Moonrise

“That’s what I thought.”

Bre

“You know how hard I worked to convince her. Of course this expedition is my idea. Who else’s?”

“Nobody,” Killifer replied. “Only…”

“Only what?”

“Why’d she send her kid along?”

“Douglas?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s like a kid with a new toy, all excited about being on the Moon and working with me,” Bre

“Oh,” said Killifer. “Yeah.”

It only took a couple of seconds for Bre

“Not about him.” Killifer put just the slightest stress on the word him.

“Who, then?”

“Aw, nobody. Forget it. I’m just being a geek.”

“What do you mean?” Bre

“It’s just that — well, do you think the Stavenger woman would send her son up here just to do a job that any brain-dead clerk could do?”

Bre

Killifer took a breath, then, with apparent reluctance, he answered, “Well… maybe, I don’t know…”

“What?” Bre

“Maybe she wants him to get the credit for your work. Her son, I mean.”

“Get the credit?”

“Once we’ve established legal priority and we set up the power tower and everything,” Killifer said in a rush, ’he’ll get all the credit with the board of directors. And the news media. You do the work but he’ll be the hero.”

“That’s crazy,” Bre

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“How could he get the credit for what I do? I’m the mission commander. I’m in charge.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“He can’t take the credit away from me. That’s impossible.”

“Sure,” said Killifer.

Bre

“Maybe it’s not him,” Killifer said. “Maybe it’s all his mother’s idea’.

“Either way,” Bre

Killifer smiled behind his helmet visor. He thought he could see smoke rising from his commander’s spacesuit.

Joa

Joa

Slowly she made her way through the crowd, chatting briefly with a couple here, smiling as she passed a group there. Across the hallway and into the library she went. Still no sight of Quintana. He wouldn’t have left so early, she thought, especially without saying good night to his hostess.

Through the French windows of the library she saw a solitary figure out on the patio, the gleam of a cigar smoldering in the dark Georgia night. Quintana. Still smoking, despite all the laws against it.

Joa

“What you’re doing is illegal, Carlos,” she said softly, smiling as he turned toward her.

He smiled back. “In Mexico we have much more freedom.”

“You also have much more pollution. And cancer.”

Quintana waved his long, slim cigar. “The price of freedom. Will you call the police?”

Laughing, Joa

“It’s barely started.” Quintana examined his cigar like a man admiring a fine work of art. “But for you, beautiful one, I make the sacrifice.” He let the cigar drop to the patio floor and ground it out with the heel of his highly-polished shoe.

Even in the shadows of the night Joa

“My party bored you?” Joa

“No, I just felt the need for some nicotine,” Quintana said. “And I knew that as soon as I lit up you would come ru

“You’re hopeless,” she said, laughing again.

“On the contrary, I am a man filled with hope.” His voice was soft, gentle, easy to listen to.

Joa

“Why not? The world is young, the night is beautiful, and I adore you.”

“I’m not young, Carlos. Neither are you.”

“I feel young,” he said. “You make me feel rejuvenated.”

Joa

“Anything.”

“You know my son Greg?”

“I’ve met him once or twice.”

“It’s time to appoint a new director for Moonbase.”

He hesitated only a heartbeat ’I thought that decision has already been made.”

“I’m reconsidering it. Greg has asked for the job.”

“Ahh.”

“What do you think about it?”

This time Quintana’s hesitation was considerably longer. “There are several people on the board who would like to close Moonbase.”

“I know.”

“You’ve always fought to keep it going, even though it’s a drain, financially.”

“Moonbase is in the black,” she said firmly.

“Barely,” Quintana answered easily. “And when you consider all the little extras that somehow get put into the pot…’ He sighed. “Joa

“Perhaps,” she murmured.

“So you want to send your son there to make certain we keep it going.”

“Quite the contrary, Carlos. Greg wants to spend his year there deciding whether or not to shut the base down.”

“Really?” In the darkness she couldn’t see his brows rise, but she heard it in his voice.

“He wants to make a thorough, unbiased assessment of the base’s prospects and then make a recommendation to the board, one way or the other.”

It was several moments before Quintana replied, “Well, he’s certainly got the qualifications, based on the work he’s done with the Pacific division.”

“Yes, I think so too.”

“Would he really recommend closing the base? And if he did, would you agree to it?”

Now Joa

“Isn’t he a little old for Moonbase? Most of the perso

“He’s forty-six.”

Quintana glanced up at the crescent Moon, just clearing the sycamore trees. “There’s always seemed to be — some sort of shadow on his history. Some scandal or something that everyone knows is there, but no one knows what it is. A family disagreement?”

Tensing, Joa

“It must have happened before I joined your board of directors.”

“Yes. A long time before.”

“That’s why he’s been kept off the board and away from headquarters all these years?”

“I think,” Joa