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Roy returned to the Makalu, found Spring, and motioned him over. He conversed with him privately for a moment, then made his way to the bridge.

On the bridge, Anise was deep into her pre-flight checks, examining the readings she was getting from the on-board systems, one-by-one. When Roy arrived, Anise said, “I heard Gordon is chewing nails over this situation. Is it true he refused to accept payment for the ship after Verdant commandeered it?”

“Sure is,” Roy replied, as he worked over his console. “He’s been the biggest ass you can imagine over all this. He even tried to sabotage the ship! Which reminds me: Are you going to tell him you did this run?”

“Only if I have to,” she replied. “I told Sergei, if anyone from RPI calls, to tell them I’m distraught, being hounded by the press, and not talking to anyone.”

“Good move,” Roy admitted. “You should still work after this. I, on the other hand, am likely to be branded a pirate in the industry. There’s no telling who I’ll be working for in a year.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Anise told him. “You are already famous, worldwide, just by being associated with Verdant. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of offers when you’re done here.”

“You think?...” Roy’s interest in the conversation trailed off, as he watched one of the video screens on his station. On the screen, he could see Spring in the makeshift passenger bay, bringing new passenger Mattie Horn up to one of the wall coms. Although the sound was off, Spring appeared to be describing the com’s functions to her. As Roy watched the pantomime, he saw Spring ask for Horn’s ident fob, and he showed her how to use it to activate the com.

A moment later, the ident data on the fob displayed on the screen below Horn’s face. Roy smiled at the data, and made sure his station was recording the information. And already, Spring was thanking Horn for her cooperation, and then asking the next passenger up to the com to demonstrate how it worked.

Well, if nothing else, Roy mused, he might be suited for a job in espionage…

“Attention. I have an anomaly.”

Everyone in CnC looked up upon hearing the voice of the GLIS. Then they looked to the group of Julian, Reya, Kris, Aaron and Dr. Silver at the central workstation. Reya said, “I’ll bet we’ve got one.”

As they watched, footage from the
Makalu
displayed on the main column in CnC. One of Roy Grand’s crew had brought a man within camera range, and a few moments later, the data from his ident fob displayed under his image.

Reya read the data. “Doctor Emilio Vasqual. Verdant citizen.” She consulted the travel data she had on Verdant citizens on Earth. “He was supposed to be in Chile, visiting family, and bringing back some agricultural samples related to his work.”

Julian examined the image in the column. “GLIS, give us a photo from Dr. Vasqual’s file.”

“That was good thinking of Lt. Maina to screen the passengers,” Reya commented. “Why didn’t we think of that?”

Kris shrugged. “You don’t think like a politician.”

“In that case,” Reya said, “I don’t feel so bad.”

At that moment, a haggard figure came through the double-doors into CnC. Everyone looked up as Calvin Rios entered the room… then they all reacted with concern as they took in his state. To put it plainly, he looked like hell. Calvin had a two-day growth of beard, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in longer than that. His eyes were sunken and haunted, and they flicked from person to person with sleep-deprived irritation.

“Thank you for joining us, Doctor,” Julian said at once, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. He started to ask about his wife, whom he knew from Reya’s report had gone missing. But something in Calvin’s eyes, coupled with the urgency of the moment, told him this was not the time to ask. “We need your help with a problem.”

“What’s that?” Calvin asked in a raspy voice.

“Our freighter is coming back,” Julian said, steering Calvin to the main workstation and indicating the column. “But there’s an impostor aboard.”

“What!” Calvin seemed to draw himself up upon hearing the news. “Who is it?”

A moment later, a face appeared in the central column, next to the image sent from the
Makalu
. The man in the
Makalu
footage, and the image in the file, were of two different men.

“Bingo,” Reya nodded. “We have a ringer.”

Calvin looked at the two faces, and visibly deflated. “I don’t know him.”

“It’s supposed to be Doctor Emil Vasqual,” Julian pointed out. But this,” he indicated the other face, “is the man on the freighter.”

Reya looked at Julian. “We did get a confirmation from Dr. Vasqual that he intended to come back.”

“Or we thought we did,” Aaron stated. “It may have been faked. Or it may have been real, and someone intercepted Vasqual.”

