While she paced she watched the Global News channel that was devoting full time to live coverage of the battle for Moonbase. Edie Elgin's voice sounded strained, slightly hoarse from long hours of nonstop talking, but she was still going strong.

Joanna learned that the Peacekeepers' nuclear missile attack had failed and Moonbase's electrical power supply was still intact. Now she watched the view from atop Mount Yeager as the main Peacekeeper assault force came to a halt in Wodjohowitcz Pass.

"The smart foamgel will set to the consistency of concrete," Edie Elgin was saying. "Wodjohowitcz Pass is effectively blocked, as far as the Peacekeepers' vehicles are concerned."

As she paced and watched, Joanna thought about getting dressed in something more substantial than her thin white robe, but that would have meant going upstairs. Even though the police were finished now with the bedroom, Joanna found she could not willingly go in there, not yet, not with Lev's blood still staining the bedclothes. Tomorrow, maybe. After they've cleaned everything up.

The phone chimed at last and she went to the sofa where the camera could focus on her. Seigo Yamagata's lean, lined face appeared on the screen above the fireplace, replacing Edie Elgin's report from the Moon. It was impossible to tell what time it might be in Tokyo from the wide window behind Yamagata's desk; the downtown city towers were drenched in driving rain.

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you," Joanna began.

Yamagata raised a hand. "It is of no consequence. I have just been informed of the attempt on your life. Please accept my deepest condolence for the loss of your husband."

Rashid must've phoned him, Joanna thought swiftly. Or maybe not. He's got his own sources of information, certainly.

"I've decided that Moonbase isn't worth the loss of more lives," Joanna said, holding herself together with a conscious effort of will. "This war must end before more people are killed."

Yamagata drew in a breath. "I sincerely regret what has happened. This was not of my doing."

"I understand that," Joanna replied, a slim tendril of doubt still in the back of her mind. But she pushed it away. "What kind of an agreement can we reach?"

Rubbing his chin in apparent perplexity, Yamagata said slowly, "The Peacekeepers are already attacking Moonbase. The battle has started."

"I know that."

"Within a few hours," Yamagata said, "Moonbase will be under U.N. control."

"I don't know that," Joanna replied coldly. "And neither do you."

"Surely you do not believe that your people can hold out against several hundred trained Peacekeeper troops."

Joanna allowed a ghost of a smile to curve the corners of her lips. "The Peacekeepers' nuclear missile failed. And now their assault force is bogged down in the ringwall mountains. I'd say there is a fair chance that Moonbase will hold out quite well."

Yamagata shook his head. "No. It is not possible. Despite their temporary successes, Moonbase will fall within a few hours."

WODJOHOWITCZ PASS