“Mind your step. You aren’t used to the gravity. I’d just jump out the lock, but it can look scary if you haven’t done it, so I’ll rig a line to slide down. Watch me.”
April hovered around him as he got up, like she might have to grab him, then took his bag for him and led the way to the lock, which had both hatches open. The lock was really tiny. No wonder she didn’t want to cycle through it with him. They would be jammed together faceplates near touching. It was dark outside but big flood lights projected a glare in the lock. There was a bracket that didn’t look strong enough to hang a potted plant, but April swung it out and locked it in place. The cord she played out didn’t look any stouter than the bracket, but April reached out and gripped it.
“Just grab the line and you can hang by one hand easily in this gravity. Let loose slowly and you will start to slide. If you feel uncomfortable just grip a little tighter and it’ll slow you down.” She stepped out and dropped away, his bag dangling casually in her off hand.
Pierre stepped up to the edge and looked down. There was already an open utility vehicle parked below taking on cargo from the hold below. April tossed his bag in the back with a carelessness that assumed it had no breakables. She stood below looking up and holding the line taunt for him. He wouldn’t even suffer the discomfort of swinging like a pendulum. Fortunately Pierre had no particular fear of heights. April hadn’t thought to ask. Maybe it wasn’t a common spacer problem. He reached out and grabbed the line without making a fuss or shaming himself with lengthy indecision. It was actually pretty easy. When he reached the bottom he landed flat footed and didn’t totter. April seemed to think he was safe and stable after that performance. She climbed in the cart, sliding to the far side of the bench seat, without feeling she had to see him seated first, like an invalid.
They were loaded quickly and started across the field. There wasn’t anything to be seen beyond the reach of the harsh artificial lighting. Another cart with headlamps on passed them headed to the ship with what must be its new load. They suddenly pitched forward at an angle and down a ramp he hadn’t seen in the shadows. The headlights showed a long descending notch they followed down to a round tunnel opening, and then they were underground.
* * *
Director of Safety Liggett appeared at his door and asked if Albert could spare him a moment or if he should come back later? Sometimes the man was so self-effacing that Albert Schober suspected he was putting on an act.
“But of course, come in, sit down. Would you like Marty to make us some coffee?” he invited.
“Please, that would be a kindness. Give me a moment please.” He pulled an instrument from his pocket and checked it, tapping the screen a few times. Then pulled an antenna from each side to make a dipole and swept it around the room.
“Surely my own office is safe,” Albert protested.
“Now I can agree with that,” Liggett said, putting it away. “We did find that remote camera last week so we know we have a sleeper. And it’s erased and abandoned now. It’s not paranoia if somebody is really out to get you.”
“I’d assume we had some watchers even if we never found any signs.”
“Of course,” Liggett agreed. “I do have some news. We have promises of backing now from two sponsors, who I would characterize as trillionaires in Australian dollars, seven billionaires, and thirty four multi-millionaires.
“I had to make promises of Martian emigration rights and immediate full citizenship to the five of the largest backers. Their fortunes are so large I think they would be self-sustaining, even if they were no longer there to direct them. Some of the others I suspect assume that they bought such rights without it being said explicitly.”
“That many can’t keep a secret,” Schober said with certainty.
“Agreed, but self interest will limit who they bring in. The thing is, we are near the point we could be self sustaining if support of the Mars Consortium wavers. Especially since some will undoubtedly choose to go home and reduce the burden of supporting them here.”
“Or be invited to do so,” Schober said with some malice. He had a list.
“I’m sure some of them will never actually come,” Liggett assured him. “They just want the rights. To them it’s a form of insurance like having a bunker or a rural compound. They would have to be desperate to go where they don’t have every luxury and comfort to which they are accustomed. One gentleman is Asian,” he said, and waited to see how Schober would take that.
Schober just shrugged. “He’s human isn’t he? If public order deteriorates too quickly they won’t have opportunity to extract themselves,” Schober predicted. “That’s a feature not a bug.”
Liggett smiled, both agreeing and amused.
Chapter 10
The corridors weren’t so crude that it felt like being in a mine, but you knew you weren’t in a structure or building. The sealant didn’t entirely hide the tool marks the boring machine left. Everything looked oddly sharp edged and harsh, then Pierre realized it wasn’t just the lighting. They hadn’t been through a lock and everything looked different in the far distance with no air and no dust to disperse the light. He hadn’t anticipated that.
They’d come so far, it would take a tremendous volume of air to keep it under pressure. He said as much to April.
“And a pressurized tunnel transmits a shock wave better, or worse, depending on your view of it. It’s a security issue. They’ve survived a nuclear bombardment before and are hardened even more now,” April assured him.
They drove into a big freight elevator and dropped a long way, all still in vacuum. It wasn’t until the emerged what had to be several kilometers deep that they went down a short tunnel and finally encountered a lock.
Once inside pressure there were frequent side tunnels and hatches to side compartments. They even passed a couple other powered vehicles and a couple bicyclists and pedestrians.
