by Larry Niven
The air rippled, and a wire-frame map of Heinlein base appeared. It was filled with tiny red moving blips. “I’m filtering…” Kendra said. Dots disappeared until only one remained, near the ground level. “Thomas Frost,” she said.
“You know,” Foxworthy said, “the bad guys could have acquired the communications gear without complicity on the part of the supplier. But the air guns smack of Fabrication.”
“Kendra!” one of the techs called. “We’ve got a link with your husband.” And popped it through.
“Thank goodness,” Kendra said. “Scotty?”
He appeared like a genie. “Kendra! We dropped down into some kind of monster fest. All holograms, and they’re moving in loops.”
She could see a little of what was going on behind Scotty. Creatures were battling, blocking an entrance highlighted in green.
“How are you doing this?” Kendra asked.
“It’s some kind of a video link here, not on the main circuit. Listen: I don’t know how much time we have. Do you have any kind of thermal fix on the pirates?”
She was relieved that she actually had good news to offer. “Yes. If all of your people are currently with you, then Moresnot has six men working their way down from the top. Three more on the second level, two on the third. And … indistinct traces on the access stairs along C and E.”
“They may be putting their wounded there.”
“Wounded?”
“We used Xavier’s little ambush against them.”
She felt her breath catch in her throat. “What did you do?”
“Well, they won’t be winning at ‘thumb war’ any time soon, and they’ll wake up with the headaches of the year. Oh … and we have their weapons.”
“You do? What?”
Scotty looked at his equipment. “Some kind of crossbow pistol. Very compact, very nasty. They almost tested it on us: drove a bolt through a quarter-inch steel plate. Uses a kind of hand-crank to cock the latch.”
“Christ!”
The Kowsnofski woman appeared behind him. “And we have an air gun. Haven’t tested it yet. Works on pressurized gas.”
“Darla!” Kendra said. “You work in … Engineering, right?”
“Yes. Structural.”
“That will do just fine. Look at those guns. If I told you they were constructed here on the Moon, who made them?”
Darla looked more carefully at the makeshift weapons. When she spoke again, her speech was more measured and clipped, with less trace of her Oakie accent. “I … hmm. That’s interesting. I’d say that the energy efficiency on the crossbow suggests some kind of compound construction, maybe foamed steel stock … some kind of polymer. Falling Angels, maybe. But that’s the raw stock.”
“Construction?”
“Well,” Darla said. “I can’t get there with the crossbow. But the air gun? It’s using the same gas cartridges used to drive the Liquid Wall bubbles, but the size … these welds imply an arc. Most of the shops use laser welds, but this looks like plasma to me. More expensive, but higher temperatures and more precision.”
“I need an opinion,” Kendra said.
Now at last her speech patterns betrayed her childhood again. “Well … I’m not looking for a lawsuit or anything, Honey, but if I were you, I’d talk to Toby McCauley.”
Kendra exhaled hard. “Thank you.” She turned to her assistant. “Get me Piering.” Then back to Scotty. “What can we do for you guys?”
“We need to stay ahead of Moresnot. Keep scanning us. Scan them. If we’re in trouble, you tell us. We have their communications gear, and we’re changing the frequency to … one point two three.”
“Got it,” Kendra said. “Good work. Get moving.”
“What are you doing?”
“If Thomas Frost and Toby McCauley are implicit in this, then for the first time, we’re ahead of the ball. And I want to stay ahead.” A pause. “And another thing—”
“What?”
A hard smile. “You just won my election for me.”
As the image faded, Kendra turned to see the hulking Piering squeeze through the door.
“Kendra?”
She nodded greeting. “I want to put out a hypothesis to you to see if there is anything I’m missing. But first I’m going to write a name on the other side of this paper.” She did so.
Piering seemed puzzled. “What is this?”
“This is in reference to your experience. Someone is helping the kidnappers. We believe that the Frost twins are expatriate Kikayans with a grudge. They arranged this, but they had help.”
“Help?”
“Help, yes. The kind of help that could get someone spaced. Weapons. Equipment.”
Piering squinted, and frowned. “All right…”
“Now,” Kendra said. “It could be money, but the Frost brothers don’t have much. It could be that someone arranged payments to an account on Earth that we can’t cover, so we’ll look into that. But what I’m asking is: Did the Frost brothers ever touch on anything that might lead them to having leverage on someone connected with Fabrication or machining?”
Piering sat down, hard. “You know … back almost four years ago, your husband and I were looking into an information link.”
Kendra winced. “Is this the same incident where he was injured?”
“Both of us were injured,” Piering said. “Yes. Do you remember?”
“Data loss, connected with an He3 find if I recall.”
“That’s it.” Piering nodded approval. “It was interesting because the Frost brothers vouched for someone. They said that he was with them at a time when a data terminal at his shop was being accessed.”
“I remember. The lock on the shop was broken.”
“And do you remember the name?” he asked. “It was Toby McCauley.”
Kendra turned over the piece of paper. TOBY McCAULEY, was printed in block letters. “What a coincidence. Toby McCauley’s shop has everything necessary to make the weapons used in the assault.”
