cotics, he was hopelessly gripped by the most common drug of all the desire for wealth

 

With his mother's pitiful savings he bought a hand-sized computer (his mother had probably made its circuit boards) and a tram ticket to Hong Kong, the city of golden opportunity for a man of strong will, strong stomach, and quick wits

 

Within five years he was a successful merchant, respected by the business community and suspected by the police of smuggling, drug running, and dealing in stolen goods But the police could prove nothing and as Hsen's fortune grew, his esteem among his fellow businessmen rose

 

By the time he was thirty he, with three older associates, created Pacific Commerce Corporation out of a failed shipping line, a scattering of warehouses in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and elsewhere, and a fleet of aged )et cargo planes whose owner faced bankruptcy and disgrace Hsen made a key decision the following year he convinced his three associates that Pacific Commerce must enter the booming business of space transportation They reluctantly allowed him to start a space division, and watched with no little trepidation as Hsen poured virtually all of the company's assets into it

 

By the time Hsen was forty he had bought out his three associates and completely controlled Pacific Commerce and all its sea, air, and space transportation divisions

 

Now he sat in his Hong Kong office, at home in a short-sleeved, open-neck white shirt and comfortably baggy dark slacks, his reclining chair tilted back almost to the horizontal He had a slight, wiry frame, and the powered chair in which he reclined seemed almost to be engulfing him like some cocoa-brown monster ingesting its victim

 

Hsen steepled his fingers over his chest as he gazed silently at the four people--two men and two women--who sat in more conventional chairs looking back at him One of the men was Wilhelm Kruppmann, a member of Pacific Commerce's board of directors, among other things The other was also a white

 

man in a business suit, looking rather nervous The two women were Chinese, although they both wore western dresses

 

The office was immense, the entire top floor of one of Hong Kong's tallest towers Heavy silken drapes covered every window The modernistic furniture was all teak and chrome and glass, the walls were panelled in teak Priceless vases and porcelain sculptures adorned the vast room, dimly visible in the shadows

 

The only light came from tiny pivoting lamps in the ceiling that focused on each of the figures in the room and followed them wherever they moved Although Hsen did not mention it, each lamp was paired with a small but powerful laser that could kill with an intense burst of energy, if activated A secret little security precaution that Hsen enjoyed

 

This was his stronghold, his castle, defended by faithful electronic devices and slavish robots At his fingertips Hsen could manipulate more energy and more information than all the emperors of China's long tortured history

 

"I asked you here," Hsen said at last, "to hear the result of our search for the originator of our troubles, the master con spirator who has been working against us in so many places "

 

Kruppmann leaned forward eagerly "You have found who he is ?"

 

Hsen nodded a bare fraction of a centimeter In the beam of light from the ceiling lamp, his eyes were lost in shadow He pointed a slim finger at one of the women

 

"My director of intelligence," Hsen said, smiling slightly "Your report, please "

 

She was neither particularly good looking nor all that young, thought Kruppmann She must be good at her work

 

The intelligence director swiftly outlined the procedures whereby computer banks from half the world had been searched and scanned until three matching photographs of the same man who had visited the Brazilian president de Sagres and several other key world figures such as Dhouni Nkona had been identified with ninety-percent accuracy

 

"It was a difficult search," she said, in peculiarly flat un-

 

modulated English "Hardly anyone recalls seeing this person It is only in facilities where hidden security cameras automatically record each visitor that we were able to find holograms of this man And most such holos were somehow blurred or otherwise distorted "

 

Hsen made a small noise of impatience

 

"However," the woman went on, more hurriedly, "we did obtain three barely usable holograms, and with computer enhancement we were able to identify the man in them "

 

She touched a button on the keypad built into the arm of her chair and a three-dimensional hologram sprang up in the middle of the darkened room

 

"I know who that is " blurted the young man sitting beside Kruppmann

 

Hsen replied mildly, "I should think that you do It is Dr Keith Stoner, former astronaut, former astrophysicist The man who first made contact with the alien starship some thirty years ago "

 

"He was frozen for eighteen years and then revived in the Hawaii laboratories of Vanguard Industries," said the intelligence director "That was fifteen years ago "

 

Hsen studied Stoner's powerful bearded face The hologram was slightly larger than life, and the face seemed to float in mid-air like the stern image of some mighty god

 

"You are certain that he's the one?" Kruppmann sounded unconvinced "A former scientist is our master conniver?"

 

"He is the one," answered Hsen

 

"Ninety-percent certainty," the intelligence director repeated

 

Kruppmann shook his ponderous head "I find it hard to believe that a scientist would "

 

"He is no longer a scientist," Hsen pointed out "One might say that he is retired And he is married, very interestingly, to the president of Vanguard Industries, and has been so almost since the very day he was revived from freezing "

 

Kruppmann's mouth flapped open and closed several times Finally he gasped, "Married to Jo Camerata?"

 

"Do you find that as interesting as I do?"

 

"The bitch i"

 

"Indeed "

 

The Swiss banker's face was turning red with fury "We should eliminate them both "

 

But Hsen held up one finger. "A moment of consideration, if you please. Consider: Stoner is undoubtedly the thorn in our flesh Also Jo Camerata, his wife, has undoubtedly been helping him all these years."

 

"Her and her International Investment Agency," Krupp-mann muttered "No wonder she . ."

 

"Finally," Hsen interrupted, "Stoner is the only man to survive cryonic freezing."

 

The room went absolutely silent.

 

Hsen took a breath and said, "I suggest that Dr. Stoner is worth much more to us alive than dead The secret of immortality seems to be hidden within his body."

 

"Mem Gotti"

 

"Also," Hsen went on, almost lazily, "I wonder what his motives are for fomenting the changes he has produced. Is he working for some alien creatures? Is he a Judas in our midst?"

 

"Gott in Himmel!"

 

Turning to his intelligence director, and the younger woman sitting beside her, Hsen asked, "Would it be possible to bring Dr. Stoner to one of our special facilities?"

 

The intelligence director nodded. "I will need a detailed layout of his home in Hawaii."

 

Hsen pointed to the man beside Kruppmann "You were there only a few days ago "

 

He licked his lips nervously, then replied, "I can give you the complete layout, yeah Security systems, everything."

 

"Then we should be able to abduct Dr. Stoner."

 

Kruppmann asked, "What about his wife? What about the traitorous bitch?"

 

Hsen made a small shrug. "When the time comes, we will deal with her " To himself he promised, I will deal with her personally It will be most enjoyable

 

* * *

 

Lela Obiri sat down with a tired, undignified thump on the hard ground, her back to the huge bole of a lofty tree. The bushes were so thick that they swallowed her slight frame almost up to her shoulders. Good camouflage, she thought absently. Wearily she shrugged out of the shoulder straps of her backpack, then leaned back against the tree's rough bark and closed her eyes.

 

Koku was safe. That was the important thing. Through the eyes of the young gorilla she saw that he was alone now in the forest, peacefully sitting in the middle of a clump of wild celery, calmly stripping the branches clean and eating the stalks, leaves and all. She could taste the raw celery so crisp and delicious that it made her mouth water

 

The team of hunters that had been tracking him was nowhere to be seen. But they were out there in the brush, and much smarter than Lela had at first thought they could be. They had maneuvered themselves to a position between Koku and the electronically-fenced area where the three female gorillas were waiting They had set up a trap and now they were waiting for Koku to fall into it.

 

I must find some way to get past them, Lela told herself. If only the radio was working . .

 

With an effort of will she made Koku look up and sniff the air No trace of human sweat or the pungent oil they used for their guns Strange, Lela had never noticed the odor of gun oil before But with Koku's senses transmitted by the protein chips to the neurons of her own brain, the smell was obvious and repugnant. Koku heard no sound of anything except the normal chattering and raucous calls of the forest's birds

 

Earlier in the day Lela had heard a helicopter fluttering high above the forest canopy. Perhaps her radio calls back to the headquarters of the rangers who protected this reserve had finally paid off. Maybe they had caught the poachers. But she could not make contact, no one answered her repeated calls for help. Obviously she could no longer depend on the radio.

 

The biochips were working fine, thank god Lela almost felt as if she were Koku She felt her teeth stripping the outer

 

layer of the celery stalks and tasted the sweet pulp of their softer centers. She felt the solidity of the ground on which the gorilla sat. She looked up and peered around the forest greenery. She sniffed the air again and grunted with satisfaction, no humans in the area.

 

Can Koku sense me? Lela wondered. Can I make him get up and move even when he doesn't want to? Sooner or later I must. I've got to introduce him to the females the university released in his territory. And then leave him.

 

The thought saddened her. It would be like leaving a part of herself behind, forever in the forest. But that was her mission, the task she had knowingly accepted' to help this young gorilla become the founder of a family. As a mother must rear its child for the inevitable day when it will leave and establish its own home.

 

In the midst of her ruminations she heard the faint rattle of metal upon metal, like a hunter's rifle barrel tapping against the buckle of a strap.

 

Lela froze, every sense alert. There should be no other humans in this area. It could only be the poachers. Instead of waiting to trap Koku, they were looking for her.

 

CHAPTER 11

 

NEITHER Jo nor Ilona Lucacs seemed to notice that every traffic light between the hospital and the airport turned green as the Vanguard limousine approached it. They sped along the crowded Moscow avenues without stopping once Rozmenko and the two police officers followed them in an unmarked sedan. The effort made Stoner perspire slightly, in the air-condi-

 

tioned rear seat of the limousine. He smiled inwardly to his star brother Did you know that sharks also can detect electromagnetic fields? Yes, the alien presence replied. I know whatever you know.

 

You know a great deal more than I know, Stoner replied silently. But I'm learning.

 

His star brother said nothing, although Stoner could sense a quiet satisfaction.

 

Jo and Dr. Lucacs hardly exchanged five words through the ride to the airport. Stoner had decided to manipulate the traffic signals to get the trip over with before Jo's steaming temper got the upper hand over her good sense.

 

Jo was staring at the TV screen, not really seeing it but fixing her eyes on it so that she did not have to look at the younger woman. Stoner saw that a Moscow ballet rehearsal was being shown: dancers in sweat-stained leotards lifting, pirouetting, leaping across a bare stage to the faint accompaniment of a solitary piano.

 

From her seat next to the TV console, Ilona Lucacs had to bend uncomfortably to watch the screen. But she kept her eyes fastened on it, just as Jo did. It averted the necessity to speak.

 

Stoner would have laughed, but he knew it would merely add to Jo's steaming anger. His star brother noted how much the contortions of classic ballet were based on simian gestures. Especially the steps that show the crotch to the audience If an ape did that the audience would either laugh or feel offended.

 

The limousine swung up the airport entrance ramp at last, then drove out to the hangar apron where the Vanguard Industries jet was waiting, a nasty dead-black beast with stovepipe scranrjet engines and stubby wings that were built for speed, not looks.

 

Stoner walked his wife to the plane, saying, "I'll make the funeral arrangements with Rozmenko or whoever's in charge and phone you when it's all set."

 

"You phone me tonight," Jo said, with some heat "Or, better yet, I'll call you as soon as I get home."

 

"Fine." He smiled at her.

 

Despite herself, she smiled back. "You're enjoying this, aren't you? Making an old woman like me jealous."

 

He put his arms around her and kissed her soundly. "Next meeting of the IIA, you can flirt with Cliff Baker all you want."

 

[o made a half-strangled growling sound, then pecked another kiss on his lips and turned to the metal ladder of her plane's hatch. Instantly a dark Mediterranean steward appeared at the hatch and extended his hand to assist her up the three steps. She turned and gave Stoner a final wave, then ducked through the hatch.

 

Stoner walked slowly back to the limousine, and stood beside it as the scramjet howled to shrieking life and taxied off to the runway. He waited until he saw it take off into the leaden gray Moscow sky, then got back into the hmo and asked the driver to take them to Dr. Lucacs's hotel.

 

"You speak very good Russian," she said. She stayed on the jumpseat where she had been when Jo had shared the rear bench with Stoner.

 

"So do you."

 

"It is taught in our schools. It is mandatory to know the language of our Big Brother."

 

Stoner smiled at her, noting that she made no effort at all to move beside him. They rode back to the city, stopping at red lights now and then, facing each other and carrying on an utterly meaningless mundane conversation. But through the banalities, Stoner still sensed a hidden tension in Ilona Lucacs, a motivating force, an intensity that was driving her mercilessly.

 

When the limousine pulled up in front of the hotel, Dr. Lucacs asked, "Where are you staying?"

 

Stoner could have gone to the Vanguard office, near Red Square, the staff there would have put him up in one of the company's luxury apartments. But an inner voice warned him not to be so obvious. He glanced at the hotel's facade. Stolid featureless concrete and glass, as coldly impersonal as a stack of trays at a cafeteria, the kind of a building that only a bureaucrat could love.

 

"This looks as good as any," he said cheerfully. "I'll stay here."

 

Lucacs's tawny eyes regarded him with a mixture of amusement and youthful pity. "I doubt it, Dr. Stoner. The room clerk told me the hotel was fully booked when I checked in, and I had to show him my reservation form three times before he would allow me to register."

 

The chauffeur had opened the limo's door and was waiting on the curbside. Stoner ducked his lanky frame through and then helped Lucacs out of the car.

 

"I'll give it a try anyway," he said lightly.

 

The hotel lobby was neat, clean, and designed for efficiency. No chairs or couches for loafers to while away the hours. No newsstand or drug store. Nothing but a polished tile floor and unadorned concrete walls that echoed footsteps off the high ceiling. And the registration desk, a wooden counter that was built so low that even Lucacs had to stoop slightly when the sour-faced female room clerk placed her key upon it.

 

Stoner smiled at the clerk and asked for a room.

 

"We are entirely booked," said the clerk smugly. She was a plump woman of forty or so, with reddish hair that looked slightly bedraggled after a long day of denying requests.

 

"Oh, you must have something open," Stoner said.

 

She started to shake her head, but instead asked, "Do you have a reservation?"

 

"I'm afraid not."

 

"Then there's nothing ..."

 

"Nothing?" Stoner interrupted, his voice velvet soft. "Are you certain?"

 

The woman hesitated. "Well . . let me see." She turned uncertainly toward the computer at her dimpled elbow and stared for a moment at its flickering display.

 

"A cancellation," she announced after a few moments of frowning study. "You are a lucky fellow "

 

Stoner smiled broadly at her. Dr. Lucacs stared with wondering eyes. With no luggage whatever, Stoner entered the el-

 

evator with Ilona Lucacs and suggested they have dinner together She swiftly agreed

 

His room was small Its single bed was covered with gray-looking sheets and a small pile of neatly folded blankets, no two of them the same color The furniture was heavy production line stuff, meant for utility and hard wear rather than looks Computer terminal built into the TV Bathroom functional, stark white The only window looked out on an identical building, rows of windows with curtains drawn tight

 

It was all clean, smelling of disinfectant and strong detergents Stoner nodded to himself, satisfied, and sat on the only chair as he took the communicator off his wrist

 

Holding it close to his mouth, he instructed the computer built into the bracelet to contact Jo She would be somewhere near the Arctic Circle by now, on the polar route back to Hawaii

 

"Keith What's wrong?" Even through the miniaturized speaker the anxiety in her voice came through clearly

 

Smiling, "Nothing's wrong I just wanted to let you know that I'm not staying at a Vanguard apartment "

 

It took almost a full second for her reply to reach him, relayed off a Vanguard satellite "Why not "

 

"A hunch I don't want to be so easily traced "

 

"Then what about this call "

 

He shrugged, even though she could not see it "The Vanguard comm system is pretty secure, isn't it "

 

A longer delay than the relay time warranted "I think so But if you're worried you ought to contact the Moscow office's chief of security "

 

"I'm not that worried," he replied "In fact, I'm not really worried at all I'm )ust following a hunch "

 

"Can you tell me where you're staying "

 

Glancing at the multilingual safety instructions glowing on the TV screen, "Hotel Armand Hammer," he answered with some surprise

 

Jo laughed It was good to hear "Must be where they put visiting capitalists "

 

"No, this is where Dr Lucacs is staying "

 

"You're at the same hotel with hei?"

