“While you were gone,” one Martian said, “Cohaagen raised the price of air.”
“Again?” her companion asked, resigned. “That’s the third time in the past two months.”
“Yes, and meanwhile our pay stays the same.”
Interesting, Quaid thought. They never mentioned the price of air when they offered the sizeable bonuses to potential colonists from Earth.
The woman was speaking again, in a lowered voice. “And did you hear about the Hamiltons?”
“I noticed that their place was dark last night.”
“And the night before, and the night before that.”
“Gone on a trip?”
“You could say so,” the woman said with a knowing smile. Her voice became scarcely more than a whisper and Quaid strained to hear her. “We’ll see how long the Administrator lasts when all of his workers have ‘gone on a trip.’ ”
Quaid followed the woman’s eyes as she looked pointedly at the posters that plastered the interior of the car. The posters proclaimed a huge reward for the capture of the mysterious leader of the rebel forces, Kuato. The name was spelled out in large, clear letters.
But there was no picture.
Here was something else that got short shrift in the emigration brochures. Quaid had had no idea that the Mars Liberation Front had such a broad base of support. The newscasts made it sound as though the rebels were just a few, disaffected troublemakers. Yet they had the obvious approval of the ordinary-looking, middle class couple on the train. It certainly didn’t sound as though Vilos Cohaagen was universally beloved. Hardly surprising, if he was gouging the populace for the very air they breathed. He filed the information away for future reference.
Red light flooded the car. The clattering diminished as the subway emerged onto the surface of Mars. Quaid peered out the window at the weird landscape, drinking it all in. It was barren, it was awful, but it was the land of his dream!
He crossed to the other side of the car as the reverberations faded. He stared, fascinated, experiencing a rush of emotion.
There was the pyramid-shaped mountain of his dream! There was a mining facility on its side. His dream was real! The things in it really were here on Mars!
After a moment he turned and tapped the nearest Martian on the shoulder. “Excuse me. What’s that?”
The man glanced at him, then out the window. “You mean the Pyramid Mine?” Then he saw Quaid staring fixedly at it. “I used to work there, till they found all that alien shit inside. Now it’s closed.”
Alien artifacts? Then that, too, was true. He had been there, and his dream was a true memory, not idle fancy! But if he had fallen in, how could he have survived unscathed? Unless the fall had been broken, and he had taken a bash on the head that gave him amnesia. But that wouldn’t explain why others wanted to kill him, or why Hauser wanted to get even with Cohaagen. He still knew far too little!
“Can you visit?” he asked, rapt.
“Ha. Can’t get within ten miles.”
So there was some secret there. Why were they keeping people away? Certainly they weren’t going to keep him away! One way or another he would get there, and unravel his past.
And find his woman.
The Pyramid Mine was as impressive from another angle, as seen from the hall leading to Cohaagen’s office. Richter stared through the glass wall at the mining complex, wishing that he rated a stunning facility like this. He entered the office and faced the back of Cohaagen’s chair across his desk.
“Mr. Cohaagen,” he said. “You wanted to see me?”
Cohaagen swiveled around in his chair. He smiled silently for a moment. “Richter,” he said finally. “Do you know why I’m such a happy person?”
Because you’re the top man, Richter thought, with subordinates to chew out. He let none of this show through the dutiful expression on his face.
“No, sir,” he said respectfully.
“Because I’ve got a great fuckin’ job,” Cohaagen said calmly. “As long as the turbinium keeps flowing, I can do anything I want. Anything. Nobody’s looking over my shoulder. Nobody cares how I live. Nobody gives a shit if a few Martians have to suffer.” He paused.
“I’ll tell you the truth,” he continued. “I wouldn’t trade places with the Chairman.” It was difficult for him to keep a straight face. He had the Chairman by the short hairs and he knew it, but it wouldn’t do to give that kind of information to Richter. No, the masquerade would go on. For the time being.
Besides, there was nothing funny about the rebel situation. They were causing him more trouble than he had expected. If they weren’t stopped… No. It wasn’t a thought worth considering. He would stop them.
He stood, leaning forward, his hands on the desk. “In fact,” he continued, “the only thing I ever worry about is that one day, if the rebels win, it all might end.”
Suddenly Cohaagen exploded in fury, pounding his fist on the desk. The fishbowl that graced one corner jumped. “And you’re fuckin’ making it happen! You disobeyed my orders! And then you fuckin’ let him get away!”
Richter’s face remained impassive. There was no way Cohaagen could prove that his radio transmission had gotten through, so there was no way he could prove Richter’s insubordination. They both knew that.
“He had help, sir,” Richter said evenly. “From our side.”
“I know,” Cohaagen said impatiently.
“But I thought…” Richter could not conceal the surprise in his voice.
“Who told you to think?” Cohaagen snapped. “I don’t give you enough information to think!” He shook an index finger in Richter’s face. “You do what you’re told! That’s what you do!” Cohaagen resumed his calm demeanor. He opened a drawer and withdrew a small box. He gently shook some flakes into the fishbowl on his desk.
“Now let’s get down to business,” he said in reasonable tones. “Kuato wants what’s in Quaid’s head and he might be able to get it. Rumor has it that the geek is psychic.
“Now I have a little plan to keep this from happening. Do you think you can play along?”
Richter wanted to push Cohaagen’s head into the damned bowl and let the fish eat his face, but “Yes, sir” was all he said.
“Great!” said Cohaagen, looking up from the fish with a beaming smile. “Because I was just getting ready to erase you.”
Quaid stepped from the subway station and emerged into the dazzling downtown section of Chryse Planitia. This was where sophisticated, wealthy people conducted business. The beautiful public square overlooked the spectacular Pyramid Mine. There was a great deal of airspace here, and the geodesic dome was clean.
In fact, this was the kind of place where he would like to be, even if he didn’t have his past to recall. It might be crowded in the subway, but it would never be crowded in the great outdoors of Mars! Not only was Earth crowded all over, it was also polluted, while here—
But he couldn’t dawdle. There were agents on his trail, and they would catch up to him all too soon. He needed to disappear into his assumed identity.
He looked around and spied the entrance to the Hilton Hotel. He walked inside.
It was as fancy inside as outside. This was truly a paradise for tourists!
He approached the desk, where a clerk sat at a computer terminal. The clerk looked up and smiled with recognition. “Oh, Mr. Brubaker. Nice to have you back.”