Powersat

Powersat

Dan was the first one through the hatch and into the docking port. Without waiting to see who was following him, he cracked open the port’s outer hatch and pulled himself out onto the flat surface of the powersat.

And his breath caught in his throat. Stretching out in every direction was the vast sunlit surface of the satellite, like a huge man-made plain set in the midst of the star-studded infinity of space. The flat surface glinted darkly, like polished obsidian, as tens of thousands of solar cells greedily drank in the Sun’s unfailing energy. Beyond the edge of the powersat he saw the gleaming blue sphere of the Earth, flecked with swirling white clouds. Farther still, the small pale battered crescent of the Moon grinned lopsidedly at him.

No time for sightseeing, Dan told himself sternly. The broad surface of the powersat was studded with cleats, handholds where safety tethers could be attached. Dan had no time for that. He grabbed the nearest cleat and began pulling himself down the hundred-yard-thick edge of the satellite, heading for its underside and the bulbous enclosure of the control station, zipping along from one handhold to the next like a speeding torpedo.

“Hey, boss, you’re supposed to use the tether!” a distressed voice sounded in his earphones.

“You use ’em,” Dan said. “I’m in a hurry.”

Back when he had worked for Yamagata, Dan had won bets from other workers in sprints across smaller structures. He grinned to himself. I haven’t lost the knack.

But then he saw two other figures in dull orange spacesuits heading for the control station, coming up from the other direction. This is going to be a race, after all, he said to himself.

Although Denny O‘Brien was in terrible physical shape, his mind was sharp. While the president droned on, O’Brien pushed through the crowd toward the nearest Secret Service agent. There may have been a dozen others that he didn’t notice, but this guy had the stone face, the special eyeglasses, and the sports jacket that covered his Uzi, despite the wilting heat.

“I’m Senator Thornton’s senior aide,” O’Brien said breathlessly, holding his plastic ID under the agent’s nose. “I’ve just got word there’s an assassination attempt going down.”

The agent’s stone face went slack-jawed.

“Who’s in charge? We’ve gotta get the president to safety right away!”

Dr. Supartha could not believe her eyes. Usually the emergency room was fairly quiet on a holiday afternoon; it wasn’t until the night shift that the drunks got themselves into accidents or fights. But here in the middle of the afternoon, almost a dozen people had come into the hospital, seven of them already dead, all of them showing the strangest symptoms.

Dr. Supartha had thought it merely a coincidence when the first two came to her attention. Heat prostration? She shook her head. The outward symptoms might have suggested that, but this was something far different, far worse.

By the gods, she thought, these poor devils look as if they’d been cooked.

There was always the danger of missing the next cleat and going sailing off the powersat out into space, Dan thought as he sped along toward the control station. Without a tether to anchor you, you’d go sailing into the wild black yonder forever. Unless one of your buddies came out and picked you up.

No time to worry about that. Those two strangers were heading for the control station, and they weren’t up here to do any good. They’ve already replaced our antenna and moved the satellite to aim at Washington.

Jane’s there! he suddenly realized. These bastards could kill her!

He redoubled his efforts to get to the control station before they did. In his helmet earphones he heard Adair and the others shouting to him, warning him that he was taking foolish chances. Yeah, he answered silently. Let me slow down and play it safe while they wipe out Washington with Jane in it.

A Secret Service agent slipped up beside the president and placed a handwritten note on the rostrum.

The president glared at the woman, angry at the interruption, then glanced at the note. And paled.

He bit his lip for a moment, then looked up at the audience. “Ladies and gentlemen, please excuse me. An emergency has come up and I must return to the White House immediately. Thank you.”

The crowd stood stunned as the president abruptly turned away from the rostrum and a squad of Secret Service agents surrounded him.

Jane Thornton was just as puzzled as everyone else. For a few moments she stood beneath the protective awning, not knowing what to do. She turned to Quinn, who looked just as confused as she felt. Then she saw Denny O‘Brien struggling through the crowd toward her, waving his cell phone in one extended arm like a signal. As she watched, O’Brien staggered and sank to his knees, his suit obviously sopping with perspiration.

And others were dropping to the browning grass, all around him.