 

"There's something going on in her head that she's not telling us about Maybe she doesn't know it herself, but there's more involved here than she's told us "

 

"I'll bet there is'"

 

Realizing her temper was rising, Stoner soothed, "Jo, she's young enough to be my granddaughter "

 

"And old enough to be a mother "

 

"You've got nothing to worry about on that score," he said

 

"Then why am I worried"

 

Paulino Alvarado puffed nervously on his last cigarette His clothes were a mess, he knew With the army and police both looking for him, he had no other choice but to go to the men in the city who had first talked him into setting up the Moon-dust factory in his village They had hidden him in seamy hotels and filthy shacks, moving him almost daily, giving him cigarettes and food in exchange for odd jobs

 

And Moondust Paulino had to have Moondust, the tiny gray pills were the difference between being alive and dying by inches They let him have just enough to keep him going

 

Each time he slept Paulino dreamed of the soldiers He saw them again and again and he wept with the shame of his stupidity and cowardice

 

Beyond his shame, beyond the hatred for the soldiers who had slaughtered his father and god knew who else, there was the fear At the very bottom of Paulino Alvarado's soul was the fundamental fear of dying, the burning terror that drove a man to do anything, anything in order to survive, in order to get the next one of those gray pills

 

Now he sat in a shabby wmdowless room, filthy, unshaved, itching from the vermin that infested his clothes, knowing that he looked like a miserable worn-out peon rather than a young man with an education and a future There was nothing in the room except the chair he sat on, some packing cartons stacked against the wall, and two doors One from the

 

alley, where he had come from, and the other leading to-- where? Paulino wondered.

 

The cigarette singed his fingers and he dropped it to the bare wooden floor, scarred by countless other butts.

 

Waiting. The bare fluorescent lamp up on the ceiling flickered annoymgly. Paulino shut his eyes and immediately his head drooped forward. But he saw the soldiers burning, raping, killing. He snapped awake.

 

The other door opened and a man stood framed in the light from the room beyond. He filled the doorway massive body, thick arms, heavy shoulders that seemed to come straight out from his ears.

 

"Come in here, chico," he said in a voice as heavy and rough as his looks.

 

Paulino stood shakily and brushed at the filth on his shirt and slacks as he stepped uncertainly to the doorway. The roughneck stood aside so that he could enter the office.

 

The man behind the desk wore an elegant patterned jacket over a neatly starched pale green shirt. His mustache was thin and carefully trimmed. There was a small diamond in his left earlobe and several flashing rings on his lean, manicured fingers. On his desk, next to the telephone, was a small plastic box filled with tiny gray pills, like dirty aspirin tablets.

 

"It looks like you've had a rough time of it," he said, in a deep baritone. "Sit down Jorge, give him a drink."

 

Paulino sputtered with the tequila, but it felt warm and strengthening inside him. The man behind the desk watched with unreadable eyes. Paulino could not help staring at the box of Moondust

 

"I found out how your village was betrayed," the man said.

 

Paulino stiffened with sudden anger. "Someone informed on us," he growled.

 

The man behind the desk shook his head slightly. "No. It was a Peace Enforcers' satellite. It detected the unusual heat coming from your little factory. I know how they work. They analyzed the smoke coming from your furnace and then informed the army in Lima."

 

Pauhno held the emptied glass in his grimy hand. It felt heavy, solid, somehow reassuring.

 

"The Frenchman told me that the factory was not illegal."

 

"He strained the truth," said the man behind the desk, smiling so slightly that he actually looked pained.

 

The Frenchman had also said that Moondust was not addictive, Pauhno remembered.

 

"We can't keep you here forever, hiding from the police. We have to find someplace for you to go, something for you to do."

 

Pauhno shifted uneasily in his chair. He felt the presence of the roughneck standing behind him like the heat from an open oven And the pills, almost in reach.

 

"We must find a place for you that is safe," the elegant man continued. "Someplace where you can make a living. I understand you have a degree in computer maintenance."

 

"Yes, but . "

 

"We will send you to the Moon, then. As a maintenance engineer You can help us to establish our operations there. It could be very profitable for you."

 

"The . . Moon?"

 

"Yes. The Vanguard Industries base there needs maintenance engineers. And there are several thousand potential customers there for our wares." He smiled again. "After all, shouldn't those who live on the Moon be able to have some Moondust?"

 

"The Moon," Pauhno repeated, his voice empty

 

The man behind the desk nodded, and the roughneck touched Pauline's shoulder. He got up and started for the door. But halfway there Pauhno turned and begged, "Please. Just one?"

 

The man behind the desk pretended surprise. "Oh? The Moondust? I forgot--these are for you." He held out the box to Paulmo's eager reaching trembling fingers. "To keep you company on your journey "

 

Pauhno grasped the little box in both hands, clutched it to his chest, and shuffled almost blindly back to the windowless room from which he had come. The roughneck shut the door behind him.

 

"He can be very useful to us up there," said the man behind the desk, as if justifying his decision.

 

The roughneck gave a snort. "If he lives."

 

"Even if he does not, we still get the headhunters' fee for recruiting him."

 

"He'll never make it on the Moon," the roughneck predicted. "Too soft. He's hooked on the pills."

 

The elegant man shrugged. "Then we will recruit someone else. And make a headhunter's bounty off him, too."

 

LONDON

 

ENZO Massahno stared at the display screen for a long, long time Then he rubbed at his eyes and stared at it again. His guts were churning with a frantic turmoil of conflicting emotions: the thrill of discovery, the burning tendrils of horror, the guilty pleasure of knowing that his name will be on the first paper published about this, the growing terror that this virus would kill millions before they could find a way to stop it

 

they could find a way to stop it, he corrected himself. And his fear began to overwhelm every other thought.

 

He was a slight, spare man who had spent most of his life in research laboratories, always doing a competent job, never distinguishing himself, one of the faceless nameless army of researchers who stood guard over the public health.

 

Now the chance for immortality stared him in the face. And the chance of sudden, excruciatingly painful death. The evidence was conclusive. Fourteen cases reported from around the world' Bangkok, Cairo, Istanbul, and the latest one from Naples.

 

The virus attacked the victim's digestive tract, devoured

 

the linings of the stomach and intestines so that the victim's own digestive juices began to eat away its internal organs. Death was quick and incredibly painful. The virus's incubation time was apparently only a matter of hours.

 

Apparently it was water-borne. Thank god for that much, he said to himself. It's not an aerial virus. You can't catch it from sneezing or coughing.

 

Or can you? Plenty of water droplets in a sneeze.

 

He ran a hand through his thinning hair. My god, my god. We don't know enough about this virus to even get started against it. The damned bug could wipe out the whole human race before we figure out what to do about it!

 

He thought about his native city of Rome, with its millions upon millions living cheek by jowl over hundreds of square miles. And the jet airliners that landed and took off from Rome's three airports every thirty seconds, carrying microbes and viruses to and from every corner of the world. And the rocketplanes that spread their wings even farther and faster.

 

We're doomed, he said to himself The human race is doomed.

 

CHAPTER 12

 

"WHEN I was an astrophysicist, long, long ago," Stoner was saying to Ilona Lucacs, "Hungarians told strange stories about themselves "

 

"Really?"

 

They were sitting at a candlelit table for two in the corner of a quiet restaurant not far from their hotel. It had been recommended on the list that the hotel's computer provided. When they had entered, the maitre d' had looked doubtfully at Stoner's jeans and denim jacket Stoner had smiled and

 

apologized softly for not being in proper dinner attire With a perplexed frown, as if he were doing something against his inner convictions, the maitre d' muttered, "Netu pioblema," and seated them in the corner farthest from the door

 

"It was as if the Hungarians prided themselves on being sneakier than other people," Stoner said

 

"Sneakier?" Ilona's heart-shaped face frowned slightly "I am not sure I understand "

 

She still wore the same tweed skirt and jacket as earlier in the day, although she had changed to a frilher, more feminine blouse They were speaking in English Stoner thought it best not to show that he could pick up Hungarian, or any other language, almost instantly

 

"Sneakier," he repeated "For example, a Hungarian student I went to class with told me, 'A Hungarian can go into a revolving door behind you and come out ahead of you '"

 

Comprehension lit her eyes "Ah, yes And the Hungarian recipe for an omelet 'First, steal some eggs '"

 

Stoner laughed

 

"The best one," Ilona said, laughing with him, "is this 'If you meet a Hungarian in the street, kick him He will know why'"

 

Their waiter was a Japanese robot that was programmed to keep their wine glasses topped off It rolled smoothly to their table, gripped the bottle of Egn Bikaver from their table, and neatly poured the Hungarian red wine into their balloon glasses

 

"Very good wine," Stoner commented

 

"The blood of the bull," said Ilona Lucacs "That is what this wine is called "

 

Stoner smiled at her and asked casually, "If I met you on the street and kicked you, would you know why?"

 

Her lioness's eyes instantly became guarded She replied, "Yes Of course I could say the same for you, could I not?"

 

"I'm not Hungarian "

 

"But you carry your secrets within you, just as we all do "

 

Leaning back in his chair, Stoner heard his star brother whisper, The secret within us is much different from the secrets of other human beings

 

For a long moment neither of them said anything The restaurant was quiet, half empty No music, neither live nor piped in through loudspeakers The only sounds were the clinks of dinnerware and an occasional whisper of conversation The robot waiters stood mutely at their stations, and when they moved it was practically without any noise at all

 

"Have you formed a theory in your mind about why I survived freezing when no one else has'" Stoner asked

 

"A hypothesis," she said "You should use the proper term "

 

He accepted the correction with a small nod "I told you, it's been a long time since I did any scientific work "

 

"No, I have no hypothesis No idea whatever why you were revived successfully when all the others failed "

 

Stoner knew it was a lie She was hiding something, and he had to find out what it was

 

"As I told you," Ilona went on, "the task of investigating you has been forced upon me A post-doctoral student does not deny a request that comes from the president of the nation "

 

That much was the truth, he sensed But what was the rest of it?

 

"If you weren't forced to study this cryomcs problem," he asked, "what work would you rather be doing?"

 

Her face took on a thoughtful look "I was beginning to study ways of interfacing neurons with protein-based semiconductors "

 

"Biochips?"

 

Nodding, "That is what some people call them, yes "

 

"And the idea is to interface the biochips with the nervous system "

 

"Yes," she replied carefully "With protein-based chips practically any electronics system can be implanted into the human body and wired directly to the brain "

 

Stoner took a sip of wine "You can carry your computer around inside your head And your communicator with it You can access other computers and get the information directly in your mind "

 

"And the information comes as sensory data," Ilona said,

 

more eagerly "You do not merely see letters and numbers, you experience the data, taste it, hear it, smell it "

 

Stoner laughed softly "I wonder what a quadratic equation tastes like "

 

"Communications between individuals can become like mental telepathy," Ilona said "You can experience direct mind-to-mind linkage "

 

A wisp of memory gusted through Stoner's mind Cavendish The haunted, hollow-eyed British physicist who had drowned himself when they had been on Kwajalem The old RGB had implanted electrodes in his brain's pain center Markov had told him the truth of it, years ago

 

"It is an enormous breakthrough," Ilona was saying, her excitement growing "The size of the human brain has not grown since the Ice Ages A baby's head can be only so big, of course, otherwise it could not survive birth "

 

"Neither would the mother," Stoner said

 

"Yes, certainly With biochips, however, we can increase the power of the brain by connecting it electronically to computers and other information systems "

 

"An evolutionary step forward," Stoner murmured, knowing it was merely the first step toward the level where all humans shared their existence with star brothers

 

"Exactly'"

 

"You could also use such technology to pry into people's minds," he cautioned "Even control their thoughts "

 

Lucacs stared at him for a long moment, her expression going from excitement to deflation to--something else "Yes, that is true It is also possible to stimulate the brain's pleasure centers directly A new form of narcotic "

 

"Have you tried it "

 

"Direct stimulation has been going on for years," she said "It is one of the little vices that only an elite few researchers can indulge in "

 

"Sounds like more than a little vice to me "

 

"It is harmless," she said, but her face betrayed the lightness of her tone

 

There's more to it, Stoner knew He studied her face as she sipped at the wine, then lowered her eyes and returned her attention to the meal on the plate before her

 

"A colleague'" he asked gently

 

She looked up at him, her eyes alert again, alarmed

 

"I have a hypothesis about you," he said, trying to make it sound amusing, nonthreatemng, "even if you don't have one about me "

 

She said nothing, but there was more than wariness in her eyes now Deep within her, Ilona Lucacs was afraid, with the terrible feral fear of a trapped animal

 

"Before your superiors sent you looking for me, you were working with a colleague--about your own age, I think--on the biochip interface problem "

 

"That is true," she said, her back stiffening

 

"He has become addicted to brain stimulation, hasn't he?"

