'I don't understand. Why did you believe them. Didn't you know-'
'No,' her father said curtly. 'I… I had to believe them. I had no choice.'
'Daddy, who are these people? What do they want from us?'
He turned sad and bitter eyes on her. 'It started almost a year ago. He came to me'-a jerk of the head indicated Hocking'and said that there were people who would pay handsomely to know the truth about your mother. I was afraid-I couldn't let that information out. It might have ruined my career. The board elections were only a few weeks away. There had been some mumblings of dissatisfaction among the more conservative board members; my reappointment was by no means assured.'
'What did he want?'
'That was the odd thing. Only to come aboard Gotham and observe, he said. We made a deal: I would let him come on board-no questions asked-in exchange for his silence about Caroline. I didn't see him after that. He stayed out of sight.'
'Didn't you wonder what he was up to?'
'I didn't want to know! After the elections I forgot about him, put him out of my mind.'
'He was there all the time. Spence was right.' 'Spence knew about him?'
'Spence saw him once and had me try to find out who he was. Of course I couldn't; there was no record of him anywhere.'
Director Zanderson passed a hand in front of his eyes. 'I've been such a fool! Now everything's gone.'
'What do you mean? We're not finished yet, not by a long shot.'
'What difference does it make?' He returned to his whining tone. He looked at her again with eyes showing white all around. 'Don't you understand? They are taking over control of the Center! The space station will be theirs.'
'Impossible!'
'Far from it. Gotham is totally self-sufficient now. It's quite possible. No one would even know.'
'But GM would find out eventually and they'd put a stop to it.
'By then it would be too late. With only a slight modification of the thrusters the station could be moved anywhere in the solar system-the whole galaxy!'
'They'd go after it. They wouldn't just let it go.'
The elder Zanderson shook his head wearily. 'Remember, the only craft capable of traveling that far is the transport Gyrfalcon, and it's based at the station. It could be years before another craft of that kind could be readied. By that time the station could be hidden somewhere in the asteroid belt or beyond. Why, Gotham would be a true space colony; it could conceivably go anywhere.'
The thought of a thing so huge hiding out in plain sight in the empty openness of space seemed ludicrous to Ari. But then, the universe was a very big place.
'What will they do with us?'
'I don't know. I suppose we'll be useful to them until they have secured control of the Center. Then… who knows?'
'We've got to do something. We can't just give up hope.'
'There is no hope.'
'Daddy, we can't just let all those people up there become slaves to this madman. We've got to do something. We've got to try.'
'It's too late. It's already happening.'
'It is not too late,' Ari said harshly. She took her father's arm and shook it hard. 'Spence is still out there and free. He knows about them. He'll try to find us and free us.'
'It's too late. He won't know where to start looking-we don't even know where they're taking us.'
'He'll find us.' She gave her father a knowing look. 'Spence has as much at stake in this as anyone else, maybe more. And I have a pretty good hunch where we're headed and where he'll start looking.'
6
… THE GUNSHOTS DID NOT wake Spence; it was the bullets themselves-rattling through the rusted hulk of the sedan like lethal hail-that snapped him to attention.
The moon was nearly down-the darkest part of the night several hours before dawn-and perfect for an ambush. The goondas had been waiting for the sentries to slip off to sleep before creeping out from hiding in the jungled hills. The attack, swift and professional, caught everyone off guard.
Merchants ran screaming into the night. The horde of barefoot followers scattered in every direction, not knowing where the shooting was coming from. The soldiers fired off quick bursts with their M-16s and someone- perhaps one of the merchants, more likely one of the outlaws-blazed away with a submachine gun.
The scene erupted in such confusion Spence could not be sure who was shooting at whom when he dived out of the back seat of the car onto the road. He collided with the crouching figure of Adjani.
'Ooof!' he said as he went down.
'Stay down!' Adjani pressed his shoulder to the ground. 'Where's Gita?'
'I don't know. When I woke up he was gone. The shooting seems to be coming from those trees across the road.'
Spence looked and saw that Adjani was probably right. A thin white trace of smoke drifted from the tops of a stand of tall trees about thirty meters away; a running line of bullets kicked up little clouds of dust as they ripped along the length of the caravan. A few bodies lay motionless between the trees and the line of vehicles, but whether these were dead, wounded, or just keeping down and out of sight he could not tell. He feared the worst.
All at once the shooting stopped. They heard shouts from the trees and then saw the three soldiers walking across the road with their empty hands in the air.
'So much for our protection,' said Adjani. 'What happens now?'
'They will take what they want and-we would do well to pray-they will go their own way.' The voice was Gita's. Spence and Adjani turned around and saw the turbaned head sticking out from beneath the car. How he had squeezed his bulk under there was a mystery.
All around them the groans of the wounded rose from the earth, and the foliage on the far side of the road began to waver and shake as the bandits stepped into the open.
There were a dozen or more of them, and probably others still hidden in the trees. They were dressed in dark clothing, making them almost impossible to see as they fanned off along the caravan's length-they were dark shadows against a darker night. The feeble moonlight struck the bare metal of their old guns and glinted with a cold luster, letting any remaining doubters know that they did indeed mean business.
'We have nothing of value,' said Spence. 'What can they do?'
'Kill us,' replied Gita. 'It would be better if we had something to give them.'
'Our provisions,' suggested Adjani.
'They'll take those anyway. They want more.'
'Well, let's not stick around to haggle about it; let's get out of here now.' Spence, still on his stomach beside Adjani, began squirming backward behind the car. Adjani flattened himself and followed Spence's lead. Gita, wedged between the car chassis and the dirt road, hissed like a snake. 'Stop! Stop! Wait for me!' In a moment he had disengaged himself from his hiding place and was rolling into the ditch after his friends.
They had not run three steps toward the cover of the jungle when a shout and the glint of the moonlight on the long barrel of a rifle halted them. Directly into their path stepped a large, dark figure. His teeth and the whites of his eyes shone in the darkness and he turned the gun toward them and shouted again, more insistently.
Without waiting for a translation Spence turned slowly and, putting his hands in the air, walked back to the car. There they saw that all the merchants were standing in front of their vehicles while teams of bandits unloaded the cargo. From the whining chatter which filled the air Spence guessed they were pleading with the robbers not to wipe them out completely. The goondas seemed oblivious to this racket and went about their business wholly unconcerned with the pitiful wheedling of the tradesmen.
