“Get him!” Weldon was shouting.
Within seconds the Asian man had been gang-wrestled. Dale Scott took the gun away from him.
But it was too late for Brent Bynum. He bled out and was dead within ten minutes.
ARRIVAL DAY: ZHAO
Zhao had not wanted to shoot the American. In fact, he had not wanted to hold a gun in his hand; he had spent far too much time on shooting ranges performing urban assaults and mock assassinations to feel relaxed when armed.
And, in spite of his colorful background and training, he had never killed a man. Never shot at one. Had he been given time to reflect, he would surely have wondered if his training had made the shooting too automatic, too easy. Fortunately, there had been no time to think back—
When he picked up a weapon, he intended to use it.
And he had picked up this weapon, a 9-mm Glock 39, from the debris floating inside the Bangalore Object. He recognized it as the type worn by the Black Cats, the Indian National Security Guards at Bangalore Control.
He had not seen a Black Cat, though he had come across the bruised, blood-clotted lower half of a human body clad in the same gray trousers worn by members of that organization.
For two days he had held on to the Glock, an easy thing to do in spite of the horrific circumstances. He was the only Asian among the Bangalore refugees, and while he knew a good many of the survivors, including Nayar and Pillay, he had actually been introduced to only a few. He had been left alone to contemplate the unlikely events that had put him in this place.
The gun? After the Houston and Bangalore groups merged, Zhao had quickly separated himself from his former Indian colleagues and begun walking with the Texans. His English was better than his Hindi would ever be, for one thing. For another, it appeared that the Texans were carrying a wider variety of items that might be useful for survival.
Among those items...a shotgun and at least one handgun.
Zhao was familiar with weapons, of course. Soon after he had been recruited by the Chinese intelligence service Guoanbu from a factory in Foshan (where he had been caught in some amateurish hacking—trying to access nude photos, of all the obvious activities), he had been trained to shoot. He expected to work in the agency’s First Bureau as a glorified border guard, with hopes of becoming a police officer hounding corrupt businessmen.
For a brief period, his physical fitness earned him training in special operations. He became a marksman; he learned to swim and scuba dive; he even qualified as a parachutist.
But his intelligence and aptitude scores—and hacking background—quickly put him on a different track with the Tenth Bureau, which specialized in science and technology.
The Tenth Bureau had sent him to CUC, the Communications University of China.
Maybe it was the memory of those seven-day workweeks, or the smell of plastic being poured into molds for toys that would eventually amuse children in the United States; whatever the motivation, Zhao had finished at the top of his class, even though he had collateral studies at Guoanbu’s Intelligence School. It wasn’t as though he studied every waking hour—but he made sure he knew his facts before giving answers, unlike many of his fellow students, party princes who were getting a communications degree before going into the business world.
Or maybe it was the fact that of all the male students Zhao knew, he was the only one with a sibling—his older brother, Chongfu, who had been content to do only what was asked of him...and who had grown fat and lazy and unhappy as the permanent deputy manager of a shipping firm in Foshan.
Still. Bangalore. August.
Zhao hadn’t wanted the assignment to India at any season. Not that his bosses in the Tenth Bureau were in the habit of allowing bids on stations; no one outside the upper reaches of the agency had any notion of where the next cadres would be deployed.
But during his tour at headquarters brushing up his technical skills, Zhao had spoken openly about his fascination with “colder places”—the Scandinavian countries, especially. He mentioned Scotland. He talked of a lifelong dream of visiting Patagonia.
Major Xin, one of his instructors, heard him and, smiling, said, “Careful. You’ll wind up at the South Pole.”
China had three small stations in Antarctica. Zhao would have been happier at any one of them than he was in Bangalore, trying to be not only the world’s expert on China’s relay satellite system—which was being “lent” to ISRO in exchange for access to propulsion technology—but also to cultivate sources all through Bangalore Control Center, against the day when the China National Space Agency would make its own Great Leap Forward beyond Earth orbit.