“Where does that leave us?” Piering asked.
“It leaves us setting a trap,” she said, and then turned to her assistant. “Tell Toby I’d like a meeting with him in fifteen minutes. It’s an emergency.”
“If he asks what the emergency is?”
“He’s not an idiot. He knows what it’s about. Even if he’s innocent, he knows what it’s about.”
* * *
The alien fungus farm looked like something out of Alice’s Wonderland. As Shotz and Celeste entered, the overlapping shadows turned the entire room into a Halloween graveyard. Weapons at the ready, they searched the entire room. Not until Celeste heard a low groan from within one of the stalagmites did they find Miller. Bai Long was nearby, wrapped tight within a second spire.
Shotz shoved them awake as Celeste worked on the wire binding their wrists.
“What happened?”
The taller man groaned. “They … came out of the stalagmites.”
Shotz shone his lights around the room, feeling a grudging admiration for the trick the gamers had pulled. Their opponents were more capable than he had expected. “And now they have your weapons. I would kill you, but we’ve lost enough people.”
Bai Long held up his hands. “They broke my thumb!”
“Then I don’t need you, do I?” He grabbed a thumb and squeezed, just enough to produce a whimper.
“I … I can still search, or run communications!” he said.
Shotz patted Bai Long’s head. “Don’t make another mistake.”
* * *
In bubble 80-F, the gamers huddled, conferring.
“Scotty. You need to get to the substation in bubble … 115-H.”
“What then?” Scotty asked.
“We want to raid the dome, but the pirates have placed explosives. If they see us coming, they might detonate them.”
“Yes. I saw one of the packages,” Scotty said. “I don’t know a lot about things like that, but I don’t think they’re bl
uffing.”
“Scotty,” Piering said. “I’ll head up the team. What we need to do is send you a data feed. You save it on a PDA, and hand-inject it into the surveillance system. We have to believe they’ve compromised the security, turned it to their own use.”
“Can’t you kill the power?” Scotty said.
“We’re also assuming that they have backup,” Kendra said. “McCauley’s shop could rig batteries pretty easily—”
“McCauley?” Scotty asked. “Toby? What’s he got to do with this?”
“Well,” Kendra said. “We believe that he’s cooperating with the Frost brothers.”
Ali’s eyes widened. “The Kikayan? I’ve seen him.”
“Jesus Christ,” Scotty said. “We’ve got traitors inside, traitors outside—”
“We’re going to deal with that,” Kendra said. “But you need to get to 115-H. Can you?”
“We’ll have to move through the interstits,” Darla said. “If we can’t find a way through the bubbles.”
“We need to get going,” Scotty said.
They generated a glowing, floating map of the dome. “Here we are. We have one more level to go, and I think we can get there within the protected pathways. We’ll lose the advantage of knowing where the pirates are, but as of right now … we’re clear.”
“Then let’s get moving,” Angelique said.
“Ah…,” Maud said. “Can I find the potty first?”
“I think we all need to take five,” Wayne said. “But just five. There’s a restroom hidden right over there.” He pointed. If you squinted just right, the rocks composed a familiar crescent moon. They broke off to take care of their needs. Scotty sat heavily, next to Ali.
“I am so sorry about all of this,” Ali said. “It’s my fault. Asako’s death is my fault.”
“No,” Sharmela said. “She wanted to be a hero. She wanted a chance to die like a hero … instead of dying for nothing. If we honor her, we must also honor her choices.”
* * *
When the third-level airlock door slid open, the Moresnot pirates discovered Asako’s pod. “What the hell happened here?” Miller, the big bodybuilder demanded.
Carlyle speculated. “I reckon she must have tried to leave the dome. This contraption of hers didn’t hold up.”
“Hope the warranty’s still good.” Gallop tapped his communicator. “Shotz. We found the body of the Japanese woman.”
“In her environment pod?” That damaged voice.
“Yes.”
“I want you to get the information from her radio. Pass the word to shift to alternate frequency Bravo in three minutes. I believe our quarry is communicating on a local network. If they make the mistake of using the same frequencies, we want to be able to capitalize on the error.”
* * *
In Heinlein base’s nerve center, Kendra watched the dome map carefully, interrupted as her assistant turned to her. “Kendra … if this is a stalemate, they win. What’s their endgame?”
“President for Life Kikaya abdicates,” Kendra said. “And a new government is quickly recognized. Diplomatic and economic pressure is put on us to allow Moresnot to leave. Remember: Kikaya invested in this base. If he leaves, his successors control that investment.”
Foxworthy blinked. “Could that happen? Could they just walk? The woman Asako died! They can’t just…”
“They might,” Kendra said. “We have to stop it, and the best way of doing that is to free the boy before his father steps down.”
“What’s happening in Kikaya?”
“Hard to say,” Kendra said. “There isn’t much news coming out. I just don’t know.”
Foxworthy cupped his ear. “Just heard that McCauley is on his way. What do you have in mind?”
A pause, then Kendra said: “Pain.”
* * *
The gamers were making their way through a central corridor, looking out through the windows at the cross-hatching of ladders and walkways linking the bubbles.
