Red Planet Run (28 page)

Analysis of the core samples proved there was no vast underground apparatus beneath the Tholus. Whatever made the Ghoul go resided inside its impenetrable walls. So far as we could tell, the Tholus had been designed (or, as Sestieri increasingly believed, redesigned from its preexisting splosh crater) for a single purpose, the support of the pillar in its center. I had a sneaking suspicion that once the millennia of debris was cleared from around the pillar, the crater would form a dish whose natural shape had been enhanced to aid the Ghoul in amplification and accuracy of its aim. I made a mental note to look for others on the Martian surface the first chance I got. “There might be something on the PlanetView already,” Sean suggested. “When we get time we should review it.” I agreed.

Woolley was still reluctant to embrace my thesis—after all, I lacked a doctorate in exoarchæology and, horrors, I hadn’t even been published in the subject—and it would remain unproven until we were able to run a series of test insertions. That would require a ship, which we didn’t have and wouldn’t have for another thirteen months, when Crip was due back to pick us up. I bounced a message to Helen, summarizing our discoveries thus far, secure in the knowledge that five minutes after she received it she’d be concocting an elaborate scheme to hijack a vehicle appropriate to the task. What’s more, I wouldn’t have bet an Alliance dime against her riding in on it like the United States Cavalry.

The camp was closed up and sealed against drifting sand, and we loaded the team’s gear into the crawler, an aerogel cube cab mounted on a pair of tracks. Life support in the cab was solar-powered from cells on the roof of the cab. The tracks were fueled by carbon dioxide distilled from the soil of the crater’s rim during their stay at the Tholus, and refined into oxygen and carbon monoxide with the help of a thermal decomposer mounted behind. It was a nifty little gadget; I read its specs into the gondola’s computer for future reference.

Four of them climbed in and took off due east. I’d offered the other four—Sestieri, Sukenik, Evans, and de Caro—a lift on the
Kayak,
which they accepted with alacrity. When I saw the aptly named crawler’s top speed, I understood why. Till then, I hadn’t thought anything could go slower than an aircar on Terranova.

It was a slow trip for the
Kayak,
too. We were heading directly into the prevailing winds and the
Kayak
wasn’t exactly a Silverado Schooner. It was a close reach all the way; port tack, starboard tack, port tack, starboard tack. As Sean observed, we were on course only when crossing it. It took us all day to make forty kilometers, and it was with a sense of relief that I recognized the proportions of da Vinci’s
Man
loom up in front of us. I ducked in as close as I could get to the east face for shelter from the wind, and called out to the galley, “Okay, folks, we is arrived.”

Sukenik appeared in the doorway. “Can we raise the boss on the horn?”

“We can try. I’d like to know where they are so we can set the
Kayak
down next to their camp.” I flipped on the transmitter.
“Kayak
to Pyramid,
Kayak
to Pyramid, come in please.”

We waited. No one responded. “They’ve got headsets in their helmets, same as everybody, right?” Sukenik nodded.
“Kayak
to Pyramid, Svensdotter to Champollion, come in please.”

Still nothing. Sestieri pushed past Sukenik. “Let me try.” She slipped into my vacated seat and triggered the transmitter.
“Kayak
to Pyramid,
Kayak
to Pyramid, Tom, Jeannie, this is Claudia, you got your ears on?”

Still no answer. Sestieri looked at me and shrugged. “I don’t get it. We talked to them this morning before we took off. They were expecting us.”

A hand grabbed my shoulder. “Mom! Look!”

I followed the pointing finger. Around the left foot of the Pyramid trundled a rover, a platform made of a jumble of different geometric solids suspended between and dwarfed by four enormous wheels made of inflated, triangular bags.

“Paddy, hit the He-maker! Sean, seal the deflation port! Sestieri, Sukenik, get back to the galley! Move, move, move!” I did everything but blow into the inner envelope to get us up off the ground and out of range before the rover got close enough to shoot. For a long, sickening moment, we hung suspended in midair, and then we began to climb. When we came out from behind the shelter of the Pyramid, I rigged both jibs to act as a makeshift sea anchor, and slowed our rapid drift in the face of the wind.

Paddy, shaken, said, “It’s Kwan, isn’t it?”

Tight-lipped, I said, “Yes.”