He had learned enough Hindi to be functional in an engineering situation but was nowhere near fluent enough to be sociable.
He had tried to combat the heat, the humidity, the smells, the bugs, the culture by keeping to himself, in the dark, in air-conditioned buildings.
It wasn’t that he especially hated India or Indians; he just loathed tropical climates. His native Guangdong had been bad enough.
It was this...well, now he had to label it a weakness, that had allowed him to be scooped up by the Bangalore Object. He had traded shifts with his partner, Lu, in order to avoid travel during the heat of the August day, or he would have been safe in a distant hotel instead of here, inside some kind of alien vessel, his hands bound behind him, squatting on the dirt, surrounded by angry men and women.
Accused of murder. And on display, like a zoo creature, with haggard men, some women, and even a few children pushing for a view. There were shouts, though little that struck Zhao as understandable.
All things considered—and those things included the undeniable fact that he might have acted in haste—Zhao felt serene. Even his posture, back pressed against a rugged stonelike wall, butt on the dirt, legs extended, was easily endured.
Agents of the Guoanbu, China’s national intelligence agency, were put through worse physical tortures during their first months as candidates.
“What’s your name?” Weldon asked him.
“Zhao Buoming. I was born in Foshan, Guangdong Province, in 1988 and educated at the University of California School of Engineering,” he said. “To save you a few questions.”
Gabriel Jones returned at that moment. With him was a man in a wheelchair—Harley Drake, Zhao realized, the crippled former astronaut. Both men looked grim and, catching the eyes of their fellows, confirmed what Zhao already knew.
He had not only shot the man, he had killed him.
“Why did you do it?”
His questioner was Shane Weldon, a rangy, gray-haired man whose looks suggested he might be happier as a rancher, an image that was even more apt given the way he cradled the Glock he had taken from Zhao. Not that Weldon’s career had taken him anywhere near ranching—Zhao knew that he was a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot and engineer who had lately served as the Destiny mission director in Houston, Vikram Nayar’s NASA counterpart. Labeling him “rancher,” however, was one of the many mnemonic tricks Zhao used in his work.
“I believed he was going to shoot Stewart or someone else.”
“You couldn’t have shouted?” Zack Stewart said.
Zhao turned to look directly into Stewart’s face. “He was waving the gun. If I’d shouted, you’d very likely be dead.”
Vikram Nayar and a pair of Bangalores arrived, looking aged and wary. Nayar did not speak but stared at Zhao, as if trying to place him.
“What’s your background, Mr. Zhao?” Weldon said.
“I’m an engineer with China National Space.”
“American leaders are lawyers; Chinese leaders are engineers,” Weldon said. This was a quip Zhao had come to loathe, as much for its persistence as for its inaccuracy. He chose to ignore it, nodding instead toward Nayar and his associates. “You probably know that we leased our tracking network to the Brahma mission.”
“Yes,” Gabriel Jones said. “Complete with state-of-the-art encryption.”
Zhao had no fear of the fo
rmer Johnson Space Center director. “I wasn’t aware that all of NASA’s links were open to the world.”
Weldon laughed. “He’s got you there, Gabriel.”
Now Nayar spoke. “Where did you get the gun?”
“It was in the debris that traveled with us.”
“Ah, so you just happened to find it.” Nayar was clearly skeptical, but Zhao expected that.
“Yes,” he said. “I don’t go around armed.”
Weldon held up the Glock. “But you are a pretty good shot.”
“He’s been well trained,” Nayar said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Stewart said.
Nayar waved a contemptuous hand toward Zhao. “He’s a Chinese spy. All of them were.”
“All of whom?” Weldon said.
“All the Chinese sent to support Brahma.”
Weldon turned to Zhao. “Is that true, Mr. Zhao?”
Zhao knew that whatever he said would be suspect. His training, however, required him to stick to his cover story—which had the supreme advantage of any good lie: It happened to be true. “I’m a network specialist and deputy program manager with China National Space. I can bore you to death talking about ITU allocations and super hydrophobic Lotus effect coatings, if you’d like.”
