Charles Sheffield - Starfire

“Are you sure she’s not close to somebody who works on shield construction? Someone she sleeps with, some shield specialist who might start comparing notes with her?”

“No. She has no sexual partner at the moment, either gender, and if she ever had one, it was at least four years ago.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Rolfe said mildly. Nick saw the gleam in the other’s eyes. For a man who went out of his way to emphasize oddities in his appearance, Gordy Rolfe took offense easily.

“Of course that isn’t peculiar.” Nick knew the right answer, and his voice was as casual as Rolfe’s. “It’s very convenient from our point of view that she’s a loner. She’s quiet and competent, so she won’t screw up the schedules worse than they are already. But she’s not too smart, either. She won’t make the shield a hundred and ten percent efficient, so that when the particle storm hits, nothing at all gets through to Earth. And she has never shown Hyslop’s flair for putting two and two together and making seven.”

“All right.” Rolfe turned away, as though the whole subject was suddenly no longer of interest. “For the time being we’ll go with Lauren Stansfield. If we have to make a change later, we will. Don’t bother to send me your reports on her. It’s time to talk about the other delays in shield construction. We have to find the cause of those, and we have to stop it.”

Nick followed the direction of Gordy’s glance. The level of light in the room was slowly fading and the vegetation beyond the barrier showed dark and dense. Again there was movement in ten-foot-high grasses, far out from the wall. It took a real effort to focus on Rolfe’s question.

“Gordy, I thought we agreed that the Sky City murders are just that — the act of an individual, sexually motivated. They’re causing additional schedule slippage, but that’s beyond our control.”

Rolfe’s eyes left the gathering gloom beyond the wall and came back to bore into Nick’s. “Bullshit. I used to think we were looking at a solo effort; now I wonder. Either way, we have to make sure we’re the only players in the game.”

“How can we? Suppose some other group has the same idea as ours? We can’t be the only two people on Earth who realize there’s lots of money and power to be had when the planet gets slammed.”

“And plenty being spent right now, if you can get your hands on a little of it. Enough to buy . . . anything.”

Rolfe made a little horizontal circling motion with his hand, palm down. The meaning was clear to Nick. The space shield consumed a third of the world’s industrial production. One percent of that, or even one-tenth of a percent, paid for the development of an Argos Group sanctuary like this a thousand times over. It was less clear who would be invited to share a sanctuary with Gordy Rolfe when the particle storm hit Earth. None of that was Nick’s business. He had his own if-all-else-fails plan.

“I won’t have anyone else cutting in,” Rolfe continued. “Our actions are not the only cause of the slippage. Which leaves the question, what else is there?”

“Does it matter?”

“It damn well does. Don’t be a dumb ox, Nick. If other people are playing games with the schedule, the chance goes way up that what we’re doing will be found out.”

“I don’t know who or what is responsible for the Sky City murders. But I do know this: They’re a definite distraction, and they certainly contribute to unplanned schedule delays. You and I need to be the only people pulling the strings out there.”

“Good.” Rolfe tilted his head and peered knowingly at Lopez. “So you will approve if I take steps in that area?”

“Of course.” Nick saw a glint of something — triumph? lunacy? — in the other man’s eyes. Rolfe the gnome, Gordy the evil goblin. Childhood memories of Rumpelstiltskin. “Why wouldn’t I approve?”

“I just want to be sure that the murders aren’t something you have — well, let’s say a direct and personal interest in.”

Nick had in his time been accused of everything from rape to incest, but the serial murder of teenage girls was a new one.

“I’m not doing anything on Sky City that you don’t know about. I haven’t been there for years. And I’m not having anything done on my behalf. I doubt if I could, and I doubt if you can.”

“You’re wrong. I’m going to find whoever or whatever is responsible for the killings.”

“Gordy, the WPF had a team looking into the killings for months. We got nowhere. If you try the same thing, your team will get nowhere, too.”

“No team. I have only one man at work on the problem.”

“What can he do that others can’t?”

“He has a knack for seeing things that no one else notices, and he’s efficient. He gets the job done. He also tells me that he has access to special expertise on the subject of similar killings. I’ll leave it at that.” Gordy’s smile was not a thing of beauty. “He’ll be going up to Sky City in the near future. I didn’t want your people and mine falling over each other. I’m reassured.”

“And I’m not. Does your man know that we’ve been playing games with shield schedules and delivery of goods to Sky City?”

“Of course not. Doesn’t know, and won’t know. That’s not his assignment.”

“Maybe, but I’ll quote your words. ’He has a knack for seeing things that no one else notices.’ Gordy, if this man is as good as you say, suppose that he also starts to see too much?”

“Then it will be my job to make sure that he stops seeing.”

“By then it may be too late.”

“Not for me. I’ll take care of it. I have methods.”

Was Rolfe suggesting what it sounded like? “Gordy, suppose the murders are the action of one person, the way it seems?”

“That’s fine. We’re not in law enforcement. We’ll know we don’t have business competition, and that’s all that matters. Are you going to argue with that?”

“You know my philosophy. As one of my fellow Senators said long ago, I’m opposed to any conspiracy of which I am not a part.”

“So we’re agreeing. There’s just one indispensable person in the Argos Group, and you’re looking at him. And you deliver whatever we need from the WPF. We tolerate no other players, anywhere.” Rolfe stared calmly at Nick. “End of discussion. What else is on your agenda?”

“Well, there’s Milton Glover and his Trust In Government group.”

“Old Numb Nuts. What about him?”

“That information we sold him. Are you sure it’s accurate?”

“Better than that. I’m sure it isn’t. The test-drilling reports he’s buying aren’t from anywhere on this continent. He thinks they’re of Nevada, but they came from South Africa.”

“Gordy, I talked him into paying a bundle for that data. You might have mentioned this to me.”

“So you could have done what?” Rolfe peered at Nick Lopez. “Suppose he does find out before they start digging — which I don’t think he will, because he and his millionaire buddies are all as thick as treacle. What’s he going to do, complain that the information he bought illegally was wrong?”

“He bought it on my recommendation.”

“Tell him you got tricked, too. Cry on each other’s shoulder. Remember, he gave us money when we most needed it. And their digging takes attention away from all your digging. You should be delighted with what he’s doing.”

“If they dig where we said, they’ll be lucky if they don’t drown.”

“Yeah.” Gordy laughed. “Big tragedy, eh? Death of rich idiots. End of discussion. What else?”

Nick shook his head. “Nothing.” He had a strong urge to get away from Gordy Rolfe and his underground lair. “Nothing that can’t wait until we have a better handle on John Hyslop. Will we be able to control him in his new job?”