When she opened the door and stepped into the room, though, she was surprised to see not Amanda, but Doug Stavenger.
“Hello, Pancho,” he said, getting up from the chair on which he’d been sitting. “Sorry for all the cloak and dagger business.”
The room was apparently a waiting area. Small, comfortably upholstered chairs lined its walls. A holowindow displayed a view of the Earth in real time. A second door was set into the back wall.
“I was expecting Mandy,” said Pancho.
“She’ll be here in a few minutes.”
Doug Stavenger’s family had created the original Moonbase, the lunar outpost that eventually grew into the nation of Selene. He had been the leader in Moonbase’s brief, successful war against the old United Nations and their Peacekeeper troops, which established the lunar community’s independence from Earth. Stavenger himself had chosen the name Selene for the fledgling lunar nation.
Although he was fully a generation older than Pancho, Stavenger looked no more than thirty: a handsome, solidly built middleweight whose tawny skin was only a shade lighter than Pancho’s. His body was filled with therapeutic nanomachines that destroyed invading microbes, cleared away fats and arterial plaque, rebuilt his tissues to keep him physically youthful. They had saved his life, twice. Officially Stavenger had been retired for many years, although everyone knew he was still a political power broker in Selene. His influence was even felt in the Asteroid Belt and at the fusion-scooping operation in orbit around Jupiter. But he was exiled from Earth; the worldwide ban on nanotechnology meant that no nation on Earth would allow him within its borders.
“What’re you doin’ here?” Pancho asked as she sat in the chair next to Stavenger.
He hesitated a heartbeat, then replied, “I’ll let Amanda tell you.”
“What’s she here for?”
Stavenger smiled sphinxlike.
If it had been anyone else Pancho would have fumed. She felt her brows knitting. “Some sort of game going on?”
Stavenger’s smile faded. “Some sort, indeed.”
The inner door swung open and Amanda stepped into the room. She was wearing the latest style of baggy blue-gray sweatshirt that stopped short of her rumpled, darker slacks so that her midriff was bare. In keeping with the current fashion, she had an animated decal sprayed around her waist: a procession of colorful elves and trolls, their endless marching powered by Amanda’s body heat. Her golden hair was slightly disheveled. Even though she smiled at Pancho, the expression on her face seemed far less than happy. She looked pale, tense.
Stavenger got to his feet, but Pancho went like a shot to Amanda and wrapped her arms around her and held her close.
“Cripes almighty, Mandy, it’s great to see you.”
Amanda seemed to understand exactly how Pancho felt. She rested her head on Pancho’s shoulder for a moment and murmured, “It’s good to see you, too, Pancho.”
They disentangled and sat down next to each other. Stavenger pulled a third chair over to sit facing them.
“The room’s clean,” he said. “Whatever we say here won’t go beyond these walls. And all the other waiting rooms along this corridor are unoccupied.”
Pancho realized that the security people out in the hallway were from Selene, not Humphries Space Systems.
“What’s this all about?” she asked.
“I need to tell you something, Pancho,” said Amanda.
“Must be important.”
“Life or death,” Stavenger muttered.
“Martin is planning some sort of move against Astro,” Amanda said. “He’s furious with you, Pancho. He believes you’ve been supplying Lars, helping him to prey on HSS ships.”
“That’s bullshit,” Pancho snapped. “Hell, he’s knocked off three of Astro’s robot freighters in the past month. First one, I thought maybe Lars had done it, but not three.”
“Lars wouldn’t attack your ships, Pancho,” Amanda said.
Stavenger agreed. “There’s something in the wind, that’s for sure. Someone’s pumping money into this new African corporation.”
“Nairobi Industries,” said Pancho. “They’re building a facility at Shackleton Crater, near the south pole.”
“And Martin is backing them?”
“Either Humphries or a third player that’s staying behind the scenes so far,” said Stavenger.
“The Hump’s always planning some sort of move,” Pancho said lightly. “He’s wanted to get his paws on Astro from the git-go.”
“If he gains control of Astro Corporation, he’ll have a monopoly on space operations from here to the Belt. He’ll have the rock rats at his mercy.”
“I think whatever Martin is planning could become violent,” Amanda said. “He’s rebuilding the base on Vesta that Lars destroyed. He’s hiring a small army of mercenary troops.”
Pancho had heard the same from her own intelligence people.
“But why is he going to all that expense?” Stavenger wondered aloud.
“To get control of Astro. To get control of everything,” said Amanda.
“Including Lars,” said Pancho.
“He’s promised not to harm Lars,” Amanda said. Without much conviction, Pancho thought.
“You believe him?”
Amanda looked away for a moment, then said bitterly, “I did once. I don’t anymore.”
Pancho nodded. “Neither do I.”
“I thought we had this all settled eight years ago,” Stavenger said. “You both agreed to stop the fighting.”
“Astro’s lived up the agreement,” Pancho said.
“So has Humphries,” replied Stavenger. “Until now.”
“But why?” Pancho demanded again. “Why start all this crap again? Is he so damn crazy he really wants to be emperor of the whole solar system?”
“It’s Lars,” Amanda said. “He wants to kill Lars. He thinks I still love him.”
“Do you?”
Amanda pressed her lips together tightly. Then she said, “That’s why I’m here.”
“Here? You mean this med center?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand, Mandy.”
She took a deep breath. “The baby I’m carrying is Lars’s, not Martin’s.”
Pancho felt as if someone had punched her in the solar plexus. “Lars’s? How in hell did you—” “We stored frozen zygotes years ago,” said Amanda, “back when Lars and I first went out to the Belt on the old
“And now you’ve implanted yourself with one of ’em,” Pancho said, her voice hollow.
Nodding slowly, Amanda said, “Martin thinks I’m carrying his son. But it’s Lars’s.”
“If he finds out he’ll kill you both.”
“That’s why I had it done here. Doug made the arrangements for me, brought together the proper medical personnel, even provided security.”
Pancho glanced at Stavenger with new respect. “That’s one way to spit in Humphries’s eye,” she muttered.
He shrugged. “I did it for Amanda, not to spite Humphries.”
Yeah, sure, Pancho retorted silently.
Aloud, she said, “You’re playin’ with nitroglycerine, Mandy. If Humphries even suspects—”
Amanda silenced her with a flash of her eyes. “He won’t rest until he’s killed Lars,” she said, her voice low
