Putting Up Roots

Chapter Twenty

Sig had warned them—never get on the wrong side of Winnie Carlson. Less than twelve hours later, Josh did. He felt like he was leading a mutiny. “I know we have to return to the compound.” He was standing by the aircar steps. “And I told Dawn to get on board. She won’t.”

“She refuses?” Winnie said.

“That’s the wrong word for it. She takes no notice of me, or of Topaz. She just sits there, holding Gussie’s paw and staring at the fissure. And I won’t leave without her.”

“Does Topaz know what the problem is?” Winnie, like Josh, had come to accept that Topaz was the best hope for dealing with Dawn, just as Dawn was the best—maybe the only—way to communicate with the rupert.

“Sure,” Josh said. “It’s all because of Gussie. She won’t go near the aircar, and Dawn won’t leave her.”

“Do you realize that at some point we may have to take Gussie, or some other rupert, back to Earth to prove how smart they are? Oh, never mind. That’s a problem for the future. Let me think.” Winnie was sitting on the aircar steps. The camp had been dismantled and was already loaded in the cargo hold. Everyone except Dawn, Josh, Gussie, and Winnie was already aboard. Sol Brewster, sitting in the rear, had his hands and feet taped, but Josh didn’t think it was necessary. Since yesterday, Brewster had had a dead, defeated look to him, as though he had already been tried and sent to prison. Whatever Winnie Carlson had said to him in private had certainly worked.

“Looked at from one point of view,” Winnie went on, “I’d rather you all stayed in the camp until Unimine has been taken care of. You’d be safer here than back at the compound.” She sat with her chin on her hands, more debating with herself than talking to Josh. “On the other hand, I’ll really need some help. But I won’t need everybody with me.” She looked up at Josh, who moved back to make the point again that he was not about to enter the air-car. “Do you really have to stay with Dawn, yourself? Or would you trust someone else to be here with her?”

“Who?”

“Sig, and Topaz. No, better still, let’s say that everyone stays here, except you, me, Brewster, and Sapphire. And we’d be back in a day.”

It seemed an odd grouping of people, but Josh had a suspicion as to how Winnie was thinking. He decided to say something—he had mutinied, he might as well go all the way.

“I don’t think that’s a good choice. Sig’s bigger and stronger than Saph. If there’s any sort of trouble he’d be better. It would make more sense to take Sig and me with you, and leave Saph in charge here. But you don’t trust her, do you? Not after what happened at the other camp, with Ruby.”

“Maybe not.”

“She’s been fine ever since.”

“I know. You’ve all helped her.” Winnie stood up. “But I can’t risk it. Trust isn’t something that’s given, it’s something that’s earned. For the moment I want Saph with me, where I can keep a close eye on her. And Sig will stay in charge here. All right?”

Josh nodded—reluctantly. He knew that Sapphire would understand the reason for Carlson’s decision, and be unhappy with it.

He was right. She avoided his eye as the others piled out of the cargo aircar. Winnie and Josh ascended the steps. When the car rose into the calm morning air Sapphire stared out of the window at the group waving good-bye. Her profile could have served as the model for one of his mother’s standard acting expressions: remorse and misery.

As the car carried them east, Winnie gave both Saph and Josh something else to think about. She came and sat between them, allowing the car to pilot itself.

“I want to go over what will happen when we arrive,” she said, “and I want to do it in detail. Move by move, second by second, so there’s no possible doubt about what each of us will do. Brewster already sent the signal we wanted. He had a small transmitter hidden away, and he told the crew of the Unimine ship that everything went according to plan, the trainees were disposed of, and it was safe for a Unimine lander to come down to the main compound. What’s wrong, Josh?” She had seen him frown.

“Suppose there was a code in the signal, telling people on the ship that something had gone wrong? Then they might not arrive at all—or they might show up ready to shoot.”

Winnie Carlson did not seem to take his worries seriously. “Brewster is cracked and broken,” she said, “but he’s still smart enough to evaluate comparative risks. If he helps us, he knows he’ll live, even if it’s only in jail. But if he crosses us, and things go wrong, I’ve assured him that I’ll tell the Unimine group he was in this from the beginning and part of our plan to capture them.”

“But that’s not true!”