 

The fork slipped out of her hand and clattered to the floor A few of the other diners turned their heads Their table robot rolled swiftly to the spot, deftly picked it up between two rubber-padded stainless steel fingers, and replaced it with a clean fork drawn from the silverware drawer built into its midsection

 

"Hasn't he?" Stoner probed

 

Ilona Lucacs made a smile that held no trace of joy Stoner saw a hint of anger in her gold-flecked eyes

 

"You are almost correct, Dr Stoner," she said coldly "Almost But it is not my colleague who is addicted to the stimulant It is me "

 

Stoner finally recognized the expression in her tawny eyes defiance

 

In Hawaii it was almost nine a m

 

Jo had slept poorly on her scramjet flight back to Hilo, and the fact that Keith had not phoned her yet did not improve her crankiness It's still dmnertime in Moscow, she told herself Then she pictured her husband at dinner with that Hungarian witch and she felt her blood seething within her

 

Still, when she swept into her office at the Vanguard complex on the edge of the city, she looked as sharp and fresh as on any other day in a cream-colored sleeveless camisole and ginger-brown knee-length skirt And makeup that covered the dark rings of sleeplessness under her eyes

 

She saw her reflection in the blank display screen on her office wall and thought idly that her hair was getting longer than she wanted it to be The longer it is the more time and trouble it takes But Keith likes it long and why the hell hasn't he called me, it must be getting on toward midnight in Moscow

 

She took in a deep breath, held it, then exhaled slowly It should have calmed her It did not Looking again at her faint reflection she wondered if the time had come for cosmetic surgery Several of her friends had undergone face-lifts and

 

Nonsense Jo dismissed the idea with a disdainful grimace With all the toners and tighteners the Vanguard cosmetics division produces, if I ever need a face-lift I'll fire the whole division's staff

 

Her sense of humor somewhat restored, Jo sat down in her contoured powered chair and tapped the button in its armrest that activated the comm system

 

"Vie Tomasso," she said Then she tilted her chair back slightly and began her day's work

 

By the time she had scanned the latest figures on the pharmaceutical division's quarterly sales, Vie Tomasso rapped lightly on her open office door and stepped in

 

Jo's office looked more like an informal sitting room than the nerve center of a powerful multinational corporation's president Instead of a desk, conference table, and the other imposing symbols of authority, the office was furnished with comfortable chairs and two small sofas The wall decor could be changed at the touch of a button in the armrest of Jo's powered chair At the moment it was cool forest greens and earth colors

 

Like the changeable decor of the office, Vie Tomasso was a chameleon Neither especially tall nor broad-shouldered, he had worked hard since a teenager at maximizing his physical potential Office gossip claimed he spent more time in the

 

gym than on the job, and most of his evening hours in the beds of married women In other times he would have been a beach boy, making his living by hanging around tourist hotels and offering a smiling youthful escort to lonely women

 

Today he was a corporate executive, the staff assistant for security to the president of Vanguard Industries Most of the world thought he was one of Jo Camerata's handsome young men, and there was no doubt that she enjoyed having handsome young men working for her But each of them had to have some talent for business, or no matter how handsome or eager they were, they did not last long at Vanguard

 

Vie Tomasso's real talent, beneath his perfect smile and thick wavy hair and darkly handsome face, was his ability to emulate a chameleon For Vie Tomasso was a corporate spy

 

He gave Jo his best and brightest smile as he sat on the sofa beneath the picture window that looked out on the distant Pacific Tomasso wore a standard business outfit collarless tunic of navy blue and light gray slacks His shirt, though, was glittery electric blue and unbuttoned far enough to show off his muscular hairy chest

 

"No jewelry today?" Jo quipped

 

He grinned at her They had a standing joke about which of them owned the more jewelry Jo wore two gold and diamond bracelets and three rings

 

"fust this today " Tomasso pushed up the left sleeve of his tunic to reveal a heavy silver bracelet studded with turquoise

 

"Navaho," Jo said, making it sound disappointed

 

"I'm in a cowboys-and-Indians mood," he explained

 

Jo did not follow his hint Instead, she asked, "What happened in Hong Kong? What's Hsen up to?"

 

Tomasso's smile vanished "Kruppmann was there And Hsen's chief of intelligence has come up with holograms of your husband "

 

Jo felt a cold fist clutch at her heart "They've identified him?"

 

"Yep They know he visited de Sagres in Brasilia, and they

 

figure that he's been involved in several other affairs they don't like "

 

"Christ I've got to get Keith back here where I can protect him"

 

"They're not too happy about you, either," Tomasso said

 

"I didn't think they would be What else What are they planning to do now that they know "

 

Running a hand through his hair, "They want to get your husband out of their way And you, too "

 

"How What are they planning"

 

Tomasso made an elaborate shrug "Beats me They pumped me for the site of the next board of directors meeting, then Hsen told me to come back here and wait for further instructions "

 

"Do you think he suspects you're really working for me"

 

"He might, yeah, maybe "

 

Jo realized she was biting her lip She straightened up the chair "Not a word of this to anyone," she commanded "No written reports This is strictly between you and me "

 

"Like always Right "

 

"We don't know who could be leaking information to Hsen "

 

"You think he's gonna try something at the board meeting"

 

"He might," Jo said "Maybe we'll make it a video conference, then we won't all have to be in the same place "

 

Tomasso got to his feet, waited a moment for Jo to say more When she did not, he walked out of her office, leaving Jo frowning in deep, desperate thought

 

I've got to start polling the board members and find out how many Hsen's got in his pocket Time to start twisting arms, she told herself

 

Tomasso had not told her that Hsen had asked about the layout and security systems of Jo's house And Jo did not think to ask herself if her corporate spy might not be a double agent

 

Stoner lay naked on the hotel's overly soft bed and stared at the ceiling for a moment Remembering Jo's suspicions, he , wondered if there were cameras or recording devices hidden

 

behind the smooth plaster up there He could sense none, but that did not always mean none were there

 

Absence of proof, he reminded himself, is not proof of absence The first probes of the planet Mars did not find any traces of life there, but that didn't mean there was no life on Mars

 

He could almost feel the hosts of nanometer symbiotes in his blood and tissues assimilating the wine and food of his dinner with Ilona Lucacs My alien brother protects me so well that I can't get drunk, he said to himself He felt a wry laughter deep in his mind and remembered that he was never by himself And never would be

 

Lifting his left arm so that his wrist communicator was above his mouth, he phoned Jo in Hilo Her computer replied that she was in a meeting, but his call would be added to her list of messages

 

"I love you Jo," he said to the machine "And my virtue is still intact "

 

He did not feel the need for sleep Ilona Lucacs was addicted to electrical stimulation of her brain's pleasure center That was the real hold her superiors had on her He pictured her in her room now, sprawled on the narrow hotel bed, the small case that looked like a portable computer lying open on the floor, wires as thin as spider's silk leading from it to electrodes pasted on her forehead, all the world forgotten as a current of pure pleasure flowed through her brain

 

No need for sex No need for food or drink or anything As long as the current flowed she was in ecstasy

 

The machine must be programmed to turn itself off, he thought Otherwise she runs the risk of killing herself

 

I could get her off the addiction, he told himself But what kind of harm would I be doing if I just overpowered her addiction with my own commands' Would that destroy her? It might, he decided

 

He asked his star brother how he would handle the problem if he became addicted to direct stimulation It's not like drugs or other chemicals, he pointed out It's direct electrical stimulation of the pleasure centers

 

His star brother's answer was immediate Stop the neural impulses of the pleasure center No discharge of those nerves, no sense of pleasure And therefore no addiction

 

It's simple when you have a few trillion symbiotes inside you, Stoner said And his star brother agreed

 

Then he sat bolt upright on the bed, a powerfully-built man in his middle years with a strong black beard and a look of sudden revelation on his face The question that had eluded him ever since he had met Ilona Lucacs finally reached the surface of his mind

 

What else is she after' If they're into biochips, they're only a step or two away from nanotechnology From building the kind of self-replicating machines that course through my body

 

She knows Or at least she suspects the truth about us She does have a hypothesis about me and it's damned accurate

 

The thought filled him with unease Why he asked his star brother What is there to be afraid of? He knew the abstract worry that nanotechnology would cause a new and irresistible population explosion Reduce the death rate to nearly zero overnight, yes, but it takes generations to reduce the birthrate With symbiotes protecting their health and extending their lifespans, the human race could populate itself into extinction, bury the planet Earth in human flesh, even swamp the entire solar system

 

That much Stoner knew He had worked for fifteen years to prepare the way for nanotechnology, to get the human race to control its numbers before this gift from the stars raised them to the next level of their evolution

 

But the growing terror he felt at the realization that others were developing nanotechnology on their own was beyond all rational, reasonable fear What is it? he asked his star brother

 

His star brother did not reply

 

CHAPTER 13

 

"WE must be ready to strike when Stoner returns to Hilo "

 

Li-Po Hsen listened carefully to his chief of security The woman's flat round face was as impassive as the westerner's stereotype of the inscrutable oriental while she briefed Hsen in precise detail on her plan for abducting Stoner from his own home

 

"The man Tomasso will tell us when he returns'" asked Hsen

 

"Yes," the woman acknowledged "It should be within the next day or two That gives us very little time to prepare "

 

The tabletop display screen glowed in Hsen's darkened office with an engineering drawing of the house outside Hilo The security system wiring was shown in red

 

"There is no way to override the security system," she said "It has its own power source inside the house "

 

"Corrupt one of the servants, perhaps?" Hsen suggested

 

"There are only six human servants, all of them drawn from Ms Camerata's family in southern Italy It would be difficult to sway them, especially with so little time available "

 

"What then?"

 

"Overwhelming force We will require a mercenary attack force of at least twelve men Twenty would be much better "

 

Hsen nodded "But how will you get that large a number into the main house without raising an alarm that will bring Vanguard security forces from the outlying buildings'"

 

"They must get in and out before the Vanguard security teams can react "

 

"Yes, but how?"

 

For the first time since Hsen had known her, the security chief smiled Only slightly, but the corners of her mouth definitely curved upward

 

"They will arrive from the sky, like angels," she said "And depart the same way "

 

Stoner met Ilona Lucacs for breakfast in their hotel's coldly efficient automated cafeteria One entire wall consisted of gleaming metal and glass display cases, shut tight until a guest touched the button that popped that window open No warmth of cooking, no odor of food As hermetically sealed as a space capsule, Stoner thought And just about as appetizing

 

Other hotel guests already half-filled the austere cafeteria, chattering and clattering, the noise of their talk and eating echoing almost painfully off the bare walls Stoner and Dr Lucacs went through the line wordlessly, making their selections, little sighs of air gushing out when a window snapped open

 

Stoner studied her face closely She seems to have slept well No bags under her eyes, no nervous fidgets He realized that she combed her honey-colored hair down over her forehead in bangs that almost reached her brows Must paste the electrodes to her forehead, he thought Or maybe she uses some sort of helmet that fits over the top of the head

 

Just the slightest touch of a delicate probe into her mind She flinched instantly, but Stoner saw the flicker of a vision Ilona Lucacs had shaved off all her hair so that the electrodes could be planted firmly against her scalp She wore a wig to hide her baldness

 

They sat at a small table along the far wall Ilona wore a fresh blouse of nondescript beige beneath her same tweed suit Stoner had no other clothes except the denim jacket, jeans, and light blue cotton twill shirt he had arrived in They had been cleaned overnight by the hotel's robots, and he had instructed the hotel computer to buy two complete changes of clothes for him

 

He watched her picking at the eggs and sausages she had selected, then asked, "Do you want to get off the stimulation?" "Off the juice?" Ilona's expression showed mild amuse-

 

ment She had expected this "Why should I want to get off it'"

 

"It's an addiction, isn't it'"

 

"It has no harmful side effects "

 

"None?"

 

She spread her hands "None at all "

 

Stoner leaned back in his chair and realized that she had spent the entire night in electrical ecstasy The glow of it was still in her face But she had no appetite for food

 

"Do you program the input yourself?"

 

"Yes, of course "

 

"How long do you stay plugged in?"

 

She looked away without answering

 

"How long was it when you first started?" he asked "How long was it a week ago'"

 

Ilona refused to meet his gaze

 

"It gets a little longer every night, doesn't it? You turn those dials just a bit higher every time Just a little longer each time Just a little more current "

 

"This is really none of your business, Dr Stoner," she said, her tawny eyes snapping "I can take care of myself "

 

He jabbed his fork into the thin, cream-covered pancake on his plate "Sure, you can take care of yourself Until one morning you don't get out of bed Until they break down the door of your apartment and find that you haven't eaten in three or four days Find you in the midst of your own shit, dehydrated and starving Maybe they won't find you until you're dead "

 

Her nostrils flared angrily But she controlled herself immediately and said, "I can handle the juice I always check the cut-off time before I put on the electrodes "

 

Stoner made up his mind "You want me to go to Budapest with you"

 

Startled by the abrupt change of subject, "Yes, of course That is why I came here "

 

"I'll do it only if you allow me to help you get off the stimulation "

 

She tried to laugh "Really, Dr Stoner, that is rather ridiculous "

 

"That's my deal Take it or leave it "

 

Those lioness's eyes took on a sly, almost smirking look "Very well If that is what it takes to bring you to Budapest, I accept your terms "

 

"We can leave this afternoon, as soon as I finish making the arrangements for the funeral and the reading of Professor Markov's will "

 

"Fine "

 

She had no intention of letting him or anyone else take away her pleasure machine She regarded him with the amused contempt that the young have always shown when their elders throw morality at them Stoner knew this

 

He also knew that somewhere in Budapest, Ilona Lucacs had a friend who had deliberately started her on her addiction, a friend who was moving toward the kind of nanotechnology that his star brother represented And for some reason, his alien sym-biote desperately feared that development It was a strange sensation Stoner had never felt fear in his star brother before

 

Despite his little cache of Moondust, Paulmo Alvarado was miserably sick all the long hours he was in space He had travelled from Peru to the Brazilian spaceport at Belem aboard a Panavia jet, forged papers and money for bribing customs officials in his wallet With a fresh hit of Moondust bolstering him, he had walked through the spaceport's boring routine of a perfunctory physical examination and the endless signing of liability waivers The medics did not detect the Moondust in his blood, it was designed to be untraceable Only its absence created metabolic imbalances

 

Then he had joined two dozen other men and women in the spare, stripped-down passenger compartment of a Pacific Commerce spaceplane This was no tourist flight, most of the sleek rocketplane's interior space was devoted to cargo for the Vanguard Industries base on the Moon The passengers were mostly new hires, no comforts were wasted on them beyond

 

the minimum required for safety Their compartment was strictly utilitarian, windowless, scuffed and stained by years of ferrying men and women into space

 

The instant the plane's engines cut off, Paulmo felt his guts drop away and he became thoroughly, wretchedly sick He felt as if he were falling, and even though he gripped the armrests of his narrow seat with white-knuckled desperation, a primitive voice inside his brain told him he was plummeting madly toward infinity He swallowed another pill dry, but instead of helping, it enhanced every physical sensation to the point where Paulmo felt like screaming He barely controlled himself

 

For only a few moments, when the ship's payload pod was detached from the spaceplane and boosted on a high-energy trajectory toward the Moon by an orbital tug, did the panic of falling disappear To be replaced by a bellowing surge of thrust that crushed Paulmo into his seat with the weight of demons on his chest

 

Then it was weightlessness again, and Paulmo retched into the bags they had given him until he thought he would puke up all his guts How many thousands of Yankee dollars was he vomiting up? The contents of the paper bags were worth a small fortune

 

Others were puking too The cabin stank of vomit, and it only took one miserable person's sickening noise to start everyone upchucking all over again

 

Finally the pod touched down on the dusty surface of the Moon Not that Paulmo could see anything in the windowless compartment But he felt a jarring thump and then the sense of weight returned Not like home, but suddenly his stomach returned to where it should be (sore from the hours of retching) and the screaming panic in his mind went away Even the stench seemed less acrid, less sickening

 

It was easy to tell the new hires from the veterans as the passengers got up from their seats and made their shaky way toward the hatch Paulmo and his fellow newcomers were ashen faced, their legs were wobbly, their hands trembling Even though they lunged desperately at the hand grips set into

 

each seat back along the plane's narrow aisle the low lunar gravity made them stumble and stagger. They looked awful, and the veterans grinned at them and joked to one another.

 

"Lookin' kinda green there, rookie "

 

"Don't worry, kid. A couple minutes out in the sun will give you a nice tan Right down to your bones "

 

It was difficult to walk He felt so light that he lurched or hopped every time he tried to take a step The veterans laughed at the newcomers' clumsiness.

 

"You'll get used to it, kids."