“You didn’t say no,” Stewart said.
Before leaving Beijing, Zhao had been given a briefing on the Brahma and Destiny crews. Brahma was no longer relevant, of course, and neither were three of the four American Destiny astronauts.
But here was Zack Stewart. “Intellectually brilliant,” the Guoanbu analyst had written. “Possesses a rare talent for social adaptability, which allowed him to make a successful transition from an academic scientific career to the operational NASA universe.
“His flaw is hesitation. He will weigh all options five times before acting.”
Zhao had recalled those words when watching Stewart reacting to Bynum’s performance. A man who was prone to quick action would have put a stop to that long before Zhao was forced to act.
And now the American was focusing on Zhao. “You’re a man of the world, Dr. Stewart. Whenever NASA engineers visit another country, they’re debriefed. It’s the same in China.”
Weldon stood up. “You still didn’t say no.”
“What difference does it make?” Nayar snapped. “China, India, the U.S., who cares now? We are two groups that need to be one.”
Gabriel Jones intoned, “He still murdered a man.”
Zhao stirred at this. “I killed a man who was a serious threat.” Now, to use time-honored techniques from his years of training, he went on the offensive. “And what, in all seriousness, are the options here?” He nodded at Weldon, still cradling the Glock. “There are at least four rounds left in the magazine. But you aren’t going to execute me.”
“Don’t be too sure about that,” Weldon said, “and I won’t need a gun to do it.” But Zhao knew he was bluffing and decided to press that point in front of everyone.
“If we’re going to survive here, we need every available pair of hands. And in spite of what Mr. Nayar knows, or thinks he knows...I’m technically trained. That may be useful.”
Weldon looked to Jones, Drake, and Stewart. None of the three called for Zhao’s execution. Then Weldon turned to Nayar. “Any suggestions?”
Nayar was shaking his head. “Do whatever you want with him,” he said. He seemed tired and distracted. Zhao decided the Brahma director was no longer a factor.
But Zack Stewart was smirking at him. “Mr. Zhao, you seem to have a keen sense of the world and its workings. Suppose the situation were reversed. What would you do with a captive like you?”
“Social norms require some kind of punishment. I should be confined for several days and limited to a strict diet of bread and water.”
Now Stewart laughed out loud. “I’d pay for some real bread and water right now.”
“I’m aware of the ironies,” Zhao said. “Obviously some adjustments will be required.”
At that moment a baby screamed nearby, and the whole issue of Zhao’s punishment was tabled, leaving him, finally with a moment to reflect.
For a man who didn’t want to be in India, who hadn’t wanted to be swept up by the Object, who was reluctant to call attention to himself—
And who didn’t want to shoot the American—
Zhao had sure stepped in it.
ARRIVAL DAY: ZACK
“She’s just hungry,” Sasha Blaine said.
Zack and Harley had gone around to the front of the Temple at the sound of the baby’s wail. There, at the edge of the sprawled, exhausted crowd, they had found Sasha Blaine walking the infant like a new mother. Zack recognized the familiar posture, carry, and rocking motion...he had done it enough with a colicky Rachel fourteen or so years in the past. “You’ve done this before,” Zack said.
“Two older sisters and four nieces and nephews. And I worked my way through MIT doing childcare.”
Sasha was even letting the baby suck on her finger.
“Couldn’t someone nurse her?” That was Wade Williams, speaking from the shadows. “Maybe we need a little pioneer spirit,” he said.
“After you, Wade,” Sasha snapped.
“Where’s her mother?” Zack asked.
“Not good,” Sasha said quietly, nodding to the far end of the crowd. “She’s over there somewhere, in a crouch, almost catatonic. Can’t say I blame her. It’s tough enough when you’re facing this yourself...I can’t imagine what I’d do if I felt responsible for a baby.” She made a face and cooed at the child, who was blessedly subdued for the moment.
Harley said, “Who is the mom? Bangalore or Houston?”
