“Indeed. We can guarantee the security of our conversation here. This way, please?”
Norris jerked his head to the side, indicating the crowds far below. “So, what the hell is that all about?”
“War, Mr. Norris,” Buckner said as he led Norris beneath the giant panther and into the conference suite. “There is going to be a war very soon now. The first war, I might add, to be fought across interstellar distances.”
“Llalande?”
“Of course. The people are quite upset over the, um, slavery issue.”
“There was a pretty sizable pro-An contingent down there too.”
“Religious nuts, Mr. Norris. The lunatic fringe. The people are demanding that the human slaves on Ishtar be freed.”
That, Norris thought, was something of an oversimplification. The number of separate factions on Earth clashing over the issue of contact with the An and the sociopolitical situation on distant Ishtar was simply incalculable. True, the loudest voices right now were those of outrage over the discovery of the Exiles—descendants of humans taken from Mesopotamia thousands of years ago and transplanted to the An world as a slave population. But there were other voices as well. The entire Islamic block wanted all dealings with the An halted … and an end to archeological research both on Earth and off-world that tended to relegate humankind to a less-than-glorious set of beginnings. That was what the fighting right now in Egypt was all about. And then there were the countless religions, cults, and movements worldwide that viewed the An as gods, figuratively or even literally.
But there were also groups who saw considerable profit in closer ties with the An. Most of the major megacorporations of Earth were vying now for the technological spin-offs coming out of the xenoresearch off-world.
And of course that was where the real power lay, Norris thought … not with the “people,” but with the multitrillion-newdollar corporate entities who truly controlled the planet.
Inside the conference suite, Buckner guided Norris to a carpeted, soundproofed room with an elaborate array of viewalls, link centers, and screens. “Computer,” Buckner said, addressing the air. “Security, level one.”
“Security, level one initiated, Mr. Buckner,” a female voice replied. “Do you require a record?”
“No. Switch off.”
“Switching off, Mr. Buckner.”
“I don’t even like the AIs listening in to some of this,” Buckner explained. “What we’re on to here is so fantastic—”
“Are you sure the mikes and recorders are really off?”
“Of course. The software was developed in this very building. Have a seat.”
Norris sank into the embrace of a chair that molded itself to his back and shoulders. “So, I gather you have another assignment for me.”
“We do.” Buckner took a seat opposite his. “A very important one. A lucrative one.”
“You’ve got my attention, Mr. Buckner.”
“We have been scanning our personnel records for a particular person. You were the first of the troubleshooters on our list. And the best, I might add. You have all of the qualities we are looking for—young, dynamic, ambitious. No family to speak of, no long-term commitments or contracts. Not even any casual lovers.”
Norris raised an eyebrow. They didn’t know about Claire, evidently. Good. “What’s your point?”
“We need a liaison, Mr. Norris, on a very, very special operation.”
“What kind of operation?”
“You’ll be fully briefed later, if you accept.”
“How can I accept if I don’t know what it is?”
Buckner smiled, an oily tug at the corner of his mouth. “Oh, we may be able to offer suitable inducements.”
“Such as?”
“We are offering you a long-term contract. A very long-term contract, in fact. Minimum time—twenty years.”
Norris’s eyes widened. “Is that a business proposition or a prison term?”
“A little of both, I fear. If you accept, you won’t be able to terminate. Not … conveniently, at any rate.”
A twenty-year contract? Buckner must be out of his mind. “This doesn’t exactly sound like a promotion, Mr. Buckner. What are the inducements you mentioned?”
“A nice, round figure, Mr. Norris. One billion newdollars, and a shot at senior management, when you return. Perhaps even a seat on the board.”
“One billion!.” Norris hung on the shock for a comic moment, mouth gaping. “One billion?” Then he heard the rest of Buckner’s sentence. “What do you mean, when I return? Where are you sending me?” He already knew he was going, wherever it was. A billion newdollars? Was the man serious?
The viewalls at Buckner’s back lit up in response to a linked thought. A swollen gas giant hung low in a russet sky. Oddly twisting, purple-hued vegetation clotted an undulating landscape. Pyramids reflected the gold-red light of a tiny, shrunken sun.
“Ishtar, Mr. Norris. We’re sending you to Ishtar, eight light-years away.”
“My God!”
He hoped Claire wouldn’t be too hurt when he told her goodbye.
5
20 JUNE 2138
U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Training Center
Parris Island, South Carolina
0215 hours ET
“Now I want you maggots off of my bus … move! Move! Move!”
John stumbled down the steps in a sleep-deprived haze, crowding forward with the other recruits as they piled off the ancient and weather-beaten magbus that had brought them there from Charleston in the middle of the night. The Marine sergeant who’d ridden the bus with them all the way from the Charleston skyport, a grimly taciturn man in spotless khakis, had been singularly uncommunicative for the entire trip. Now, though, he was bellowing at the recruits, chivvying them from their seats and into line. Lights glared overhead, casting weirdly moving shadows and making it light enough to see the footprints painted on the ground, neatly spaced in a single long rank.
Another sergeant was waiting for them, hands on hips, the infamous “Smokey Bear” hat square-set on his head. “Fall in! I said fall in, damn it! Feet on the prints! Stand at attention!”
The mob of civilians shoved and bumped into line, each of them taking on his or her own semblance of standing at attention … or at least a half-informed guess as to what such a posture might be like. John’s loving study of the Marine Corps in past months had included a download of several Corps training manuals, and he’d been practicing in front of the E-center’s holopickup a lot lately. The footprints on the ground were closely spaced, so close that each recruit was shouldered in tightly to left and right, ahead and behind, a single, anonymous mass of tired humanity.
“Jesus, Quan Yin, and Buddha!” the second sergeant bawled. “I ask for recruits and they send us this? The boss is not gonna like it!”
John stood rigidly in line, eyes fixed on the letters reading U.S. GOVERNMENT on the sloping gray side of the magbus, endeavoring to keep them fastened there as the sergeant stalked past his line of sight. The night air was steamy, a blanket