“What was going on in there?” Topaz turned to Sig. “All right, admit it. You knew what was happening, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t. But I do now.” Sig led the way toward the camp kitchen. Josh suddenly realized that he was starving, after a makeshift dinner last night and nothing this morning. They walked together into the empty kitchen, and Topaz began to pull out the makings of a quick meal.
“I’ve decided something,” Sig went on, as they sat down. “I’m never, ever, going to do anything to get on the wrong side of Winnie Carlson. She’s worse than sneaky. When she told me what she wanted me to say, I had no idea why.”
“It’s because of what Winnie Carlson can do,” said Sapphire. “But mostly what she can’t do. Am I right, Sig?”
“You’ve got it. Winnie can accuse Brewster, and arrest him, and even ask him to cooperate with her. But she can’t force him, or hurt him. She certainly can’t kill him. But she can trap him, and she did. Once he said that he didn’t have any deal with Unimine, and never had, Winnie had every legal right to say that she could then trust Unimine to be responsible for transporting Brewster back to Earth for trial. But in fact she knew, and he knew, that there was a deal, and it had involved murder. The only person who might talk about that deal, other than the Uniminers who were involved in it, was Brewster. The Unimine people are not bound by SDSI rules. They can kill people. They have done it on Solferino, and they’d do it again to protect themselves. Put Brewster into Unimine hands, and he would never live to be charged on Earth. There would be an unfortunate ‘accident,’ somewhere between here and the node, that killed him.
“Brewster is a swine, and a murderer, but he’s not an idiot. Winnie was telling him, plain as day, that if he wanted to live to see his next birthday, he’d better tell her anything she wanted to know.” Sig glanced back toward the building where they had left Sol Brewster and Winnie Carlson. “I wish I was a fly on the wall over there. I’d like to know what’s being said.”
“No.” Sapphire took his hand in hers. “That’s the way you feel at the moment, Sig. But if you think about it a bit more, you’ll decide that you don’t really want to know.”
Chapter Twenty
Sig had warned them—never get on the wrong side of Winnie Carlson. Less than twelve hours later, Josh did. He felt like he was leading a mutiny. “I know we have to return to the compound.” He was standing by the aircar steps. “And I told Dawn to get on board. She won’t.”
“She refuses?” Winnie said.
“That’s the wrong word for it. She takes no notice of me, or of Topaz. She just sits there, holding Gussie’s paw and staring at the fissure. And I won’t leave without her.”
“Does Topaz know what the problem is?” Winnie, like Josh, had come to accept that Topaz was the best hope for dealing with Dawn, just as Dawn was the best—maybe the only—way to communicate with the rupert.
“Sure,” Josh said. “It’s all because of Gussie. She won’t go near the aircar, and Dawn won’t leave her.”
“Do you realize that at some point we may have to take Gussie, or some other rupert, back to Earth to prove how smart they are? Oh, never mind. That’s a problem for the future. Let me think.” Winnie was sitting on the aircar steps. The camp had been dismantled and was already loaded in the cargo hold. Everyone except Dawn, Josh, Gussie, and Winnie was already aboard. Sol Brewster, sitting in the rear, had his hands and feet taped, but Josh didn’t think it was necessary. Since yesterday, Brewster had had a dead, defeated look to him, as though he had already been tried and sent to prison. Whatever Winnie Carlson had said to him in private had certainly worked.
“Looked at from one point of view,” Winnie went on, “I’d rather you all stayed in the camp until Unimine has been taken care of. You’d be safer here than back at the compound.” She sat with her chin on her hands, more debating with herself than talking to Josh. “On the other hand, I’ll really need some help. But I won’t need everybody with me.” She looked up at Josh, who moved back to make the point again that he was not about to enter the air-car. “Do you really have to stay with Dawn, yourself? Or would you trust someone else to be here with her?”
“Who?”
“Sig, and Topaz. No, better still, let’s say that everyone stays here, except you, me, Brewster, and Sapphire. And we’d be back in a day.”
It seemed an odd grouping of people, but Josh had a suspicion as to how Winnie was thinking. He decided to say something—he had mutinied, he might as well go all the way.
“I don’t think that’s a good choice. Sig’s bigger and stronger than Saph. If there’s any sort of trouble he’d be better. It would make more sense to take Sig and me with you, and leave Saph in charge here. But you don’t trust her, do you? Not after what happened at the other camp, with Ruby.”
“Maybe not.”
“She’s been fine ever since.”
“I know. You’ve all helped her.” Winnie stood up. “But I can’t risk it. Trust isn’t something that’s given, it’s something that’s earned. For the moment I want Saph with me, where I can keep a close eye on her. And Sig will stay in charge here. All right?”
Josh nodded—reluctantly. He knew that Sapphire would understand the reason for Carlson’s decision, and be unhappy with it.
He was right. She avoided his eye as the others piled out of the cargo aircar. Winnie and Josh ascended the steps. When the car rose into the calm morning air Sapphire stared out of the window at the group waving good-bye. Her profile could have served as the model for one of his mother’s standard acting expressions: remorse and misery.
As the car carried them east, Winnie gave both Saph and Josh something else to think about. She came and sat between them, allowing the car to pilot itself.
“I want to go over what will happen when we arrive,” she said, “and I want to do it in detail. Move by move, second by second, so there’s no possible doubt about what each of us will do. Brewster already sent the signal we wanted. He had a small transmitter hidden away, and he told the crew of the Unimine ship that everything went according to plan, the trainees were disposed of, and it was safe for a Unimine lander to come down to the main compound. What’s wrong, Josh?” She had seen him frown.
“Suppose there was a code in the signal, telling people on the ship that something had gone wrong? Then they might not arrive at all—or they might show up ready to shoot.”
Winnie Carlson did not seem to take his worries seriously. “Brewster is cracked and broken,” she said, “but he’s still smart enough to evaluate comparative risks. If he helps us, he knows he’ll live, even if it’s only in jail. But if he crosses us, and things go wrong, I’ve assured him that I’ll tell the Unimine group he was in this from the beginning and part of our plan to capture them.”
“But that’s not true!”
“Of course it’s not. That isn’t the point. If the Unimine group had the slightest suspicion that Brewster worked against them, that would be the end of him. ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ isn’t the operating philosophy of the conglomerates. ‘Anyone who isn’t a friend is an enemy’ is more their line.”
Sapphire hadn’t said one word, but Josh was pleased to see that she was listening closely. “What do you want us to do?” she said. “So far you haven’t mentioned why we’re here.”
“I’ll get to that. Yesterday the two of you were just witnesses. This time, you have a more active role—only don’t overdo it. I want you to stay hidden in this aircar until I give you a signal. Then I want you to stand up, so that your heads are visible through the car windows. That’s all. Don’t move around after that. Don’t come out until I tell you. All right?”