“Of course it’s not. That isn’t the point. If the Unimine group had the slightest suspicion that Brewster worked against them, that would be the end of him. ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ isn’t the operating philosophy of the conglomerates. ‘Anyone who isn’t a friend is an enemy’ is more their line.”

Sapphire hadn’t said one word, but Josh was pleased to see that she was listening closely. “What do you want us to do?” she said. “So far you haven’t mentioned why we’re here.”

“I’ll get to that. Yesterday the two of you were just witnesses. This time, you have a more active role—only don’t overdo it. I want you to stay hidden in this aircar until I give you a signal. Then I want you to stand up, so that your heads are visible through the car windows. That’s all. Don’t move around after that. Don’t come out until I tell you. All right?”

They nodded, and Winnie went on, “Then here’s the sequence of events. We land. Brewster and I get out. You stay here, heads down—out of sight of anyone on the ground. Brewster and I go to the compound communications center. And we all wait. You may find that’s the hardest part. Don’t worry, it will be for me, too. We wait, until the Unimine ship lands and the crew comes out. According to Brewster, there should be two of them.

“At that point, Brewster will come out of the building and wave to the ship. He won’t go over to it, though; he will beckon them to come to the building. I’ll be at an observing position in the next building over, out of sight. When Brewster beckons them I’ll let you know. Then you can take a peek. As they approach him, I will leave my observer position and step out of my building. I will tell the Unimine lander crew that I am SDSI, that they are on the scene of a crime, and I am arresting them for questioning. I’ll tell them to keep their hands away from their bodies and hold them high in the air. You’ll hear all this, because I’ll pipe their conversation and my comments through to this car’s audio system. Then I’m going to point to this aircar and add, ‘Don’t get any ideas about resisting. We have you covered.’ I don’t want you to wait for that, though, before you move. When you hear the words, ‘under arrest for questioning,’ you stand up so they can see your heads. I want them to know you’re there as soon as they turn to look your way.”

“Suppose they don’t believe we have weapons?” asked Sapphire.

“Because we don’t, “Josh added.

“Then we would all be in trouble.” Winnie was reassuringly casual and certain. “But actually, we will be all right. You have to understand the way their minds operate. They would have weapons if they had the drop on us, so it will be beyond their belief that we might act differently. They won’t fight back, because they don’t know how much firepower we have. In a similar situation, they’d bring enough to vaporize us, and our ship, too.

“Once they have their hands raised, I’ll disarm them. I assume they’ll be carrying weapons from habit, even if they never expected to need them. While I’m doing that, don’t under any circumstances come outside. I don’t want them to know that the ‘SDSI agents’ on this aircar are two kids. Once I have their weapons, I’ll tie them up the way Brewster was tied last night. It will all be over except for the questioning and the trial. Clear to you? Can you think of anything I’ve missed?”

Sapphire shook her head, but Josh said, “It sounds great. But suppose things don’t go the way you say they will?”

“Good.” Winnie nodded approvingly. “You’re thinking the right way. You must always allow for surprises. It’s impossible to allow for them really, because if you can they’re not surprises. Here’s what we will do, just in case. I will leave this aircar on full emergency standby. You, Sapphire, will sit at the controls. If anything looks, sounds, or feels wrong, you don’t wait around to discuss it with me. You hit full power, and you head off in any direction you like. Be ready for a big starting kick if you have to do that. You’ll accelerate out of here like a streak, three Gs plus.”

“Where should we go?” Sapphire asked.

“Back to the camp. But don’t head in that direction to start with. You don’t want to give anybody watching you clues as to where you’re going. Any more questions? All right, you sit here and relax. I’ll go chat with friend Brewster.”

Sit and relax. Sapphire and Josh stared at each other. “What does she mean, look, sound, or feel wrong?” Sapphire said, when Winnie had gone aft.

“I don’t know. I think Winnie is saying she doesn’t know, either. You’ll only realize something’s wrong when you see it.”

The aircar was descending smoothly to the clearing within the compound fence. It rolled to a halt, and Winnie and Brewster stepped down. Josh marveled. She was walking in front of her captive. If he had the nerve, he could knock her down and run away.

But run to where, and away from whom? At this point it wasn’t Winnie and SDSI who had Brewster worried. It was Unimine, who might believe him to be an SDSI accomplice.

