'I think we've emptied the pocket,' said Warner. 'Not a bad haul, though.'
'Do you think its a common element here on Mars?'
Warner shrugged. 'Hard to say. It was pure chance we found this on our last visit. I'd say Marilium here is like gold on Earth.'
'Maybe we can come back and find more one day.'
'How many fortunes can you spend in one lifetime?'
'You don't know my wife.'
Together they collected the Marilium and filled the fifth container.
'This should do it,' said Warner. 'Flooding the market would be counter productive, anyway. You might as well add these to the collection. I'll go and see Mitchum.'
Giavani picked up the containers, and took them to the Moonstruck, then he secured them to the hull with the others. He stepped back and smiled. One containers worth each. Worth...millions. Even his wife would struggle to spend it all.
* * *
'How's it going, Mike?'
'Good. Just a couple more connections, then job done. How about you?'
'Five containers filled. Giavani's taken the last to the ship. I think that's the last of it.'
'It was a useful little pocket. I'm thinking of buying a little Pacific island where I can lie on the beach at night and stare at the stars, and thank God I'm not spending half my life in a stinking space suit.'
'You don't fool me, Mike Mitchum. Out of all of us, you'll miss space travel the most.'
'Yeah. Then I'll sip another Martini and get over it. Grab hold of this pipe.'
Warner picked up one end of the Luxotral pipe and they carried it to Joe Hancock who was fitting a valve to the length of pipe in the new bore hole.
'Finished, Joe?'
'One more turn should do it. There. Now we just need to lower the pipes back in the water and the natural pressure should be enough to get a flow going. Once the air is out of the system, we can close off the valve, make the final connection, open the valve again and bingo.'
'Okay. Debbie. When Joe gives the signal, you operate the crane and lower the pipes.'
Debbie stood by the crane, ready to lower the pipes. Joe waved and she moved the slide control that lowered the crane head. At a slow and steady rate, the pipes were lowered into the water reservoir and a fountain of acidic water spurted out of the top. She kept lowering until Hancock waved to tell her it was at exactly the right height above the ground for the final pipe to be fitted. Avoiding the water gushing out of the elbow with the new valve on the end, Hancock turned the valve off, stopping the flow. Then he and Mitchum got the final pipe fitted in place.
'Now we can seal around the bore hole,' said Hancock.
Next to the bore hole was the sealer. Roughly the size of a human, the pressurised container of fast setting sealer was ready to inject the expanding resin into the gap between the pipe and the bore hole. This was to keep the pressure in the reservoir, to force the water along the pipes. Mitchum and Hancock wheeled the sealer in position and Mitchum held the nozzle probe in place as Hancock turned the sealer on. Hancock joined Mitchum to manoeuvre the nozzle all the way around the gap, fighting the back pressure. They didn't stop until the sealer was empty.
Mitchum high five'd Hancock. 'Okay. Gear away. All done.'
All the equipment was stowed away in the borer. Now, there was only one more thing to worry about.
Chapter 28
The Goliath settled in a huge crater, sending up a cloud of red dust. Storme made his final inspection.
'Right, you scrunts. You know why we are here. We have the element of surprise on our side, plus superior fire-power. I'm not expecting any resistance, but if we do, we'll deal with it. We are travelling at night over unknown terrain. Polaski. You'll drive Battle Buggy One. I'll be up front with you. Use lights until the last twenty miles. Slow right down at that point. We do not want to be trying to dig the beast out of a ravine. Got that, Polaski?'
'Yessir, Commander.'
'Pascalli. You'll drive Battle Buggy Two. Pratt. You be his eyes when the lights go out.'
'Yessir.'
'Get strapped in. And I don't mean tomorrow. MOVE!'
The battle buggies were all pressure sealed units, sixteen wheels, laser cannons mounted fore and aft, capable of travelling at ninety miles per hour, carrying nine fully armed troopers plus the drivers. Even being sealed, Storme made his men suit up. The terrain was too treacherous to take chances with.
Storme got in his seat next to the driver. He pressed the button on his radio.
'Tanner. Open the door.'
The entire back of the Goliath opened up to the Martian night sky.
'Bye, bye, shit head,' said Tanner.
'Later, Tanner. MOVE!'
The Battle Buggies rolled forwards, and there in front of them was the mighty Olympus Mons, the biggest mountain in the solar system. Rolling steadily along at forty miles per hour, both Polaski and Storme looked out for natural hazards. The buggies were tough and tested, but the Martian landscape was a mishmash of craters and ravines. The many sandstorms could easily fill a ravine, making them undetectable until it was too late. Only fools and men on a mission, like the uncompromising Commander Storme, would even contemplate driving two hundred miles at night. And only men whipped into shape by a leader like Storme would be crazy enough to follow him.
Chapter 29
'I haven't seen your GenMoP lately,' said Mitchum.
'I think he's in the jungle somewhere. I've a feeling the chimp in him is taking over. That was one of the reasons we are here. Just to see how would a GenMoP adapt to an environment like the base.'
Susan sipped her wine. 'If he becomes more like a chimp, it doesn't look like the experiment is too promising for using GenMoPs for space exploration. That's quite a few million credits down the pan.'
'Hmm. I can't say I'm looking forward to telling the brass, supposing there's a brass to tell anything to.'
'What will you do with him?' asked Giavani.
Foreman said, 'I think we have more serious and immediate problems to deal with before I need to worry about Monkley. Have you managed to make any weapons?'
Mitchum said, 'I think we have everything in hand. Not a bad meal, Andy. Not too much seasoning this time.'
'Don't change the subject, Mike. What have you got planned?'
'And spoil the surprise?'
'I don't like surprises. What have you done?'