“Not that that’s not important,” Kris said to them, “but right now we need to concentrate on why they put an impostor aboard the
Makalu
.”

“Sabotage,” Reya said immediately. “Of either the
Makalu
, or Verdant itself.”

“But how?” Aaron asked. “I find it hard to believe Captain Grand wouldn’t be able to detect a significant amount of weapons or other hazardous materials loaded into his cargo.”

“Possibly someone expects to take the freighter on a suicide run,” Dr. Silver suggested. “Look what an impact did to Tranquil.”

Kris glanced over to Julian, in time to see a pained look flash across his face. Between his late friend Evelyn Volov, and the information they’d recently received from the
Makalu
that Anise Lenz would be aboard the freighter, she imagined Julian was exerting an effort to keep himself calm.

In the meantime, Calvin had been staring at the faces. At the moment when it seemed as if he wasn’t even paying attention to them, he said, “A surgically-placed tactical weapon doesn’t need to be large to be effective.”

Everyone stared at him a moment, without speaking. “Then he could carrying or planning almost anything,” Reya finally stated. “What can we do about that?”

“Warn the
Makalu
,” Calvin rasped. “They can arrest him, lock him up or something.”

“He could have some remote device concealed on him,” Dr. Silver said. “If it was not discovered on him in time, he could still manage to set off whatever he has in mind.”

“It would be best,” Kris said, “to alert the
Makalu
covertly. Warn them to watch Vasqual for signs of threatening or devious activity.”

“But how will they know what that is?” Aaron asked.

Kris looked at Aaron, about to comment… and it occurred to her at that moment that that may have been the first time Aaron had directed a question or comment directly to her since she had broken things off with him. It took her a moment to reorient her thinking to the task at hand. “Asking odd questions… concerns about his cargo… sudden bluster, demands for information, or sudden panic. All of those could be signs of a covert plan in action, or distraction from something else.”

Julian turned to Reya. “Can we put all of that into a coded message, and get it off to them before they do the translation?”

“In about fifty minutes’ time,” Aaron added.

“Yes,” Reya replied. “There’s time. But we’d better figure out what to tell them.”

“Then let’s get on it.”

~

The
Makalu
was only ten minutes from launch when it received a message from Verdant.

“What?” Roy said when he was told. By mutual agreement, Verdant wasn’t scheduled to communicate with them again, unless there was something wrong. After checking his watch, he said, “Put it on.”

Anise flipped the switch on her com, and the voice of Julian Lenz came through.
“
Makalu
, Verdant. Copying that we received your last message. Nice to hear your voice, too, Ani… I can’t wait to see you. That’s excellent news. We are standing by to receive you on schedule. Verdant out.”

Anise reached to close the connection, but Roy’s outstretched hand on hers stopped her. Anise looked at Roy, who silently mouthed, “Wait.”

They watched the board, where the red transmission light was still burning. After another few seconds, it blinked once, then went out. Roy then closed the connection.

“What happened?” Anise asked Roy when he leaned back into his chair.

“Julian and I arranged a few coded phrases before we left,” Roy explained. “Just in case of emergency. He just alerted me that there’s an encrypted message in that last signal. Give me a minute.” Roy worked on his own board for a moment, then removed an earpiece from its storage slot and inserted it into his ear. He started to replay the message… then he looked at Anise, and pointed to the earpiece on her board. After resetting the board to tightcast to both earpieces, he started the deciphered message.

“This is Reya Luis. Your passenger Doctor Emil Vasqual is an impostor. We suspect he has been inserted in order to sabotage you or Verdant, probably after your jump. Be on the lookout for erratic behavior, such as asking odd questions, concerns about his cargo, sudden bluster, demands for information, or sudden panic, that could indicate imminent action on his part. Try to re-examine any cargo he’s brought, but covertly. If he suspects you’re on to him, he might take action which could endanger the
Makalu
. Be careful. Verdant out.”

Roy and Anise exchanged alarmed glances. Anise whispered, though no one else was within earshot, “What are we going to do?”

Roy checked his watch. “Act natural. We launch in seven minutes. Get ‘er ready. I’ll be back before then.”

