The Rock Rats

CHAPTER 39

Two days passed.

Amanda spent the time trying to find out what her husband was up to, to no avail. It was clear to her that Lars was planning something; he was putting together some scheme to fight back against Humphries. But he would not tell her a word of it.

Lars is a different man, she knew. I hardly recognize him. He’s like a caged animal, pacing, waiting, planning, looking for a way to break free. He’s dead set on wreaking vengeance on the people who looted his warehouse and killed Inga, but he won’t reveal his thinking to me.

In bed he relaxed a little, but still he kept his own counsel. “The only law out here is the law we enforce for ourselves,” he said in the darkness as he lay next to her. “If we don’t fight back he’ll turn us all into his slaves.”

“Lars, he’s hired trained mercenaries. Professional killers,” Amanda pleaded.

“Scum,” her husband answered. “I know how to deal with scum.”

“They’ll kill you!”

He turned to her, and she could feel the heat radiating from his body. “Amanda, my darling, they are going to kill me anyway. That’s what he wants. Humphries wants me dead and he won’t be satisfied until I’m killed and you’re at his mercy.”

“But if you’d only—”

“Better for me to strike at him when and where he doesn’t expect it,” Fuchs said, reaching for her. “Otherwise, we just wait here like sheep ready to be slaughtered.”

“But what are you going to do? What do you—”

He silenced her with a finger on her lips. “Better that you don’t know, my darling. You can’t be any part of this.”

Then he made love to her ardently, furiously. She reveled in his passion, but she found that not even the wildest sex could divert him from his aim. He was going to attack HSS, attack Humphries, extract vengeance for the killings that had been perpetrated. He was going to get himself killed, she was certain.

His singlemindedness frightened Amanda to the depths of her being. Nothing can move him a centimeter away from this, she realized. He’s rushing toward his own death.

The morning of the third day she found an incoming message from IAA headquarters on Earth. A ship had been dispatched to Ceres, carrying a squad of Peacekeeper troops. Their assignment was to arrest Lars Fuchs and return him to Earth for trial on a charge of piracy.

Fuchs smiled grimly when she showed him the message.

“Piracy.” He practically spat the word. “He destroys ships and loots and murders and they say I have no proof. Me they accuse of piracy.”

“Go with them,” Amanda urged. “I’ll go with you. You can tell them that you were in a state of emotional distress. Surely they’ll understand—”

“With Humphries pulling the strings?” he snapped. “They’ll hang me.”

It was hopeless, Amanda admitted.

Fuchs sat in the empty Helvetia warehouse, going over his plan with Nodon.

“It all hinges on the people you’ve recruited,” he said.

Nodon dipped his chin once in acknowledgment.

The two men were sitting at the desk just off the entrance to the warehouse, in a pool of light from a single overhead fluorescent shining in the otherwise darkened cave. The shelves were empty. No one else was there. Beyond the entrance, the tunnel led in a slight downward slope toward the living quarters and life support equipment; in the other direction, to the HSS warehouse and the reception area where incoming personnel and freight arrived and outgoing flights departed.

“You’re certain these men are reliable?” Fuchs asked for the twelfth time that evening.

“Yes,” Nodon replied patiently. “Men and women both; most of them are from families I have known for many years. They are honorable persons and will do what you command.”

“Honorable,” Fuchs murmured. Honor meant that a person would take your money and commit mayhem, even murder, to earn that pay. I’m hiring mercenary killers, he told himself. Just as Humphries has. To fight evil you have to do evil things yourself.

“They understand what they must do?”

Nodon allowed himself a rare smile. “I have explained it all to them many times. They may not speak European languages very well, but they understand what I have told them.”

Fuchs nodded, almost satisfied. Through Nodon he had hired six Asians, four men and two women. Pancho had allowed them to ride to Ceres on an Astro freighter, and now they waited aboard the half-finished habitat orbiting the asteroid. As far as Pancho or anyone else was concerned, they had been recruited to restart construction of the habitat. Only Fuchs and Nodon—and the six themselves—knew better.

“All right,” Fuchs said, struggling against the surge of doubts and worries that churned in his guts. “At midnight, then.”

“Midnight,” Nodon agreed.

With a sardonic smile, Fuchs added, “We’ve got to get this over and done with before the Peacekeeper troops arrive.”

“We will,” Nodon said confidently.

Yes, Fuchs thought, this will be over and done with in a few hours, one way or the other.

The nearest thing to a restaurant on Ceres was the Pub, where mechanical food dispensers standing off in one corner offered packaged snacks and even microwavable full meals, of a sort.

