JO recovered her strength and her poise after only a moment She tore her eyes away from the display screen, away from the picture of Keith helpless and unconscious, and faced Tomasso once again, unconsciously fingering the belt that cinched her glittering jumpsuit at the waist Its jewelled buckle was an old family heirloom, it could be pulled free easily and used as a dagger
Vie was trying to keep his face straight, trying not to smile, not to sneer He almost succeeded Jo, her mind filling with images of how his smile would turn to agonized screams, stepped away from the desk Cliff Baker stood out in the hallway, goggle-eyed, trying to digest all that was happening
"Your husband's in a storeroom," Vie explained, "and the air has been pumped out of the corridor on the other side of
his door. If you don't cooperate, we'll have to pump the air out of the room he's in."
"I play ball or you kill him," Jo snapped.
Tomasso nodded. "That's it."
"What does Hsen want?"
Tomasso allowed himself a small grin. "Hey, what about what I want?"
fo gave him a level stare, then replied, "Vie, you're nothing but a miserable little shit who's going to get his guts ripped out an inch at a time."
From the corridor, Baker made a guttural noise that might have been a suppressed laugh. Tomasso's grin vanished. "You oughtta watch your mouth, Jo."
"You talk as if you're in charge here," Jo said. "But it's Hsen who's calling the shots. What if I tell him that I'll cooperate--but only if he'll turn you over to me."
Tomasso frowned.
"Hsen knows you're a turncoat. Do you think he really trusts you? You've thrown away your only card. Now that you've helped him take over this base, what've you got left to bargain with?"
His face flushing with barely-suppressed anger, Tomasso snarled, "Never mind the big talk. You just call off the troops you've got ready to fly here or your old man starts breathing vacuum."
"Hsen won't let you kill Keith."
"Wanna bet? The medics can study his dead body. Be a lot easier than dealing with him alive."
Baker said, in a complaining tone, "Would one of you mind telling me what this is all about?"
"It's about a starship," Jo replied. "That's what you want to see, isn't it, Vie? Well come on, then. Let's go see it."
She swept past Tomasso, out into the corridor and past Baker, heading for the chamber where the starship was waiting, her finger stroking the razor-sharp edge of her belt buckle.
Li-Po Hsen paced nervously, almost frantically, across the imitation bare wood floor of his private quarters. Tomasso's reports from Delphi were all good, well-nigh perfect.
The base is securely in my hands, Hsen told himself. Stoner is incapacitated, ready for further examination. The bitch Camerata is my prisoner, and she has called off the counterattack that she had planned.
The only failure had been in the attempt to seize her children, but that is a minor matter. Jo Camerata is cooperating because she knows her husband is at my mercy. I can pick up her brats at any time now.
Hsen's head nearly swam with excitement. I can control Vanguard Industries! I can have the Hungarian scientists make Stoner reveal all the alien's secrets, because his wife is in my hands.
He clapped his hands gleefully and skipped right through a hologrammic reproduction of an ancient bronze horse to lean across his bare desk and tap the communications button.
Within a minute his dour-faced security chief entered the sparsely-furnished room.
"I have decided to go to Delphi base," Hsen told her, "to see this starship for myself."
The security chief bowed her head, but replied, "That is not part of our plan. It was agreed . . ."
Hsen snorted disdain. "The base is secure. There is nothing to fear."
"Sir, we still do not understand the extent of the man Stoner's powers."
"He is unconscious at present, is he not?"
"Yes, but ..."
"And even when he awakes, he will be made to realize that his wife's well-being depends on his cooperation."
"Still, sir, it is my duty to point out that there may be unknown dangers in your personally going to the Vanguard base."
"Pah! It is my base now. I want to see the bitch and her husband for myself. I want to see this starship the alien has built for them. What kind of general sits quailing in his castle after his troops have conquered the enemy?"