 

"If ya don't break yer asses first "

 

Again Paulino stood in line and signed the papers put before him This time, however, there were no human beings on the other side of the desks, only computers with interactive programs on their screens And no chairs The desks were chest-high, the newcomers signed and walked along as if they were on an assembly line Paulino moved cautiously, as though teetering on the edge of a precipice, hardly looking at his surroundings In truth there was little to see.

 

Vanguard Industries had established a mining center dug into the outer wall of the eighty-kilometer-wide crater Archimedes, on the shore of the broad Mare Imbrium The base was almost entirely underground, and for his first few hours on the Moon, Paulino was guided through a maze of tunnels and winding, curving corridors, stumbling and bouncing foolishly with every step he attempted to take.

 

When at last he was left alone in his quarters, a spare, spar-tan cell deep underground, he gave no thought to where he was, or what he had seen or failed to see, or to his miserable past or his dubious future as a drug pusher He swallowed a bit of Moondust, collapsed onto the narrow bunk and fell immediately asleep He was so exhausted that, for once, he was not tormented by the nightmare visions of his village being destroyed. He did not dream at all.

 

CHAPTER 14

 

STONER began to worry when he realized that the government car Ilona Lucacs had obtained was not driving in the direction of the airport.

 

"We're not going to Sheremetyevo?" he asked.

 

Sitting beside him on the rear seat of the black unmarked sedan, Ilona replied easily, "No. To a military airfield out beyond the ring road."

 

He gave her an inquisitive glance.

 

"When one works for the president of the nation," she explained with a slight smile, "one does not have to travel by commercial airliner."

 

Stoner accepted the explanation, realizing that the Hungarian woman was holding back part of the truth. As usual, he said to himself.

 

It was late afternoon. Stoner had spent the day making funeral arrangements for Kinll Markov through Rozmenko, the bureaucrat from the Academy of Sciences. There had been some legal holdup about reading the will, and Stoner had decided to go to Budapest with Lucacs rather than stew around Moscow, waiting for the lawyers to sort out the difficulty. Then he had returned to his hotel, stretched out on the sagging bed, and phoned Jo to tell her he was on his way to Budapest.

 

He could feel the cold of ice in Jo's voice. "Is it absolutely necessary to traipse out to Budapest? Don't you think you're asking for trouble?"

 

Holding his wrist comm in his hand and keeping it close to his lips, he replied, "There's something going on at their university that I've got to look into, Jo. It's important."

 

She caught the urgency in his tone. "Biochips?" she guessed.

 

"Clever woman," said Stoner. "That--and maybe more."

 

Jo made a huffing, sighing sound the way she always did when she accepted a situation without liking it. "Stay in constant touch with me," she said.

 

"Yes, boss," he joked.

 

He put the comm unit back on his wrist, picked up the little bundle of clothing that the hotel had obtained for him, and used the computer terminal built into the room's TV set to settle his bill and check out.

 

Now, as he sat beside the young Hungarian scientist, their car passed through several checkpoints where soldiers with rifles slung over their shoulders minutely examined their passports and the papers that the driver had tucked in the visor over his seat. Finally the car pulled up on the concrete apron outside a huge hangar. A solitary military transport was parked there, twin )et engine nacelles hanging from swept-back wings. The plane was painted olive drab, and bore the markings of the Hungarian air force.

 

Almost wordlessly, Stoner followed Ilona Lucacs into the plane, ducking his head in its low, narrow interior. There were twenty seats inside, arranged in five rows, two by two with an aisle up the middle.

 

The two of them were the only passengers A woman in military uniform poked her head through the hatch up front and asked in Hungarian

 

"Are you ready to leave?"

 

"Yes," said Ilona

 

"Fasten your safety belts, then. No smoking."

 

She closed the hatch and the engines whined to life. Stoner grinned at the brevity of the safety lecture. On a commercial flight they would have gotten a five-minute video that amounted to the same information

 

They took off into the setting sun, the engines roaring so loudly that the whole plane rattled. Conversation was virtually impossible over the bellowing howl. The plane vibrated so much that Stoner kept his seat belt tightly fastened as they arrowed high into the air and sped westward.

 

"The flight should take only about an hour," Ilona shouted over the din.

 

Stoner nodded and closed his eyes, pretending to sleep. Instead, he asked his star brother once again why the possibility that Lucacs and her coworkers were developing the beginnings of nanotechnology was so fearful.

 

We have known, you and I, that our symbiosis is the model for the next step in human evolution. We have worked for fifteen years to set the stage for that step forward, to create the global political and economic conditions for accepting this new concept. Why be afraid of it now?

 

Silence. Beneath the rattling droning roar of the plane's engines Stoner heard nothing. No answer from his star brother.

 

He probed harder. I know the biochips carry with them the possibilities for abuse. This woman I'm with is a perfect example of that. But they are necessary They are the first step toward the nanotechnology that will bring the human race its own symbiosis. What is there to fear?

 

Still no response. For the flash of an instant Stoner felt as if his star brother had gone away, abandoned him, left him as alone and separated as all the rest of the human kind. But the panic passed in less than a heartbeat He knew his star brother remained within him, they were inseparably linked forever.

 

But his star brother was afraid, and this made Stoner feel fear--and an overwhelming urge to help his brother, to dig out the roots of this fear and conquer it.

 

Together we can do it, he said silently. Together we can face it and overcome it.

 

The drone of the jet engines faded away The vibrations of the plane's flight disappeared. Stoner was back on the world of his star brother, walking across a broad field of orange motile grass. The individual leaves flowed away from his boots as he walked, baring the slightly pinkish soil to his tread, then closed again behind him. The white sun shone hot and bright overhead. And once again he saw the tower that reached to the sky.

 

He stopped in the middle of the field, still so far from the tower that it seemed like a fragile silver thread gleaming in the sunlight, rising from the horizon and climbing up, up, upward until he had to bend slightly backward and crane his neck to see it piercing to the zenith overhead

 

The world where my star brother was born, Stoner knew But the presence in his mind whispered, That is only partially true

 

The open field slowly dissolved, like watercolors washing away, melting, flowing The great silver sky tower wavered and then dissolved from his sight

 

Now Stoner stood in the midst of a vast city Magnificent temples of polished stone rose massively all around him He was in some sort of municipal plaza, huge smooth flagstones beneath his booted feet, temples of immense dignity on all four sides of the square

 

The sky was red Not like a sunset Red as blood Red with darkness rather than light From somewhere beyond the massive bulk of the temples bright flares flickered, almost like explosions off in the distance Yet Stoner heard no sound

 

Utterly alone, he strode across the great stone plaza in the blood-red light, heading straight for the largest of all the temples, directly in front of him His footsteps clicking against the flagstones were the only sounds he heard Not even the sigh of a breeze disturbed the immense empty plaza

 

A splendid broad stairway rose before him, topped by rows of gigantic columns The frieze above depicted creatures who were far from human With a mounting sense of dread, Stoner climbed those steep stairs while the sky flashed and darkened above

 

Slowly he passed through the rows of columns, almost reluctant to enter the temple itself Something was in there that he did not want to see Danger Horror

 

The interior was dark, deeply shadowed Stoner hesitated at the wide entryway, waiting for his vision to adjust, wishing that the darkening red sky were brighter He shuddered and stepped forward

 

A flash of light, like an explosion or a stroke of vengeful lightning, strobe-lit the temple's interior for the briefest instant Bodies Twisted, agonized, horrifying bodies Faceted eyes staring sightlessly Alien limbs contorted in death throes Bodies heaped atop one another as though piled up by a callous bulldozer

 

Stoner blinked against the vision and darkness returned He stood frozen at the temple's entrance, unwilling to move forward, unable to move back

 

Another strobe of brilliant light There were thousands of dead bodies, mounds of them taller than his own head All straining in their final moments toward a colossal statue of something not human

 

Darkness again Stoner was gasping for air He felt sweat trickling down his brow, stinging his eyes He wanted to leave this place of death His nostrils flared, waiting for the stench of decay to reach him

 

He felt, rather than heard, a distant rumble A volcano erupting? The ground splitting apart? The red sky glowered and throbbed The sullen dull light grew enough for Stoner to make out the piles of dead straining toward that enormous statue with their last strength Their god, their hero, their final desperate chance for salvation In the blood-red shadows he could not make out much of it, but it was totally non-human, bizarre, with strange shape and utterly alien geometry

 

Yet it was not grotesque Somehow Stoner felt the statue had a dignity to it, a grandeur, even It had been created by a sculptor with loving devotion

 

A sculptor who was dead The city was dead The entire world was dead

 

The intelligent creatures who had created the statues and raised the temples and built the city were all dead Extinct Gone forever from the universe Every form of life on the planet, from the simplest virus to the tallest trees and largest beasts, were all wiped out, killed without mercy and without exception Their dead bodies could not even decay

 

It was a planet of death. It had existed this way for millions of years. It would remain preserved in death until its star collapsed and exploded.

 

Why show me this? Stoner asked his star brother, while every nerve in his body screamed to be released from this grisly vision.

 

Because your world could become this, the presence in his mind replied. The human race could destroy itself and every living creature on Earth. Your people have that power in their grasp.

 

And Stoner realized that the terror he had felt in his star brother was not merely fear. It was shame.

 

Stoner opened his eyes, groaning, choking, the breath gagging in his throat. He felt perspiration beading his brow, his lip.

 

"A bad dream?" Ilona Lucacs asked, from the seat beside him.

 

He was in the jet transport plane. Its noise and vibration seemed comforting now, reassuring.

 

Gasping, "Yes, a bad dream. A real nightmare."

 

"Are you all right?"

 

He nodded, struggling to pull himself together.

 

She pointed toward the tiny window at her elbow. "We are coming down for a landing. The flight is almost over."

 

Stoner leaned across to look out the window. Nothing but green hills and country streams. Turning, he looked out the other side, across the empty aisle. No sign of a city.

 

"I thought we were going to Budapest," he said.

 

Ilona Lucacs smiled apologetically. "Not exactly," she said. "Not exactly Budapest."

 

Jo swam the length of the pool slowly, methodically, using an overhand crawl stroke that provided the most propulsion through the water for the least amount of exertion.

 

Her mind was racing, though. Keith should have called by now. Even with the time difference he ought to be in Budapest. She had tried to reach him on the phone but the

 

damned computer said it could not establish contact with him. Something's wrong, she knew. That wrist comm unit ought to be good anywhere, that's the reason we manufacture them. Millions of them sold all around the world. Why isn't Keith's working?

 

She reached the end, kick-turned, and started languidly back for the shallow end again. Maybe he doesn't want to be contacted? That young Hungarian bitch was damned good-looking. I know I can trust Keith. Sure. But can I trust her?

 

Standing hip-deep in the crystal-clear water, Jo climbed out of the pool and called to her children, sitting under the big palm tree at the end of the patio, watching the Saturday morning science shows on TV.

 

"Cathy, Rickie--come up to my office. Time for a fire drill."

 

"Aw, Mom, do we have to?"

 

"Again?"

 

Catherine was fourteen, that lean-legged coltish age when she was turning into a woman but still wanted to be a little girl. Richard, at ten, already showed his father's stubborn jaw and penetrating gray eyes.

 

Jo did not bother to say another word. Both children knew that when their mother gave an order she expected them to follow it. There was no wheedling with Mom.

 

The three of them trooped upstairs to Jo's office, just off the master bedroom, Jo wrapped in a sunset orange bath towel, Cathy in a flowered bikini, Rickie in his customary ragged cut-offs.

 

For more than an hour Jo drilled her children on the security measures that protected the house. Escape routes, emergency numbers to call, safe nooks for them to hide in until rescued. She called it a fire drill, but she also impressed on them that burglars might try to break into the house.

 

"Or kidnappers," Rickie said solemnly. "Like on TV."

 

"Yes," Jo nodded, equally serious, "there's always that possibility."

 

"Kidnappers?" Cathy looked frightened.

 

"Don't be upset," said her mother. "There are always at least five live servants here at the house at all times, and they know how to deal with intruders."

 

"You mean like Claudia and Uncle Nunzio?" Cathy looked unconvinced. "They're so old ."

 

"Not too old to protect you," Jo said. "And there are plenty of Vanguard security guards down the road, just a couple of minutes away."

 

"They've got guns," Rickie said, somewhat enviously.

 

"And we have all the electronic alarms and detectors," Jo said, still concerned that Cathy might be frightened. She wanted her children to know what to do in an emergency, but she did not want to scare them unnecessarily.

 

"If anything happens when your father or I are not here, you can always call Vie Tomasso," she told them. "If you see or hear anything that you think is suspicious, phone Vie right away."

 

WASHINGTON

 

THE Secretary of Defense, whose normal expression was a sullen scowl, actually smiled as he began to speak The President sank back in her chair, realizing they were in for a scolding.

 

"So it's finally come," said Defense, hunching forward and locking his hands prayerfully on the gleaming broad table top. "After years of starving the Defense Department, you need the Army After ignoring the needs of the nation and trusting to a bunch of foreigners in the Peace Enforcers to do the job Americans should be doing for themselves, you need us. You

 

need the military discipline and dedication that you've scorned for so many years."

 

The Secretary of the Interior, who was once on the U S. Olympic boxing team, snapped from across the table, "Cut the crap, Jerry. We got no time for speeches. This is an emergency."

 

Defense glared at his black colleague, but closed his mouth. The President sighed audibly.

 

"We've got to seal our borders," said the Secretary of Agriculture, "and prevent this virus from getting into the country."

 

"It's already here," said the Surgeon General, with some exasperation in his voice. "We've had eight cases in New Orleans, eleven in Florida, and sixty-three in the New York area "

 

"It's coming in from Latin America," Agriculture fumed. "We ought to go down there and wipe it out. Those damned greasers down there don't know the first thing about sanitation or public health."

 

Eying the three Hispanics around the table, the President replied, "This isn't the old days, Harry. We can't muscle our neighbors Nobody can."

 

The old Pentagon had been transformed into the new Executive Office Building. Not only had the armed services shrunk severely over the past decade, but the other agencies of the government had slowly decreased as well, as computers and artificial intelligence systems gradually, grudgingly replaced the human bureaucracy through the attrition of death and retirement. Now most of the government's administrative offices were housed in the vast Pentagon and the old buildings in Washington itself had been turned into museums for the tourists to wander through.

 

The President tried to regain control of the meeting. "The facts are these," she said crisply. "This virus is carried in drinking water. It has already reached the United States. The World Health Organization is attempting to identify it and find a way to stop it. They have asked our National Institutes of Health to work with them."

 

The Surgeon General nodded gravely.

 

"We ought to inspect every person coming into the country," Agriculture insisted. "If they object, don't let 'em in!"

 

The rest of the Cabinet ignored him.

 

"For the time being," the President continued, "the only thing we can do is have people boil their drinking water. I will declare a National Emergency tomorrow, and the Army will begin setting up emergency treatment centers across the country, starting with the most crowded areas of our cities."

 

She carefully avoided using the word "ghetto." In her victorious election campaign of the previous year she had triumphantly declared that there were no more ghettos in American cities.

 

"Panic," muttered the Vice President "This is gonna cause the god-damnedest panic you ever saw. There's gonna be riots in the streets once the word of this gets out "

 

"That's why we need the Army To keep things under control," the President replied

 

The Secretary of Defense smiled again, as if they had acknowledged that he had been right all along.