Fuchs made a point of taking Amanda out to dinner that night. The Pub was usually noisy but this particular evening the crowd was hushed; everyone seemed tense with expectation.

That worried Fuchs. Had news of his planned attack leaked out? Humphries’s people could be waiting for him; he could be leading his men into a trap. He mulled over all the possibilities as he picked listlessly at his dinner.

Amanda watched him with worried eyes. “You haven’t been eating right ever since you came back from Selene,” she said, her tone more concerned than accusatory.

“No, I suppose I haven’t.” He tried to make a careless shrug. “I sleep well, though. Thanks to you.”

Even in the dim lighting he could see her cheeks flush. “Don’t try to change the subject, Lars.” But she was smiling as she spoke.

“Not at all. I merely—”

“Do you mind if I sit with you?”

They looked up and saw Kris Cardenas holding a dinner tray in both hands.

“No, of course not,” said Amanda. “Do join us.”

Cardenas put her tray on their table. “The place is crowded tonight,” she said as she sat on the vacant chair between them.

“But awfully quiet,” Amanda said. “It’s as if everyone here is attending a funeral.”

“The Peacekeepers are due to arrive tomorrow,” Cardenas said, jabbing a fork into her salad. “Nobody’s happy with the thought.”

“Ah, yes,” said Fuchs, feeling relieved. “That’s why everyone is so morose.”

“They’re worried it’s the first step in a takeover,” Cardenas said.

“Takeover?” Amanda looked startled at the idea. “Who would take control of Ceres? The IAA?”

“Or the world government.”

“The world government? They don’t have any authority beyond geosynchronous Earth orbit.”

Cardenas shrugged elaborately. “It’s their Peacekeepers that arrive tomorrow.”

“Looking for me,” Fuchs said unhappily.

“What do you intend to do?” Cardenas asked.

Looking squarely at Amanda, Fuchs said, “I’m certainly not going to fight the Peacekeepers.”

Cardenas chewed thoughtfully for a few moments, swallowed, then said, “We did at Selene.”

Shocked, Amanda asked, “What are you suggesting, Kris?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. I’m just saying that six Peacekeeper troops in their nice little blue uniforms aren’t enough to force you to go back Earthside with them, Lars. Not if you don’t want to go”

“You mean we should fight them?” Amanda said, her voice hollow with fright.

Cardenas leaned closer and replied, “I mean that I could name a hundred, a hundred and fifty rock rats here who’d protect you against the Peacekeepers, Lars. You don’t have to go with them if you don’t want to.”

“But they’re armed! They’re trained soldiers!”

“Six soldiers against half the population of Ceres? More than half? Do you think they’d fire on us?”

Amanda looked at Fuchs, then back to Cardenas. “Wouldn’t they just send more troops, if these six were turned away?”

“If they tried that, I’m willing to bet that Selene would step in on our side.”

“Why would Selene—?”

“Because,” Cardenas explained, “if the world government takes over Ceres, Selene figures they’ll be next. They tried it once, remember.”

“And failed,” Fuchs said.

“There are still nutcases Earthside who think their government should control Selene. And every human being in the whole solar system.”

Fuchs closed his eyes, his thoughts spinning. He had never had the faintest inkling that Selene could become involved in his fight. This could lead to war, he realized. An actual war, bloodshed and destruction.

“No,” he said aloud.

Both women turned toward him.

“I will not be the cause of a war,” Fuchs told them.

“You’ll surrender to the Peacekeepers tomorrow, then?” Cardenas asked.

“I will not be the cause of a war,” he repeated.

After dinner, Fuchs led Amanda back to their quarters. She leaned heavily on his arm, yawning drowsily.

“Lord, I don’t know why I feel so sleepy,” she mumbled.

Fuchs knew. He had worried, when Cardenas sat at their table, that he wouldn’t be able to slip the barbiturate into his wife’s wine. But he had gotten away with it, Kris hadn’t noticed, and now Amanda was practically falling asleep in his arms.

She was far too gone to make love. He helped her to undress; by the time she lay her head on the pillow she was peacefully unconsciousness.

For a long time Fuchs gazed down at his beautiful wife, tears misting his eyes.

“Good-bye, my darling,” he whispered. “I don’t know if I will ever see you again. I love you too much to let you risk your life for my sake. Sleep, my dearest.”

Abruptly he turned and left their apartment, carefully locking the door as he stepped out into the tunnel. Then he headed for the warehouse and his waiting men.