by Ben Bova
THIRTY-EIGHT
BENEATH MORE THAN two and a half miles of water and another mile of bottom sediment and ooze rests the bedrock of the basins that make up the Gulf of Mexico and the adjoining Caribbean Sea . The fault line that marks the border between the Caribbean tectonic plate and the North American runs roughly from Cuba to Mexico ’s Yucatin peninsula, buried so deeply that most geologists were uncertain whether the Caribbean basin is truly a part of the North American tectonic plate or a small plate of its own. Their uncertainty ended abruptly. After centuries of inactivity the fault line slipped slightly, a minor readjustment in geological forces, a tiny shudder of the Earth’s rocky crust. Seismographic stations as far away as St. Louis recorded an earthquake that registered 7.2 on the Richter scale. “Thank god the epicenter was far out at sea,” said the public relations woman for the Mexico City seismographic center. “An earthquake of that severity would have caused incredible damage had it been located anywhere near a populated area.” Jane had arrived at the castle late the previous night and had been taken directly to her locked and guarded room. One of the guards had brought her a supper tray. This evening, however, she ate in the castle’s dining hall with Gaetano and a very young red-haired woman who was introduced to her as Kimberly Williams. “My fiancée,” Gaetano said, with a smile that bordered on smirking. Jane had reluctantly changed into a simple jacketed frock that she had found in the closet waiting for her. Kimberly wore a clinging metallic blue sheath that might have looked sexy if she had more meat on her bones. Jane thought the kid was pretty in an immature, freckled way. But there was something nearly haunted about her face. Her eyes glittered, almost like a feral animal’s. She talked too loudly, too fast, and laughed far too easily. It was a tedious dinner in the dusty, shadowy old hall. Jane had little to say, Kimberly had too much to say and Gaetano obviously enjoyed having the two women on either side of him as he sat at the head of the long heavy wooden table. “I will be away on business tonight,” he announced, as an ice cream dessert was being served by a silent, heavyset woman in a black maid’s uniform. “Tonight?” Kimberly fairly shouted. “Why tonight? Can’t you go tomorrow?” “I should be back tomorrow around midmorning,” said Gaetano. Then he turned toward Jane and added, “With Dan Randolph.” Jane gripped her spoon hard enough to bend it. But she said nothing. “Why do you have to leave tonight?” Kimberly pouted. “Why do I have to be all alone tonight?” “Important business,” said Gaetano. “Don’t worry, little one. I’ll bring you a present.” The kid literally bounced up and down in her chair. “A present! What? What is it? Tell me!” “Someone you would like to see, I think. Someone who wants very much to see you.” “Kate?” Kimberly’s excitement died immediately. She looked across the table at Jane and explained glumly, “My sister. My older sister.” Jane said nothing. But she remembered that Kate Williams was the leader of the GEC team that had taken over Dan’s office at Alphonsus. Now that she knew the relationship she could see a family resemblance in Kimberly. She turned back to Gaetano, who had the self-satisfied smile of a snake on him. He’ll be bringing Dan here. And despite all his oily assurances, Jane was certain that Gaetano fully intended to murder Dan. And herself. “Are you certain that this thing’s going to work?” Dan asked, staring at the tiny flesh-colored plug he held in his palm. “It performed almost perfectly in the lab tests,” said Nobuhiko. Dan looked up at Nobo, then across the cabin to Malik, who was already worming a similar plug into his left ear. The only sound in the cabin was the gentle lapping of waves against the yacht’s hull. “It is practically invisible once it’s in your ear,” Nobo went on, encouragingly. “And since it’s made entirely of protein it won’t show up on any kind of metal detector. They can strip-search you and they still won’t find it.” “Electronic chips made of protein,” Malik murmured. “Remarkable.” “And very new,” said Nobo. “So new that your Mafia kidnappers have probably never heard of them.” “You said it worked almost perfectly,” Dan countered. “What’s the ‘almost’?” Nobo smiled. “Apparently it can cause a slight ringing in the ear when it’s activated. And perhaps a slight loss of balance. The radio frequency may interfere with the middle ear’s balance mechanism. It’s only temporary, of course.” Dan frowned at him. “Come on,Randolph ,” said Malik, “it’s too late to chicken out now.” “Famous last words,” Dan muttered. But he screwed the biochip radio transceiver into his ear. It felt huge, bulging. “To be on the safe side,” Nobo explained for the twelfth time, “Don’t activate it until you are actually at the place where you want the assault squad to hit.” Nodding, Dan said, “I know. I know.” The biochip plug felt like a watermelon jammed