A wise general, thought the security chief But she dared not speak the words aloud
Cliff Baker gaped in unabashed awe at the towering vat that bubbled and steamed, almost close enough to reach out and touch
Vie Tomasso felt an uneasy sense of forces at work beyond his control or even his understanding
The two men were standing with Jo on the grillwork catwalk that circled the vast underground chamber The floor was lost in the mists, far below them Many stones above, high-efficiency suction fans pulled the steam into special ducts where it was used to run turbines before cooling to the point where it condensed into pure potable water
Jo was reciting woodenly, explaining the starship construction system as if she were a tour guide who had given this lecture a thousand times
"The nanomachmes are as small as viruses, but they are machines, not living creatures Each one is programmed to do its specific task and no other They can assemble individual atoms and fit them together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle What they're doing now is taking the raw elements that are being fed into the vat in the gaseous stage through the hosing at the lowest level and picking out individual atoms to place them exactly where they need to be to build the ship "
"Individual atoms?" Tomasso asked, his voice somewhere between incredulity and astonishment
Without changing the tone of her voice or the frozen expression on her face, Jo replied, "Yes Individual atoms of aluminum, titanium, silicon Quite a bit of silver Some gold Mostly carbon atoms for the ship's structure The starship will be almost pure diamond, except for the guidance system and life support equipment "
Baker muttered, "It must be worth " "It costs less than a lunar shuttle," Jo said, with a little force "The nanomachmes are incredibly cheap, once you have a few master assemblers, they create all the other ma-
chines out of simple raw materials like carbon and silicon Then the raw input for the ship itself is the same stuff, plus a bit of metal Literally dirt cheap, we scoop most of it from the top few centimeters of the soil outside "
But as she spoke Jo was furiously thinking of how she could get out of this trap, how she could overcome Tomasso and the dozen or so military types who now controlled the base, how she could save Keith No plan of action came to her mind For once in her life she accepted the ancient wisdom of patience The burning hatred still seethed in her heart Every part of her wanted to tear Tomasso's flesh into bloody ribbons But now her ancient blood counseled patience, so Jo kept her passions frozen within her and waited for the proper moment to strike
For nearly an hour the three of them paced slowly around the catwalk, peering into the bubbling, frothing vat Jo could make out a graceful curve of crystalline material through the steaming brew, but little more
"And this ship is big enough to leave the solar system and go out to the stars" Tomasso asked
Jo replied, "This is only the propulsion and guidance unit The living quarters and life support sections have already been completed They're waiting in underground hangars, not far from here "
"What kind of propulsion does it use?" Baker asked
"It taps magnetic fields when it's close enough to planets that have them," Jo said "Don't ask me how, the physicists are still trying to figure it out For the long-distance jumps between stars it scoops in hydrogen from the interstellar plasma to feed a fusion engine "
"And it can go from one star to another, all that distance "
With a single nod, Jo said, "The nanomachmes constantly maintain all the ship's systems Keith told me they can even repair the erosion that micrometeors cause when they strike the hull "
Tomasso was about to ask another question, but his wrist communicator chimed softly He held the unit to his ear for a moment Jo saw his face go from surprise to pleasure
"Hsen is coming over," he announced With a wry smile, "You'll have a chance to show him your starship, Jo "
Jo kept her face expressionless But her heart leaped within her The murderer is coming here And she knew exactly what she had to do Kill the bastard Throw him over the railing and let him drop fifteen stories to the concrete floor Slice his throat open with the dagger built into my belt buckle Jam my thumbs into his eyes and then kick his balls into his throat
She clenched her hands to keep them from shaking with anticipation
My babies are safe, he can't get to them now I'll kill him What happens to me afterward doesn't matter What happens to Keith doesn't matter I'll kill the sonofabitch with my bare hands
Stoner, meanwhile, was still pretending to be unconscious while his mind explored the underground base Reaching, probing, he sensed Jo with Tomasso and Baker, felt the fury of her mind blazing like a bonfire in the night He recognized Matthews and many of the base's staff cooped together in the automated cafeteria Delicately stealing along the silent underground corridors he realized that there were twelve pro fessional soldiers present, half of them in the base's communications center, the others divided between the life support center and the docking facility
Why the docking facility Another rocket was on its way to the base, he found with a feathery touch on the mind of one of the orientals Li Po Hsen himself was coming to view his new conquest firsthand
Stoner filed that information and pressed onward Zoltan Janos was busily setting up equipment in one of the laborato nes, getting ready to resume his experiments on Stoner Where is Ilona?
He found her in one of the cubicles that served as quarters for the staff There was a man with her, a stranger
For several moments Stoner explored their minds, learning what he could without pressing hard enough for them to real
ize he was present Then, realizing that he had no better choice, he called to the Hungarian scientist
--Ilona Ilona, can you hear mej
She stiffened with surprise, sitting on the bed Paulino, primly ensconced on the room's only chair on the other side of the room, saw her face go pale
"What is it'" he asked
She silenced him with an upraised hand while replying aloud, "Yes, I can hear you "
--I need your help
"There's nothing I can do "
Paulino saw that she was talking to thin air His mother would have recognized a religious vision, his father would have twirled a finger against his temple Paulino, however, had grown accustomed to electronics miracles and immediately assumed that Ilona was speaking to someone through a miniature communications device planted somewhere on her person
"Who is it?" Paulino asked, getting up from his chair and crossing the room to sit beside Ilona on the bed "Is it someone who can help us?"
And he heard in his mind --Perhaps we can help each other