Battleground Mars (29 page)

“You remember when you punched that little bastard, Tobin Ryles?” Saul smiled as he pictured the scene. “Christ, he was a useless waste of space. We should have sent him to the Taurons as a peace offering. They could have eaten him for breakfast.”

“He’s the next Mars Base manager.”

“Tobin? You’re kidding me?” He looked at Gabi for confirmation.

“It’s true, Saul. They think he’s some kind of a hero.”

The big man shook his head. “I thought I’d heard it all, but that beats all. So, what’re you two up to now?”

Rahm indicated that Gabi should answer.

“We’ve bought a place in the foothills of the Appalachians. According to our surveys, there’s a good chance we can exploit a hefty chunk of mineral resources underneath our ground.”

She looked around the restaurant, but there was no one near. Then she glanced at Rahm for permission. He nodded. If they couldn’t trust these two, they couldn’t trust anyone.

“We think there’s a good chance we’ll find trevanium if we go deep enough.”

“No shit!” Saul was impressed. “That’ll have a packet of trouble. There’ll be no need to rip the stuff out of Mars.”

He was smiling as he thought through the consequences. Then his face changed. “Christ, the company.”

“Yes, the company. They’re not going to like it. If we find more trevanium than expected on Earth, it’ll hammer their share price. The value of their operation on Mars will plummet.”

It was obvious that neither of the women understood the implications.

“What exactly are you suggesting? The company will just have to take the loss and accept that times have changed,” Kacy exclaimed.

Saul took her by the arm. “Normally, I’d agree with you, but the amounts of money involved are enormous. We can’t rule out some kind of threat.”

“You mean they’d try and sabotage any kind of competition?”

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

“It’s ok, Kacy,” Rahm gently interjected. “We’re not too worried. We’ll make preparations, so if they do try anything we’ll be ready for them.”

“Jesus Christ, they’re worse than the Taurons. At least they weren’t threatening their own people.”

He thought of the huge alien monster that he’d destroyed at the end. Could anyone be worse than that monster? Yes, they could. If it was one of your own kind, someone you thought you could trust, and they betrayed that trust, it would be worse.

“You’re right. Saul, Kacy, we didn’t ask you to meet us in New York City just to share a meal and talk about old times.”

“We assumed you didn’t,” Saul replied. “What’s going on, have you hit some kind of a problem?”

“Kind of. Our new company, we need personnel.”

“You want to hire us?”

“Hire you? No, we want you to become partners. There’s no one either of us would want more than you two, and no one more suitable to help develop the new company.”

“What would we have to do?” Kacy asked.

Rahm nodded to acknowledge a shrewd question.

“Initially, you and Gabi would work to develop technical solutions to exploiting mineral sin out of the way places, like Mars, or maybe the Antarctic. My thinking is that the way forward is robotics, those are not places where I’d like to send a man. Or a woman, come that.”

“Sounds good, and I’d agree with you. What about Saul?”

“Saul and I would head up the actual mineral recovery operations. We’d also have to deal with any enemy action that comes out way.”

Saul smiled. “You want me to crack some heads?”

“That’s a part of it, yes. You don’t have to decide right away.”

He exchanged looks with Kacy. “It’s not a problem. We’d both like to sign on the dotted line.”

“Your word is good enough for us, Saul. Welcome to RKSG Mineral Research Inc.”

“RKSG?”

“Rahm, Kacy, Saul and Gabi.”

“Right.”

That night in bed, Rahm sensed Gabi’s unease.

“What’s up, I thought you’d be happy about having them on board.”

“I am. What worries me is that we could be getting into some scrapes with the company. Especially if they see us in direct competition with them. We saw off the Taurons, but it came very close. The corporation is much closer to home. The Taurons fought according to their concepts of honor. These people won’t.”

He thought of the caliber of people who ran the mineral exploitation operations for the company. People like Tobin Ryles.

“No, they won’t. So it’s up to us to show them that they can’t have it all their own way.”

“Like we showed the Taurons?”

“Like we showed the Taurons, yes. The funny thing is that if they’d left us alone, we would have left them alone and there’d have been no trouble.”

“Perhaps you could remind the company of that.”

“I will. And if they don’t listen we’ll do it the hard way. Just like on Mars.”

He fell asleep dreaming nightmares of hard, lizard skinned monsters. Of the battles they’d have with the tough, clever creatures. In his nightmare he saw Ryles leading a Tauron warband, come to destroy their mining operation. Except that Ryles looked different. He was bigger, more powerful, his skin scaly. The clash was violent and bloody, at some stage Gabi went missing. What was even worse, he froze. It was worse than being killed. It was a living death, one he would have to live with every waking moment. Oh God, no, surely the Taurons haven’t taken her! He woke up with her at his side, her face creased with concern, his body soaked with perspiration.

“You were shouting my name, are you ok?”

He gulped with relief and lay back on the bed. “Yeah, sorry, bad dream. I’m ok now.”

As he dozed, he was mentally ordering stockpiles of weapons and ammunition, security systems and communications. Ready for the next time. But Gabi had a more practical suggestion.

“You’re going to have to do it, you know.”

“Do what?” But he knew exactly what she meant.

“The brain scan. You’ll always be wondering until you do.”

“And if it shows nothing wrong, that I just froze with fright when those bandits struck in Afghanistan?”

She stared at him, looking deep into his eyes. “It’s really easy. The Rahm I know is the bravest, most courageous person I could hope to meet. That person wouldn’t be scare of a simple test. He’d have the strength and honesty to want to face up to the truth, and then deal with it.”

He was silent for many minutes. Then slowly he nodded. “You’re right. I’ll take the rest. The result makes no difference, because what is important is the future. You and me.”

“And RKSG Mineral Research Inc,” she smiled. “But that’s enough introspection for one day. We’re not due anywhere today, why don’t we take advantage of a morning off.”

As she reached for him, he felt almost a physical force as something left him, a shadow on his mind that had been a cold companion for so long. The following day they went to file the papers that would establish their new company. Saul and Kacy met them in downtown Houston an hour before they were due to file. Saul drew Rahm to one side.

“There’s one thing I wanted to clear up first,” he muttered in an uncertain voice.

“What’s that, Saul?”

“It would make a difference on our company stationery if we had a real, live, genuine doctor of engineering. Is there any way you’d consider letting us use your title for company business?”

His answer was immediate. It was the last part of his old self that he’d kept hidden.

“Dr. Rahm it is, Saul.”

The toolpusher’s face transformed into a huge grin. He was aware of what lay behind that decision. He dragged him over to the girls.

“Hey listen, we’ve got a new name on the board of RKSG Mineral Research Inc.”

“Who’s that?” Gabi asked, suspiciously.

“Dr. Caleb Rahm. In the flesh. I reckon that calls for a drink before we go in.”

Rahm saw the glance that Gabi gave him. Yes, she’d been right, what happened in the past had been put safely where it should have been a long time ago. In the past.