into his ear. He could barely hear anything through it. Their plan was simple. Malik had already contacted Gaetano with the news that Randolph was ready to give himself up in exchange for Jane’s safety. Malik would bring Dan to Gaetano, leave him and return with Jane. Both men would be wearing the protein-chip transceivers so that an aerial assault team of Yamagata special forces could locate them and swoop in—but not until they had definitely seen Jane and knew exactly where she was. As a backup, a smaller team of Yamagata personnel was trailing Kate Williams, who had transshipped from the Nueva Venezuela space station to a shuttle for Milan . That worried Dan. One of the planes that might have been carrying Jane had landed in Milan . He was certain that Gaetano had taken Jane to Sardinia , but Milan was bothersome. Malik sighed as they clambered down the ladder to the power launch that would take them to the floatplane waiting for them. “This is going to be very risky,” said the Russian. “You can stay here,” Dan said. “You don’t have to put your neck on the line.” Malik shook his head with the stubbornness of a man who had struggled to make up his mind and, once it was made up, had no intention of changing it. ‘”We have no way of knowing that they will take you to the same place that they are holding Jane,” he reminded Dan. “I can demand to see her and bring her out with me. You are in no such position.” Dan knew that the Russian was right. Gaetano’s people aren’t fools. If anybody connected with this situation’s been a fool, it’s been me. Breaking in on the commsat broadcasts the way I did forced their hand. I shook them up, all right. And Jane’s in danger because of it. Because of me. Yet he found himself grinning at Malik as the powerboat headed for the sleek, twin-engine plane. “Who would have thought that the two of us would ever be working together, Vasily?” he shouted over the roar of the boat’s motor. Malik made a pale smile as he squinted against the spray. He mumbled something that Dan could not hear through the transceiver plug in his ear. “What?” Dan shouted, instantly hating the fact that he sounded like a deaf old man. “Certainly not I,” Malik yelled back. Once they had climbed into the plane and strapped themselves into their seats, Dan’s smile faded. Maybe we’re not really working together, he thought. Maybe he’s on Gaetano’s side after all and he’s just bringing me to the slaughter. And Jane, too. Big George leaned his heavy forearms on the yacht’s rail and watched the sleek twin-engine floatplane lift off from the calm Mediterranean water. Nobuhiko and Tamara stood beside him. As the plane dwindled into the cloud-flecked sky, Nobo turned to Tamara and said, “I have much to do.” He started toward the hatch to the main salon. George grabbed him by the arm, turning him around. “I’m going with your rescue team,” George said. Nobuhiko’s eyes flashed wide for an instant. Then he smiled and said, “I’m sorry, that will be impossible.” “I’m going,” George said, still holding Nobo’s arm. “Perhaps you don’t understand. The team is composed of paramilitary specialists. They are all highly skilled, highly trained.” “Dan’s my friend and he’s going to need all the fooking help he can get.” “This will be an extremely difficult and dangerous operation,” Nobo said. “If it was a fooking piece of cake I wouldn’t bother with it,” George said, his temper rising. Tamara stepped between them. “Let him go with your team,” she said gently to Nobo. “He is concerned for Dan.” “But the team-” “Let him go with them,” Tamara urged. “Have you ever jumped in a parachute before?” Nobo asked
George. The big Aussie scratched at his half-grown beard. “When I was a kid, back home in Queensland .” “How many jumps?” “Oh,” George waved a ham-sized hand, “dozens of times.” Nobo knew he was lying. “Can you speak Japanese?” “Wakarimashita,” George said. I understand. Then he added, “You can’t work on the fooking Moon without learning some Japanese. I can understand it if you motto yukkuri hanashite kudasai.” “The soldiers may not have the time to speak slowly to you,” Nobo said. “Look,” George said, looming over Nobo and Tamara like a glowering thunderhead, “I’m not going to sit here and bite my nails while Dan’s got his neck on the chopping block. I may not be a fooking ninja but I can fight.” Nobo glared back at the giant. Tamara suggested, “What about the other team, the one that is following Kate Williams?” Nobo said grudgingly, “I could ask the team leader to take you with them.” George grinned like a kid in a candy shop. “Thanks! You won’t regret it.” He rushed to the hatch and ducked down belowdecks. Nobo shook his head. “This is a mistake. George will be a drag on them. He’ll make matters worse, not better.” Tamara slipped her arm around his waist and leaned her head against his shoulder. “You did the right thing. He wants to help Dan.” Silently she added, And he might have broken every bone in your body if you refused to allow him to go.