“I’m just a little worried about the dome integrity. I wish you could see air.” Scotty said.
Wayne snorted. “Ever been to London?”
“This is 102,” Angelique said. “One-oh-three is one level down, and we should be able to get there.”
“Was this a part of the game?” Scotty asked.
“The bubble, yes, but not this walkway. You’ll notice that this hasn’t been made up H. G. Wells style.”
“What’s on the other side?” Scotty asked.
Darla’s smile was strained. “That would be telling, big guy.”
Scotty shook his head. “You guys are frickin’ crazy. All right. Let’s go.”
They cracked the door open, and then stared, agog.
The room was an impossibly vast junkyard. The walls seemed kilometers distant, the ceiling as high as the sky.
Scotty whistled. “What in the hell do we have here?”
The room was filled with technology, but the technology was alien. Martian war machines, walkers recognizable from plates in science fiction novels and theatrical films. And other odd equipment, of a strangely organic design.
Wayne matched Scotty’s whistle. “This … looks like a museum.”
“Yes. I think that the mythology was one of the entire Wells oeuvre.”
“War of the Worlds?”
“Yes. Somehow, the Martians and the Lunies were at war, once upon a time.”
They walked between the rows of giant machines, the ceiling impossibly high above them, brushing the stalactites of a major cave system.
Sharmela climbed up one of the walkers, waved her hands right through the metal. “Holograms. There’s some power in this room.”
Mickey frowned. “How many ways are there to get down to the aquifer?”
“Why?”
“I want to arrange a little surprise for our friends. Something to slow them down a bit.”
Maud seemed to glow with pride. “Mickey. How you talk.”
* * *
As Toby McCauley’s shuttle pulled in, and he emerged, he was met by two security men.
“What’s this all about?”
Piering smiled. “Just additional precautions, what with everything going on.”
“Right,” Toby said, sounding rather unconvinced.
They moved through a series of walkways and elevators to a low-ceilinged conference room. And there he was told to sit, and wait. He shifted uncomfortably. Getting nervous. Then the door opened, and Kendra and Max Piering entered.
“Toby.”
“Sheila Monster. What’s this all about?”
“I was hoping that you could help us, Toby. Remember three years back when Thomas Frost said you were with him when your computer was accessed?”
He tensed a bit. “Yes?”
“We were thinking that that was just a little too neat. Too coincidental.”
“I don’t understand,” Toby said.
“You shall,” Kendra said. “Piering?”
Piering stood up. His hands flew over a keyboard at the side of the room. “We began to wonder about the Frost brothers, after it became clear that this entire affair was connected to the Republic of Kikaya.”
McCauley blinked. “How?”
“The target seems to have been Prince Ali, heir to the throne. The Brothers Frost…”
“Their parents were Kikayan, I think. I see.” He seemed both nervous and attentive, as if on the edge of an admission, or perhaps seeking an escape route.
“We began to wonder how they funded the operation. We realized that if they had been responsible for the earlier industrial espionage, and perhaps others that went undiscovered, they could have amassed sufficient funds to mount this.”
“Is there any proof?”
Piering gave a small nod. “We have reason to believe that while Thomas Frost was keeping you occupied, his brother was gaining access to your shop terminal.”
“And further,” Kendra said, “in the last year, there has been an a
cceleration of contacts between them and certain persons of interest to Interpol. They did a very good job of disguising the communications, but once we started looking for them, we found them.” She turned to Piering. “I have to take care of something. Can you handle things here?”
“Absolutely.”
After the door closed behind her, McCauley said, “This is incredible. What can I do to help?” He managed to ooze sincerity.
“We have reason to believe that they gained access to your shop again, more recently. Possibly other shops as well, and fabricated weapons and tools used in the assault.”
McCauley leaped for the offered lifeline. “You’re saying that if he has my codes, they might have others.”
“Yes. There is no limit to how far into our security they may have penetrated. We need your help. Is there anything you can tell us, anything that might help?”
He stared at his fingers. For a moment it seemed he was about to speak. Then …
* * *
Thomas Frost sat quietly, staring at the beige walls of a nine-by-nine cell. Then, the door opened, and Kendra entered.
He managed to affect indignation. “What the hell is going on?”
“Where’s your brother, Thomas? Where is Doug?”
He didn’t flinch. “I don’t know. We’re not Siamese twins.”
“No,” Kendra admitted. “You’re not. But we have reason to believe that he is currently in the gaming dome, and that he has been assisting the kidnappers. We have messages sent to persons of intense interest associated with radical groups in Kikaya, as well as expats. And we have evidence that the two of you colluded to practice industrial espionage against the interests of Cowles Industries.”
He frowned. “What kind of evidence?”
“Piering?” she said. Her voice was clear and low and strong.
The security man pressed buttons on his PDA. Toby McCauley appeared on the wall monitor, face five times its normal size. Kendra appeared across the table from him.
“So…,” the onscreen Piering said. “Can you help us understand how the Frost brothers might have gained access to your security systems?”
“They had contacts,” McCauley said. “Kikayan contacts. The boy’s father invested in the game, and some of the people negotiating the deal had the chance to insinuate themselves.”