Brewster went into the communications center. Winnie entered the kitchen in the next building. The two doors closed. The wait began.

Three hours later, when Josh was convinced that something had already gone wrong with Winnie Carlson’s plan, the familiar whine of lander engines sounded inside the aircar. Josh felt his heart beat faster, and he and Sapphire looked at each other.

“Take a peek?” he said. It was a question, not a statement, and it was answered not by Sapphire but by Winnie, whose voice sounded in their audio sets. “Here they come. Heads down until they land and are out of the ship. I’ll tell you when Brewster comes out of the com center and beckons them to him. Then I’ll make my own move and leave this building.”

It was the most difficult time of all. Josh was itching to see, and it had to be just as hard for Sapphire. She was sitting with head bowed, her fingers tense on the pad entries that would hurtle the aircar away at maximum acceleration.

After a minute that felt like an hour, Winnie’s voice came again. “All right. They’re out of the lander, two of them, and Brewster’s waving them over. You can take a look now. You won’t hear from me again until I’m outside.”

Cautiously, Josh lifted his head until he could peer over the control panel of the aircar. Brewster had moved four or five steps beyond the door of the communications building and was standing waiting. Two gray-uniformed men, their backs to the cargo air-car where Sapphire and Josh sat, were walking casually toward Brewster.

“Went all right, then?” said the smaller of the two.

“Like a charm.” Brewster’s voice was forced and ragged. “Don’t worry about them. Dumped into the Avernus Fissure, every one.”

“Good, good,” the taller man said. “Nice to have them out of the way, and a clean planet to work with. That ends one phase of the operation. Now for the next one.” Without another word he took something from his pocket, aimed it at Brewster, and fired. There was a dull, ploppy sound, like a ripe melon dropped on a hard floor. Brewster’s head vanished in a mist of gray and red. His body toppled backward to the ground.

Josh couldn’t believe his eyes. It was Sapphire who gasped, “Winnie can’t see that—she doesn’t know. She’ll come outside any second.”

Josh opened his mouth to cry out and distract the lander crew. Before he could shout he was thrown far back in his seat. An invisible hand held him there. The aircar was suddenly racing toward the communications building.

It traveled low, just a foot from the ground, gaining speed so fast that everything became a blur. Josh saw two pale faces turn in their direction. The tall man’s hand came up, and the windshield of the car disintegrated in a shower of sparks. Josh felt intense pain as hot shards of the lasered windshield burned his face.

A scream of agony from Sapphire made him turn his head in her direction. Her hair was smoking, and she had both hands up covering her eyes. The car was still accelerating, out of control.

He made a great effort and lunged sideways. He could not reach the wheel or pedals, but he turned off the main power just as the metal prow of the car smashed into the two men in front of it. The taller man was thrown off to one side, the other clear over the top. And then the car, no longer accelerating but still moving at high speed, hit the wall of the communications building.

There was a scream of breaking metal. The car spun completely around. Josh was not strapped in. He jerked forward, sideways, backward again. His head hit the side window, then the padded door column.

He did not pass out, not quite, but everything became slow and dreamy. Someone was groaning, and after a little while someone else was talking. That went on for an annoyingly long time. He could not understand the words, because a red tide was sweeping over him and lifting him on its flood. He decided he would have to swim. That was a real pain, because he didn’t like swimming, not even at the best of times. He started a dolphin kick and flailed with his arms.

“Josh! Josh!” The irritating voice was back, and suddenly he could understand it. “Stop fighting me. Do you hear? Relax!”

It was Winnie, dragging him toward his right. She had him by the arm, and it hurt. He wanted to protest, to tell her to leave him alone, but he couldn’t find the words. Something banged him hard on the head. He blinked the red tide away from his eyes.

He was halfway out of the aircar, and the blow on the head had come from the molding at the top of the car door. Instead of resisting, he allowed Winnie to pull him the rest of the way. He felt himself dragged across a hard, smooth floor, and then suddenly he was on a dense carpet of purple plants. He sagged to his hands and knees and stayed there.

“Damn, damn, damn, damn.” Winnie sounded furious, but not with Josh. “I’m an idiot, a total idiot. Can you stand up?”

