Powersat

Matagorda Island, Texas

Passeau was smiling, but Dan could see something else in his eyes. Resentment? Anger? Or was it something more subtle: curiosity, maybe. The man sat there in front of Dan’s desk, with his floppy bow tie and his little moustache, and he smiled like a cat with a cornered canary.

“You intend to fly the spaceplane?” the FAA investigator asked, his voice a mild purr. “And how will you obtain permission for that?”

“I’ve already got an FAA license to launch,” Dan said, leaning back in his desk chair. “It’s still valid.” He imagined himself playing poker in the Old West with a slick cardshark who held all the aces in his hands. I’ve got to bluff my way through this, Dan told himself.

“May I point out that a single phone call from me to Washington could revoke any launch permit that you have,” said Passeau.

“We’ll be launching out over the water, Claude. The booster won’t be in American airspace.”

With a little nod, Passeau said, “Not for more than a few minutes, I grant you. But still—”

“The spaceplane separates from the booster at an altitude that’s miles above controlled airspace. You know that.”

Passeau said nothing.

“And the booster breaks up and falls into the Atlantic. Again, way outside of U.S. airspace.”

“But the spaceplane must return to Earth. It can’t stay in orbit forever. It must land, and for that it must fly through American airspace.”

Dan hesitated only for the span of a heartbeat. “If it lands in the U.S.”

Passeau’s brows hiked up. That got him! Dan said to himself.

“You’d land it outside American territory?”

“Out of the FAA’s jurisdiction,” Dan said.

Sinking back in his chair, Passeau clasped his hands together as if in prayer and raised them to his lips, thinking hard.

“I suppose you realize that if I allow you to get away with this, my career in the Federal Aviation Administration is absolutely ruined.”

Dan had expected that. Very evenly, he replied, “That’s why I think you should take some vacation time, Claude. You’ve been working awfully hard on this investigation. A week or so at a top-flight hotel on the Riviera would do you a lot of good.”

Sighing, Passeau said, “Yes, a vacation would be wonderful. If I could afford it. On my salary, the best I could hope for is a Holiday Inn off the beach in Florida.”

“I have an uncle,” Dan said, straight-faced, “who’s taken a suite at the Hotel Beaulieu, halfway between Nice and Monte Carlo.”

“Indeed.”

“Trouble is, he won’t be able to get there. Arthritis or some kind of ailment. He’s pretty old, you know.”

“That’s a shame.”

“Well, the suite’s paid for and you know the French—they won’t refund his money.”

Passeau tried to look severe. “Dan, are you attempting to bribe me?”

Dropping the pretense, Dan answered, “I’m trying to save your career, Claude.”

“And your company.”

“That, too.”

“You and your uncles.” But Passeau was smiling now.

“I’ve got a lot of uncles. None of them are named Randolph and all of them have their own credit cards that can’t be traced back to me.”

Shaking his head, Passeau said, “You’re a scoundrel, Dan!” “Just a businessman trying to survive.”

Passeau was smiling now. “It would be wonderful, a week on the Riviera. But it would end with the two of us going to jail.”

“Not if we time it right.” Dan leaned forward across his desk. “You take a week off. By the time you get back we’ve run the test flight. You express great outrage that I sneaked it in behind your back. Nobody else knows about it except you and me.”

Passeau stared at Dan. He’s tempted, Dan thought It all depends on how much he really wants to help me. He’ll be taking a risk, but it’s a pretty small one. I’ll be betting the farm, the family jewels, and my cojones on the test flight.

“No one else will know about it?” Passeau asked, in a silky whisper.

“No one,” said Dan. He realized that April had already made the hotel reservation, but he was confident he could trust his executive assistant.

“And how will you be able to tow your rocket out onto the launchpad and place the spaceplane atop it without anyone noticing?”

“Mating test,” Dan replied innocently. “As far as the government is concerned, and the news media, we’ll just be testing the connectors between the booster and the spaceplane. Alignment, electrical connections, systems compatibility, that sort of thing.”

Passeau said nothing.

“The booster’s solid-fueled. We won’t need to fill her tanks and go through all that long a countdown. The plane will be crewless, nobody aboard.”

A cloud of suspicion crossed Passeau’s face. “You promise that? Nobody aboard?”

“I swear it,” Dan said.

For long moments Passeau remained silent, obviously thinking, weighing his options, all the possibilities.

“This could destroy me,” he said at last.

“I’ll hire you if the FAA throws you out.”

“We could both go to jail.”

“You’ll do it?”

Passeau hesitated another few moments, then murmured, “I’ve never been to the Riviera.”

“You’ll love it!”

“If this doesn’t go well, I may have to stay there and ask the French for political asylum.”

If this doesn’t go well, Dan thought, there’s no place on Earth that I can run to.