“I get your slate and headphones.”
Was he being deliberately dense? “I am going to breach protocol and eavesdrop.”
In the faint light she could see him grin. “Captain cannot do this.”
“But he can lie here and let sounds blow by him?”
“Captain can do that. Not his fault.”
She grunted as she slipped out of bed and moved quietly to the door. Carefully she turned the latch and cracked the door open. As she got back under the covers Marc’s voice came through clearly, though slurred.
“—knew he was a prick with a ramrod up his ass alla time ’bout somethin’.”
“Bastard sure hasn’t changed,” Raoul agreed.
“Trainin’ in China, he’d make us run drills till we dropped, but no feedback about what was wrong. We were supposed to ‘discover it ourselves,’ he’d say.”
Julia whispered, “Well, at least it’s not about you.” Viktor grinned again, lazing back. Even the captain could bend the rules and enjoy it.
“Ask me, he’s got somethin’ goin’ here,” Marc muttered.
“Cards he hasn’t played, like Axy says?”
“Can’t read the guy. That always makes me suspicious.”
“He got all the breaks, right.” Raoul poured more coffee into a plastic mug.
“Glad he can’t get the bio stuff, at least.”
“Hell, he sure wants it. And more.”
“An’ ever’body talks about the bio, sure. Thing is, he was trying to work it so he gets to fly home with three women, ever’ damn one of ’em.”
“That’s true. Leave us here with nothin’.”
“One sly guy, three women, two of ’em single.” Marc’s voice got fainter. Was he looking down into his glass in self pity? “Six, seven months to Earth.”
“Crowded, maybe they have to double up on bunk space.”
Marc laughed sourly. “Li’l adjustment, right. Captain’s orders an’ all.”
“Li’l threesomes, maybe even?” Raoul’s voice was low, muggy.
“Why not, he’s the cap’n.”
“Goddamn Captain Chen—he’s the one we should yank outta there.”
“Hey?”
“Pull him off, take that damn nuke for ourselves.”
“Huh? How?”
“Four of us, three of them. We got three guys, they got one tightass we could use for a punching bag, we wanted.”
“Uh, wow.” Marc sounded dazed.
“Take them when there’s two outside, one inside.”
“Using what?”
“I can rig something that looks dangerous, never mind that.”
“What if Chen has a gun?”
“Who’d take a gun to Mars?”
“Chinese, I wonder.”
Raoul said rapidly, “You and me, we take the two slots. Leave the two biologists here to work over the Marshroom or whatever the hell it is. We fly home, got a woman apiece.”
“My God.”
“Y’know, I just thought it through,” Raoul said carefully, his diction more precise. “It makes some kind of sense, right?”
“Well…”
“We get what we want. Axy does, too. Sure we’re using the Airbus nuke, but we’re running things. We fly back your rocks, Julia’s samples—dead, sure, but the real stuff. With thirty billion bucks in his pocket, Axy can do the legal for us.”
