Chapter 15: The Final Move

“I realize I’m much earlier than you expected, Major. You did a very neat job of camouflaging your takeoff ... we were almost fooled ... and no doubt the dummy ship you sent off later got full fanfare. I suppose there will be a dozen Patrol ships converging on this spot in a few hours, expecting to surprise a Jupiter Equilateral ship making a desperate attempt to hijack your little treasure here.”

The little fat man laughed cheerfully. “Unfortunately for you,” he added, “we have many friends on Mars ... including a man in the Map room ... and I’m afraid your little trap isn’t going to work after all.”

The Major’s face was gray. “How did you get here?”

“By hitch-hiking. How else? Most uncomfortable, back there, even with a pile of pressure suits for padding, but your pilot was really very skillful.”

Johnny Coombs turned on the Major. “What does he mean, a trap? I don’t get this...”

The Major sighed wearily. “I had to try to force his hand. Even if we found what we were looking for, we had no case that could stand up against them. We needed proof ... and I thought that with this as bait we could trap them. He’s right about the Patrol ships ... but they won’t be near for hours.”

“And that will be a little late to help,” Tawney said pleasantly.

The Major glared at him. “Maybe so ... but you’ve gone too far this time. This is an official U.N. ship. You’ll never be able to go back to Mars.”

“Really?” the fat man said. “And why not? Officially I’m on Mars right now, with plenty of people to swear to the fact.” He chuckled. “You seem to forget that little matter of proof, Major. When your Patrol ships find a gutted ship and five corpses, they may suspect that something more than an accident was involved, but what can they prove? Nothing more than they could prove in the case of Roger Hunter’s accident. Scout-ships have been known to explode before.”

He ran his hand over the metal cylinder. “And as for this ... it’s really a surprise. Of course when we failed to find any evidence of mining activity, we were certain that Roger Hunter’s bonanza was something more than a vein of ore, but this! You can be certain that we will exploit the secret of a star-drive to the very fullest.”

“How do you think you can get away with it?” the Major said. “Turning up with something like that right after a whole series of suspicious accidents in space?”

“Oh, we aren’t as impatient as some people. We wouldn’t be so foolish as to break the news now. Five years from now, maybe ten years, one of our orbit-ships will happen upon a silvery capsule on one of our asteroid claims, that’s all. I wouldn’t be surprised if a non-company observer might be on board at the time, maybe even a visiting Senator from Earth. For something this big, we can afford to be patient.”

There was silence in the little scout-ship cabin. The end seemed inevitable. This was a desperate move on Tawney’s part. He was gambling everything on it; he would not take the chance of letting any of them return to Mars or anywhere else to testify.

Greg caught Tom’s eye, saw the hopelessness on his brother’s face. He clenched his fists angrily at his side. If it were not for Tom, Dad’s bonanza might have gone on circling the sun for centuries, maybe forever, wedged in its hiding place on the rocky surface of the eccentric asteroid.

But it had been found. Earth needed a star-drive badly; a few more years, and the need would be desperate. And if a group of power-hungry men could control a star-drive and hold it for profit, they could blackmail an entire planet for centuries, and build an empire in space that could never be broken.

He knew that it must not happen that way. Dad had died to prevent it. Now it was up to them.

Greg glanced quickly around the cabin, searching for some way out, something that might give them a chance. His eyes stopped on the control panel, and he sucked in his breath, his heart pounding. A possibility...

It would require a swift, sure move, and someone to help, someone with fast reflexes. It was dangerous; they might all be killed. But if his training at Star-jump was good for anything, it might work.