“What difference does that make?” Sasha said.
“I don’t know. Maybe it will make it easier to find out where her head is at if she speaks English.”
“Got it, but right now the priority is to get this child some nourishment.”
“Daddy, what about all these fruits and veggies you were talking about?” Rachel said, trying to be helpful.
“People are out gathering right now,” Williams said, pointing back the way they had come, and forward, indicating the range of scouting parties. “It’s pretty funny when you think about all this.”
“How so?” Zack said. Zack only knew the sci-fi writer Wade Williams from his books, and from infrequent appearances on television. He had long-ago outgrown his affection for the man’s work, and if his suggestion that Sasha Blaine should become a wet nurse was typical—
“Here we are, transported from the Earth to a small moon by advanced alien technology, being sustained in some kind of habitat...yet we’re reduced to life as our ancestors lived it before the invention of cities or even language. We’re hunter-gatherers.”
“I think we’re only gatherers, Wade,” said Harley Drake, who didn’t bother to conceal his scorn. “Unless you’ve spotted a Keanu wildebeest.”
“Have not, and do not expect to,” the older man said. “I doubt we could do much in the way of hunting, in any case. I see nothing we could use for spears or flints, just to be nearly Paleolithic for a moment.”
“There are tree branches,” Zack said. He had used one to spear the Sentry that killed Megan.
“Fine. That’s half of what we need.”
Harley looked at the Temple. “Maybe we can chip off bits of that thing and get useful flints.”
“I love optimism,” Williams said. “I often sneer at it, but I do so love it.”
“A far cry from the Neolithic Trilogy, aren’t we, Mr. Williams?”
Williams blinked and looked every bit of what had to be seventy-five years of age. “I wrote that series a long time ago. I was younger then.”
“So were your readers,” Zack said. At one time he had been a committed consumer of sci-fi and fantasy books and graphic novels, and he had read several of Williams’s books, which he’d found entertaining and provocative. Williams offered devastating critiques of modern te
chnological society—heavy on the idea that children were being “softened” by a life of ease—in contrast to the benefits of pioneer life on habitable alien worlds or adventures in a different terrestrial past. “We must have some baby-friendly food around here.”
“Power bars and Red Bull?” Sasha said. “I got hold of a packet of Pop Tarts. God knows how long they’ve been sitting, or where.”
“Hell,” Williams said. “Those things contain enough preservative to make them edible for a century.”
“Going into Wade Williams mode, Sasha, how about this,” Zack said. “Think like a mama bird.”
Sasha stared. It took Rachel a moment to understand what Zack was suggesting. Rachel said, “Oh, Daddy, gross!”
But Sasha nodded. “That might be the only option.” She smiled. “Feel free to do some prechewing, too. Given the circumstances, I don’t think it’s going to make a huge difference to the baby.”
She ripped open the Pop Tart and bit off a corner.
Zack took one, too.
The sad thing was that Zack hadn’t wanted to share the mulched-up plastic pastry with the baby...he had wanted to eat it all himself.
As he forced himself to chew gently, and not swallow, he grinned at Harley Drake. “I wonder what the poor people are doing this summer afternoon?”
Some time later the baby had been fed, after a fashion, and burped, and carried off to sleep.
Somebody on the Bangalore team had performed the miraculous function of locating water...it turned out there was a pond of sorts a third of a kilometer up-habitat from the Temple. Open water, seemingly spring-fed, and cleanish.
It wasn’t pure, but it was wet.
Another refugee had completed the second most vital chore for a group of humans in circumstances like this—siting and digging a latrine. Weldon had approved the location, down-habitat from the Temple, far enough from the pond, which was already known as Lake Ganges. “I think the trench is far enough downwind to minimize the odor.”
“Assuming the wind ever blows here,” Zack said. He and several of the men had just paid an inaugural visit to the trench. Dozens of women were clustered not far away, impatiently waiting their turn. “I do think we’re going to need a ladies’. Remember what happens at sporting events.”
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