Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven [138]
Rick Delanty turned to her, and she shied back. Facial expressions differ among races and cultures, but she knew murderous hate when she saw it. A moment later Rick moved; but only to give her room at the viewport.
There were dozens of tiny sparks above the black cloud cover of Hammerfall. More were coming through. A field of tiny rising sparks, fireflies in formation …
Leonilla lost her handhold. She drifted back across the width of Hammerlab, held by the hate in Rick's eyes, unable to look away. Pieter saw that look and braced himself, one hand gripping hard to moor himself, the other fist clenched and ready, braced himself to defend the woman from a threat he didn't understand.
And Johnny Baker dived in a clean arc across to the communications panel. He turned frequency dials in carefully controlled haste, pushed buttons, and spoke. "LOOKING GLASS, THIS IS WHITE BIRD; LOOKING GLASS LOOKING GLASS, THIS IS WHITE BIRD. SOVIET UNION HAS LAUNCHED MASSIVE ICBM FORCE, I SAY AGAIN, SOVIET ROCKETS ARE RISING. CONFIRMED OBSERVATION. Goddammit, the bastards are launching everything they've got! Five hundred birds, maybe more!"
Pieter Jakov reached the console. He pulled frantically at circuit breakers. The indicator lights on the panel went out. Baker and Jakov faced each other.
"Delanty!"
"Sir." Rick launched himself toward Jakov. Even as his body moved across the capsule, Leonilla was shouting in Russian. Then Rick had Jakov—but the Russian had gone passive. His face was a mask of hatred to match Rick's.
"Send your warning," he said. "You will tell them nothing they do not know."
"What the hell do you mean?" Rick Delanty shouted.
"Look," Pieter said.
Leonilla's voice was strangely flat. "There is another flare above Moscow. A new one."
"Eh?" Johnny Baker looked from the Russian general to the woman, finally let himself drift toward the viewport. He knew already. He knew what it would look like, and he saw it at once. At the edge of the red-orange glare that marked Moscow, a tiny vivid mushroom bloomed in red and violet-white.
"Late strike." The lie was thick on his tongue, for Hamner-Brown was two hours past and his eyes were already searching for the others. He found two small mushroom-shaped clouds and a tiny sun that blossomed as he watched. "Jesus," he said, "the whole world's gone crazy."
"Gilding the lily," Rick Delanty said. "Not enough to get hit by a comet. Some son of a bitch pushed the button. Aw, shit."
All four now watched the scene below: the rising fireflies of Soviet rockets, and the sudden blue-white glares across what had been European Russia. Whatever industry might have survived the comet was …
Madness, Johnny Baker thought. Why, why, WHY?
"I don't think we'll be welcome down there," Rick Delanty said. His voice was strangely calm, and Johnny wondered if Rick had gone crazy too. He couldn't look at Leonilla.
Finally Rick snarled deep in his throat. Just a sound. It had no meaning and was directed at no one. Then he turned and kicked himself away from them all, down the length of Hammerlab. Jakov was at the other end, near the airlock to the Soyuz, and Johnny Baker had the insane thought that the Russian was going for a concealed weapon.
That's what we need. A pistol fight in orbit. Why not? Madness and revenge were fine old traditions where Jakov came from.
"That's that," Johnny said quietly. "It would have been nice to stick together. The last of the astronauts. But I guess not. Rick?"
Rick was down at the Apollo airlock, and he was cursing, quietly, but loud enough that they could hear.
Johnny turned back to watch Jakov. The Russian made no move to open the