Now she was talking to him. Stand up. Could he? He didn’t know. He lifted his head.

He was just outside the building. A gray-suited figure lay crumpled a few feet in front of him. The arms and legs were twisted into strange positions, and the man was not moving. Blood dripped from his nose and open mouth. Josh fought back nausea and looked farther. Sapphire, her singed hair in a wild tangle over her forehead, sat leaning against the building wall. Bright red burn marks on her forehead and cheeks stood out against the pallor of her face, and she cradled her left arm in her right. Beyond her was Brewster’s headless body. To his left lay a second contorted and broken doll figure.

Winnie stood by the aircar. It had smashed into the wall of the building, spun around, and finished halfway inside. The tail section had been sheared off and lay on the floor of the ruined communications center.

“Not a chance.” Winnie came to where Josh still rested on hands and knees. “It will never fly again. We’ll have to take their lander. Can you stand up?”

She had asked him that before. He still didn’t know the answer. He reached for her outstretched hand, made a great effort, and with her assistance lifted himself to his feet. He stood teetering, fighting for balance.

“Good,” Winnie said brusquely. “Can you walk?”

He wasn’t sure he could even remain standing if she let go. Josh did not speak, but began to weave his way toward Sapphire, one arm held out toward the building wall in case he needed it.

“Don’t touch her,” Winnie said. “You’re more likely to fall over Saph than help her. Go to the Unimine lander. I’ll bring her.”

“Don’t need to.” Sapphire spoke through clenched teeth. She was standing up, very slowly and carefully. “I can make it. But I think it’s broken.”

“It sure is.” Winnie hovered near in case Sapphire needed help. “I took a look when I was getting you out of the car. You have a fractured humerus. Luckily it’s a clean break, and not compound.”

“It hurts like hell. Worse than the burns.”

“You bet it does. Wait there for a minute, and we can do something about that. You’re a brave girl.”

Winnie disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Josh and Sapphire wavering on their feet and gazing at each other.

“They’re all dead,” Josh said.

“I know.” Sapphire nodded slowly, and winced as the movement ran down to her arm. “But we’re not. And Winnie isn’t.”

“They would have killed her, wouldn’t they? If we hadn’t run the aircar into them.”

“Her. And then us. I didn’t mean to kill them. But I couldn’t see anything after the windshield burned out.”

“It was their own fault.” Josh didn’t want to think about the question of just who had killed the two men. He felt confident enough of his balance to move away from the wall of the building, as he went on, “But how did they know? What told them it was a trap? Did we do something to tip them off?”

“Not that at all.” Winnie had reappeared. “I ought to be locked up for terminal stupidity. Hold still, Saph. This is a painkiller. You’ll stop hurting in a minute or two, but after that you’re going to feel dopey. I want us all in the lander before then.” She applied the spray to Saph’s neck, and went on, “You didn’t tip them off, nor did I. They didn’t know it was a trap. But I was a fool, and Sol Brewster an even bigger one. How are you doing?”

Her question was to Sapphire, who nodded and took a tentative step forward. “It’s not too bad now. Won’t I need a splint?”

“You will. First things first. I want to get into the lander and out of here. The splint can wait until we’re back at the camp with the others.”

“What do you mean, you were a fool?” Josh hurt, too, but he wasn’t about to admit it when Saph had a broken arm and didn’t complain.

“I’m right out of my depth on this case.” Winnie sounded angry and depressed at the same time. “The situations I’ve had to handle in the past were minor-league stuff, smuggling and embezzlement and sometimes encroaching on claims. SDSI didn’t expect to find multiple murders here, or they’d never have sent someone as junior as me. But Unimine operates on a different scale from anything I’ve seen before, and they are completely ruthless. I had it wrong when I said their philosophy was ‘Anyone who isn’t a friend is an enemy.’ It’s more like, ‘Dead men tell no tales.’ ” They had reached the lander, and Winnie was opening the door and examining the interior. “Look at things from the Unimine point of view. They were an accomplice to the murder of everyone in the original settlement group on Solferino, and also the new trainees. Their claim will be that those people died from unknown but natural causes, that Unimine found the planet empty of humans, and that they are laying claim to it. The only person who can say anything different is Sol Brewster. Not only that, he is expecting a huge reward for all his work in discovering the stable transuranics, and then for disposing of the Foodlines employees on Solferino.”

