They nodded, and Winnie went on, “Then here’s the sequence of events. We land. Brewster and I get out. You stay here, heads down—out of sight of anyone on the ground. Brewster and I go to the compound communications center. And we all wait. You may find that’s the hardest part. Don’t worry, it will be for me, too. We wait, until the Unimine ship lands and the crew comes out. According to Brewster, there should be two of them.
“At that point, Brewster will come out of the building and wave to the ship. He won’t go over to it, though; he will beckon them to come to the building. I’ll be at an observing position in the next building over, out of sight. When Brewster beckons them I’ll let you know. Then you can take a peek. As they approach him, I will leave my observer position and step out of my building. I will tell the Unimine lander crew that I am SDSI, that they are on the scene of a crime, and I am arresting them for questioning. I’ll tell them to keep their hands away from their bodies and hold them high in the air. You’ll hear all this, because I’ll pipe their conversation and my comments through to this car’s audio system. Then I’m going to point to this aircar and add, ‘Don’t get any ideas about resisting. We have you covered.’ I don’t want you to wait for that, though, before you move. When you hear the words, ‘under arrest for questioning,’ you stand up so they can see your heads. I want them to know you’re there as soon as they turn to look your way.”
“Suppose they don’t believe we have weapons?” asked Sapphire.
“Because we don’t, “Josh added.
“Then we would all be in trouble.” Winnie was reassuringly casual and certain. “But actually, we will be all right. You have to understand the way their minds operate. They would have weapons if they had the drop on us, so it will be beyond their belief that we might act differently. They won’t fight back, because they don’t know how much firepower we have. In a similar situation, they’d bring enough to vaporize us, and our ship, too.
“Once they have their hands raised, I’ll disarm them. I assume they’ll be carrying weapons from habit, even if they never expected to need them. While I’m doing that, don’t under any circumstances come outside. I don’t want them to know that the ‘SDSI agents’ on this aircar are two kids. Once I have their weapons, I’ll tie them up the way Brewster was tied last night. It will all be over except for the questioning and the trial. Clear to you? Can you think of anything I’ve missed?”
Sapphire shook her head, but Josh said, “It sounds great. But suppose things don’t go the way you say they will?”
“Good.” Winnie nodded approvingly. “You’re thinking the right way. You must always allow for surprises. It’s impossible to allow for them really, because if you can they’re not surprises. Here’s what we will do, just in case. I will leave this aircar on full emergency standby. You, Sapphire, will sit at the controls. If anything looks, sounds, or feels wrong, you don’t wait around to discuss it with me. You hit full power, and you head off in any direction you like. Be ready for a big starting kick if you have to do that. You’ll accelerate out of here like a streak, three Gs plus.”
“Where should we go?” Sapphire asked.
“Back to the camp. But don’t head in that direction to start with. You don’t want to give anybody watching you clues as to where you’re going. Any more questions? All right, you sit here and relax. I’ll go chat with friend Brewster.”
Sit and relax. Sapphire and Josh stared at each other. “What does she mean, look, sound, or feel wrong?” Sapphire said, when Winnie had gone aft.
“I don’t know. I think Winnie is saying she doesn’t know, either. You’ll only realize something’s wrong when you see it.”
The aircar was descending smoothly to the clearing within the compound fence. It rolled to a halt, and Winnie and Brewster stepped down. Josh marveled. She was walking in front of her captive. If he had the nerve, he could knock her down and run away.
But run to where, and away from whom? At this point it wasn’t Winnie and SDSI who had Brewster worried. It was Unimine, who might believe him to be an SDSI accomplice.
Brewster went into the communications center. Winnie entered the kitchen in the next building. The two doors closed. The wait began.
Three hours later, when Josh was convinced that something had already gone wrong with Winnie Carlson’s plan, the familiar whine of lander engines sounded inside the aircar. Josh felt his heart beat faster, and he and Sapphire looked at each other.
“Take a peek?” he said. It was a question, not a statement, and it was answered not by Sapphire but by Winnie, whose voice sounded in their audio sets. “Here they come. Heads down until they land and are out of the ship. I’ll tell you when Brewster comes out of the com center and beckons them to him. Then I’ll make my own move and leave this building.”
It was the most difficult time of all. Josh was itching to see, and it had to be just as hard for Sapphire. She was sitting with head bowed, her fingers tense on the pad entries that would hurtle the aircar away at maximum acceleration.
After a minute that felt like an hour, Winnie’s voice came again. “All right. They’re out of the lander, two of them, and Brewster’s waving them over. You can take a look now. You won’t hear from me again until I’m outside.”
Cautiously, Josh lifted his head until he could peer over the control panel of the aircar. Brewster had moved four or five steps beyond the door of the communications building and was standing waiting. Two gray-uniformed men, their backs to the cargo air-car where Sapphire and Josh sat, were walking casually toward Brewster.
“Went all right, then?” said the smaller of the two.
“Like a charm.” Brewster’s voice was forced and ragged. “Don’t worry about them. Dumped into the Avernus Fissure, every one.”
“Good, good,” the taller man said. “Nice to have them out of the way, and a clean planet to work with. That ends one phase of the operation. Now for the next one.” Without another word he took something from his pocket, aimed it at Brewster, and fired. There was a dull, ploppy sound, like a ripe melon dropped on a hard floor. Brewster’s head vanished in a mist of gray and red. His body toppled backward to the ground.
Josh couldn’t believe his eyes. It was Sapphire who gasped, “Winnie can’t see that—she doesn’t know. She’ll come outside any second.”
Josh opened his mouth to cry out and distract the lander crew. Before he could shout he was thrown far back in his seat. An invisible hand held him there. The aircar was suddenly racing toward the communications building.
It traveled low, just a foot from the ground, gaining speed so fast that everything became a blur. Josh saw two pale faces turn in their direction. The tall man’s hand came up, and the windshield of the car disintegrated in a shower of sparks. Josh felt intense pain as hot shards of the lasered windshield burned his face.
A scream of agony from Sapphire made him turn his head in her direction. Her hair was smoking, and she had both hands up covering her eyes. The car was still accelerating, out of control.
He made a great effort and lunged sideways. He could not reach the wheel or pedals, but he turned off the main power just as the metal prow of the car smashed into the two men in front of it. The taller man was thrown off to one side, the other clear over the top. And then the car, no longer accelerating but still moving at high speed, hit the wall of the communications building.