"Do you have something better in mind?"

"If we're going to do anything," Brudnoy said, "it should be done out on the crater floor, as far away from us as possible."

"What can we do out there, Lev?"

The Russian thought a moment, then shrugged his shoulders.

Doug looked at Cardenas for support, but she merely sat silently in the sling chair in front of his desk, looking thoughtful. I'm putting a lot on her shoulders, he thought. She doesn't want to commit herself, one way or the other.

He turned to Gordette, sitting off to the side of his desk, slightly separated from the others. "Bam, you're the only one here with any military experience. What do you think?"

Gordette's dark face looked utterly serious. "What do I think? I think you're blowing smoke. All of you. There's no way in hell you can keep those Peacekeeper troops out of here."

Doug broke into a grin, his automatic reaction to a challenge. "We'll see," he said.

"You're going to do it?" Anson asked.

"Yep," said Doug. "We've got less than two hours and we've got to do something.'

"But it won't work! It'll backfire and-"

"Jinny," Doug interrupted, "I understand that the four of you are against it. But like Lincoln said when his whole cabinet voted against the Emancipation Proclamation and he was the only one in favor: The ayes have it."

TOUCHDOWN MINUS 32 MINUTES

In his cermet spacesuit Doug stood on the rock floor of the garage as the last of the tractors trundled through the open hatch of the main airlock.

"Only thirty-two minutes left," Brudnoy said.

Doug had to turn his whole body to see his stepfather's cardinal red spacesuit standing beside him.

"We'll make it," he said. "Cardenas is ready to start laying down the bugs."

"For what it's worth, commander, I wish you wouldn't do this. It's too risky.' Brudnoy's voice sounded more morose than usual, in Doug's earphones.

"I wish I didn't have to do this," Doug admitted, "but I can't see what else gives us a chance to get the Peacekeepers off our backs."

"It won't work."

"Come on, Lev! It's worked for Mother Russia all through history."

Brudnoy was silent for a moment, then he replied, "May I point out that Mother Russia had thousands of kilometers of territory to absorb the invader's armies. We have—what? Ten thousand square meters?"

"Forty-three thousand and sixteen," Doug answered promptly. "I checked it in the base plans."

"I should have known you would."

Encased in his bulky spacesuit, Captain Munasinghe had to squeeze through the hatch to get into the cockpit. His eyes widened with sudden terror as he looked past the two astronauts through the narrow forward window. The rugged, bare rock surface of the Moon was hurtling up to meet him.

He swallowed hard, not wanting to show the two astronauts that he was afraid.

Before he could speak, the pilot—in the left seat—told him, "We're programmed to rotate in twelve minutes, so take a good look at the view while you've got the chance."