Sapphire and Josh were occupying separate rows in the rear of the lander, where they could lie down if they wanted to. Winnie had been studying the control panel, and was preparing for takeoff. “The people from Unimine had their plan made before they came here,” she said. “Brewster was out of his depth, too. He had outlived his usefulness, and he could be a nuisance. So he had to be killed. But he didn’t realize that—and I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t, either.”

“But what will happen now?” Sapphire was sprawling full length across her seat, and her speech was slower and slurring. “Won’t they try to kill us?”

“No.” Winnie lifted the lander smoothly off the ground and set a heading for the Avernus Fissure. “I shouldn’t sound so confident when I was so wrong before, but I believe we’re safe. I’m going to use the lander’s own communicator to send a message. It will say that Solferino is under SDSI quarantine, and no one except SDSI ships will be admitted. Unimine won’t have any idea what’s been happening here, but they know two of their people didn’t return. The last thing they’ll do is come to find out why. They’ll stick their heads in the sand and if anyone asks they’ll say, ‘Solferino? Never heard of it. We’re doing mining work on Cauldron.’ ”

“But this is their lander,” said Josh. “Won’t they ask for it back?”

“They might—they have that much gall. But they won’t ask us for it. They’ll have their lawyers make the claim, back Sol-side. And you know what? The terrible thing is, they’ll probably win the case.” Winnie set the lander to fly on autopilot, and turned in her seat. “All right back there?”

“I’m all right, but I think Saph has gone to sleep.”

“Best thing that could happen. She won’t want to be awake when we set that arm.”

“She saved your life, didn’t she? My life, too.”

“All our lives, Sig and Ruby and everyone else. If Unimine had killed Brewster and the three of us, they’d have realized that he hadn’t done the job he said he’d do. They’d have been forced to hunt down and dispose of everyone. Sapphire showed a lot better instincts than I did, and after she was burned you took over like a trained professional. I’m going to make sure you two get full credit in my report. You were supersmart, and superquick to do the right thing.”

“Will Solferino really be put under SDSI quarantine?” As always, praise embarrassed Josh.

“It will. Even without Unimine, the probable existence of an intelligent alien species would ensure that.”

“It’s not probable—it’s definite.”

“Definite for us. It still has to be proved to everyone else. This is going to be an interesting few months. Unimine may not say a word, but Foodlines is sure to scream. They’ll insist that ruperts are animals, and Foodlines’ development rights have been taken away. They’re as bad in their way as Unimine, you know. They would have been quite happy to wipe out the whole rupert species. It will be our job to prove that Gussie and her relatives are too smart to be thought of as animals.”

“And what about us—me and Topaz and the other trainees?”

“You can go home. You’ve earned it, every one of you. It won’t happen at once—I have to be sure it’s safe—but as soon as we have SDSI ships here to navigate the node network, you’ll be able to go home to your families. Doesn’t that sound great?”

“Yes.” Josh leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. Go home. To where? To a mother who didn’t want him? To an aunt who couldn’t wait to send him and her “retarded” stepdaughter as far away from Earth as possible? And what about Sig and his brothers, or Sapphire and her sisters? Their parents had been as bad, or worse.

“That’s good.” Winnie misinterpreted Josh’s action. “You take it easy, have a nap if you can. You’ve had more than enough shocks for one day.”

Josh opened his eyes. “Suppose I don’t want to go?”

“What?”

“Suppose some of us want to stay on Solferino.”

“Well, that’s more complicated.” Winnie blinked. “You couldn’t remain as Foodlines trainees, because once the ruperts are established as intelligent, the Foodlines development franchise will be scrapped. On the other hand, you seem to be the only communication link with the ruperts. That may make you eligible to work with Earth’s government. I certainly think you ought to have a say in where you go, and what you do—but I’m afraid I’m not in charge.”

She turned back to the controls, as Josh’s eyes once more closed. “It will also depend on what the other trainees say. We can’t decide anything now, but you’ll have to stay here anyway until I’ve been Sol-side and explained what happened. Why don’t you talk to each other after I’m gone, and see what you all want?”

It was not much of an answer; but Josh suspected that it was the best one that he was going to get.