Frank Schätzing - Limit

‘I’m convinced of it.’

‘I’m not,’ Yoyo objected. ‘Couldn’t Hanna have been picked for your tour group if he’d just begged nicely? I mean, one more or less, you’re not going to shoot somebody for it.’

Jennifer shook her head.

‘It’s different with space travel. Where you’re going there are no natural resources, either to move you around or keep you alive. Every breath you take, every bite you eat, every sip of water is factored in. Every extra kilo on board a shuttle is reflected in fuel. Even the space lift is no exception. Once it’s full it’s full. In a vehicle that accelerates to twelve times the speed of sound, you don’t really want any standing room.’

‘What does Norrington have to say so far?’

‘Hmm. The CV looks watertight. He’s working on it.’

‘And you’re quite sure Hanna’s our man?’

Jennifer said nothing for a while.

‘Look, your late friend Vogelaar spouted a whole lot of hints. About China, the Zheng Group above all. The Russians used to be the bad guys, now it’s the Chinese. Should we be bothered that Hanna’s about as Chinese as a St Bernard dog? If Beijing really is behind the attack, they couldn’t do anything better than send up a European, everything signed and sealed, in our lift and with an invitation from Gaia. Someone who can move about freely up there. But, Owen, I’m sure that Hanna’s our man. Julian himself gave us confirmation of that before he got cut off.’

Yoyo glanced at the guest list and set it down again. ‘That means, the more we know about the attack on Palstein, the better we understand what’s happening on the Moon. So where is this guy based? Where is EMCO based? In America?’

‘In Dallas,’ said Jennifer. ‘Texas.’

‘Great. Seven – no, six hours behind. Our friend Palstein’s having lunch. Give him a call.’

Jennifer smiled. ‘That’s what I was just going to do.’

Palstein’s office was on the seventeenth floor of EMCO headquarters, close to several conference rooms which, like inadequately insulated basements, filled again every hour with the brackish water of bad news, every time it seemed just to have been emptied. The meeting in which he had now been stuck for over two hours was no exception. An exploratory project off the coast of Ecuador, at a depth of 3000 metres, launched as a blue-chip enterprise but now nothing but a rusting legacy. Two platforms, giving rise to the question whether they should be dragged to land or sunk, which hadn’t been that easy to answer in the wake of the legendary Brent Spar debacle.

His secretary came into the room.

‘Would it be possible for you to come to the phone for a moment?’

‘Is it important?’ Palstein asked with barely concealed gratitude at being temporarily removed from the ranks of the dead.

‘Orley Enterprises.’ She looked around with an encouraging smile. ‘Coffee, anyone? Espresso? Doughnuts?’

‘Subsidies,’ said an elderly man in a croaking voice. No one laughed. Palstein got to his feet.

‘Have you heard anything yet from Loreena Keowa?’ he asked as he left the room.

‘No.’

‘Right.’ He looked at his watch. ‘I guess she’ll be on the plane already.’

‘Shall I try her mobile?’

‘No, I think Loreena was going to take a later flight. She said something about getting in around twelve.’

‘Where?’

‘Vancouver.’

‘Thanks for that. You’ve just reinforced my certainty that I will keep my job for another while yet.’

He stared at her.

‘Twelve o’clock in Vancouver is two o’clock in Texas,’ she said.

‘I see!’ He laughed. ‘My goodness. What would I do without you?’

‘Exactly. Small conference room, video link.’

A tense-looking group appeared on the wall monitor. Jennifer Shaw, the security chief of Orley Enterprises, was sitting with a fair-haired, stubbly man and a remarkably pretty Asian girl at a battered-looking table.

‘Sorry to bother you, Gerald,’ she said.

‘Not sorry you did.’ He smiled and leaned, arms folded, against the edge of the desk. ‘Good to see you, Jennifer. I’m afraid I haven’t got much time at the moment.’

‘I know. We dragged you out of a meeting. Can I introduce you? Chen Yuyun—’

‘Yoyo,’ said Yoyo.

‘And Owen Jericho. Unfortunately the reason for my call is anything but welcome. However, it may illuminate some questions that you may have been asking yourself every day since Calgary.’

‘Calgary?’ Palstein frowned. ‘Let’s hear it.’

Jennifer told him about the chance of a nuclear attack on Gaia, and that someone had probably wanted him out of the way to make room for a terrorist in Julian’s tour group. Palstein’s thoughts wandered to Loreena.

Someone wanted to stop you doing something. It seems to me it was going to the Moon with Orley.

‘My God,’ he whispered. ‘That’s terrible.’

‘We need your help, Gerald.’ Jennifer leaned forward, grumpy, plump, a monument of mistrust. ‘We need all the picture evidence that the American and Canadian authorities hold about the attack on you, and any other information you might have, texts, state of the investigation. Of course we could take the official route, but you know the people involved in the investigation personally. It would be nice if you could speed up the process. Texas has a busy afternoon ahead, full of hard-working officials who might still be able to give us something today.’

‘Have you called in the British police?’

‘Special Branch, the Secret Intelligence Service. Of course we’ll immediately pass on the material to the State authorities, but as you can imagine my job description doesn’t just involve passing things on.’

‘I’ll do what I can.’ Palstein shook his head, visibly agitated. ‘Sorry, but this is all a big nightmare. The attempt on my life, and now this. It’s less than a week since I wished Julian a pleasant journey. We were going to sign contracts as soon as he got back.’

‘I know. Still no reason not to.’

‘Why would anyone want to destroy Gaia?’

‘That’s what we’re trying to find out, Gerald. And possibly, at the same time, who it was that shot you.’

‘Mr Palstein.’ The fair-haired man spoke for the first time. ‘I know you’ve been asked this a thousand times, but do you suspect anyone yourself?’

‘Well.’ Palstein sighed and rubbed his eyes. ‘Until a few days ago I would have sworn that someone was just venting his disappointment, Mr—’

‘Jericho.’

‘Mr Jericho.’ Palstein was already standing with one foot in the adjacent conference room. ‘We’ve had to fire an awful lot of people recently. Close down firms. You know what’s going on. But there are people who assume the same as you do. That the purpose of the attack was to keep me from flying to the Moon. Except that nobody’s been able to tell me why.’

‘Things are clearer now.’

‘Distinctly so. But these people – or one person, to be more precise – they don’t rule out Chinese interests being involved.’

Jennifer, Jericho and the girl exchanged glances.

‘And what leads these people to make their assumption?’

Palstein hesitated. ‘Listen, Jennifer, I’ve got to go back in, hard as it is. First I’ll make sure that you get hold of the material as quickly as possible. But there’s one area in which I’ll have to ask you to be patient.’

‘Which is that?’

‘There’s a film that possibly shows the man who shot me.’

‘What?’ Chen Yuyun sat bolt upright. ‘But that’s exactly what—’

‘And you’ll get it.’ Palstein raised both hands in a conciliatory manner. ‘Except that I’ve promised the person who found the film that I’d keep it under wraps for the time being. In a few hours I will call that person and ask them to release the video, and until then I ask for your understanding.’