“This is your guest quarters,” April said, when they stopped at a door with a four digit number on it. “It’s pretty much like any hotel room, so I don’t need to show you how things work. I’m not sure what time Heather will see you, but she won’t play games making you wait unless she has some emergency. So expect to see her tomorrow, and I’ll be there when she does see you. We’ll leave you a message on com and it has an alarm of course.
“If you feel the need to go out the cafeteria is straight down the corridor the way we came in. Your spex can use the same mapping program here that it did on Home if you want to wander around. The cafeteria is only about three hundred steps away, but they will deliver too if you’d rather. Is there anything else you need?”
“Will you be staying nearby?” Pierre wondered. That got a definite sharp look he hadn’t expected.
“I have property at Central, but relatively undeveloped. I’ll be fairly nearby if you need help. I always stay in Heather’s private quarters.”
Of course, he realized. He had the sense not to ask about Jeff.
“I believe I shall go out, just to see what Central is like,” Pierre decided.
“Have fun. It’s safe,” she felt compelled to add before they pulled away.
* * *
Agent 71 wasn’t expecting a review. That wasn’t for a couple months yet. He was not aware of any problems or deficiencies in his work, and he knew his job well enough he’d know ahead if there was a problem. If there was such a problem he’d expect to be called into his superior’s office to explain it. That’s just how things were done.
Mr. Polson was not a friendly chatty supervisor. He really had no complaints about the man, he was treated fairly. So it was unnerving when Polson showed up at his work station with his boss.
“Adam, Mr. Meijer requires some of your time today. You are excused from your assignment this shift. I’ll note on the time sheets you were pulled for other duty.”
Meijer casually nodded at Polson dismissing him. It wasn’t lost on Adam how easily he did that. The gap between the two was as wide if no
t wider than his from Polson. It was a little intimidating.
“Adam, you don’t need to look concerned. There’s no problem,” Meijer said.
“Good, I wasn’t aware of any. Logistics is important, but it’s really not that complicated unless you are inattentive to details and allow things to progress out of control.”
“Your diligence is obvious in your personality profile,” Meijer admitted, “Also your loyalty. The combination of being able to remain alert to what is superficially an easy task is not a common trait. It’s similar to being able to operate a manual control vehicle on a long straight road. Some people just can’t stay alert. They may fall asleep and run off a perfectly clear safe road. Some need to start doing silly things to force themselves to stay alert.
“We have need of someone for a special security detail that calls for the ability to tolerate long periods of uneventful boring duty but maintaining watchfulness. The job is important, but I want you to think carefully before you make a commitment to it. It requires disclosure of secrets that would mean we could never rotate you back to Earth. If you have visions of returning to a natural environment with trees and lakes, or miss the bustle and complexity of a city with lots of people, then it’s not for you.”
“I’ve been here three tours,” Adam reminded him. “I’m sure you know that and wouldn’t even be talking to somebody with only a single tour under their belt. I actively dislike the noisy crowded city life, and Mars has its own beauty. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of it than my job has required. The only question you raise in my mind is, will I be required to stay here, but find my job has in time become superfluous? I need to do something that has a continuing purpose.”
“No, this is something I expect to remain important beyond our lifetimes. Indeed it changes the reasons we are on Mars and eclipses the old ones. We are guardians of a new purpose, but it’s a secret, and you would be a partner in that,” Meijer promised.
Adam looked serious. Meijer expected that. He just had no idea of the reasons. Adam was contemplating his odds of ever being rescued if he accepted this isolation. But it was obviously such a big deal he owed it to his agency to find out what the Martians’ big secret was, even if he basically sacrificed his chances of returning to an Earth retirement. He was deeply loyal, just not to the Martians.
“If the work is that important, and I can do it, how could I refuse?” Adam said.
That’s what Meijer wanted to hear.
“Come with me then. Polson was told I might reassign you. There’s nothing else here you need to wrap up. He will be given a qualified man to take over your duties, one just starting a new tour who couldn’t qualify for your new post.”
* * *
Pierre set the door to his hand, oddly uncomfortable not to have a physical key card, even though those were all reset to each guest just like inputting his biometric data. That use was illegal in Europe. It just amounted to what you were used to, he decided. He left the pressure suit draped across a chair. April left the carrier with his bag, but he wasn’t sure he could fold it as compactly as needed to fit back in the bag. He should have recorded the unfolding process.
He hadn’t asked if he’d be charged a fee for the room. When April said it was for guests he assumed not. What he didn’t anticipate was the cafeteria waved away the question of how he’d pay.
“We simply don’t have enough non-residents come in to eat to bother with a cash drawer or payment system,” the counterman said. “It would be more bother and expense than the amount we’d recoup. We have a handful of people who commute from Armstrong, and their employers pay a small head fee. Get what you want and don’t worry about it,” he urged.
There wasn’t a huge menu like a fine restaurant, but there were six daily specials and a selection of standard items like sandwiches. The salad was crisp and well dressed and the linguine with prawns in a garlic crème sauce couldn’t be faulted. Pierre got another coffee and sat watching the workers having their dinner. They dressed a little differently, but except for a couple that arrived in suit liners they weren’t all that different than an Earth crowd.
