The Silent War

HUMPHRIES MANSION

“It really works?” Humphries asked. “They’ve done it?”

“It really works,” said Victoria Ferrer, his latest administrative assistant. “Their top nanotech expert, this man Levinson, demonstrated it to Ms. Lane two days ago. She’s on her way back here with him now.”

Ferrer was a small, light-boned young woman with large, limpid eyes, full sensuous lips and lovely large breasts. When he had first interviewed her for the job, Humphries had wondered if her breasts were siliconed. They seemed oversized for the rest of her. Soon enough he found that they were natural, although enhanced by a genetic modification that Victoria’s stagestruck mother had insisted upon when she was pushing her teenaged daughter into a career in show business. Young Vickie went to university instead, and earned honors in economics and finance. Eventually Humphries learned that, as good as Victoria was in bed, she was even better in the office. Ferrer’s best asset, he eventually realized, was her brain. But that didn’t prevent Humphries from bedding her now and then.

At the moment, though, she was bringing him disturbing news about the nanotechnology work going on at the rock rats’ habitat in the Belt.

“That tears it,” he said thoughtfully, leaning back in his self-adjusting desk chair. “I should have seen it coming. It’s going to knock the bottom out of the market for asteroidal commodities.”

“Not necessarily,” said Ferrer. She was seated in the plush chair in front of his desk, looking very trim and businesslike in a tailored off-white blouse and charcoal gray slacks.

His brows knitting, Humphries said, “Don’t you see? Once they start using nanomachines to get pure metals out of the asteroids, the price for those metals will sink out of sight. Minerals, too. Same thing. The major price factor will be the cost of transportation.”

“Only if the rock rats actually use nanos,” Ferrer countered.

Humphries sat up a little straighter. “You think they won’t?”

With a slight smile, she replied, “I think Ambrose is smart enough to realize that nanomachines could throw most of the miners out of work. I think he’ll suppress the idea.”

“Buy off the scientist? What’s his name, this kid from MIT.”

“Levinson,” said Ferrer. “I doubt that he can be bought off. He’s the kind who’ll want the whole world to know how brilliant he is. But Ambrose and the rest of the governing council at Ceres could easily claim that nanomachines are too dangerous to use on the asteroids.”

“That sounds farfetched.”

She shook her head, just slightly, but enough to let Humphries see that she thought he was wrong. “To operate on the asteroids the nanos would have to be hardened against ultraviolet light. That means the main safety feature that Cardenas built into the nanos years ago would be disabled. Ambrose could argue that the nanos are too dangerous to use.”

“And let the rock rats keep on operating the way they have been since the beginning.”

“Exactly.”

Humphries drummed his fingers on the desktop. “That would avoid a collapse of the market.”

“Which is to the rock rats’ best interests.” “Sort of like the Luddites smashing the steam-powered looms, back at the beginning of the first industrial revolution.”

Ferrer looked puzzled for a moment, and Humphries smiled inwardly. Score one for the boss, he said to himself. I know more than you do.

Aloud, he asked, “You really think Ambrose and the others will suppress this?”

“My information is that he and Ms. Lane have already discussed it. I’m sure he will.”

“And use safety precautions as the excuse.”

“It’s a very good excuse.”

Humphries glanced up at the ceiling’s smooth cream-colored expanse, then at the holowindow on the far wall that displayed a view of Mount Kilimanjaro when it still had snow on its summit.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said at last. “In the long run, this development of nanotech mining will be the last straw. I’ve got to get control of Astro now, before that greasemonkey Pancho realizes she can use the nanomachines to undercut my prices and—”

“But if Astro starts using nanomachines for mining the asteroids,” Ferrer interrupted, “we could do the same.”

“Yeah, and drive the price for asteroidal commodities down to nothing, or close to it,” Humphries snapped. “No, I’ve got to get Astro into my hands now, no more delays or hesitations. Once I’ve got Astro we can use nanomachines to drive down the cost of mining, but we’ll have a monopoly in the damned Belt so we can fix the selling prices!”

Ferrer started to nod, then thought better of it. “What about this new company, Nairobi Industries?”

“They don’t have anything going in the Belt.”

“They might move that way, eventually.”

Humphries made a snorting, dismissive laugh. “By the time they get their base built here on the Moon and start thinking about expanding to the Belt, I’ll have the whole thing in my hands. They’ll be shut out before they even start.” She looked dubious, but said nothing.

Humphries smacked his hands together. “Okay! The gloves come off. All the preparations are in place. We knock Astro out of the Belt once and for all.”

Ferrer still looked less than enthusiastic. She rose from her chair and started for the door.

Before she got halfway across the office, though, Humphries said, “Tell Grigor I want to see him. In half an hour. No, make it a full hour.”

And he crooked his finger at her. Dutifully, she turned around and headed back to him.