 

The Secretary for Space, usually silent in Cabinet meetings, raised a timid hand "Might I suggest," he said in a thin voice, "that we follow the advice of the Secretary of Agriculture as far as our facilities off-Earth are concerned. Each person bound for a space facility should be examined and, if found to be carrying the virus, should be refused entry."

 

"You mean for private carriers as well as government?" asked the Secretary of State. "Our commercial space lines carry citizens from all over the world "

 

"I mean for everybody," said Space, with unusual firmness "If that virus gets established in the closed environment of a space habitat it will kill everybody in a few days."

 

He did not say aloud what he was really thinking: If the virus is as deadly as they had been told, the entire human race might be wiped off the face of the Earth in a matter of weeks. Then all that would be left was the hundred thousand or so who lived in space habitats He was already making plans to move his entire family to the largest habitat in the L5 region

 

BOOK III

 

Krishna: "The wise grieve not for those who live; and they grieve not for those who die-- for life and death shall pass away."

 

CHAPTER 15

 

THE Hungarian transport was corning down at a military airstrip deep in the wooded hills. Stoner saw a long, narrow lake as they started their descent but it disappeared behind the tree-covered ridges.

 

He tapped at his wrist comm unit for a location fix. It did not respond.

 

"This aircraft is shielded," Ilona said over the howl of the engines. "It is a necessary precaution."

 

"Necessary?" Stoner asked sharply. "For whom?"

 

She looked uncomfortable. "It is not my doing. I am merely following orders."

 

"That's what the Nazis said," Stoner muttered.

 

Ilona pretended not to hear, but her cheeks colored and she turned toward the window.

 

When handed a lemon, Stoner said to himself, start making lemonade. Loud enough to be heard over the engines' roar, he asked, "Is this the country where they make that red wine we had last night, the Bull's Blood?"

 

"Oh no," Ilona replied, raising her voice as the engines' scream rose even higher. "The wine comes from Eger, to the east."

 

The plane lurched and she grabbed compulsively at the armrests. Stoner felt his stomach drop away, then climb up into his throat, and then the landing gear hit the ground with a walloping thump. The plane bounced back into the air, wobbled along the runway for an awfully long time, and finally hit the ground again with another hard bang and screeching of tires.

 

"Must be very gusty out there," Stoner muttered as they rolled along the paved runway, thrust reversers screaming, brakes groaning like a live bull being dragged across the con-

 

crete Trees whizzed by and finally he saw a few hangars and other buildings

 

At last the plane lurched to a stop and the engines whined down into silence Stoner wiped his brow as the main hatch was opened from the outside Three men climbed in, two in tan soldier's uniforms and the third a stocky dark-eyed young man wearing brown corduroy slacks and a faded blue wind-breaker The soldiers had pistols on their hips in gleammgly oiled leather holsters

 

Ilona pushed past Stoner to get into the aisle

 

"Dr Stoner," she said, her eyes flashing, "may I introduce to you Doctor Professor Zoltan Janos, of the University of Budapest "

 

Janos was short and round, hardly taller than Ilona, with a barrel-chested torso that seemed too big for his slim arms and legs High domed forehead, thinning hair The dark fringe of a beard accentuated the roundness of his face His eyes, though, were deep set and as intense as laser beams

 

"An honor, Dr Stoner " His voice was clear and as sweet as the finest Irish tenor's

 

Stoner pulled himself out of the seat but had to bend over in the low confines of the plane's aisle He took Janos's extended hand and asked, "Any relation to the legendary Hungarian patriot, Hary Janos "

 

The younger man's eyes widened momentarily He almost smiled But he controlled himself and said a bit stiffly, "No I deal with realities, not legends "

 

Stoner would have shrugged if he had not been stooped over

 

"I must ask you for the communications unit on your wrist, please," said Janos "It will be returned to you when you leave "

 

Stoner hesitated a moment, then unstrapped the bracelet and handed it to the Hungarian "I would like to tell my wife that I am alive and well," he said "She expected me to be in Budapest tonight So did I "

 

Janos nodded curtly as he turned and started for the hatch "Of course You may telephone her from the lodge But you will not be permitted to reveal your whereabouts to her "

 

"Not be permitted'"

 

"It is a security precaution," Ilona said hastily

 

"Why all the cloak and dagger " Stoner wondered, following them down the aisle "I thought you people were scientists "

 

"We are," Ilona assured him

 

Stepping down the shaky aluminum ladder to the ground, Stoner stretched his frame and felt tendons in his arms and shoulders pop dehciously A warm wind tousled his hair, in the distance he saw the trees bending and swaying

 

"Why all the secrecy?" he asked again

 

Janos replied, "You will understand when we show you our laboratory "

 

More curious than apprehensive, Stoner let them lead him to an old forest-green sedan that had obviously gone months, perhaps years, since its last washing

 

"The laboratory is up in the hills, at the lodge," said Ilona as she and Janos climbed into the back with him The two soldiers squeezed in up front with the driver, who was also in military uniform

 

"Vie, he hasn't called and he doesn't answer my calls," Jo's image in the phone screen was saying "I want you to find him'"

 

Tomasso shifted uneasily in his desk chair "That won't be easy "

 

"If it were easy I'd have already done it " she snapped "Find him Now "

 

The screen went blank Tomasso licked his lips He had never seen the president of Vanguard so distressed But her husband had never disappeared before, either

 

Is this a test? Tomasso asked himself A setup, to see if I'm really worth what she's paying me Or maybe she suspects the connection with Hsen

 

I've got to be careful here Verrry careful It's like walking through a minefield

 

Victor Francis Tomasso had learned from earliest childhood that a smile and a bit of fancy footwork can move you along

 

on the road of life. The youngest of eight children evenly divided between boys and girls, he had been babied by his mother, bullied by his older brothers, and beaten by his father whenever the old man needed somebody to bolster his machismo. A rough day on the construction job' Wham for little Vickie Lost the paycheck on the ponies? Whack the kid for making too much noise.

 

Victor discovered early on that he could start screaming as soon as his father raised his hand, and his mother or his sisters would run to his rescue. By the time he was four he had learned to start family arguments by deliberately getting his father's goat, then screeching before the first blow landed. His father never caught on Neither did his sisters nor, most important of all, his mother

 

It seemed that no matter how much money his father earned on his construction jobs, there was never enough to go around. Buffalo was not a fast-lane kind of city, but all the Tomassos knew that they were close to the bottom of the ladder even in their own run-down blue collar neighborhood. Vic's mother worked longer hours than his father running the inventory programs for a grocery warehouse All the kids got jobs as soon as they were able. Still they were poor, and the ads they watched on TV rubbed it in every hour of every day

 

Vic's oldest brother got himself killed in a gang fight before he was sixteen Two of his sisters got married early and moved away Vie saw the handwriting on the wall' if he didn't make his own move soon, he would be left alone with his aging mother and father, and then he would never get away.

 

So he took off the day he was supposed to start high school. And he never returned. He learned very quickly that a bright young man could live nicely if he knew how to get himself a driver's license and a Social Security card Smiling and flirting with the dumpy, dough-faced women who ran most town hall offices was a big help. But once he learned how to finagle computers, Vie had it made

 

His father had given him one piece of wisdom, years earlier. The family had been eating supper, gathered around the

 

nightly network news on TV The screen showed six smiling, extremely well-dressed men walking away from a courthouse in New York City. Or maybe it was Washington. The sound track told how these six Wall Street brokers had been accused of stealing millions of dollars from their clients, but the judge had let them go free

 

"Steal enough money and you can walk home," said Tommy, the oldest, the one who would die with a knife in his spleen four blocks from his house.

 

"There's more fuckin' money stolen with a briefcase," said their father, "than with a gun "

 

Vie remembered that And once he had talked his way into a job tapping data into a computer for the billing department of a Minneapolis department store, Vie recalled his father's words time and again.

 

He never stole enough to get caught, just enough to live a little better than his salary. With his charm and the money he could spend, he climbed a ladder of women that eventually led to Vanguard Industries' headquarters in Hawaii He was in the big leagues now, and he did not have to steal anymore. He simply became a double agent. Selling his services to more than one company was much better than stealing More money and less risk.

 

Until now

 

Tomasso leaned back in his chair and put his expensively booted feet on his desk. He closed his eyes and began to analyze his situation. Jo Camerata wants me to find her husband. Hsen and his people need to know where Stoner is, and when he's going to be at his house

 

Okay, no conflict there Find Stoner and they'll both be happy. The problem is, how do I find Stoner'

 

As they drove up into the wooded hills Stoner sensed enormous tension in Zoltan Janos. The man was wound tighter than the spring on a crossbow. One touch and he'll shoot off

 

Ilona was growing tenser with each second, too. At first Stoner thought that she was merely anticipating the chance

 

to plug herself in to her pleasure machine once more. But as the car wound up the steep twisting road he began to realize that Ilona was picking up on Janos's tension.

 

He studied the professor. Young for that honor. No more than thirty, thirty-two. Very committed to his work, that was obvious. He must be the one who got Ilona started on the brain stimulation. Does he do it himself? Is he addicted too? Stoner decided that Janos was not. He's too wrapped up in his work for that. He doesn't need the pleasure stimulator; he's got enough stimulation already.

 

Does he know how deeply Ilona is addicted? Yes, Stoner decided. And he doesn't care. Not enough to try to get her off it. She's easier to manipulate because of it. He's her pusher, her connection.

 

Ilona touched Stoner's sleeve. Pointing with her other hand, she said, "The lodge--where you will spend the night."

 

Stoner ducked slightly to look out the window on the opposite side of the car. He saw up on the crest of the wooded ndge a long, low stone building with a timber roof. An old hunting lodge, still kept in first-rate condition. At least I won't have to rough it tonight, he said to himself.

 

The lodge was sumptuous. Polished stone floors covered with luxurious carpets, impressive formal dining room with a gleaming long table and high-backed chairs upholstered in leather. There were no animal heads mounted on the wall, as Stoner had half expected. Instead there were heraldic crests with symbols of eagles and lions and boars against fields of blazing red and royal blue.

 

"In centuries past," said Janos, conducting Stoner on an impromptu tour of the lodge, "this was a hunting lodge for the Habsburg emperors and their aristocratic friends. When the empire was broken up, it became a tourist hotel, and then after the Second World War a youth hostel."

 

Stoner pictured hordes of red-shirted Young Communists demolishing the place just as youngsters anywhere would with all their teenaged noise and energy.

 

"It was refurbished as part of the great restructuring of Hun-

 

ganan society," Janos continued his lecture as the three of them walked through a snug library filled with books from beamed ceiling to bearskin-covered floor. An unused fireplace and stone chimney filled one corner of the room. Stoner saw no logs in its dark and cold emptiness, but a pipe for gas instead.

 

As they went from room to room, Janos did all the talking. Ilona was -as silent as a freshman attending her first lecture.

 

"The government has generously allowed us to use this lodge as our quarters," Janos concluded, heading toward the broad staircase that led up to the bedrooms.

 

"Quarters for your laboratory staff," Stoner asked

 

Giving a curt nod, Janos said, "Each of us has equal accommodations, from the lowliest maintenance personnel to the laboratory director, we share and share alike."

 

"Very democratic," said Stoner as they started up the stairs "I presume you are the laboratory director."

 

"Yes, that is true That is my room there, in the corner."

 

Stoner guessed that it was somewhat larger than any of the other rooms. Janos came across as the kind of man who considered himself rather more equal than anyone else.

 

"And the laboratory is nearby?"

 

"Quite close."

 

"Under our feet, actually," said Ilona.

 

Stoner looked at her quizzically.

 

Frowning slightly, Janos explained, "The laboratory is underground, below this building, buried quite deeply."

 

"Why underground "

 

"For security," said Ilona.

 

Janos darted an angry glare at her "It was built originally in the days of the Cold War as a bomb shelter for key members of the government In case of nuclear attack."

 

"I see," said Stoner.

 

They showed him to a bedroom where his scanty package of clothes had already been placed neatly on the rack at the foot of the bed. After telling him that dinner would be served in precisely two hours, they left him alone

 

Stoner surveyed the bedroom. Comfortable enough. No

 

telephone, though Jo must be climbing the walls by now, he thought I've got to call her

 

The door was unlocked At least that's something, he said to himself How many times had he been quietly tucked away in some remote location, behind locked doors or surrounded by security police' They always said it was for his own good, which always meant it was for their own purposes

 

Stoner's star brother pointed out that they did not know what fanos's true purposes were as yet Ilona's explanation about studying him in order to learn more about cryomcs might be true, but even if it was it covered a deeper purpose Biochips, replied Stoner, and the first steps toward nano-technology

 

The horrifying vision of the dead world flooded Stoner's mind for an instant Nanotechnology can lead to that' he asked his star brother The answer was immediate and implacable Yes

 

He went down the stairs to the spacious parlor and front hall No one there Not a soul Closing his eyes for a moment, Stoner recalled his tour a few minutes earlier through these rooms Not a telephone or communications system of any kind down here, he realized Ilona's up in her room, juicing herself into paradise, there's no help to be had from her

 

Only one place where a phone would be Stoner bounded back up the stairs and rapped sharply on Janos's door

 

Without waiting for an answer he opened the door and stepped in As he suspected, this was a much larger room than the others Windows on two sides gave splendid views of the hills and woods A king-sized bed, neatly made up with a chenille spread A fireplace Even a TV set

 

Janos sat behind a small desk, his mouth open and dark eyes blazing with surprise and anger Stoner saw a computer terminal on the desk And his own comm bracelet lying beside it

 

"You said I could phone my wife if I didn't reveal my location," he said to the startled Janos

 

"I will have someone call her--" Janos began to say

 

Stoner walked slowly to his desk and leaned both his fists on its top, looming over the professor "I would prefer to speak to my wife myself "

 

Janos began to shake his head, but stopped before he really started

 

Stoner said softly, "You wouldn't deny such a simple request, would you?"

 

For a moment Janos seemed to be struggling within himself Then, "No, it would be unkind to deny your request, I agree "

 

"May I use my own comm unit'" asked Stoner

 

"Yes Why not?" Reluctantly

 

Stoner picked up the silver bracelet and spoke Jo's name into it In less than two seconds her voice crackled through the tiny microphone

 

"Keith Are you all right? Where are you?"

 

"I'm fine," he said, pacing slightly away from Janos's desk "Sorry I couldn't call you earlier "

 

"What happened? Where are you?"

 

Knowing that she could get a positional fix on his transmission from the satellite relaying his call, Stoner replied, "I'm not in Budapest My Hungarian friends have taken me to one of their labs Nothing for you to worry about I ought to be on my way home tomorrow If there's any change in plans I'll call you "

 

"You're sure you're okay?"

 

"I'm fine, Jo " He smiled at her voice "I love you, darling "

 

"I love you, too You had me so worried "

 

"There's nothing to worry about Kiss the kids for me "

 

"You'll be home tomorrow?"

 

"I'll probably stop off in Moscow for Kir's funeral Can you meet me there?"

 

"Yes I'll have to move my schedule around a little, but yes, I'll be there "

 

"See you in Moscow, then "

 

"All right "

 

"Good night, darling "

 

"It's seven in the morning here."

 

"Did I wake you?"

 

"I wasn't sleeping."

 

"Have a good day, Jo."

 

"You sound like a damned airline steward!"