He decided to check the map program April suggested and see if he wanted to stroll further. That was where it departed from resembling an Earth city. When he zoomed out it looked more like what he would imagine an ant nest to look like in 3D. And if he understood the scale correctly it went for kilometers horizontally and even further in depth.
The color coding indicated public corridors and elevators, private business volumes and residential areas under construction. Some of the elevators in private areas went down past the ten kilometer depth already and had coloring to indicate they were being sunk deeper. It wasn’t the small village accessible on foot he imagined. Yes, there were shops and a bank and offices near the cafeteria when he zoomed in, but he had no desire to go shopping. It would require hiring one of the carts to go very far at all. There seemed little point in that, so he’d just go back to his room.
* * *
The next morning April had left a text message waiting on his com. “Are you up for lunch with the three of us? I’ll come by mid-day, and it’s walking distance if you are rested and ready,” she offered.
That made Pierre wonder if April thought him old and doddering, that he’d need to rest up from such a short trip? Three must mean Jeff would be there. The same threesome he’d encountered visiting Sylvia. That seemed so recent and yet so long ago in terms of significant events piled up between then and now.
“Certainly. I’m ready,” Pierre answered, with no elaboration. It was still early so he would go get a light bite to eat at the cafeteria. It didn’t look good to be too hungry and show more interest in lunch than the hostess and her conversation. Eric had warned him back on Home that spacers had a keen sense of smell. He’d come back, clean up and put on his best outfit he’d worn to the club with April rather than his Earth style suit. He was rather looking forward to it.
* * *
April gave him an approving nod. She was dressed in something with a lot of pockets that was probably more utilitarian than casual. The corridor was busier than yesterday. Other people must be headed to or from their lunch too.
“I looked at the expanded view of Central with my spex yesterday. I’m not used to thinking of a city in 3D like that. Of course Earth cities do go down. It isn’t uncommon for skyscrapers to go down several levels from the traditional street level, and up quite a lot of course, but not kilometers.”
“The other Moon outposts tend to be less aggressive about digging,” April said. “Of course they didn’t have the boring machines we do now. Heather sold a couple to Marseille, and they will be tunneling more. They haven’t had the defense issues Central has. The Chinese laid a megaton weapon on Central as a surface burst. At least it wasn’t a burrower. The deep shafts and tunnels are designed not to carry a blast deep now, and it would be very hard to eliminate Central. And of course there are defense installations that don’t show on public scan. I think China knows by now that it would be a mutual suicide if they did succeed. I hope so.”
“China is awfully big,” Pierre said.
“Yes, but the important parts tend to be clustered. Let’s say they lost half their population and eighty percent of their industry all at once. The other half of the population would decline another ten or twenty percent in the next couple years. All the regional differences the central power suppresses now would be free to assert themselves again. The language would remain, and the bare framework of the culture. But the vast political entity would be gone, and I’m not sure the circumstances would ever work to allow it to arise again in recognizable form.”
Pierre thought about what that would mean as they walked along.
“It almost happened,” April revealed, thinking his silence disbelief. “Jeff had the whole action set to initiate if he didn’t stop it every ten minutes. Heather and I had to sit and reset the clock while he slept on the floor waiting to see if they wanted to war with him.
They decided to change leadership rather than test him. He really didn’t want to destroy Beijing and all the treasures of the Hidden City. All the old buildings and history, but it was a close thing.”
Pierre wondered if Joel knew that story?
“All this is temporary,” April said waving a hand around. “Not that it will be abandoned, but it will switch over to different uses. Heather will have a new residence when they reach the depth at which the rock is at shirt sleeve temperatures.”
Pierre hadn’t realized such a thing existed. He knew it got hot in deep Earth mines, but had no idea a warm zone was reachable here.
When they reached a door April laid her hand on the entry pad and they went in. Down a hallway there were a few other doors and halls that branched off and another door that opened to her hand. That last was directly into Heather’s living quarters. Pierre was amazed there wasn’t a deeper security perimeter with actual guards.
The inside wasn’t much different than his guest room. His was in blue colors and apparently Heather favored greens. There was no gilt or glitter or ostentatious display of wealth. Heather and Jeff were dressed as casually as April and lounging on a couch. There was a screen on the wall with an orchestra playing music low enough to speak over easily. Heather muted that when they entered.
A lady was laying out a buffet for lunch, but it wasn’t elaborate. There were a couple cold salads and sandwich fixings. There was coffee maker on a cart he could smell working, and bottled water. The woman spoke with casual familiarity and told Heather she’d check back towards supper time.
Heather informed Pierre they didn’t waste time or effort on formality unless she was holding a court, and got up inviting him to make himself a plate. She wasn’t above serving herself on the buffet and chatted about what he might like. They all made him feel like he was at a family dinner rather than a state visit. Which on reflection, it might be to them.
“Almost everything here is locally produced,” Heather said. “We’re making a huge effort to be able to not just survive, but live well and comfortably independent of Earth.”
Been There, Done That (April Book 10) Page 15