Frank Schätzing - Limit

He would have to call.

So what would he tell them?

He pushed his teacup from right to left, left to right.

And all of a sudden he knew.

There was still a risk, but it could work. He stood up, went to the control panel, put a call through to Earth and had two short conversations.

‘I’ll sum it up,’ Jia said, after he had asked Julian back into the narrow control room to join him. ‘You invite some friends for a private trip. Quite unexpectedly, one of your guests turns out to be a killer, he mows down five people and leaves you stranded on the Aristarchus Plateau.’

‘That’s right.’

‘All this in response to his overhearing a conversation between yourself, Gaia and company headquarters in London, which was about how terrorists may have smuggled a nuclear bomb onto the Moon to destroy an American or Chinese moon base.’

‘A Chi—’ Julian blinked, bewildered. Then he understood. ‘Yes. That’s right. That’s just how it was.’

‘And you have no idea who might be behind it.’

‘Now that you put it that way, Commander, I haven’t the foggiest idea. All I know is that Chinese or American citizens may be in danger.’

‘Mm-hm.’ Jia nodded earnestly. ‘I understand. That makes it all very clear. By which I mean to say that it is in the interests of our national security to look into the matter together with you. I have explained precisely these facts to my superiors, and I have been given permission to prepare the satellite for your use, and then to fly you on to Vallis Alpina afterwards.’

Julian looked at the taikonaut.

‘Thank you,’ he said softly.

‘I’m pleased to be able to help.’

‘You do know, however, that the conversation I am about to conduct may lead to some unjustifiable accusations against China.’

Jia shrugged.

‘All that matters is that I don’t know right now.’

Shaw stood by the table of the conference room. She looked unkempt, as though she had been running about the whole day. Andrew Norrington and Edda Hoff were with her. Behind them, a rather rumpled-looking blond man leaned in the doorway.

‘Julian!’ she called aloud. ‘My God, are you all right? We’ve been trying to reach you for hours.’

‘Have you been able to make contact with Gaia?’

‘No.’

‘Why not? You should be able to reach Gaia by the normal radio chann—’

‘We’ve tried that. Nobody is responding.’

Julian felt his heart skip a beat.

‘Before you ask, there hasn’t been an explosion at Vallis Alpina,’ Shaw said hurriedly. ‘At least that much is good news.’

‘And the base? Have you been able to talk to the moon base?’

‘No response.’

‘Erm, Julian,’ Norrington broke in. ‘Our theory is that somebody is using the satellites to disrupt communication by unleashing a huge botnet on the Moon. The comms equipment up there is completely clogged up, so to speak. The truth is, we’re half blind and completely deaf, we need information from you.’

‘How could anybody clog up our comms?’ Julian snapped.

‘Quite simple. You need an inside man.’

Inside man. Inside woman. Great God, why couldn’t he shake the idea that Lynn had something to do with it.

‘We’re just going over Hanna’s background,’ Hoff said. ‘There’s not a great deal we can say about him for sure, though his whole life story turns out not to be worth the paper it’s printed on. We are however agreed that he can’t be operating on his own up there.’

‘Once again, where are you ?’ Norrington urged him.

Julian sighed. He gave a brief account of what had happened in the hours since communications had collapsed. Shaw’s face turned paler with every death he recounted.

‘Jia Keqiang has been kind enough to agree to fly us to the hotel,’ he finished up. ‘We’ll try to reach Gaia through the Chinese satellite first, to—’

‘Mr Orley.’ The blond man straightened up from the doorway and took a step forward. ‘You shouldn’t fly back to Gaia.’

Julian looked at the man, frowning in confusion. Then all of a sudden he realised.

‘You’re Owen Jericho.’

‘Yes.’

‘I beg your pardon.’ He spread his hands. ‘I should have thanked you long ago, but—’

‘Some other time. Does the name Hydra mean anything to you?’

Julian gawped. ‘Greek mythology,’ he ventured. ‘Monster with nine heads.’

‘Nothing else spring to mind?’

‘No.’

‘It looks as though an organisation called Hydra is responsible for all this. Heads that grow back when you cut them off. A great many heads. Invincible, worldwide. For a while we thought that the people pulling the strings were in Chinese high finance or politics, but whichever way you look at it, that doesn’t make any sense. By the way, a friend of yours was on Hydra’s hit list.’

‘What? Who was that, for heaven’s sake?’

‘Gerald Palstein.’

‘What? Why would they want to get Gerald?’

‘That’s the easiest question to answer,’ Norrington chipped in. ‘When Palstein was shot, that meant that he had to pull out of the moon trip at short notice and make room for Hanna.’

‘But how—’

‘Later.’ Jericho came closer. ‘The most important thing for you to know right now is that the attack isn’t aimed at Gaia.’

‘It’s not?’ Julian asked. ‘But you said—’

‘I know. It looks like we made a mistake. In the meantime we’ve been able to decode more of the message, and it seems that the bomb isn’t there to destroy your hotel.’

‘But what, then?’

There was silence for a moment, as though everyone in the room was waiting for someone else to spill the beans.

‘Peary Base,’ Shaw said.

Julian stared at her, his mouth open. Jia looked as though the ground had opened up under his feet.

‘Beijing would never plan—’ he began.

‘We’re not certain that Beijing’s behind it,’ Shaw interrupted. ‘At least, not Chinese government circles. But that’s irrelevant right now. Hydra want to contaminate Peary Crater, the Mountains of Eternal Light, the whole region! They don’t want anything from us, they just used us to get up to the Moon. Contact the base straight away, however you do it! They’ve got to search the place with a fine-toothed comb, and evacuate if need be.’

‘Good God,’ Julian whispered. ‘Who are Hydra?’

‘No idea. But whoever they are – they want to wipe America off the face of the Moon.’

‘And Carl’s headed there right now.’ In an instant, it all became clear. He leapt to his feet and stared at Jia. ‘He’s going to arm the bomb. He’ll arm it, and then clear out!’

They couldn’t reach Peary Base with the Chinese satellite either, which made Orley even more frantic. They tried to reach Gaia, with no luck. Then the base again. Then Gaia again. Shortly after four o’clock, they gave up.

‘It can’t be anything to do with our satellite,’ Jia argued. ‘We could talk to London no problem.’

Orley looked at him. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’

‘That the bomb has already exploded, and that’s why we can’t reach anybody?’ Jia rubbed his eyes. ‘I’ll admit, I had considered it.’

‘It’s horrific,’ Orley whispered.

‘But we heard that the satellites aren’t the problem. It’s the communications equipment. Peary Base and Gaia have been attacked; we haven’t. Which means that we can communicate, just not with the hotel, and not with the Pole. Besides, a nuclear explosion—’ Jia hesitated. ‘Don’t you think we’d have been told? My country keeps a very close eye on the Moon. I think your hotel must still be in one piece.’