PRISONER
Josie Rivera was watching a comedy video on the main screen of her console. She was taking her assigned turn as flight control monitor, sitting alone in Farside’s cramped control center. Just two workstations, and the one next to Josie’s was unoccupied and dark.
Nothing coming in and nothing going out, Josie thought, bored almost to tears. We should just shut down the center altogether, there’s no reason to keep it manned. The Ulcer would have a fit, though. Everybody’s going through the motions, pretending everything’s normal, pretending there’s no threat, no danger.
The comedy she was watching was inane, a trio of grown men acting like irresponsible idiots. But she tried to concentrate on their dim-witted antics, trying to keep the fear at bay. The facility is infested with nanomachines, she knew. Somewhere, somehow, invisibly small monsters have invaded us, mindless, merciless things the size of viruses are chewing away at us and they won’t stop until we’re all dead, they’ll keep chewing away at us and kill everybody, each and every one of us, they’re going to kill me and—
Stop it! she screamed silently, pounding both fists on the console’s desktop. Stop it. Nobody’s chewing on you. Grant and Dr. Cardenas will find out what’s wrong and fix it.
Yeah, she told herself. You hope.
The phone on the console buzzed, making her twitch with surprise.
“Answer,” Josie said.
Nate Oberman’s lantern-jawed face appeared on the phone screen, a crafty smile on his thin lips.
Without preamble he asked, “How’d you like to make a couple thousand smackers … for doing nothing?”
* * *
“Unless what?” McClintock repeated.
Grant hunched forward slightly in his chair. “Mrs. Halleck was all stewed up about getting away from Farside.”
“Anita Halleck?” Edith asked. “She just came in here on the same flight with me.”
“She wasn’t happy about coming back here,” Grant said, “and she sure worked up a sweat trying to get out.”
McClintock nodded slowly. “Anita did seem unusually emotional about it. Not her normal cool self, not at all.”
“Because she knows we’re being attacked by nanos,” Grant said.
“We all know that,” Uhlrich snapped.
“But she knows better than any of us,” said Grant, “because she’s the one who brought the nanos here.”
“Anita?” McClintock said.
“Who else?”
Edith asked, “But why would Mrs. Halleck do such a thing?”
“I don’t know why,” Grant said, “but she’s done it.”
“How do you get her to admit it?” Cardenas wondered.
With a taut smile, Grant replied, “Simple. Just keep her here. She knows what the nanos are capable of. All we have to do is keep her here with the rest of us. Make her face the same danger she’s put us in. Make her sweat it out. Wait ’til she cracks.”
McClintock worried, “What if she doesn’t crack until it’s too late, until this place is collapsing around our ears?”
“It’ll be a race,” Grant admitted. “A game of chicken.”
Uhlrich shook his head. “And if you’re wrong, Mr. Simpson? What if she’s not responsible?”
“She is,” Grant answered firmly. “She’s got to be.”
Uhlrich looked unconvinced.
Turning to Cardenas, Grant said, “Let’s go down to her quarters and brace her. Tell her we know she’s the one who brought in the gobblers and she’s going to be killed by them along with the rest of us unless she tells us exactly what the nanos are and how we can kill them.”
“And what if she doesn’t care?” Cardenas argued. “What if she’s insane? Suicidal?”
McClintock broke into a mirthless chuckle. “Anita Halleck is not suicidal, I can assure you. Homicidal, perhaps. But definitely not suicidal.”
Grant pushed his chair back and got to his feet. “Come on, Kris. Let’s put it to her.”
* * *
“I’m not leaving,” Trudy said, sitting tensely on the sofa.
Halleck eyed her coolly. “You’d rather stay here and be killed?”
Oberman was already at the door. Halleck was standing between the desk and the bed, where her travelbag still rested. Trudy had watched, nearly stunned with amazement, as Nate had talked Josie Rivera into turning her back and allowing them to take one of the hoppers without reporting it to Professor Uhlrich or even to Carter McClintock.
“We’d better get going before Josie loses her nerve,” Oberman said.
“What you’re doing is wrong,” said Trudy, her fists clenched on her lap.
“What I’m doing,” Halleck said firmly, “is saving our lives. I have no intention of sitting here and letting the nanomachines kill me.”
“But—”
“No buts! If you come with me you’ll be safe. If you stay here you’ll die.”
“Along with a hundred others,” Trudy said. But she wasn’t thinking of the others. Only of Grant.
“There’s nothing you can do to save them,” Halleck insisted. “If you stay here you’ll die with them.”
Looking up at Halleck’s grimly determined face, Trudy asked, “How can you be so sure we’ll be killed? Dr. Cardenas is trying—”
“By the time Cardenas figures out what she’s up against, it’ll be too late,” Halleck said. “The nanos are spreading, just as they were programmed to do.”
“Just as…?” Trudy jumped to her feet. “You know about them!”
“I know what they can do,” Halleck admitted.
“You’ve got to tell Dr. Cardenas! Grant and the others. You can’t run away and leave them here to die!”
“I can and I will,” said Halleck. “And you’re coming with me.”
“No…”
“Oberman,” Halleck commanded, “pick her up and carry her.”
Looking surprised, Oberman hesitated.
“Now!” Halleck shouted.
Oberman crossed over to the sofa. “C’mon, Dr. Yost,” he muttered. “Don’t make this tougher than it needs to be.”
Trudy could feel her knees trembling. “But why?” she asked Halleck. “Why have you done this? Why do I have to come with you?”
A bleak smile curved Halleck’s lips. “As long as you’re with us you won’t be able to warn Uhlrich or Carter that we’re leaving. You won’t be able to tell them that the woman in the control center has been bribed to let us go.”
Trudy looked from Halleck’s coldly determined face to Oberman’s flinty expression. I can’t fight them both, she thought. What good would it do to try?
Her shoulders slumping, Trudy said, “All right, I’ll go with you.”
“Wise decision,” said Halleck.
But as she stepped out into the corridor, with Halleck in front of her and Oberman behind, Trudy wondered how she might get word to Grant. I’ve got to warn him! That one thought flashed through her mind over and over, like an old-fashioned neon sign blinking, glaring in her eyes.