 

He laughed. Her sense of humor was back and the fear was out of her voice.

 

"'Bye for now."

 

"Take care, Keith."

 

Stoner held onto his bracelet for a moment, then handed it back to Janos. As if waking from a dream, he stirred, blinked his eyes, then snatched the bracelet as if it had been stolen from him.

 

"Thank you," said Stoner.

 

Janos watched with wondering eyes as the American calmly walked out of his room. He manipulated me as if I were a child, Janos said to himself. He has the power to twist a grown man around his little finger! If the president ever finds out about that he will want me to find the source of that power and give it to him. If the people in Hong Kong ever learn about it ...

 

Sinking back in his creaking plastic desk chair, Janos realized, But if I can find the source of such power, why would I give it to anyone except myself?

 

CHAPTER 16

 

STILL tangled in the bedsheets, Jo eagerly tapped on the phone console's keyboard the instant Keith's call ended. The small screen showed the coordinates of the call's point of origin.

 

With a little whoop of triumph she ordered the computer to store the information. Then she phoned Tomasso. He was not at his apartment, but within seconds the computer tracked him down and made the connection.

 

"Keith phoned me a few minutes ago," she said breathlessly. "He's all right, but I want you to get a team of people ready to reach him."

 

Tomasso's face looked slightly puffy, sleepy. On the small phone screen it was impossible for Jo to see much of the background. In the back of her mind she wondered whose bed Vie was in and how much sleep he had gotten.

 

"Where is he?" Tomasso asked.

 

"Coordinates are on file. Get to the office and get to work!"

 

"Yes, boss." Despite the dark rings beneath his eyes, Tomasso grinned at her with his flawless teeth.

 

Instead of returning to his room, Stoner went down the corridor to the door of Ilona's bedroom. He stood there for a long moment, listening, hearing nothing.

 

Gently he tried the doorknob. It turned easily and the door opened.

 

She was stretched out on the bed fully clothed, glassy eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling, fingers twitching spasmodically. Her honey-colored wig of thick curls lay discarded on the floor, thrown aside in her rush. A helmet made of plastic straps studded with metal contacts was cinched tightly on her shaved head. Hair-thin wires connected to a console the size of a laptop computer resting on the carpeted floor beside the bed.

 

Stoner's nostrils flared as if he smelled the stench of rotting garbage. His first instinct was to stride to the pleasure machine and smash it beneath his heel.

 

No! warned his star brother. Not abruptly.

 

Stoner knew he was right. He had to find the reason why Ilona could become addicted before he could truly end her dependency.

 

He sat on the bed beside her. She did not move, did not

 

blink, did not acknowledge his presence in any way. My god, I could strip her naked and screw her all night long and she wouldn't even know it What an opportunity for nec-rophihacs

 

Isaac Newton had discovered that for every action there is an opposite reaction Popular wisdom declared that every dark cloud has a silver lining. While Ilona's conscious mind was completely shut down in the tidal surges of pure pleasure coming from the machine, her unconscious mind was as wide open as it could ever be Leaning over her, gazing into her unseeing eyes, Stoner tried to learn the who and why of Ilona Lucacs

 

It was a matter of guilt. Born in an age when parents could pick the sex of their offspring, Ilona was the daughter of a proud and forceful woman who had overridden her husband's desire for a son Yet although the passive father had acquiesced to his wife's wishes, Ilona was made aware from her earliest days that she was a disappointment to her father.

 

He was the nurturing parent, the one who was always there with his child. Her mother, a concert pianist, travelled all across the world. Ilona and her father remained in Budapest, where he could watch her and feed her and play with her. And make her know, hour by hour, day by day, year after year, how much he would have preferred a son.

 

She loved her father and broke her heart to please him. In school she skimped her studies to practice athletics. In a nation of fencers she became a champion with the foil. When she handed her gold medals to her father, he smiled and reminisced about his youth when he had been a saber fencer. Women were not allowed to fence saber in international competition. Too bad. Foil was good, of course, even though overly dainty. Now saber--ah, that was real fencing

 

Ilona grew into a beautiful young woman. Not as tall and regal as her mother, but so obviously feminine that she felt almost ashamed of herself. She dressed as manmshly as she could when she entered the university To please her father she took the science curriculum.

 

And found that she had a first-rate mind She not only understood science, she loved it. For the first time in her young life she found that she was enjoying what she was doing not because it pleased her father but because it pleased her. At her graduation, when she placed first in her class, her father collapsed with a heart attack She could not go on to graduate studies, she would be needed at home to take care of him.

 

Nonsense her mother replied. She retired from her world tours and concentrated on video performances that she could do from Budapest. Ilona went on to get her doctorate. And her father recovered his health with stunning swiftness.

 

To be killed in a traffic accident. A few weeks after Ilona had moved from their apartment to begin work as an assistant to the youngest professor in the university: Zoltan fanos. He died in a head-on collision while driving to visit her in her new apartment.

 

She immediately fell in love with Janos and would have moved in with him if he had responded to her. But he was too wrapped up in his work to make a commitment to anyone. The old sense of guilt reasserted itself. Ilona believed she was responsible for her father's death. The man she loved would not respond to her. Her work suffered. She grew morose, depressed

 

Janos introduced her to the pleasures of direct brain stimulation, more as a way of "pepping up" than anything else. He had tried it himself, found it enjoyable, but had never delivered himself to it. Ilona, needing to be told that she was loved for herself, took the electrical pleasure of direct stimulation instead.

 

And became hooked on it.

 

Now Stoner knew the why and wherefore. He sat on the bed for long moments more, considering what to do. It was bitterly ironic You're willing to take the fate of the entire human race in your hands, he told himself, but accepting responsibility for the life of this one young woman gives you pause.

 

He leaned down and turned the dial that governed the

 

amount of current being fed into her brain Just a bit Then he turned back the timer dial, so the machine would shut itself off and she would awaken

 

He stood up and watched as the seconds ran out and the current stopped Ilona shuddered, her eyelids fluttered, the pupils focused and she realized he was standing over her, a tall man with wide shoulders and a grim, darkly bearded face looking down at her

 

"Oh'"

 

"It's all right, Ilona," Stoner said softly "It's all right I just want you to know that you're not alone And you never will be Not anymore "

 

"I what " Her hands flew to her shaved head

 

"It's all right," he repeated

 

"Get out'" she screamed "Get away from me "

 

She ripped the electrode grid from her head and threw it at Stoner's face

 

"Meddling bastard' Get out Get out "

 

He turned and swiftly left the room, leaving her sitting up on the bed, clothes wrinkled, dishevelled, hands trying to cover her shaved scalp, feeling utterly miserable and confused

 

Stoner wore his new clothes when he came down to the library a fresh set of jeans, shirt, and jacket, all manufactured in Bangladesh Ilona glanced at him warily, her tawny eyes angry, suspicious She wore a simple white tunic over plain black slacks, no jewelry except a necklace of carnehan and matching earrings Her wig had been carefully combed Janos was in an old-fashioned double-breasted suit of light gray with pinstripes and a formal shirt with a carefully knotted tie that bore the crest of the university

 

"I have just been informed," he said, his eyes glowing, "that we will have an important guest join us for dinner A very important guest The president of the republic "

 

Stoner saw that Janos was impressed with himself Ilona did not seem surprised Janos stood by the library's one win-

 

dow, obviously struggling with the urge to part the curtains and look outside The gas-fed fireplace was alight with thin bluish flames, their warmth felt good in the gathering chill of evening A robot glided in with a tray of cocktails Stoner sipped at his and identified it as a vodka martini Probably the president's favorite, not his own

 

A helicopter thundered down on the parking lot outside Janos gestured with both hands to keep Stoner and Ilona in the library

 

"The butler will bring him in here," he said "No need to run outside and gawk like peasants " But his free hand twitched toward the curtained window

 

A few minutes later the door to the library was opened by a beefy-faced security man in the traditional dark suit Then the president of Hungary stepped in, all smiles and nods

 

He was a tiny man, slightly stooped, walking rather slowly Arthritis, Stoner guessed He looked sprightly, though, for seventy-eight An elegant dark blue business suit Still some color to his graying hair, and his skin looked a healthy pink without the waxmess of cosmetic surgery His face was wreathed in a broad, toothy grin that squeezed his eyes to mere slits He held an enormous cigar in his left hand, keeping his right free for clasping Janos's

 

"My brilliant young friend," said the president "How are you this fine evening'"

 

Before Janos could respond the president had already turned to Ilona "And the lovely Dr Lucacs I see that you have been successful in bringing Dr Stoner to us I spoke with your mother this morning She sends her love "

 

Ilona smiled and blushed as the president brought her hand to his lips For a moment Stoner thought she was going to curtsey

 

"And you," said the president, releasing Ilona, "are the illustrious Dr Keith Stoner "

 

He took Stoner's hand in a surprisingly powerful grip Janos said stiffly, "President Novotny "

 

The man was so short that it was difficult for Stoner to see

 

into his eyes They were narrow and masked by thick dark brows And they darted about the room constantly, never meeting Stoner's gaze squarely, always shifting away as if searching for danger Or opportunity

 

Janos led them to the long dining table, where four places had been set at one end President Novotny sat at its head, Janos and Ilona on his left, Stoner on his right He wondered where the rest of the laboratory staff was having its dinner this evening Equal but separate, Stoner said to his star brother Which means not equal at all, the alien responded The food was good, the wine better, and dinner conversation pleasant and inconsequential Once the dishes had been cleared away and several musty bottles of brandies put before the president, he lit a fresh cigar and began telling long, rambling stories about his childhood and early political experiences

 

"Those were terrible days," he said, puffing thick clouds of blue smoke toward the beamed ceiling "My grandfather died in the uprising, my father was arrested and held for nearly six years They wouldn't let me join the Party until I was almost forty That's what the rebellion of '56 left us A heritage of suspicion and anger "

 

"In the West," said Stoner, "the Hungarian uprising was regarded with great sympathy Students fighting Russian tanks with little more than their bare hands "

 

For once Novotny's eyes bored straight at Stoner "The West applauded, but did nothing to help Hungary The West praised our Freedom Fighters, but stood aside and allowed the Soviets to crush them "

 

Stoner admitted, "True enough "

 

"But--" The president's eyes began to rove again and he smiled |ovially, "--all that happened more than sixty years ago Ancient history Hungary is proud and free today "

 

"And we will grow stronger," Janos added

 

"Indeed we will," President Novotny agreed

 

"By developing biochips?" Stoner asked

 

Novotny's smile faltered for )ust a moment Then, "Why, yes, biochips are what they are called You know of them "

 

"They are being developed in the West, as well "

 

"So I had heard "

 

fanos nearly sneered "We know about the work being done in the West Primitive, compared to our research "

 

"One British group is working with a team of pri-matologists in Africa," said Ilona "They are trying to estab lish linkages between humans and apes through implanting biochips "

 

"Primitive," Janos repeated

 

Stoner replied, "I think the research that Vanguard Indus tries is doing is further advanced than that I'm sure other corporations are also working on the concept "

 

"The corporations do their work in secret," Novotny said, his bushy brows knitting "They do not publish their results in the scientific journals "

 

"Nor do we," Ilona pointed out "Our work is kept secret We are not allowed to publish "

 

President Novotny spread his hands in the classic what can I do gesture "You see that we have competition It is important--vital--that our competitors do not learn of the ad vances we have made "

 

Stoner wondered how they intended to have him help them without revealing the advances they had made No matter, he told his star brother, we can always talk our way out of here when we're ready to

 

As if reading Stoner's mind, the president turned to him and said, "Of course, this has almost nothing to do with you, sir Our interest in you sterns from your unique experience in surviving cryonic freezing "

 

Stoner smiled back at Novotny "Do you mean that you don't believe there's a connection between the two"

 

Novotny looked startled and glanced at Janos

 

The scientist glared at Stoner "Until this moment, the connection was nothing more than a hypothesis of mine "

 

With a grin, Stoner said, "I see that Dr Lucacs has im pressed the correct word on you "

 

The president's head swivelled from Stoner to Janos and then back again

 

"What is your hypothesis'" Stoner asked as softly as a leopard padding through the jungle

 

Janos looked distinctly uncomfortable Obviously he had not intended to speak of this in front of President Novotny, but now he was in a corner

 

"It will sound . outlandish," he said

 

"It is my idea " Ilona snapped "And it is pure speculation, nothing but a series of surmises "

 

She's trying to shield him, thought Stoner

 

"I would still like to hear it, regardless of whose idea it is," said the president His smile was deadly now He put his cigar in the oversized metal ashtray that had been placed at his elbow and reached for the nearest brandy bottle

 

"The biochips," Ilona said as the president poured for himself, "are miniature electronic elements based on protein instead of silicon or other semiconductor materials "

 

"This I know," Novotny said He did not offer anyone else a drink

 

"The purpose of using protemoid materials is to allow the chips to be implanted in the body and connected to the nervous system "

 

"But that is only the first step," Janos took over, his clear tenor voice trembling slightly "It is conceivable--conceptually possible--to make other devices for implantation in the body Smaller devices Machines that can do many different tasks, much as the cells of the body themselves But better "

 

"And smaller than cells, much smaller," said Ilona

 

"Nanotechnology, it has been called," Janos said "Creating devices that are a millionth of a millimeter in size Devices that can exist inside the human body, repairing cell damage, enhancing the body's health, counteracting the effects of aging--"

 

"And freezing," Ilona said, staring directly at Stoner

 

"Even producing extraordinary mental powers," Janos added

 

All three of them focused their total attention on Stoner

 

He said nothing, merely leaned back in his chair while his star brother waited, shuddering, within him

 

"I have heard of this thing called nanotechnology," President Novotny said "My director of scientific research briefed me on its possibilities But he said that such a development would not be possible for many decades to come "

 

"The alien race that built the starship must have developed nanotechnology," fanos said

 

"And Dr Stoner spent many years in cryonic suspension aboard that ship," Ilona added "His body could have been invaded by alien "

 

"Devices," Stoner said for her "Not creatures The devices are machines By themselves they are as inert as an automobile parked in a garage "

 

Janos gasped "It is true "

 

Stoner said nothing But, gazing at President Novotny, he could see the whirling thoughts behind his darting eyes What weapons could we make of such devices' Invisibly small machines that could invade the human body and tear it apart from the inside What a truly incredible weapon that could be The man who controls such technology could become the most powerful man on Earth

 

CHAPTER 17

 

HIS star brother fairly snarled with revulsion The first thing he thinks of is weaponry, killing his fellow humans The second thing is power

 

The only thing he thinks of is himself, Stoner pointed out In his deepest heart he does not regard anyone else as truly

 

human, no one except himself. He is the center of his world. Everything and everyone else revolves around him.

 

And with people such as this you want to share the powers that we have?

 

We must share the power with them, Stoner said, or they will soon die.

 

Give them our power and they will kill themselves in an orgy of murder. You saw the world of death. You know what can happen when such powers are misused. That is what this man will do! He will destroy your world, utterly and forever!

 

Perhaps, admitted Stoner. But the time has come to face that choice

 

No, said his star brother. Implacably.

 

We must, Stoner insisted They'll develop it on their own and misuse it We no longer have the option of delaying. It's got to be done now By us. While we can observe and control.