Roy left his seat and started aft. When he reached the side bay holding his small number of passengers, he leaned in and called out, “We’re taking off in six minutes, folks. Make sure you’re strapped in tight.” He pointedly ran his eyes quickly over everyone in the group, including the man who had identified himself as Vasqual, but did not linger over anyone. Then he continued aft as casually as he could manage.

Once he reached the bays, he found Valeria amongst Dr. Silver’s staff and the Verdant drive. “Small problem,” he said in a low voice, so as not to alert the others. Valeria looked at him, taking note of his expression, and moved to the corner, out of earshot of the technicians. “Dr. Vasqual is an impostor,” Roy explained. “Verdant thinks he’s a saboteur, and warns us to watch our asses.”

Valeria stared at him. “That’s it? Did they tell you anything else?”

Roy shook his head. “They don’t know what he’s going to do. And neither do we. We’re still launching, though.”

“Is that a good idea?”

“Don’t want to tip him off that something’s wrong,” Roy explained. “Just keep an eye on things back here, all right? If I can tell you anything else, I will.”

He stopped by the engineering bay as well, to warn his men to keep anyone,
absolutely anyone
, that wasn’t part of the crew out of the engine bays. Then he headed forward, still trying to maintain calm.

Valeria stood there a moment, considering the situation, aware that the only offensive weapon she had was the threat of blowing up the drive… and their chance of rejoining Verdant. And she knew she didn’t want to be stuck on Earth if—

Then something else occurred to her. Bringing her datapad up, she worked over it for a moment. Then she took on a devious smile. “Weld,” she called out to one of the other technicians, “help me with something.”

~

When Roy reached the bridge, Anise was busy checking her boards. “We have clearance for launch from the Arsenal,” she said, looking at Roy with veiled apprehension.

Roy nodded confidently at her. “We’re good, Anise. Stand by.” He switched on his com channel to the Wasps, also idling outside. “Hunter, Goldie, what’s your status?”

“Ready when you are,
Makalu
,”
Goldie reported.

“Excellent,” Roy said.

There was a slight pause before Goldie replied, “
awaiting your signal, Captain.”

~

“You heard the man,”
Goldie com’d to Hunter.
“Heat ‘em up.”

“Roger,” Hunter said, as he started his Wasp’s launch sequence. But only half of his attention was on the launch: The rest of it was on Roy’s use of the word “excellent,” which was a pre-arranged signal between them and Verdant that something wasn’t right. All the same, Roy intended to take off as planned, so he was covertly warning Hunter and Goldie to look for something unexpected.

~

Finally, it was sixteen-hundred. Anise glanced at Roy, who nodded confidently, though the look in his eyes suggested his mind was racing as he considered what might happen. Anise let him think, and slowly brought the vertical thrusters up to launch power. Within seconds, the
Makalu
began to lift up, its landing legs extending under the lessened load, and then leaving the ground altogether. Fifty meters away, the two Wasps did the same, moving in unison and waiting to take up positions at either side of the freighter. Anise double-checked the pre-programmed orbital insertion angle one last time, before orienting the freighter into its flight corridor, and pushing the main thrust engines to full power.
Makalu
started off, slowly at first, but steadily gathering speed as it gained altitude. Within a minute, it had cleared the grounds of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, and with its Wasp escort, was angling sharply into the sky.

~

“There it goes,” Enu Thompson stated, as he and President Lambert watched the freighter and escorts climbing into the sky from a High House window.

Lambert nodded absently. “Is this going to work?”

Thompson looked back at him. “Kline is good. He’s very good.”

“Maybe,” Lambert said. “But he’s up against the first humans to figure out how to get to Mars.”

Thompson simply nodded, and turned back to the screen. “It’ll work.”

~

“Approaching five hundred K,” Anise reported, with a trace of relief in her voice. The trip through the ash layer had been another rough one, and more than once Roy had glanced about his ship as if he might see any issues before they became problems. But they had had no emergency reports from the engines, no undue problems with the control systems, and no breaches in the hull, which was what counted. Everything else was only a minor annoyance, to be dealt with when they reached Verdant.