Flatlander - Larry Niven [145]
Which narrowed the window a little. Hmm …
“I never tried lockstepped,” Hecate Bauer-Stanson said.
“Well, it’s easier with four. And we’re constantly being moved around, so getting together is a hobby in itself.”
“Four?”
I stood. “Hecate, I need the recycler again.”
“And I’ve probably got message lights.”
* * *
The phones were signaling messages for both of us. Hecate punched hers up while I used the recycler. When I came out, she was beckoning frantically. I moved to her shoulder.
“This is Lawman Bauer-Stanson,” she said.
The construct said, “Please hold for Maxim Shreve.”
Maxim Shreve was seated in a diagnostic chair, a reclining traveler with an extended neck rest for his greater length. Old and sick, I judged, holding himself together by little more than will. “Lawman Bauer-Stanson, we need the Mark Twenty-nine back at once. My associates tell me that, it has not reached Helios Power One.”
“Haven’t they—? Will you hold while I try to find out?” Hecate punched hold and glared at me. “The Mark Twenty-nine’s under a tarp with dirt on it. We can’t uncover it because Hector Sanchez has landed a cargo shell in plain view of it. What do I say now?”
I said, “It isn’t loaded yet. Your man has a lemmy flying around the site looking for more casualties. Tell him that, but don’t admit there’s been a crash.”
She mulled it over for a moment, then put Shreve back on.
The old man was standing, dark and skeletally gaunt: Baron Samedi. Travel chair or no, in lunar gravity he could loom. The instant Hecate appeared, he was raging.
“Lawman Bauer-Stanson, Shreve Development has never been in trouble with the law. We’re not only a good corporate citizen, we’re one of Luna City’s major sources of income! Ms. Kotani cooperated with your office when you expressed a need. I presume that need is over. What must I do to get the Mark Twenty-nine back quickly?”
I’d figured that out, but it wasn’t a thing to be broadcast.
Hecate said, “Sir, the device hasn’t even been loaded yet. My man on the spot is still searching for casualties, but her police vehicle is too big to get inside the, uh—” Hecate allowed herself a bit of agitation. “—site. Sir, lives may depend on your device. Are lives at stake at your end?”
Shreve seemed to have recovered his aplomb. He floated back into his chair. “Lawman, the device is experimental. We’ve never put any test subject in an experimental Shreveshield without medical monitors, and I include whole herds of minipigs! What if the field hiccoughed with your man in it? Is she even a lunie citizen? Is her suit equipped with medical ports?”
“Yes, I see. I’ll call Lawman Cervantes.”
“Wait, Lawman. Did it work?”
Hecate frowned.
“Did the shield perform as it should? Is everyone all right? No radiation?”
Hecate said, “The, um, user tracked some radioactive material into the shield, but that certainly wasn’t the Shreveshield’s fault. It worked fine, far as we can tell.”
Maxim Shreve’s eyes rolled up in his head, and all his pain wrinkles smoothed out. In that instant it was as if his life had been vindicated. Then he remembered us.
“I wish you could tell me more of the circumstances,” he said briskly. “We will certainly want recordings if our device resolved a calamity. Without frying anyone!”
“We’ll have the device back in your hands within hours, and of course we’re very grateful,” Hecate said. “I expect we’ll be able to tell you the complete story within the week, but even then it may be confidential for a time.”
“That’s all right, then. Good-bye, Lawman, ah, Bauer-Stanson.” He was gone.
She didn’t turn. “Now what?”
I said, “Tell your men to get the pilot inside.”
“Pilots. Sanchez and a new voice heard from. Better if you invite them in, O Prince from a Foreign Land.”
“All right.”
“Cameras on their vehicle,” she said.
“Um … stet. Hecate, what have you got to work with?”
“Six of my police. They’ve been setting up to examine the body. Two Helios personnel. They cooperated when we buried the Mark Twenty-nine, so they’ll cooperate when we uncover it. Two police lemmies—”
“Stet. Here’s what we