 

We can't control this egomaniac He's mad for power.

 

We can. We've got to

 

Stoner pushed his chair back and got to his feet. "I would like to see your laboratory now," he said to Janos.

 

No raged his star brother Don't do this The risk is too great Everything we've tried to achieve will be smashed away

 

Do you see an alternative Stoner asked. Other than killing the three of them

 

His star brother fell silent.

 

Janos slowly stood up, as if in a hypnotic trance. "You wish to see the laboratory now?"

 

Stoner nodded gravely.

 

"Come on then "

 

Ilona and the president followed them as fanos led Stoner to the rear of the lodge and down a flight of metal stairs to a concrete-walled basement Overhead fluorescents flickered on automatically, triggered by the heat of their bodies. They walked past dusty shelves of packing crates and long rows of wine bins and finally came to a heavy steel door. Janos tapped out a combination on the keyboard panel set into the wall.

 

The door clicked open slightly and a gust of air sighed out from it.

 

It was the narrow cage of an elevator. The four of them squeezed into it and rode down in breathless silence about thirty meters, Stoner estimated When the elevator stopped the metal bars of its door opened automatically

 

As laboratories went, theirs was small. But Stoner realized that they did not need elaborate facilities nor huge expanses of equipment and offices. A few dedicated researchers, backed by a government that provided them virtually anything they asked for. That was enough. More than enough.

 

Janos walked them through two labs and into a third room that looked to be a combination of a surgical center with an electronics shop. An operating table, bare and cold beneath a quartet of powerful lamps. Rows of metal cabinets that held surgical instruments. Banks of computers and monitors lining the adjacent wall, their screens round and blank as the eyes of the dead. The faint odor of animal fur and excrement hung in the air despite the hum of air fans set into the concrete ceiling that sucked up Novotny's cigar smoke with relentless efficiency.

 

Stoner pointed toward double doors on the other side of the chamber. "Animal pens through there."

 

Janos bobbed his head twice. "Dogs, mostly. We have done a few procedures with chimpanzees and even gorillas, but dogs are much easier to work with."

 

"And you want to take samples of my blood to see if it's crawling with nanometer-sized alien machines." It was not a question.

 

"Blood and tissue samples, yes," said fanos.

 

"That won't be necessary," said Stoner. "But if you can make a small incision in your president's thumb, or one of his fingertips ..."

 

Madness screamed his star brother silently.

 

For the first time since he had awakened fifteen years earlier, Stoner ignored the alien presence within him. He

 

watched, grim-faced, as Janos woodenly found a small needle and pricked both Novotny's thumb and his own.

 

He locked his eyes with Novotny's. The politician tried to look away, but could not. Stoner saw in the Hungarian president's eyes what he had heard at the dinner table: a man totally dedicated to himself, a man who did not truly regard other men and women as human beings, a man who felt nothing for anyone except himself.

 

He glanced down at the bead of blood welling from his flesh and then back into the half-fearful, half-exultant eyes of the politician. Stoner said, "You want the power that is implied by the alien's capabilities. Here it is."

 

You know why I'm doing this, Stoner said silently to his star brother. The alien presence replied, I understand but I do not agree

 

I have more faith in the human race than you do. Perhaps that's because I know them better.

 

I know everything that you know, his star brother reminded him. And I am not so affected by daydreams and false hopes as you are.

 

You could control those hopes if you chose to.

 

No, the time for that is past. You have decided to act against my best judgment. We must both see which of us is right, even though the stakes are the survival of your kind and all the other forms of life on this world.

 

Stoner took Novotny's thumb and pressed it against his own. For a wild, insane moment a distant echo from long ago sprang up in his mind: high school, a teenager rife with acne rubbing thumbs with a girl and then announcing that he was a Martian and his sex organ was in his thumb.

 

Stoner almost laughed aloud. He looked up at the Hungarian president, though, and immediately sobered.

 

"Very well, now you have the power," he said in a deadly earnest voice. "You will find that you also have the responsibility."

 

Novotny blinked at him. "I don't understand . . ."

 

"You will," Stoner said, as much to his star brother as to the president. "You will."

 

* * *

 

"You signed the waiver, you work where they tell ya."

 

Pauhno Alvarado felt his knees shaking and hoped that his new boss did not notice it.

 

"But I did not sign a waiver ..."

 

"The hell you didn't. Everybody does. It's in the pile of forms they shove at ya when you first get here. You signed it, all right. The legal division don't make any mistakes about that."

 

The boss was a nervous-looking rat-faced little man, even smaller and scrawnier than Pauhno himself. His coveralls were stained with grease and frayed from long hard use. Once they had been bright orange, as Paulmo's new coveralls were, but now they had faded to a dull tone that was almost gray.

 

They were walking through a vast, echoing garage, dimly lit by panels set into the ceiling high overhead. Rows of grimy tractors with large skinny wheels stood silently in the shadows, except for one down at the end where a handful of mechanics were clustered beneath a glaring set of lights The sparks of a welding torch sputtered fitfully, blue and cold.

 

"But I have never operated a tractor," Pauhno protested. "I have never been in a space suit."

 

"Pressure suit," the boss corrected. "Don't call 'em space suits, makes ya sound like a fuckin' tourist. Pressure suit, or p-suit."

 

Pauhno felt panic rising inside him. "I didn't come here to work outside! I'm supposed to . . ."

 

The boss turned on him, snarling. "You're here to do whatever the fuck I tell you to do! Got that? You signed the waiver and all the other papers like the stupid asshole you are, so you're mine, greaseball! If I tell you to pull your pants down and make love to an oxy tank that's what you'll do. Unner-stand?"

 

Pauhno gulped and nodded.

 

More gently, the boss went on, "There's nothin' much to operatm' a tractor. I'll take you out for an orientation run. You'll get it down in ten minutes unless you're braindamaged."

 

Paulmo continued to nod as the boss helped him climb into a pressure suit He was still nodding when he pulled the cumbersome helmet over his head and, following the boss's instructions, closed the seal at its neck

 

And his knees were still shaking furiously

 

Vie Tomasso spent the whole day going through the motions of setting up a recovery operation to find Stoner and return him safely home

 

But even for a multinational corporation of the size and power of Vanguard, invading a sovereign nation was an operation that took time to prepare Vanguard had a sales office in Budapest, and even ran the water treatment system for the length of the Danube River under contract to the various national governments through whose territories the river flowed There was manpower available in Hungary, men and women who already were on the scene and did not have to be smuggled into the country

 

But damned little muscle Most of the Vanguard people inside the country were either engineers or administrators Only a handful were security, and none of them were trained for special operations Glorified night watchmen, Tomasso called them

 

So he went through the motions of checking with the head of the Budapest office and then discussing the situation with the chief of corporate security, a man who had access to more troops and firepower than the nation of Hungary But, as Tomasso had known from the start, even though the security chief had contingency plans for such operations, it would take a few days to assemble the necessary people and tram them for this specific mission

 

Tomasso asked the security chief to put such an operation in motion He could not order it, since he was merely an administrative aide and the chief of a department outranked him But being the aide to the president of the company gave Tomasso more clout than his salary level indicated By day's end, the wheels were rolling

 

Tomasso stuck his head in Jo's office before leaving for the day

 

"Spoke with Guderian," he said when Jo looked up from her display screen at him "He's pulling together the troops We can give you a briefing tomorrow morning, say, ten o'clock?"

 

"Why not tonight" Jo snapped

 

Tomasso tried a boyish grin "Give the man a chance to study the satellite photos of the area and adapt one of the standby contingency plans," he pleaded

 

Jo's lips pressed together tightly for a moment Then she said, "Make it eight o'clock Right here in my office "

 

"Oh-eight-hundred hours Yes, ma'am" And Tomasso snapped off a crisp military salute without losing his grin

 

He hustled back to his office and got Guderian on the screen

 

"Eight o'clock in her office," the security chief said, as tight-lipped as Jo had been "Right "

 

"Have a pleasant evening," Tomasso quipped Then he went out to the parking lot, hopped into his open sports car and headed for the beach

 

The electric engine hummed softly and the wind plucked at his dark hair as Tomasso sped along the beach highway Traf fie was as heavy as any evening rush hour, but most of the cars were on the automated lanes, where the drivers could relax and watch their dashboard TVs or chat sociably with their passengers

 

Trucks, of course, had their own special lanes and electronic controls There was even talk of completely automating the trucks and having them directed remotely, the way spacecraft were The drivers were all in favor of the idea since they owned the trucks and could stay home while their machines worked But the highway safety bureaucrats worried that totally automated trucks would be a problem when emergencies arose

 

Tomasso drove in the fast lane, manually steering the little sportster He turned off the mam highway several miles north

 

of Hilo, in the bedroom town of Papaikou, and threaded the evening traffic until he came to the Papaikou Pizza Parlor, a shining chrome and aluminum anachronism with a garish neon sign blinking pink and bilious green in the gathering dusk Tomasso parked in the farthest corner of the parking lot, where there was a pretty view of Hilo Bay

 

The inevitable strains of steel guitars and soft voices wafted out from the Pizza Parlor's loudspeakers Tomasso made a wry frown in all the time he had been in Hawaii he had heard no more than six "native" songs, endlessly repeated by every radio station and music service It was enough to make you sick

 

The Moon was rising above the dark ocean horizon, and lights from several lunar settlements were visible on its battered ancient face But Tomasso paid no attention to the scenery He got out of his car and walked slowly to a gap in the steel wire fence that enclosed the parking lot

 

Looking around carefully to see if anyone was watching him, he ducked through the gap and sat on the edge of the rocky cliff that dropped steeply down to the surf far below He could barely hear the music from here, and he was certainly out of sight from the restaurant's windows Tucked into a man carved ledge just below the lip of the cliff was a small metal box Tomasso's hand knew exactly where to find it, even while he stared off into the gathering darkness of the oncoming night

 

Deftly his fingers inserted a tiny wafer into a slot in the box Tomasso counted slowly to ten, then extracted the disk and tucked it back into his shirt pocket

 

The comm unit had squirted a coded, compressed message to a Pacific Commerce satellite orbiting overhead In less than a second, the information from the wafer gave Stoner's exact whereabouts and the steps that Vanguard Industries was taking to recover him

 

Then the machine automatically erased the wafer, so that if someone should take it from Tomasso it would be innocently blank

 

Tomasso sat there on the edge of the cliff for a few minutes more, pretending that he was merely unwinding after a tense day at the office, watching the stars come out, trying to ignore the canned music, knowing that Hsen could now take Stoner if he acted swiftly enough He had done his job for the Hong Kong industrialist Tomorrow he would do his job for Jo Camerata as if this night's work had never happened

 

CHAPTER 18

 

THE strange ceremony of sharing blood with Stoner made President Novotny shake his head with wonder as he prepared for bed in the mountain lodge He had not expected mysticism from the American Janos had insisted that Stoner was the key to cryomc suspension, this business of biochips and nanotechnology was something of a bolt from the blue, as far as Novotny was concerned

 

He slept that night without dreams, the deepest and most restful sleep he had undergone in many, many years The first rays of the new sun awoke him, and he fairly leaped out of bed, brimming with energy and a newfound inner happiness

 

The bedroom was small but quite comfortable Novotny padded barefoot to the casement window and pushed it open The mountain morning was chilly, the fresh air sharp and invigorating He drew in a deep breath of it Outside in the trees and shrubbery he could sense the presence of his personal bodyguards, even though he could not see a trace of them But they were there, faithful men who had spent the night in the cold outdoors because it was their honor to protect their president

 

Perhaps I'm a foolish old man, overly prideful, he thought What is there to protect me against. The world is at peace.

 

Terrorism has been virtually unknown in Europe for years. Why do I force these loyal young men to spend a whole night so uncomfortably? It's nothing but pride, arrogant pride.

 

Somewhere deep in his mind that thought surprised him. But he let it pass as he gazed out on the green wooded hills of his native land. How much blood had been spilled here! Once the Magyars were fierce Asian invaders who battled the Prankish hosts of Charlemagne to win this country for themselves. Over the centuries they became the eastern outpost of Europe, constantly pressed by the Ottoman Turks whose Janissaries captured Budapest and overran the Hungarian plain, but could not quench the flame of the Magyars. These hills were our last bastion, Novotny reminded himself. We held here, and eventually drove the Turks out of Hungary.

 

The Austrians, the Germans, and finally the Russians had all wielded power over Hungary. The heavy treads of lumbering tanks had ripped up the ground where cavalry had once swept past. And still the Magyars survived, the fire of their independent spirit often sputtering low, but never extinguished.

 

He recalled the bloody days of 2956 and how his father had saved him. A fervent teenager, Novotny had fought in the streets with his friends, throwing crude gasoline bombs at the tanks that rumbled down the broad avenues of Budapest, pulling as hard on the ropes as any other student when they toppled the huge statue of Stalin on Dozsa Gyorgy Street.

 

All in vain. All in vain. More tanks came and turned the city into a pockmarked, rubble-choked battlefield. The Russians prevailed, while the rest of the world ignored Hungary's pleas for help. His father was arrested and jailed, while sixteen-year-old Imre Novotny swore to the police on his mother's soul that he had not participated in any of the fighting or demonstrations.

 

Novotny found himself in tears as he gazed out the casement window. For the first time since those long-past days he felt the fear that had made him deny his own heritage. And the shame. He had known that the authorities were watching him. They allowed him to enter the university, but he was a marked man.

 

He had to be better than the others, ideologically more pure, politically more loyal, because they were waiting for him to make the slightest slip. He lived in terror that one of his former friends, now in jail, would denounce him and his life would end in a dark cell with a bullet in the back of his head.

 

He remembered how his father looked when they had finally released him from jail: broken, gray, sick. I'm in better condition now than he was, and he was only fifty-three then. He slumped on the window seat and wept unashamedly. Papa died for me. He let them arrest him so that I would be spared. He gave his life for me.

 

It took nearly half an hour before Novotny could pull himself together. That all happened more than sixty years ago, he told himself. It's over and done with. Why do you linger on such matters? You are the president of Hungary, and on the verge of acquiring power that can make you the most important man in Europe--perhaps in the world!

 

Forcing the haunted memories away from his consciousness, Novotny went down to the lodge's dining room for breakfast.

 

Janos and the lovely Ilona Lucacs were there, filling their plates with sausages and eggs from the serving dishes on the sideboard. Stoner sat at the dining table in his blue jeans and open-necked shirt with nothing but a cup of coffee before him.

 

The American eyed Novotny as if studying a laboratory specimen, his dark bearded face solemn, his gray eyes probing.

 

"Did you sleep well?" Stoner asked.

 

"Yes, quite well," said Novotny, taking a plate from the stack on the sideboard. "Quite well indeed."

 

He turned away from Stoner and smiled a greeting to Ilona Lucacs. How her mother had wanted her to be a musician, like herself, Novotny thought. But she wanted to please her father so much that she went into science, instead. Now her mother lives alone without a daughter to comfort her, and Ilona works here in this guarded laboratory--because she has fallen in love with Janos! Novotny suddenly saw it in Ilona's eyes, in the way her body inclined toward the man, the way she followed him and sat beside him.

