Ben Bova - The Silent War

“He knows me.”

“He knew you,” George corrected. “Ol’ Lars isn’t the same man he was back then.”

Pancho gave him a long unhappy look, then muttered, “Who the hell is?”

Harbin studied the image of Grigor on the wallscreen of his private quarters. A Russian, Harbin said to himself, recalling the way the village elders had spoken of the Russians when he’d been a lad. The Russians are our friends, they intoned, as long as they stay far away from our village.

Grigor’s normally dour, downcast features looked almost happy as he gave Harbin the latest orders from Selene. An important executive of the rival Astro Corporation was at Ceres. Probably she would go deeper into the Belt, seeking a meeting with the renegade Fuchs.

“We will receive tracking data from our informant in the IAA facility at Ceres. You will intercept her vessel and eliminate it. Quite possibly you’ll be able to eliminate Fuchs at the same time. You are to take as many ships as you deem necessary, but in any event no fewer than five. Humphries wants this job done without fail.”

Harbin wanted to answer, “Then let Humphries come out here and do it himself.” But he knew that it would take more than half an hour for any reply from him to reach the Moon. Besides, it wouldn’t be wise to be so disrespectful to the man who pays all the bills.

So he wiped Grigor’s image from his wallscreen and replied merely, “Message received. Will comply.”

Five ships. Grigor thinks that more ships will guarantee success. He has no idea of how difficult it is to coordinate a multiship attack out here. And the more ships we use, the sooner the prey will realize it’s being tracked.

Harbin shook his head in mild disgust. I could do it alone, one ship with a crew of one. Give me the coordinates of the Astro vessel’s course and I’ll intercept it and terminate it. And if Fuchs is in the area I’ll handle him, too.

Leaning back in his padded chair, Harbin locked his fingers behind his head and thought it over. Fuchs is smart, though. Wily, like a badger. He can sniff out danger a thousand kilometers away. Five ships might make sense. Maybe a few more, to go out ahead of me and take up stations that will cut off his line of retreat. Then I’d have him, finally.

He sat up straight, nodded once at the blank wallscreen, then got to his feet and headed for the command center. He needed the latest tracking data on the Astro vessel.

Big George was staring at a wallscreen, too. Pancho sat beside him in his informal office, her eyes glued to the grainy image of Lars Fuchs.

“I received Pancho’s message,” Fuchs said, his broad, jowly face downcast, sour-looking. “Unfortunately, I can’t risk a meeting. Too many of Humphries’s spies might learn of it. Whatever you have to tell me, Pancho, send it in a message.”

The image winked off.

Pancho blinked, then turned to George. “That’s it? That’s his whole message?”

“He doesn’t waste words,” George replied. “ ’Fraid somebody might intercept the beam and get a fix on his location.”

“I’ve got to talk to him,” Pancho said, feeling frustrated. “Face to face.”

George said, “Lots o’ luck.”

Getting to her feet, Pancho said, “I can’t tell him Mandy’s dead over a comm link.”

Shaking his unshorn head, George replied, “He’s not gonna meet with you, Pancho. I di’n’t think he would.”

“I’m not going to lead him into a trap, for cripes sake!”

“Not knowingly.”

She frowned at him.

“Lars hasn’t survived out there for so long by bein’ naive,” George said. “Humphries has had mercenaries tryin’ to bag him. Freelancers, too; the word’s gone ’round the Belt that Humphries’ll pay a bounty for Lars’s head.”

Pancho grimaced. “Mandy told me he promised to leave Lars alone.” “Sure he did,” George replied, scorn dripping from each syllable.

“I’ve got to see him.”

“It’s not gonna happen, Pancho. Face it. Lars is cautious, and I can’t say I blame him.”

Pancho took a deep breath, telling herself, When you’re faced with a stone wall, find a way around it. Or over it. Or tunnel under it, if you have to. What did Dan Randolph always say: When the going gets tough, the tough get going—to where the going’s easier.

“George,” she asked, sitting down next to him again, “how do you get messages to Lars?”

He hesitated a moment. Then, “He’s got a half-dozen or so miniaturized transceivers scattered around on minor asteroids out there. When I squirt a message to one of ’em, I tell him which one I’ll be aimin’ at on the next message.”

“And the transceivers stay on the same ’roids all the time?”

“Naw. Lars moves ’em around. He tells me where they’ll be next when he answers me back.”

Pancho was silent for a few moments, thinking. At last she said, “So you could send him a message and tell him where you’ll be sending the next one.”

“And when,” George added.

“And then he goes to that rock to pick up your message.”

“Right.”

“I could be waiting for him at the asteroid where the transceiver is. When Lars shows up, I’ll be there to greet him.”

George huffed. “And he’ll blow you to bits before you can say hello.”

“Not if—”

“Count on it,” George said.

“I’ll take that chance.” Shaking his head, George replied, “Pancho, I can’t give you the fookin’ coordinates! Lars’ll think I betrayed him, for cryin’ out loud!”

“I’ve got to see Lars face to face. I’m willing to take the chance that he’ll attack my ship. It’s on my head.”

George remained adamant for hours. Pancho wheedled, pleaded, begged.

“What’s so fookin’ important?” George asked. “What is it you’ve got to tell him to his face?”

Pancho hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then she answered, “George, if I could tell you, I would. But it’s for Lars’s ears only.”

He scratched at his thick beard. “That big, huh?”

Pancho nodded wordlessly.

“All right,” he said uneasily. “Tell you what I’ll do. I’ll go out on the ship with you.”

“But you said it’d be dangerous!”

“Yeah. And it will be, believe it. But I think I can work out a scheme that’ll keep Lars from blasting us on sight. Besides, I’d rather be there to face him than have him think I ratted him out.”

Harbin sat in Samarkand’s command chair, his pilot and navigator seated on a level of the bridge slightly below his. The data screens showed a confusing array of ship trajectories heading toward Ceres and away from the asteroid. The ship’s computer was sorting out all the information, seeking the one ship that carried Pancho Lane.

She’s too clever to use her own vessel, Harbin thought, as one by one the curving lines indicating individual ships’ courses winked out. She’ll hitch a ride aboard some prospector’s ship, or maybe an Astro logistics vessel.

The tracking information came straight from the IAA controllers in the Chrysalis habitat orbiting Ceres. Harbin wished that Humphries had enough spies aboard the habitat to watch Pancho Lane and see which vessel she entered, but that kind of information was not available to him. So he dispatched three armed ships out into the Belt, and kept three more in a very loose formation centered on his own vessel. To an untrained eye it looked like a few more prospectors’ ships heading outward. Harbin hoped that’s what Fuchs would see.

The welter of curving lines slowly diminished on the screen until only one ship’s planned trajectory was displayed. Harbin shook his head, muttering, “Stupid computer.” The ship’s manifest said it belonged to the government of Ceres and carried none other than their chief administrator, who was going out on an inspection tour of various mining operations in the Belt. The chief rock rat going to visit his little rock rat brethren, Harbin thought.