Sean couldn’t resist. “I told you we should have gone after them and finished them off when we had the chance.”

“Kwan?” Evans demanded. “The hijacker from the Belt? The guy who killed the Tallshippers and attacked Vernadsky?” De Caro, Sukenik, and Sestieri had crowded into the CommNav behind the twins. “If that’s Kwan down there, you’ve got this bucket headed in the wrong goddam direction! Jeannie and Tom are down there, too! You—”

“Shut up!” I accessed the transmitter. “Svensdotter to Woolley, Svensdotter to Woolley, do you read?”

The doctor took entirely too long to answer and I was ready to lay a curse on him the equal of King Tut’s when the transmitter crackled into life. “Woolley to Svensdotter, I read you, over.”

“Where are you?” I interrupted myself. “No! Don’t say where you are over the net!”

In the stiff voice he reserved for quelling presumptuous peasants, Woolley said, “I beg your pardon?”

“Do you remember the problem I told you about at Vernadsky?”

There was a long silence. “Yes.”

“Well, we’ve got that same problem at the Pyramid. Find some cover and go to ground. I’ll get back to you when there’s more news.”

His voice sharpened. “Now, just a moment, Ms. Svensdotter. I’m afraid I can’t just set up camp out here in the middle of nowhere. I have my orders from the team leaders to proceed to the Pyramid. Unless one of them—”

I hit the override button. “Woolley, shut up! The problem doesn’t need to know how many people there are at the Pyramid!”

“How can they—Oh.”

Hallelujah, the light dawned. “Exactly. We’re not the only ones with transmitters on Mars. Try to keep that in mind before you broadcast everything everybody wants to know about us but was afraid to ask.” There was a nervous titter behind me. I phrased my next question carefully. “Have you spoken to our people at the Pyramid?”

His voice subdued, Woolley said, “Not since this morning, no.”

“All right. When I end this transmission, maintain net silence until you hear from me.” And then I added, “I’ll contact our people at the Face and the Cliff on the other net and have them meet us here.” There was a stir in the background as I thought rapidly. “You remember what my kids nicknamed the device in the Tholus?”

“Certainly I do.”

“The next time I call, I’ll begin by saying it twice. Don’t answer me unless you hear those words. When you’ve found a hidey-hole, think of a way to describe the site to me that won’t give your location away to anyone else. Svensdotter out.”

I shut down the He-maker at a thousand meters, floating even with the peak of the Pyramid; high enough to be out of range but low enough to keep an eye on developments. We continued to rise for another fifty meters before slowing to a stop. The sun was setting and, naturally, the wind had died just as soon as we stopped fighting it. Our drift was imperceptible, and I judged it safe to hover while I thought up what to do next.

Below, the rover trundled around the left foot of the Pyramid and continued up the east side. It hadn’t paused in its journey, no one had emerged to take a shot at us—as far as we knew, we might have lifted unnoticed. I wasn’t about to bet the balloon on it. I swiveled my chair around, or tried to. “There isn’t enough room in here to inhale. Let’s move into the galley.”

Everybody did except Evans, who remained militantly in place, arms folded, face stubborn, his drawl a distant memory. “If Tom and Jeannie are in trouble, we should land now.”

“We’re going to,” I said sharply, “but not blind.” He would have said more; I beat him to it. “We are not charging out there like the Texas Rangers. First we take a look around.”

“What if there’s no time? What if Tom and Jeannie—”

I went nose to nose with him. “We go charging in without some kind of plan, there’ll be no time for any of us. I’ve seen what Kwan can do, not once, not twice, not three but four times, four, and I’ve heard enough horror stories about his other activities to keep me awake all night every night for the rest of my life. Do you want me to elaborate?” He didn’t. “All right. First we take a look around.” I pushed past him into the galley. “Who has first-aid training?”

“We all do,” de Caro said, “and I’m a physician’s assistant.”

“Good. Any of you rated in weapons?” No answer. “Any kind of weapons?” Nothing. “Dammit, I thought Woolley said the expedition was armed?”

“He is,” de Caro said.

My jaw dropped. “You mean to tell me all your weapons are on the crawler with him?” I demanded, and he nodded. “Jesus! You people heard me tell Woolley about Kwan! You got some kind of death wish?” I mastered my anger with difficulty. “Paddy, break out the armory. Give them the sonic rifles and show them how to use them. Unloaded!”

