at you. That's what you walked back to.'
'I don't believe you,' Jonny told the Colonel.
Zamora shrugged. 'You can believe anything you want. It doesn't change our situation one bit. What I want from you is information about the smuggler lord Conover', said Zamora. He typed something on the computer terminal and activated the room's recording unit. I want you tell me about Conover and his connection to the Alpha Rats.
For a moment, relief washed through Jonny like a cleansing wave. Pointing to the pile of pills, he said, 'Your fingers in the cookie jar, Colonel? Been taking home samples?'
Zamora gave Jonny a look of absolute disgust. 'What are you, an animal? I'm giving you a chance to stay alive.'
'How am I supposed to take a question like that seriously?' asked Jonny. 'I don't know anything about Conover and I sure don't keep tabs on space pirates.'
'You're a liar, Gordon,' said the Colonel. 'Remember? Your friend Raquin worked for me. I have videos of you with all kinds of nasty people, including Conover.'
Jonny looked away from the Colonel, wondering how long he had been inside the prison. Sumi would be worried by now. All she would hear is that he'd been shot and taken away by the Committee.
Sumi, he was afraid, would not survive long on her own. She did not protect herself enough; she left herself too open, was too willing to trust and be wounded. It was that inner calm that had originally attracted Jonny to her. At the moment, though, it merely chilled him.
'All right, so I know Conover,' said Jonny. 'I move merchandise for him. I help get his trucks though Committee checkpoints, but you know all that, right? As for this Alpha Rat thing, though, that is completely out-to- lunch.'
'Is it? I don't think so.'
'I can't give you what I don't have.'
'No, but you can get it for me.'
'What do you want?'
'Conover,' Zamora said.
'Oh man,' said Jonny, 'why don't you just ask me to bring to Alpha Rats down here, too? I've got as much chance.'
'You can't just waltz away from this one, Gordon,' said the Colonel. 'This hook-up between Conover and the Alpha Rats makes it too big.'
Jonny slammed his hand down on the table top. 'Will you lay-off that 'Gordon' stuff. Nobody calls me that, anymore.'
2Don't tell me what to do, boy. I own you.'
Jonny leaned back in his chair. 'Just what is it between you and these spacemen?'
Colonel Zamora tilted his head back slightly, scrutinizing Jonny.
Jonny's fingers lightly traced the pattern of the dragons on the table top. In truth, he wished he had something to give Zamora. Some innocuous bit of information or rumor that might satisfy him. Jonny's head was light. He could not even think of a good lie.
'Finally,' the Colonel nodded. He keyed something on the computer and turned the recorder off. 'All right, maybe you are that ignorant,' Zamora said. 'Let's try something else. Tell me anything you know about the Alpha Rats.'
Jonny took a deep breath and let it out slowly. His mind was still sluggish from the drugs they had given him in the infirmary. He found it difficult to concentrate on anything but his anger, which he was eager to show, and his fear, which he was not. Jonny realized then that he was afraid of Colonel Zamora, had always been so. That his fear of Zamora had been another reason he had deserted the Committee. And that this confrontation had been, in a sense, preordained. He had cheated Zamora of something when he ran away. Of what, Jonny was not sure, but he understood that whatever it was, the Colonel had come to claim it.
'Well?' said Colonel Zamora.
'The Alpha Rats,' he said, 'Yeah, I saw the news rags. Big ships from deep space, right? They landed on the moon and smashed up all the bases, ours and New Palestine's. Flattened everything. Burned all the techs.'
'And do you have any idea what was going on up there at the time?'
Jonny tried to remember. It had been at long time ago. Some engineering. 'Mostly mining and genetic work, right?' The Colonel seemed impressed.
'Right, but there was something else going on, too; something more important,' he said. 'A war. An economic war between the New Palestine Federation and the Tokyo Alliance. The Arabs have always had the oil, the minerals, the heavy machinery.'
'They've been mining the asteroid belt for decades in those big hydrogen scoop ships.'
'But think- what does the Tokyo Alliance have? We have software and hardware, sure, but it's the really delicate items: protein-based data storage, genetics, micro-electronics. That's where our strength lies, Gordon. And we lost a big piece of it. You can thank the Alpha Rats that you're in business. A lot of the drugs you people sell illegally were produced on the moon or in those circumlunar labs. You need that environment, sterile conditions you can't get on earth and, above all, weightlessness- or something close to it- to produce some of those items.'
'The Arabs control over half the earth's land mass. Africa alone will keep them supplied with raw materials for centuries. Do you see what I'm getting at?'
'Sure, The Tokyo Alliance lost its economic balls when the Alphas moved in on the moon. But I don't see what any of this has to do with me.' Jonny opened his eyes wide. 'Honest officer, I was nowhere near the moon that day.'
Zamora ignored him and typed something on the computer keyboard. A rectangle of glass set into the top of the table glowed.
Rising from the projection plate, a three-dimensional chaos of fractal points and ice-blue connecting lines flared like a crystalline vascular system. The angles of the hologram filled in with colors, primary, then secondary. Jonny thought he recognized a desert. 'Look at this,' Zamora said.
Jonny leaned forward, staring hard at the miniature landscape.
'What is this?' he asked. 'Looks like a burned up spring roll.'
'It's a shuttle,' said Zamora. 'The moon bases used them to send samples back to the corporate labs on Earth. We picked that one up in the desert near Anza Borego. Up until a couple of months ago, all the Alpha Rats were doing was broadcasting a steady stream of signals to deep space. Some French tech at Tokyo U thinks to the constellation Pegasus. There's a binary system there called 'Alpheratz'. That's how they got the name.'
Jonny nodded. 'I'm thrilled,' he said.
'Anyway, a few months ago, the signals changed. The Alphas started broadcasting to Earth.'
'No shit.'
'To the desert southwest of here. And you know what?' asked Zamora, with more than a touch of glee. 'Somebody broadcast back. Is that rich? Now, we've got some of the best data decryption software available. We've only been to decipher bits and pieces, but what we got, Gordon, it's tasty. Really tasty.'
Jonny said: 'All right, so I'm hooked. What was it?'
Zamora looked delighted. 'A deal,' he said. 'A deal. Between your pal Conover and the Alpha Rats. But don't stop listening 'yet, because it gets better. It seems that you're involved.
'Christ,' said Jonny. 'You're too much.' He got up and walked to the back of the room. Zamora did not seemed very concerned; he just kept smiling. The door, Jonny saw, had a magnetic lock, a device the Committee was very fond of. You could blow the whole wall away and still not get one of those locks to move, he thought. He remained there, though, taking comfort in the small distance he could put between himself and the Colonel.
'Calm down, Gordon. I said you were involved. I didn't say you were a participant.'
'What's the difference?'
'Willingness,' said Zamora. 'I tell you, boy, if I was working on a deal of this magnitude I might let you sharpen pencils; hell, I might even use you as a courier, but I sure wouldn't let you near anything important. Therefore, I'm willing to accept that you are not a conscious participant in all this.'
'Thanks.'
'But you've got something I want: access to Conover. If he does have a connection to the Alpha Rats, no
