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"And?"
"And when you do-when you know everything that's happened in the last sixteen
years-we'll talk.
Not until then." And her eyes were on his, and he saw the hunger and the
loneliness, and he prayed to a God he'd half forgotten that it wasn't just a
reflection of his own.
They flew high over the Pacific. There were no luxuries in this aircraft;
Aeneas and Laurie Jo sat uncomfortably in bucket seats over the wing, and
Miguel sat far behind them. Neither the pilot nor the air crew paid them any
attention. The pilot was not pleased to have them aboard, no matter that the
plane belonged to Laurie Jo Hansen.
Two armed jets flew high above them. They bore the markings of Hansen
Enterprises and were registered in Mexico; and the bribes required to keep
permission for a private air force were as staggering as the cost of operating
them, "Why?" Aeneas asked, pointing to the slim black delta shapes above.
"Pirates," she said. "Each capsule holds a thousand kilos of cargo." She took
papers from her briefcase and handed them to him. "Computer chips, four
thousand dollars a kilo. Water-maker membranes, six thousand dollars a kilo if
we'd sell them. We won't until we've enough for ourselves. Concentrated
vitamins, forty-five hundred dollars a kilo. And other things. Chemicals,
vaccines. Some not for sale at any price."
The value of each capsule in the current drop was nearly seven million
dollars. Even in these inflated times that was enough money to make a man
wealthy for life. And there would be no problem selling the cargo. . . .
"But how would pirates find them?" he asked. "You can bring them down anywhere
in the world."
"They can be tracked. So can my recovery planes. The NORAD radar system
watches us very closely."
"But they don't give information to pirates! Not any more! I put a stop to
that sort of thing!"
"Did you, Aeneas? For a while, after Greg became President, the losses
stopped; but they started again. Do you want proof?"
"No." She'd never lied to him. "How long have you had proof? Why didn't you
tell someone?"
"Who'd listen? Greg Tolland is President of the United States."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
She was silent for a long time. There was only the thunder of the jet, and the
chatter of the crew as they watched for the cargo capsules to parachute down
from orbit. Finally: "What would I have been to you if I'd given you the proof
about Greg, Aeneas? If I'd done that, I'd have lost you forever."
And the White House itself had become the abbatoir of his dreams. . . . "We
fought you, Laurie Jo.
I fought you. I think it gave Greg a perverted satisfaction to have me as his
general against you.
But-was he right? Laurie Jo, should power like yours exist?"
"Without power, none of this would happen. You can't do anything without
power."
"Yes." They'd been through it before, endlessly. "But it must be responsible
power! It must be directed for-"
"For what, Aeneas? Something trite, like 'the betterment of mankind'? Who
chooses the goals? And how do you see the choice is kept, once made?
Responsible, Aeneas? To the people? You tried that."
And that was the new thing in their eternal argument. Before, there had always
been Greg Tolland and his People's Alliance. There had been the hope that
power would be controlled. Could be controlled.
"Greg was right, you know," she said. "Power like mine can't be neutral. It
must be used or it dissipates. He assumed that because I wasn't with him, I
was against him-and he was right."
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"Or made himself right-" The plane banked sharply and there were shouts. They
ducked low to see out forward between the pilots; and far ahead was an orange
billow in the sky.
The plane moved swiftly. Hatches opened behind them, and a hook on a long
cable trailed out. It caught the shrouds with a jolt perceptible even in that
large ship; then the motors sang as the cable was reeled in.
The plane banked onto a new course toward the next parachute. There would be
five in all.
"We don't dare miss," she said. "If one of them falls into the sea, there'll
be swarms of ships and planes out to get it, and we can't do anything about
it. Salvage, the courts call it."
"My doing. It seemed right at the time. I- The enemy was Hansen Enterprises,
not you. But why the fighters?"
"To keep this plane from being shot down. There's too little time for the
Equity people to get to the capsules before we do. They don't know when and
where they're coming down until the retros fire. But there's enough time to
intercept my recovery planes."
Her voice was without drama, but Aeneas was startled. "Who flies the
interceptors, Laurie Jo?"
"They don't have any markings. Somehow the ships that salvage my wrecked
planes always belong to
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Equity or one of their dummies; but the interceptors are unmarked. I doubt
they'll bother this time. We're close to Mexico, and the cargo's only worth
thirty-five million dollars."
Only thirty-five million. Not so very much to Hansen Enterprises. But more
than enough to buy souls. Most had a far lower price. "And NORAD tells them
where to look?"
"Sometimes. Other governments too. Greg Tolland will help any enemy of mine.
Look at the situation with Peru and Ecuador. They steal my cargoes with the
help of the United States." She was bitter now. The national claims to space
above and water beyond the small countries her satellites and cargo drops
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