“You didn’t have to tell me that,” she said, brushing past me.

“Here’s my pistol. Check the clip, and yours and Sean’s, too. Charge up the paks and the spares. Sean, show Amedeo where the medical supplies are and make up packs for everyone.”

“What’re you going to do?” Evans demanded.

“I’m going to circle the Pyramid and see what there is to see, and I’d better do it before the sun sets completely and we run totally out of wind.” I headed for CommNav. The rest of them followed Sean and Paddy.

During our conversation the
Kayak
had drifted a little to the south, so when I looked up I could see around the left foot and across the base to the right one. The rover was still in sight, crawling north along the east face of the structure. It was also the most damaged face, and the rover found it slow going. Good, anything to keep their minds off us. I tried to remember how many figures I’d seen, first on Ceres, then at Vernadsky. One had been killed at Vernadsky. The person I’d shot in the arm had made it back to the rover. That meant at least six.

Any other time I would have admired the view. The red, faceted Pyramid was on a scale with some of the mountains I’d grown up around in Kachemak Bay, and the thought that it had been built before my family had been heard or thought of was enough to set the most geocentric person back on her heels, but if I didn’t want to slide too far south too fast, I had to trim the portside jib and to hell with the view. Like an actor with an ego, the
Kayak
was slow to take direction. I insisted, and she began edging reluctantly west. We reached the Pyramid’s right foot without incident. When I slacked off on the port jib and let out the starboard, I saw it. “Evans!”

He was behind me in an instant, sonic rifle, chamber empty, in his right hand. “What?”

“Is that the Champollions’ crawler?”

A two-man version of Woolley’s larger crawler was sitting, abandoned, halfway up the side of the west wall. “Yes.” Evans sounded grim.

“You say you haven’t been inside yet?”

“No. We couldn’t find a way in, and it was so big we left it until we had the inventory done on the whole complex.”

“Then what’s that?”

He leaned over me to peer down. “Son of a bitch. It looks like an entrance. Is there—there is! It’s just like the door to the Ghoul!”

“That wasn’t there before?” He shook his head. “Maybe the wind blew it clear during the storm, or enough of it that the Champollions spotted it and went in.”

“Or Kwan.”

“Or Kwan,” I agreed. “Sean, Paddy, how you coming?”

“The packs are ready,” Sean called.

Paddy said, “At least now they all know the difference between the safety and the trigger.”

“Okay, one of you come up here and stand by the jibs.”

They both came, and I grasped the deflation port control. “Reel in the jibs; we’re going down.”

I accessed the control and we sank like a stone, the smoothest descent we’d ever made. “Paddy, drop the hook.”

“Dropping the hook, aye. How far?”

“Let it out all the way.”

“Letting it out all the way, aye.”

I raised my voice. “The rest of you, listen up. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll let the anchor scrape along until it catches on something. When it does, we winch it in until the gondola touches down, and we go out the hatch.” I looked at the twins. Now came the hard part. “You know the drill. One goes to the party, one stays home to babysit.” I saw both heads turn toward the four archaeologists, and I said, “Come on, you know better. It has to be someone who’s familiar with the
Kayak.”

Sean jerked his head at the listening scientists. “I don’t trust them to back you up,” he said bluntly.

“I’m not staying behind, not this time,” Paddy snapped.

“Not this time,” I agreed. “Sean?”

His mouth tightened but discipline held. “Aye, aye, Mom.”

“We maintain radio silence unless you see something I ought to know about, like if Genghis Khan is about to march up my ass, or I give the All Clear. If you don’t hear from me within the hour, climb to a thousand meters and wait until morning. If you don’t hear anything by then, bounce a message off Phobos, telling Simon everything we know up to this point, pick up Woolley, and make for Vernadsky. Got it?”

He lost color but his voice was sturdy. “Got it.”

The west face of the Pyramid loomed nearer through the port. “Come to think of it, start recording that message for Phobos now, and load it ready for transmission. If somehow you’re boarded, the last thing you do is trip the transmitter. Got it?”

“Got it,” he repeated.

I held his shoulders in a tight grip. “Keep your pistol next to you every minute. If one of those assholes actually does make it on board, you start shooting and you don’t stop until you run every ammopak left on this ship down to zero charge. Got it?”