“Which is the way it should be,” Cardenas said firmly. “We’re the people who live there, we ought to be able to control our own destiny.”
Looking from her to Stavenger and back again, Dieterling said, “That is a great deal of power. The entire Asteroid Belt…”
“We can handle it,” George said, totally serious. “Like Kris here said, it’s the way things oughtta be.”
CHAPTER 55
The conference ended at last. As the delegates got up from the table and made their way to the door, Humphries remained seated, hands clasped on the tabletop, deep in thought.
“Ain’t you goin’ home?” Pancho asked as she came around the table. “In a while,” Humphries said. “Not right this moment.” Stavenger was going through the doorway with Dieterling and his two nephews. Big George and Dr. Cardenas were already gone; George had been the first out the door, like a schoolboy racing away from the classroom once the bell has rung.
“I don’t think Mandy’ll be comin’ back here,” Pancho said. Humphries made himself smile up at her. “We’ll see.”
“Suit yourself,” Pancho said.
Humphries watched her saunter out the door, leaving him alone in the conference room. So we’ll have peace in the Belt, he said to himself. And the rock rats will enforce it. Sure they will.
He got to his feet and went to the slim little podium that had been wheeled into a corner of the room. The audio-visual controls on its surface were simple enough. With a touch of his finger, Humphries lit up the wallscreen at the other end of the conference room. It showed Selene’s logo: the androgynous outline of a human being against the full Moon. Scrolling idly through the computer’s stored images, he stopped when a map of the Belt came up: the wild tangle of orbits looked like a long-exposure view of a mad raceway.
So we won’t bother the independents anymore, Humphries said to himself. We won’t call down the wrath of the rock rats and their fledgling government. We won’t have to. All the independents will be selling to me or to Astro; there’s no third choice. They’ll all fall into line now.
He drew in a breath, thinking, Now the fight’s between Astro and HSS. Now the
As if on cue, Amanda entered the conference room.
Humphries stared at her. Somehow she looked different: still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, the most desirable. Yet there was something else about her now, something that almost unnerved him. She looked back at him, her eyes steady, dry. She’s not shedding any tears for her husband, Humphries told himself.
“They won’t let me speak to him,” Amanda said, her voice so soft he could barely make out the words. She walked along the length of the conference table toward Humphries.
“He’s too far out for a two-way conversation,” he said.
“I put through a call to him and they wouldn’t even accept it. They told me he’s not allowed to receive any messages from anyone.”
“He’s being held incommunicado.”
“On your orders.”
“Yes.”
“You intend to kill him, don’t you?”
Humphries evaded her unwavering blue eyes. “I imagine they’ll put him on trial at Ceres. He’s killed a lot of people.”
“Will he live long enough to face a trial?” Amanda asked, her voice flat, calm, not accusative so much as resigned.
Uncomfortably nervous, Humphries shifted his weight from one foot to another. “He’s a violent man, you know. He might try to escape custody.”
“That would be convenient, wouldn’t it? Then he could be killed while trying to escape.”
Humphries came around the podium and stepped toward her, reaching his arms out to her.
“Amanda,” he said, “it’s all over. Fuchs has dug his own grave and-”
“And you’re going to see that he goes into it.”
“It’s not my doing!” At that moment he almost felt that it was true.
Amanda simply stood there, unmoving, unmoved, her arms at her sides, her eyes focused on him, searching for something, something. He wished he knew what it was.
“What do you want from me?” he asked her.
For a moment she said nothing. Then, “I want your promise that you won’t allow him to be harmed in any way.”
“The rock rats are going to put him on trial for murder.”
“I understand that,” Amanda said. “I still want your promise that
He hesitated, then asked coldly, “And what will you do in exchange for my promise?”
“I’ll go to bed with you,” Amanda said. “That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
“No!” he blurted. Almost pleading, he said, “I want to marry you, Amanda. I love you! I want to give you… everything you’ve ever wanted.”
She waited a heartbeat, then said, “All I want is Lars’s safety.”
“And not me?”
“I owe it to Lars. All this has happened because of me, hasn’t it?”
He wanted to he, wanted to tell her that everything he had done he had done for her and for her alone. But he couldn’t. Facing her, so close to her, he could not he.
“You were a part of it, Amanda. But only a part. Something like this would have happened anyway.”
“But Lars wouldn’t have been caught in the middle of it, would he?”
“Probably not,” Humphries agreed.
“Then I’ll marry you, if that’s what you want. In exchange for your promise to leave Lars alone.”
Humphries’s throat felt dry, parched. He nodded mutely.
“Now you have everything
He couldn’t find words. He wanted to make her feel better about this, wanted to make her smile. But he couldn’t find any words.
“That is what you want, isn’t it?” Amanda insisted.
“Not like this,” he said, finding his voice. And it was the truth. “Not as part of a…an arrangement.”
Amanda shrugged slightly. “This is the way it is, Martin. There’s nothing either one of us can do to change it. I’ll marry you if you swear that you won’t harm Lars.”
He licked his lips. “He’ll still have to face trial on Ceres. I can’t stop that.”
“I know,” she said. “I accept that.”
“All right, then.”
“I want to hear you say it, Martin. I want your promise, here and now.”
Drawing himself up to his full height, Humphries said, “Very well. I promise you, Amanda, that I will do nothing to harm Lars Fuchs in any way.”
“You won’t give anyone orders to hurt him.”
“I swear to you, Amanda.”
The breath seemed to sag out of her. “All right, then. I’ll marry you as soon as a divorce can be arranged.”
Or as soon as you become
