April (15 page)

"You have the pen used to open the door?"

"It's this here." Jeff said pointing to the pen in his breast pocket.

"In the specimen tray please," she asked. "And hold your hands out, fingers spread."

She held the case over the pen and a speckled pattern of scintillating laser light scanned the pen. She played the light over his hands also and examined the readouts on it briefly. The device she'd left on the roll gave three sharp beeps and the light changed to green, but she ignored it.

Taking a small can clipped on the side of the instrument, she sprayed a mist on the pen and then Jeff's hands and then repeated the reading all over again. "Flip them over," she instructed and examined the backs and wrists carefully also. April could not see any mic or radio on her, but when she was done she spoke, as if to someone else, not them. "Looks clean so far… There are no chemical agents, or pathogens detectable. I'm going to test at the door. The one on the right?" she asked Jeff. He nodded yes.

She scanned the handle and then drew it open very slowly in her gloved hand, until it was all the way open against the wall behind. She scanned the backside and the carpet in front of the door. Then she pointed it at several areas inside and scanned but didn't enter. Lastly, she sprayed a puff of the mist into the air inside the door and played the scanning light through cloud as it floated there.

"We are clear for all knowns in here," she announced and pulled down her mask. She fiddled with something on her left cuff and there was a snap of electricity discharging and the suit suddenly got wrinkles and hung a lot looser.

Jon was next through the door, with a young man dressed like the lady, but with his mask down and his suit limp. He was carrying a big duffel. "Stay there a minute." Jon called to them and went to the doorway where he briefly looked in. Then they all put their heads together and conferred in low tones. When the man started taking photos through the doorway, the young woman came back, to pack her equipment.

Jon came to join them and pulled a chair down, unfolding it. Jeff poured him tea without asking if he wanted it. Jon was dressed casually, with cross trainers and elastic waist pants and seemed relaxed when he sat.

"Do you know what time the room was tossed? Jon asked first.

"It was like this when I came home Sunday night," Jeff admitted. He expected Jon to jump on him for the delay in reporting it, but all he said was "I think you know now there was some risk bringing your friends here, don't you?"

"Yeah," Jeff admitted. "I was clueless and lucked out, didn't I?"

"We all get a free one now and then," and Jon dropped the subject. "So, what were they after and did they get it?" he wanted to know.

"Two possibilities we know of Jon. First, my dad is meeting a lawyer while he is at a conference on ISII to speak with him about the problems with the Rock. They may have wanted information about how the investors plan to defend their ownership, legally or physically. April's dad has expressed the idea it may go against us in the World Court and he also said some of the investors would actually fight to keep their share.  Someone tried to move my dad's computer. As you can see it was booby-trapped."

"Does your dad really need a super computer, instead of just a chip in a screen and net processing?"

"Nanofabricating takes some pretty powerful modeling Jon. We both use it for designing the product too, not just the fabrication sequence. Believe it or not it sometimes runs for a couple hours, before it optimizes a complex design."

 "What happened there? Did your charge ignite instead of detonate?"

"Oh no, Jon." Jeff seemed shocked at the suggestion. "It wasn't a dud explosive charge, it was just a hunk of thermite taped to the memory module. It was in a graphite and ceramic crucible, but the guy flipped it on its side and the molten steel ran out and got away from him. We never expected someone to tip it over. I still don't know why he did that."

"It was probably something as simple as he felt more comfortable taking the screws out with it laying on the long side," Jon offered. "It might have been simpler if you had used about a tenth kilo of plastique instead and we would be scraping SEAL off of the ceiling with a putty knife." The idea did not seem to keep him from enjoying his tea.

"Sorry," he said looking at the shocked expressions on all their faces, "but where billions of dollars are at stake things will get rough. I wish it were different, because I have to protect many of the investors. But half measures and subtlety will not do."

Jon sipped his tea and scrunched his face up even harder until he had lines in his forehead. It was so obvious he was thinking something over they just kept quiet.

"What I want to say, is you are all too young to be involved with this ugly stuff and you need to be protected and removed from any possible harm. But there is nowhere safe to send you and I can't lock you up in your cubic. Practically, I know that's impossible and Jeff's dad isn't even here to say what he would want. April has more than average protection, just because her dad is manager." He looked at each of them in turn like he was gauging them. "And I can see if I told Heather to stay away from you two, because of your Rock involvement, that wouldn't mean anything would it?" he asked her.

"Zip," she confirmed. "They are my dear friends and partners."

"Well be aware. This guy wasn't the only one snooping around either. It isn't public yet, but we had another one. I don't think I should hide that from you when you are targets. Who knows if there is a third or fourth? I'd appreciate if you didn't talk it around for awhile, but you should be aware, to be cautious. Don't assume this is all over. Next time you want to protect something, come see me and I'll show you how to protect the computer with something which won't melt through the deck and into the next level."

"Was he a SEAL too? Did this other spy flee the station like Art did? Or do you have him in custody?" April bubbled over with questions.

"You might say he's in custody," Jon allowed. "We have no hard proof he is connected to Art. Right now he's in the clinic's cooler - morgue if you want to call it that, while we arrange a believable story about how he got there." Jon looked entirely too happy about that for the three's comfort.

"As I said it's rough. He already took out one of our people, so don't any of you do anything stupid and be next. I guess it's entirely too late to say don't call any attention to yourselves. But do call me anytime you have any doubts or concerns, like you did today. I don't think that thing in the cafeteria was anything but a jackass acting up, but you were right to call me. If you see somebody checking you out you don't know, or get an unexpected package,
please
call me right away.
Before
you open it up. At least until I can say I know where this is all going."

