One Way To Mars

Chapter 23

The explosion was carefullycontrolled and expertly executed. Debbie Warner waited for the reddust to settle and went over to the crater she'd created. Behind her,the mini-dozer rumbled closer.

'Any good?' Giavani asked.

'Come and see.'

Giavani jumped down and joinedher. She was holding a dull silver lump in her hand, the size of agrape.

'It doesn't look like much,' saidGiavani.

'This little bit of Marilium isworth a weeks salary.'

Giavani shook his head. 'Fourtimes the value of gold.'

'You're out of date, Pete. It'sfive times the value of gold, now.'

'In that case, we'd better getmoving and make some real money for a change.'

'Okay. Scoop up the loose stuffand spread it on the ground, as thin as you can get it. I'll collectthe Marilium.'

Giavani jumped back in the dozer.One hundred yards away, Mitchum, Redcliff and Hancock were workingthe driller. The second bore hole was going well in the softer patchof rock. The crane was manoeuvring another tube in place. Giavanidrove forward, scooping up the blasted dirt and rock into the frontloader, then he reversed and drove over to Warner and spread the loadin front of her in a thin layer. Even from where he sat he could seethe Marilium chunks in the red dirt. A rough mental calculation putthe value at a million credits. He whistled happily as he scooped andlayered another ten loads, each richer in Marilium than the loadbefore. He jumped down and helped Warner with the harvesting. Afteran hour, they had collected over one hundred pounds of the preciousore.

'I could actually kiss you,Debbie.'

'I'm sure your wife would havesomething to say about that.'

'When she sees our bank account,she'll want to kiss you, too.'

'You can both save your affectionfor later. Take the containers back to the ship and I'll set anothercharge.'

Giavini placed the containers inthe front loader and set off for the Moonstruck. He drove up the rampat the back of the ship and up to the end of the storage bay. Hepicked up the precious cargo and stacked the containers together,strapping them securely to the shell. Then he placed another twoempty containers in the front loader and drove back to where Warnerwas again waiting for the red dust to settle.