’t we travel hugging each other? It wasn’t as if our limbs were going to get tired.

Jesus and two assistants worked on positioning us just right, and then they strapped us in. “Guys like you—artificial bodies—might be the future of manned space-flight,” Jesus said as he worked. “No life support, no need to worry about prolonged exposure to high gees.”

The person Jesus had dispatched appeared a few minutes later, clutching some glowsticks. “These are good for four hours a piece,” he said, breaking one open now, shaking it up, and letting the—green, I guess that was also a shade of green—light fill the chamber. “You guys have normal night vision?”