A black cloud of oppressive silence suddenly dominated the conversation.
'Okay. Why don't I show you what we have planned? Come with me.'
'Lead on.'
As Foreman was about to leave the room, Susan grabbed his arm.
'Andy...'
'What?'
There was a pause. 'Nothing.'
Foreman kissed her and followed Mitchum out of the kitchen.
'Andy,' said Mitchum. 'Before I show you what we've done, I'd like to show you something in the water treatment room.'
'Can't it wait?'
'Hey. Humour me. Me and my team have sweat blood sorting this mess out. It'll only take a minute.'
'Whatever.'
Foreman followed Mitchum to the treatment room. 'So. What am I looking at here?'
'This.'
Foreman turned to face the gun in his ribs. 'Mike?'
'Why the hell didn't you just die with the others, Foreman?'
'You?'
'Guilty. For what it's worth, I feel bad about killing you.'
'You feel bad. Imagine how I feel.'
'Why don't we step outside? I'd hate to damage any of the plant.'
'How very noble of you.'
'Out.'
Foreman walked out the door, feeling the gun digging in his spine.
'Keep walking.'
Foreman went into the middle of the jungle.
'That's far enough.'
'Okay. I've been living on borrowed time. I see that now. But I got a right to know why.'
Mitchum shrugged. 'Nothing personal. Just business. Actually,
I like you. I still have to kill you.'
'Thanks. I always wanted to be shot by someone who liked me.'
'Last trip out here, we not only found water, but we found also Marilium.'
'Never heard of it.'
'A new element recently discovered on Earth. I mean, rare as. But for microprocessors in super computers, priceless. It fetches unbelievable sums on Earth. We were digging the first bore and up came this shiny shit. Debbie analysed it and bingo. Marilium.'
'So why not just come and get it? Why kill innocent people?'
'My sponsors. They saw the potential right away. They could clean up, and me and my crew could retire filthy rich. They just didn't want the chance of goofballs like you and your pals stumbling on to what we found.'
'You planted the explosives on the ship?'
'Debbie did the deed. She's the explosive expert. You just decided not to die. Something I'm about to correct.'
'Tell me something. Does Susan know about all this?'
'We all do. She's a sweet girl. She decided before she even met you, you would go out with a bang, so to speak. Generous to a fault that girl.'
'Remind me to thank her.'
'Sorry, Andy. This is where it ends. If you have some kind of god, this might be a good time to say hi.'
'Let him go, Mike.'
'Susan. I told you to keep out of this.'
'Three people have already died. Let Andy go.'
'He knows too much. When a rescue ship gets here, they'll soon work out how they died. We'll get rid of Foreman's body out in the desert, somewhere. Then nobody can link it to us. It's the only way.'
Foreman said, 'But how can you go back to Earth with a war going on?'
'There is no war, Andy. We intercepted your radio signals. I pretended to be Cadet Farley. You haven't been able to reach Earth because we blocked you. We finished the water job simply as a cover. If anyone suspects us, they will see the work we've done. We'll tell them we didn't find anyone on the base when we got here and didn't find the crashed ship. You're just the last part to clear up.'
Susan said, 'Mike. There has to be another way.'
Hancock, Giavani, and Warner decided to join them.
'Tell Mike not to do this,' pleaded Susan. 'Debbie.'
'I was the one who planted the explosive. More than any of of us, I'm the most responsible for what happened. I'll be the one banged up for life. We all will. Foreman has to die.'
'Pete?'
'Debbie's right.'
'Joe?'
'He's a loose end.'
'See?' said Mitchum. 'It's almost unanimous. None of you need to see this. Go away and let me do what I have to do.'
'Drop the gun, Mitchum.' For a big man, Commander Storme could move like a cat. From the surrounding jungle, twenty armed men appeared.
'Where the hell did you...' Mitchum gasped.
'One of our agents on the moon found out your plan. We were too late to stop the murders, but we've been tracking you for months. Drop the gun, Mitchum.'
Mitchum grabbed Foreman around his neck and pointed the gun to his head. 'We're walking out of here. Follow us and I'll shoot Foreman.'
Storme shrugged. 'Go ahead and shoot him. I'm still taking you in.'
'Hey!' said Foreman.
Susan stepped forward. 'Drop the gun, Mike. It's all over. Let Andy go.'
'No. I'm getting out of here.'
Susan ran at him but the single shot from Mitchum's gun brought her down. She fell at Foreman's feet. Storme was about to make a move when from the trees above, a well aimed pineapple crashed down onto Mitchum's head. The gun fell out of his hand and he dropped like a stone. Monkley climbed down and jumped up into Foreman's arms.
'Thanks, pal.'
Chapter 30
The paramedic on Storme's team was satisfied with the condition of his patients.
'They'll both live, Commander.'
'Right.' He called two of his men over. 'Get Mitchum and the others suited up. I want off this planet within three hours. Foreman. I'll ask you one last time. Are you sure you want to stay here?'
'Positive. Monkley saved my life twice. The least I can do is keep my pal company. This is our home, now.'
'Rather you than me. We need your buggy to get everyone to our ship.'
'I'll come with you and drive it back.'
Three hours later, as dawn broke on Mars, the Goliath took off. Foreman and Monkley watched the huge ship disappear over the horizon. 'Well, that was interesting, pal.'
'Oooh!'
Three days later, Foreman and Monkley were eating breakfast together.
'Shit! Monkley. Suit up.'
Ten minutes later, Foreman was driving the buggy up the ramp and heading to the Moonstruck. It took another twenty minutes to find what he was looking for.
'It only just occurred to me, Monkley. The commander was too busy arresting people to think about the Marilium. Finders keepers, I say.'
'Oooh!' said Monkley.
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