"At least wait for the security team," she repeated.

"Edith… I trusted him. I thought I saw a man I could rely on. I don't why he tried to kill me-"

"Because he's an agent from the U.N.," Edith snapped. "Or Yamagata, more likely."

"Or maybe the nanoluddites," Doug heard himself agree. "I never thought of that before, but maybe they were able to infiltrate Moonbase, after all."

"Then why confront him?"

Yes, why? Doug asked himself. The man's a murderer, a hired assassin, maybe a nanoluddite fanatic. So what if he can tell the Peacekeepers about the pitiful defenses we're trying to set up? Big deal. They're going to walk in here and take over the base no matter what you do.

Then he thought of Tamara and how he helplessly watched

Killifer rape and kill her. Murderer! his conscience shrieked. You let him murder her while you stood by as impotent as a baby. He saw Killifer's smug, hateful face, the glint in his eyes, the snarl of his voice. I'll find him, Doug told himself. I'll track him down wherever he is and kill him. I'll rip his guts out. I'll tear him apart.

But Killifer's a half-million kilometers away, on a world you'll never return to. Gordette's within reach; you'll be face-to-face with him soon. Are you going to kill Bam? Are you going to make him pay for Killifer? Why not? What difference does it make? They're all killers, all murderers. It's time to start paying them back. Time to even the score.

Yet another voice in his head spoke: I liked Bam. We could have become good friends, in time. He seemed so steady, so focused, like a big brother…

And then Doug remembered. "Greg tried to kill me, too."

"What?" Edith asked.

"Maybe it's me. Maybe there's something wrong with me."

"What're you talking about, Doug?"

"My older brother, Greg—half-brother, really—he went berserk and tried to wipe out the whole base. He wanted to kill me, just like Bam does."

"What happened to him?"

"I killed him," Doug said, the memories choking his voice. "I didn't want to, but there was no other way…"

It was Edith's turn to fall silent. Doug steered the tractor automatically, following the bright cleat marks in the eons-darkened regolith, remembering, remembering.

"So you want to confront Gordette to bring your brother back, is that it?" she asked at last.

Doug shook his head inside his helmet. "No, I don't think so.' Then he had to admit, "I don't really know, Edith. It's just something I've got to do."

Yet he could not erase the sight of Killifer's leering, twisted face.

Georges Faure found the three-second lag in communications with the Moon especially aggravating. How can one conduct a proper conversation when there is such a wait between words?

"One week," the Peacekeeper colonel said at last, in reply to Faure's question. "Ten days, at the outside."

"Why so long, Colonel Giap?" Faure inquired. "Why not tomorrow?"