"Jon," Heather spoke up. "We can get a lot rougher, I promise you. We just didn't really understand what was happened until today. Tell us anything you think we need to do and we'll be as ruthless as it takes. We're not stupid, just inexperienced and we don't have much time to learn. Jeff's dad and April's family are investors, but what happens is going to affect us as much or more than the adults. What are the other Rock investors doing? You must have talked to them about it."

"I'll tell you what I think." Jon offered. "But I've said these same things to several of the Rock investors and they don't agree with me. The spy who was here was not after anything for the legal case, because they already know they have a win. There is just no way the courts are going rule against the government when billions of dollars are involved."

"The investors are a small enough group of people they don't have to worry about public outrage. Most of the people down there don't like the people who live in orbit anyway. The TV shows and news paint us as selfish and overpaid. The preachers see us as way too secular and tolerant. The only people who will cut us some slack are the space nuts, who would like to come up here themselves and can't for some reason." He stopped and sipped tea in his introspective mode again for a moment.

"I'm sorry, but the investors are either naive about how honest the courts are, or are just in denial. If they were looking for any information about the Rock it would probably be about plans to physically defend it. And I can't see any way to stand up to the will of the USNA if they decide to send up shuttles full of troops and weapons. I don't even
want
to know about anyone planning to tunnel into the Rock and try to stand off the Earthies." Jon offered his cup for more tea.

"I might see something I would be in the embarrassing position of having to stop as Security Chief and I'd much rather have the Earth people do the dirty work, than be forced to arrest my friends and neighbors."

Heather gave April one small nod, acknowledging her prior analysis of Jon.

"But the Rock is going to generate lots of business and money for the USNA." Jeff protested, as he poured. "Almost all the investors are USNA citizens and even my dad is a permanent resident with a work permit and pays USNA taxes," Jeff protested.

Jon shook his head. "It may all be USNA technically. But where is the money going to go? Where is the Rock itself going to go physically? Most of the value of the Rock is because it's already in orbit. A kilogram of Chinese steel on the ground is about $30US right now. But the same steel in orbit is worth about $280US."

"Nobody is going to make steel out of the Rock and send it Dirtside to sell. The economics aren't there. Never will be. But the $250US added value to boost the steel to us, is no longer going to flow downhill to the Dirtside companies. What do you think will happen with the profits, as the Rock is mined? April, what do you think your family will do with the money?"

"The biggest thing my granddad and dad have been talking about is to do another capture mission, to bring materials back here from deep space. But this time they would like to do a comet core, or even an ice moonlet from the Jupiter system, to bring a huge amount of volatile resources here. No point in doing another rock, when it will take years to refine this one."

She paused to digest it. "I see what you mean," she said "All the money and new business is here and the ground side is basically out of the loop. It may technically be USNA business, but it's not the established NA business community, who are accustomed to having the wealth flow through them and who have all the political connections. If they do bring a big mass of water in, it will just cut the money flowing to Earth even more. And with life extension therapy, they're not going to retire and go home to spend their money. I don't think my folks would voluntarily move back even if they did retire."

"Do you think your dad is ever going back to India?" Jon asked Jeff.

"No way. Unless like we were saying, they strip everyone out of M3 as undependable and he has no choice," he admitted.

"Earth courts, Earth judges. Billions of dollars in cheap materials in one lump just above their heads, they can steal without any real resistance. And the economy has been struggling for decades. None of the shifts in weather or politics have been favorable for a long time. So they need any boost they can snatch. I don't see any other outcome than they will at least
try
to steal it," Jon concluded.

"What's the second possibility you mentioned?" Jon asked. April was surprised he still remembered Jeff said there was another possibility. He'd really listened.

Jeff pointed at the box. "I have some power supply components, which are way better than anything being produced today, they are a completely new design, but unfortunately, when I was testing them, they emitted a signal a new USNA military system could detect. It alarmed them and an Earthie colleague of my dad found a way to tell us confidentially. They could pin point exactly where the signal was from, which is the bench my dad had allowed me to use in Lucent, to work on my stuff. Because I tested them there, they may think my dad or Lucent is involved. They weren't - they're
mine
," he said with some emphasis to make it clear.

"We wouldn't have even known it was detected, except this friend sent us an actual postal letter and told us the about the discovery. He mailed it from Singapore, when he was out of the country at a conference so maybe the USNA doesn't know about it, if they weren't watching him real tightly. The guy's no dummy so we could see him getting away from his handlers to mail it. And when we tried to call he wasn't available. That may be just to protect himself, not because he is compromised. For all I know my dad's lab may be trashed just like his room."

"You realize, Lucent may try to make claims on these, if you used anything at all of theirs, even just some bench space?" Jon asked.

"I'm not too worried. There's no documentation I worked there. The only evidence would be from a secret government detector seeing something there, they wouldn't testify in a court and they can't have any idea what was generating the signal they saw. I have all the receipts for the materials to make them also. My dad's two assistants saw me working on little projects, but as far as they are concerned I am just a ham radio buff, who likes to play at making things. Everything I had there is removed now. So the four of us are the only ones who have any idea what was really going on."

"But Jon..." Jeff got a really concerned look and made sure he had eye contact. "These are mine not my dad's. And I'll ask his help and seek his advice, like I am yours. But don't make the mistake of thinking he'll decide what happens with them, or that I need somebody to act in loco parentis and take control of them."

"Easy buddy. I'm not going to steal control of your stuff. I'm a little hurt you'd think that of me. As far as I'm concerned, if you are smart enough to make them, you are smart enough to decide what happens to them. As far as
other
people getting a legal hold on them - you sound pretty safe this time, but five people are already too many to know about any secret. Would I know what one of these things is, to just look at it?" Jon asked.