“I’d forgotten they were low on life-support reserves. Or maybe they lost electrical power, I don’t know. But they’re way past their check-in. We’re certain they’re both dead by now.”
“Jesus.” Deride knew what it might be like, to die down there. Several times, he thought he had.
“They’ve got six nukes on board,” she said.
“Which we’ll never use now.”
“Unless you find them, no.”
There was something wrong with that statement, and he was about to say so, but she went on.
“Plus, there’s another setback, Uncle Paul.”
“I don’t know why I expect this,” he said.
“I took the Brisbane down early this morning, to survey damage.”
“And?”
“AG-4 is no longer there.”
He couldn’t believe that. “Not there?”
“Gone. We searched fifty square miles, but it’s gone, Uncle Paul. I think Brande took it with him.”
“That’s impossible!”
“For Brande, perhaps not.”
“Damn! What do we do now?”
“Whatever you want, I suppose. At this point, I think you’ve got about three hundred million tied up in this project?”
“I think that’s about right,” he said.
“I’d write it off,” she said.
“You’d….”
“There’s not enough manganese to justify the mining,” Penny Glenn said. “That’s because the testing results were only what you wanted them to be.”
That steel band clutched his heart again.
“Penny, what are you saying? What do I do?”
“You might use a gun, like my daddy did. I quit.”
“Penny, you can’t….”
She hung up on him.
“Hello, brother dearest.”
“Adrienne!” Hampstead said. He gripped the phone tighter. “Where are you?”
“I just got into town. I’m letting you take Alicia and me to dinner tonight. Some place expensive, naturally.”
The last episode of Lonesome Dove was scheduled for tonight, but he’d missed most of them this time, anyway. “Certainly.”
“And I want to come up right now and talk to you about the Marine Visions contract we have yet to see.”
“Well, I….”
“There’s the matter of a robot, a Sneaky Pete, that you should reimburse us for.”
“I already wrote….”
“And hazard pay. I think there should be a clause inserted, just in case any of the participants run into something unexpected, don’t you?”“
“Adrienne….”
“And legal expenses. The Navy, the Commerce Department, and the CIA should foot the bills there for any hearings or procedures that may come up in the near future. That’s only understandable, isn’t it?”
Hampstead didn’t think he was going to enjoy dinner.
The seaplane with the AquaGeo Limited logo on its fuselage had flown over them twenty minutes before, and Brande was expecting a phone call at any minute.
His little fleet was moving at a snail’s pace, and San Diego was still ten hours away, but he felt good. He was warm again, he had dined on Paco Suarez’s famed culinary delights, and he was standing on the bridge of the Orion with Rae Thomas at his side.
Mel Sorenson and Connie Alvarez-Sorenson were arguing over who had the watch.
The seas hadn’t gotten much better, and the skies were a slate gray, but the weatherman out of Los Angeles was promising a brighter day tomorrow.
The Orion was leading the flotilla. To port and starboard, in a protective screen, were seventeen boats belonging to friends of Mark Jacobs. The Greenpeace leader and Wilson Overton were on the bridge of the Arienne, immediately to port. Every once in a while, Overton waved happily at them. In exchange for the escort of environmental activist vessels, Brande had given him a story that would last him for a few weeks.
Trailing the fleet was the California and her two escorts. Captain Mabry Harris had insisted on accompanying them, just in case AquaGeo ships tried to get in their way.
Directly astern of the research vessel, a grinning Bull Kontas piloted his Mighty Moose. Kontas was, in fact, the reason for their reduced speed — the tugboat was towing the habitat that had once been known as AG-4.
“I’m about ready for a nap,” Thomas told him.
He put his arm around her waist. “I’ll join you, love, but in a little while. I’m expecting a call.”
She pouted a little, but waited with him.
When it came, he went into the radio shack and picked up the receiver.
“Hello, Deride.”
“Brande, you’ve got my sea station.”
“That’s incorrect. I’ve got my sea station.”
“Bullshit!”
“It was abandoned at sea,” Brande told him. “I salvaged it, and it’s now mine. Re-read your salvage law, Deride. Or have your lawyer do it for you.”
“You forced us to leave it,” Deride complained.
“Sue me. Somebody will settle it in a few years, no doubt.”