 

And the lout doesn't even pay her the slightest attention, Novotny realized. A new tendril of thought touched his mind. Somehow Stoner has interjected himself into the equation. Novotny did not quite understand the details of it, but he saw clearly that Stoner was involved with Ilona and her troubles

 

Novotny felt as if he had been swimming underwater and had just burst up to the surface. He shook his head as if to clear it Taking his place at the head of the table, he realized that there was no conversation Each of them was locked inside a universe of self.

 

Just as I have been all these years, Novotny thought. He looked at Janos as if seeing him for the first time. A brilliant young scientist, and I have bent his career to my own purposes Taken him out of the stream of research so that he could serve me personally, forced him to use his talents to prolong my life, bribed him with all the luxuries that a head of state can provide to become mine exclusively No wonder he has turned inward No wonder he has learned to ignore those around him, to trample over their feelings, to use others as if they were disposable tools.

 

He's turning into another version of me Novotny realized I'm crushing his soul, like a vampire sucking the lifeblood out of him In exchange for privilege and power he is renouncing his own humanity

 

Novotny stared at the young man, his breakfast untouched and going cold How many others have I done this to, over the years' The decades' How many people have I used as tools, as rungs of the ladder' How many have I condemned to obscurity or poverty or even death, once I was finished using them' Starting with my own father, how many have I killed'

 

The president did not notice that Stoner was staring at him now, watching him as his hands began to shake and his eyes filled once again with tears

 

"All those souls," Novotny muttered "All those souls . "

 

He buried his face in his hands, sobbing uncontrollably Janos pushed his chair back and ran toward the kitchen Must be a telephone in there, Stoner thought, or at least someone who can fetch help.

 

Ilona stared wildly at the president, then turned to look at Stoner.

 

"He wanted the power," Stoner said softly to her. "But he'll never be able to handle the responsibility "

 

To his star brother he said, The man was not one of the Great Souls He was a little man, a grasping politician, totally self-centered Once he acquired his own star brother, once he began to realize that all the men and women around him are his true km, his guilt and shame overwhelmed him

 

fust as you thought would happen, answered the alien in Stoner's mind You were right and I was wrong

 

Stoner smiled grimly. There is no you and I, brother We did not know for certain how the man would react We were doubtful

 

Both of us.

 

The one of us And Stoner thought of the Christian doctrine of three persons in one God Two is plenty, he said to himself

 

Janos came back into the dining room The president was still weeping inconsolably

 

"His personal physician is on the way by helicopter," said Janos. "He will arrive here in a few minutes "

 

"President Novotny is suffering a nervous breakdown," said Stoner calmly. "I doubt that he will be fit to work for some time to come."

 

Ilona stammered, "How . . what happened . ?"

 

Getting to his feet, Stoner said, "That doesn't matter. The important thing is that we've got to be away from here before the medic lands There'll be all sorts of police and security troops right behind him, and we can't afford to be here when they arrive "

 

"Leave?" Janos gasped. "Now'"

 

"We'll never get past the security guards outside," Ilona said

 

"Of course we will," said Stoner He saw that Janos did not doubt his confidence for a moment In fact, the man looked as if he were curious to see just how far Stoner could get

 

Novotny is finished, Janos realized The power is with this man Stoner The people at Pacific Commerce will pay a fortune to learn what is in his mind, how he can control such

 

incredible powers I must stay with him wherever he goes-- until I can make contact with Hong Kong

 

Ilona looked doubtful, bewildered, but Janos took her by the hand and followed Stoner out of the dining room, leaving the president sitting alone at the head of the table, weeping m-consolably

 

The head of the security team, a slim deadly-looking bald man in a dark zippered athletic suit, burst through the front door of the lodge as the three of them approached it

 

"The president'" he nearly shouted, wide-eyed with anxiety

 

"In the dining room," said Stoner, realizing that Novotny's doctor had obviously radioed the security team

 

Stoner led Ilona and Janos past the men running up to the house and out to the parking lot where half a dozen black sedans were lined up in neat military precision Two more men were standing guard there In the cloudy sky they could hear the distant thrumming of an approaching helicopter

 

"We'll need a car," Stoner said to the nearer guard

 

He was reluctant for a few moments, but as Janos and Ilona watched in astonishment, the guard finally fished into his pocket and handed Stoner the keys for the nearest automobile Within a minute the three of them were driving down the winding mountain road A helicopter flashed overhead and four more autos passed them, racing all-out for the lodge

 

Stoner, behind the wheel, smiled slightly

 

"Where are we going'" asked Ilona, sitting beside him

 

"To Moscow "

 

"Moscow'" Janos, on the back seat, seemed startled

 

"I have to attend the funeral of an old friend," Stoner explained, as if nothing much had happened that morning "Then we can go to Hawaii together, if you like "

 

They drove in silence down the winding mountain road and finally came out on the mam highway

 

"Do you think you can get all the way to Moscow in this auto'" Janos asked

 

"No need to," Stoner replied, glancing up into the rearview

 

mirror at him The Hungarian still seemed more curious than anything else, as if he were observing an experiment in progress "We can take a commercial airliner easily enough "

 

"We don't have our passports with us," Ilona said worriedly "Or any other identification papers "

 

"We won't need them," Janos said, almost laughing "Ilona, your hypothesis about this man was more correct than you know The alien devices within him allow him to play tricks with your mind He'll be able to walk us through the airport, past the customs and immigration inspectors, and on to Moscow--without even paying for a ticket "

 

"But " She became flustered, upset "I don't have any clothes, my travel things they're all back at the lodge I don't have my my "

 

"Your pleasure machine'" Stoner asked "You won't need that, either "

 

He sped along the highway straight toward the airport without having to ask for directions

 

Two travel vans bearing Swiss license plates swerved up the mountain road to the lodge, slowing as they approached an army roadblock The soldiers waved them on, pointing toward the continuation of the road that led back down off the mountain, away from the spur that ran up to the hilltop lodge, which was blocked off by bright yellow-painted wooden bars resting on sawhorses

 

The driver of the lead van stopped and lowered her window The second van pulled in behind her

 

"We wanted to take some photographs from the mountain-top," she said to the soldier She was a beautiful oriental, high cheekbones, almond eyes, long dark hair

 

"The road is closed," the soldier said firmly "No one allowed up there today " He was young enough to grin at her from beneath his metal helmet His automatic rifle was slung over his shoulder Behind the sawhorse barrier stood three more soldiers, one of them with a sergeant's chevrons on his sleeves

 

"But we'll only be here for today, then we go on to the capital "

 

The soldier glanced back at the sergeant, who scowled fiercely "I'm sorry," he apologized to the driver "It's impossible "

 

"What's the trouble'" the driver asked Behind her, half a dozen men and women crouched, clutching burp guns and grenades "What's going on up there'"

 

The soldier shrugged "Something about the president, I think There must be half a battalion up there by now, and more coming "

 

The driver gave him a flashing smile "Thanks anyway " She put the van in gear and drove away, down the mountain, with the second van following close behind

 

Picking up what looked like a CB radio microphone, the driver spoke carefully and reported that the mission to abduct Stoner from the mountain lodge had been aborted From a transparent panel on the van's roof, a tiny laser squirted the message coded into a burst of light to a satellite orbiting high above, which in turn relayed the information to the headquarters of Pacific Commerce Corporation in Hong Kong

 

The vans drove aimlessly along the mountain road for nearly an hour, waiting for a reply When it came, it contained only two words

 

"Find Stoner "

 

CHAPTER 19

 

KOKU felt lonely

 

Deep in the mountain forest the young gorilla slowly pulled leafy branches off the thick bushes and laid them out in the low crotch of a tree to form a sleeping platform Birds cawed from the high limbs and a monkey chattered at him, then

 

scampered away through the trees The last rays of the setting sun slanted through the trees, turning the world all gold and green

 

With the massive dignity that his three hundred pounds imposed, Koku climbed up onto his makeshift pallet to sleep But he could not He felt lonely

 

And afraid

 

Gorillas have no natural enemies in the forest, none but man But Koku did not understand that The only humans that the young gorilla had known had been back at the good place

 

Koku remembered little more than the good place Men and women had reared him, fed him, spoken to him He felt safe there, happy The forest was strange and frightening

 

He closed his eyes and felt fear Lela The woman he had been closest to Koku understood nothing of the biochips implanted in his skull that linked the woman scientist with his own brain But because the link worked in both directions, he dimly felt Lela's fear and exhaustion as she ran pell-mell along a narrow trail in the mountainous woods, terrified of something that was chasing her

 

Koku whimpered with Lela's fear And his own

 

The scramjet flew so high that its cabin bore hair-thin filaments of superconducting wire on its outer skin to create a magnetic field around the plane that deflected incoming cosmic radiation particles Streaking along at Mach 0, the plane arced across the North Pacific, entered Soviet airspace slightly above the Kamchatka Peninsula, and skirted the shore of the Arctic, heading for the Ural Mountains and the broad plains of Russia

 

Jo Camerata paid no attention to the geography spinning by below her Most of it was covered by clouds, anyway She sat in a wide padded leather chair swivelled to face the display screen of the console built into the side of the cabin

 

"I agree fully," Sir Harold Epping was saying from the screen "Hsen is making his play for the board of directors

 

His agents have even tried to recruit me to his side." One of Sir Harold's gray eyebrows rose nearly a millimeter; for him, such a ruffling of his normally unflappable exterior was an admission of surprise and disdain.

 

"You're the first board member to tell me about it," Jo said.

 

"I'm sure others will call you," said the Englishman. "Hsen's being very careful. He knows that if he tips his hand too soon you'll counterattack."

 

"He's got at least six board members on his side."

 

"Perhaps you should mount a campaign to take over Pacific Commerce."

 

Jo frowned at the image in the screen. "An unfriendly takeover? That would leave a lot of blood on the floor. And there isn't enough time before the next board meeting to get it going properly."

 

"Yes," Sir Harold admitted. "Perhaps."

 

The message light to one side of the display screen began blinking amber.

 

"Harold, I'll get back to you in a day or so," Jo said. "In the meantime, would you play along with Hsen's people and pump them for all the information you can get?"

 

"Of course, dear girl. I'd be delighted to match wits with the wily orientals."

 

"Thank you so much, Harold. You're a true friend."

 

"My pleasure," he said, smiling genuinely.

 

The screen went blank for an instant, then a message scrolled across it, telling Jo who was calling and from where. With a slight sigh of irritation she touched the keyboard pad that accepted the call.

 

Cliff Baker's pouchy, puffy-eyed features filled the screen.

 

"We've got to convene an emergency meeting," said the chairman of the IIA. "I'm polling the members to pick the best time and place."

 

"I don't have time for an emergency meeting, Cliff," Jo protested. "My schedule looks like a disaster area as it is!"

 

He made a grin that would have been charming ten years earlier. "Jo, luv, there's not much either one of us can do

 

about it. Everybody's scared shitless about this epidemic. The Asian bloc want a meeting this week, without fail."

 

"Can't you put them off?"

 

"Varahamihara himself has asked for it."

 

Jo felt the steam go out of her. The Great Soul of India. No one could deny him a request.

 

But she heard herself asking, "This is a health problem, Cliff. Why bring it to the IIA?"

 

"Because the medical blokes are going to need money, and lots of it. The World Health people are asking the UN for a special appropriation, but all the national health organizations need more funding too. That's why India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam--all of 'em are screaming for a special meeting soon's possible."

 

Recognizing defeat when it stared at her, Jo acquiesced with a heavy sigh. "Okay. What looks like the best time and place?"

 

"This Sunday, in Sydney, at local noon."

 

Tapping the data into her computer file, Jo realized that the entire weekend would be shot if she attended the meeting in person.

 

"I'll probably use the videophone, Cliff."

 

Baker's face took on a slightly pouting expression, but he said, "I imagine most of the members will come in electronically. Wouldn't want to spoil their weekends just because there's a plague threatening to wipe out half the world, would we?"

 

"Don't be an ass, Cliff."

 

He grinned again. "Good girl. Wouldn't be a proper talk between us if you didn't call me an ass or something worse."

 

"You ask for it, you get it," Jo snapped. She was tired of Baker's deliberate goading, his perpetual game of good little poor people beset by evil big rich people.

 

"Sunday noon then, Sydney time," he said.

 

"Right."

 

Instead of signing off, Baker asked curiously, "Where the hell are you now?"

 

"On my way to Moscow for a funeral "

 

"A funeral? H'mp "

 

"Good-bye, Cliff"

 

"Ta See you Sunday noon "

 

The screen went dark Jo leaned back in her chair and listened for a moment to the muted howl of the scramjet engines Suddenly she snapped up straight That bastard Cliff Sunday noon in Sydney He can stay on his own clock and even sleep late The lazy scheming sonofabitch

 

Baker was always playing one-upmanship games Gazing through the tiny window at the gray featureless clouds below, Jo's tense expression relaxed into a smile In another hour or so she would be with Keith again And she would take him home, where he'd be safe

 

His message had been terse Just his flight's arrival time in Moscow And the fact that he was travelling with two Hungarian scientists That woman we met in Moscow must be one of them, Jo said to herself Must be

 

And it was, she saw, when Stoner strode out from the access ramp into the gate area at Sheremetyevo Airport The same Ilona Lucacs, wearing practically the same outfit tweed skirt and jacket, mannish off-white blouse, hardly any makeup or jewelry at all Still she was beautiful Stunning Jo felt old and ostentatiously overdressed in her Russian-style red blazer, loose black slacks, and glossy high black boots

 

Keith was wearing his usual denims The man walking beside him, stretching his legs almost painfully to keep up with Keith, wore an old-style business suit that had seen better days His barrel-shaped body seemed out of proportion to his pipestem arms and legs, but his moon-round face was all intensity and grim purpose, lips pressed into a thin line, deep-set eyes looking up at Keith like a caged wolf waiting to be released by its keeper Dark hair down to his collar, little fringe of a beard that was meant to look intellectual An academic, Jo decided swiftly She did not trust academics, but then, she did not trust anyone until they had proved their loyalty

 

All that happened in the flash of a second Before she could

 

draw another breath, Keith dropped the tiny bundle he was carrying, ran to her, and picked her up in his arms Jo kissed him as hard as he kissed her, winding her arms around his neck and not letting go until he deposited her back on the carpeted floor

 

Other passengers from the airliner passed by, grinning or turning away according to their personal feelings about two clearly middle-aged people exhibiting passion in the midst of a crowded airport terminal

 

Stoner whispered into Jo's ear, "No questions until we're alone " Then he released her and turned to introduce Zoltan Janos

 

Jo shook the scientist's limp hand, confirming her original opinion of him, and said hello to Ilona Lucacs She looks tense, wired, Jo thought now that she saw the young woman close up

 

A uniformed gate attendant picked up Stoner's bundle of clothes and handed it to him with a smile that beamed ap proval of romance, even among older men and women Stoner thanked her, then slid his arm around Jo's waist and started down the long busy corridor

 

"Hard to believe it's only been a couple of days," he said to her "Seems like weeks since I've seen you "

 

A bald man in a gray suit pushed his way toward them against the flow of the exiting crowd Jo recognized Markov's former aide from the Academy of Sciences, Rozmenko At least he's alone this time, Jo thought No policemen with him

 

"Dr Stoner, Mrs Stoner," Rozmenko said, out of breath as if he had run all the way through the airport "I only learned of your arrival half an hour ago "