the same place at the same time. But then one of them was shut down, and so you figured a bigger force was needed next time.”
And that explained why Tres had rushed Huxley, even though Mac had told him they had a broadband disruptor. Tres was probably as ignorant of what one could do as Willem Van Dyke had been; they all had minds three decades out-of-date.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“Prison, ultimately, I imagine.”
“I’m not going to jail,” Van Dyke said.
“No? You roughed me up, shot Dr. Pickover, and then kidnapped him and Miss Takahashi with the intention of murdering them.”
“I did no such thing. Uno, Dos, and Tres did all that, not me. And Tres is deactivated, and Uno and Dos are already in police custody.”
“You masterminded it all.”
“You’d have a hard time proving that.”
I stole a line from Mudge the computer. “Be that as it may.”
“Regardless,” said Rory, “you booby-trapped the Alpha.”
“Even if I did—and I admit nothing—that’s outside the police’s jurisdiction.”
I gestured with the gun. “Walk.” I picked up my helmet and got him out into the brightly lit corridor, followed by me and then Rory. I continued to speak: “If I were you, I’d do a deal with the police. You said it yourself: you’ve only got a couple of years left. Don’t waste them in court. Cop a plea, pay a fine, forget about the Alpha, and get back to being on ice—and, who knows, maybe someday they will find a cure for cancer.”
The corridor switched from carpeted to uncarpeted as we approached the airlock, and our six footfalls were now making a fair bit of racket.
The airlock door was closed. I wondered how Mac had managed to get through; there’s no way he could have crammed himself and the two meese in all at once. It was a puzzle in logic—the kind Juan Santos enjoyed.
There were also three of us, but there was no reason we had to all go through at once. It was a toss of a coin whether Rory should exit first, or Van Dyke and I should. Of course, Van Dyke needed to get into a surface suit to do so, but there was a surface suit hanging by the door, and—
Ah, and it had the name Jeff Albertson on it. Well, he was part of the crew.
The light above the inner airlock door suddenly changed from green to red: someone was coming through from the other side. I supposed Mac could be returning, after having handed over the meese to other cops. Or it could be Bertha or someone else from the shipyard, or Beverly Kowalchuk or one of the local InnerSystem staff. Without knowing who it was, it seemed premature to get Van Dyke into a surface suit; maybe there was a moose out there named Cuatro, and having Van Dyke suited up would be playing right into his giant hands. “Don’t bother changing,” I said. “Not yet.”
I held my gun in front of me with both hands and aimed it at the airlock door. It wasn’t long before the light above it changed back to green, the door popped open that fifteen centimeters to reveal the recessed handle, someone pulled the door aside the rest of the way, and—
And a transfer with holovid star Krikor Ajemian’s face was standing there in front of us.
THIRTY-THREE
Berling?” I said, looking at the transfer framed in the airlock doorway. “Stuart Berling?”
He scowled. “Lomax? What the hell are you doing here?” But then his gaze shifted to Willem Van Dyke, and his brown eyes went wide. “My God,” he said shaking his handsome head. “My God, it’s true. You haven’t aged a day.”
“Do I know you?” Van Dyke replied. He gave no hint that he recognized the famous face in front of him, and, indeed, if he’d spent most of the last three decades on ice, he probably didn’t.
“I’m Stu Berling,” the transfer said.
Van Dyke spread his arms slightly. “Should I know you?”
“I was on the—on this damned ship.”
“When?”
“Thirty years ago. The last time it sailed under the name—” He swallowed, then managed to get it out: “B. Traven.”
“Oh,” said Van Dyke, softly.
“I’d had questions about that for decades,” said Berling. “But now I’ve got money—and money buys answers. A guy at InnerSystem’s office here in New Klondike told me you were aboard. I couldn’t believe it—couldn’t believe you were still part of the crew after all these years.”