He took long, cold walks in the snow, ranging a mile or more from the hotel in the gray midafternoons. The government was still paying his expenses; he was still ostensibly part of the task force, although nobody on the task force had talked with him since the President's speech. Even after the extensive reports of explosions in the asteroids, he had been approached only by the press.

When he was not out walking, he sat in his room, dressed in an oatmeal-colored suit, his overcoat and rubbers laid out on the bed and the floor, staring at his image in the mirror above the desk. His eye tracked down slowly to the computer on the desktop, then to the blank television screen. He had never felt so useless, so between, in his fife.

The phone rang. He stood and picked up the receiver. "Hello."

"Is this Mr. Trevor Hicks?" a young male voice asked.

"Yes."

"My name is Reuben Bordes. You don't know me, but I've got a reason to see you."

"Why? Who are you, Mr. Bordes?"

"I'm just a kid, actually, but my reason is good. I mean, I'm not dumb or crazy. I'm in the bus station right now." The youth chuckled. "I went to a lot of trouble to find you. I went to the library and learned your publisher, and I called them, but they couldn't give your address . . . you know."

"Yes."

"So I called them back a couple of days later, I couldn't think of anything else to do, and said I was with the local television station, and we wanted to interview you. They wouldn't give me your address even then. So I figured you might be staying in hotels, and I started calling hotels. I've been doing that all day. I think I got lucky."

"Why do you need to talk to me?"

"I'm not a nut, Mr. Hicks. But I've had some odd things happen to me in the last week. I've got some information. I know somebody . . . well, who wants to get in touch with you."

The lines in Hicks's face deepened. "I don't think it's worth the bother, do you?" He started to put the phone down.

"Mr. Hicks, wait. Please listen and don't hang up just yet. This is important. I'd have to come out to the hotel and find you if you hung up."

Oh, Christ, Hicks thought.

"I'm being told something now, something important." The youth didn't speak for a few seconds. "All right. I got it now. The asteroids. There's a battle, there was a battle going on out there. There's this place called Europa, it's a moon but not our own, isn't it? That wasn't a battle. We have friends coming. They needed the . . . what was it, water under the ice in Europa? For power. And the rock way under the water and ice. To make more ... things. Not like the machines in Australia and Death Valley. Do you understand?"