The Omega Expedition - Brian Stableford [94]
“I’m sorry you got caught up in this,” she said, after a moment’s hesitation. “We know that it’s not your fault, and that you can’t begin to fathom the situation. I wish I could explain, but we’re involved in delicate negotiations, and I’ve been forbidden to disclose anything that might affect their outcome. I hope I’ll get permission to explain what’s going on in the near future, but we’ll all need to be patient.”
“So why not let us go on sleeping?” I asked.
She actually bit her lip a little as she suppressed the impulse to answer. It seemed to me that she was very unhappy about her own situation, whatever it was. She was just a pawn, no more in control of the bizarre kidnapping than I was — or she was putting on a good act. She couldn’t stop me talking, though, so I made my own guess — hoping, of course, to be able to deduce something from her reaction.
“If you don’t want to talk to us,” I said, “and it appears that you don’t, you must want to observe us — listen in on our conversation, see how the accusations fly. You want to know how Lowenthal and Horne react.”
She remained stubbornly silent.
I changed tack. “Okay,” I said. “How about helping me out by offering me a few hints as to what I ought to ask Lowenthal and Horne, in order to help both of us get what we want. What kind of a war is it that we’ve stepped into?”
That was a better move. It made her pause, to consider the offer. There were things she wanted to know about Lowenthal and Horne. When I used the word “war” her expression darkened a little, but I couldn’t be sure what the change signified.
While she thought it over I scanned the racks, trying to pick up clues as to what might be in the packages — especially the ones that looked as if they had been here long before the pirates moved in. Unfortunately, almost all the labels I could see were numbers and meaningless jumbles of letters. Everything was identifiable from the outside, but only if you knew the code. There were only a handful of real words, and all but one of those were etched on the more recent packaging. A lot of those packs — upwards of fifty — allegedly contained manna or water, just like the packs that were stacked up in the room into which the cell doors opened. The only interesting word that I could see on any of the ancient plastic wrap had been scrawled on a piece of sealing tape in ink.
The word was CHARITY.
“We’re not fighting a war,” the woman said, eventually. “We’re trying to prevent one. I wish I could guarantee that no harm will come to you, but I can’t. What I can say is that you’re safe while you’re here. My companion and I don’t mean you any harm, and we’ll protect you as best we can.”
There had been just the slightest hesitation before she pronounced the word “companion,” but I didn’t have time to wonder what it might mean. My attention was caught and held by the ominous elements of the statement.
I figured that she wouldn’t answer if I asked straight out who did mean me harm and how likely they were to get the opportunity to do some, but I thought I might get somewhere by making a few more guesses, trying to provoke a less ambiguous reaction.
“The war you’re trying to prevent must be the one between Earth and the Outer System,” I said, avid for the slightest sign of confirmation or contradiction.
“It’s not as simple as that,” was all she said at first. After a moment’s hesitation, though, she went on. “There are more sides here than you can probably imagine, Mr. Tamlin.”
That was patronizing. She didn’t know anything about the scope of my imagination — but I wasn’t about to take umbrage now that I had a chance to get somewhere. “Personally, I think Lowenthal’s just a foot soldier,” I said, talking rapidly in the hope of making the most of my fragile opening, “but he’s probably working for the same people who handed down the instructions to Excelsior. They have to think the big basalt flow was sabotage, intended to upset the balance of power. They must intend to redress the balance, as soon as they figure out a way to do it. Whether or not Titan was responsible