has been going on.
"As soon as the contract was signed I was ready to relocate. But I was damned if I'd be driven from my home as well as my planet. So I included Melford Castle in the move. End of story. Does that answer your question?"
Trudy arched dark eyebrows at Bey while she calmly sipped her drink. He nodded thoughtfully. Just like that. Get mad, make a deal, move Melford Castle. A hundred-and-fifty-room mansion, built on bedrock, lifted and carried across fifty million miles of open space to be set down carefully on Mars. All it needed was gobs and gobs of money. And a formidable will. The Empress of BEC had both.
Bey heard a faint and excited barking from outside. The hounds were on the way back. "What about the other two questions?" he asked. "Why me? And what were you hoping I could do for you?"
"Easy. You, because you're the best there is, and since you retired you have time to spare and can focus on anything that takes your fancy. As for the other question, what you would do , I can't answer it—until you have a chance to see something for yourself."
Flatter me, then rouse my curiosity. But it could work. Bey knew he was responding. He needed his confusion factor to throw Trudy Melford off balance.
And at last it was here—the first part of it. Janus and Siegfried, soaking wet, pushed open the door and ran into the house. Their arrival told Bey that he had less than thirty seconds. He stood up and walked over to the door as though intending to close it. Behind him the dogs were shaking themselves vigorously, spraying water in all directions.
Bey took hold of the heavy door. Instead of closing it he swung it wide. Approaching the threshold, right on cue, came Sondra Dearborn. She was bedraggled, shivering, and even wetter than the dogs.
Bey took her by the arm and drew her inside. "Come in, Sondra. There's someone here that I want you to meet."
He turned. "Trudy Melford, meet Sondra Dearborn. Sondra, this is Trudy. Did you bring a change of clothes? I thought not. Make yourself a drink. And why don't the two of you get to know each other a little while I hunt up something warm and dry for Sondra to wear?"
* * *
Bey left the room without another word and headed deeper into the house, closing the door behind him.
Sondra stared after him in bewilderment. She was exhausted. After a horrible experience with the Fugate Colony form in low Earth orbit, she had been through another one almost as bad in fighting her way to Wolf Island. With smart planes and boats and self-correcting equipment, few people died any more during transportation. But that was only another way of saying that occasionally people did die. Sondra was hugely relieved when her solo transport landed on the wind-lashed beach. She stuck the data recordings made during her trip to orbit into the pocket of her dress and jumped ashore. She didn't take a second look at the other craft, farther along the shore, and she paid little attention to the two dogs whose frenzied howls greeted her arrival. She was no longer afraid of them. In fact she was glad to have their barks pointing the way ahead as she staggered toward the house through driven sleet so thick that she could hardly see.
All the way across the ocean she had wondered what Bey was likely to say to her. Here she was again, arriving at Wolf Island without invitation or adequate warning.
It was mystifying to find him greeting her at the door like a dear and intimate friend. And even more baffling when, after the briefest of introductions to Trudy Melford, he left her alone with the super-billionaire who controlled BEC.
To hide her confusion Sondra did as Bey had suggested. She'd been offered a drink, she wanted a drink, she needed a drink. Something strong with warmth and plenty of stimulants, to calm her chattering teeth and churning belly. She mixed, gulped, and gulped again until the glass was empty. Only after she had mixed a refill did she finally turn to face Trudy Melford.
The
"As soon as the contract was signed I was ready to relocate. But I was damned if I'd be driven from my home as well as my planet. So I included Melford Castle in the move. End of story. Does that answer your question?"
Trudy arched dark eyebrows at Bey while she calmly sipped her drink. He nodded thoughtfully. Just like that. Get mad, make a deal, move Melford Castle. A hundred-and-fifty-room mansion, built on bedrock, lifted and carried across fifty million miles of open space to be set down carefully on Mars. All it needed was gobs and gobs of money. And a formidable will. The Empress of BEC had both.
Bey heard a faint and excited barking from outside. The hounds were on the way back. "What about the other two questions?" he asked. "Why me? And what were you hoping I could do for you?"
"Easy. You, because you're the best there is, and since you retired you have time to spare and can focus on anything that takes your fancy. As for the other question, what you would do , I can't answer it—until you have a chance to see something for yourself."
Flatter me, then rouse my curiosity. But it could work. Bey knew he was responding. He needed his confusion factor to throw Trudy Melford off balance.
And at last it was here—the first part of it. Janus and Siegfried, soaking wet, pushed open the door and ran into the house. Their arrival told Bey that he had less than thirty seconds. He stood up and walked over to the door as though intending to close it. Behind him the dogs were shaking themselves vigorously, spraying water in all directions.
Bey took hold of the heavy door. Instead of closing it he swung it wide. Approaching the threshold, right on cue, came Sondra Dearborn. She was bedraggled, shivering, and even wetter than the dogs.
Bey took her by the arm and drew her inside. "Come in, Sondra. There's someone here that I want you to meet."
He turned. "Trudy Melford, meet Sondra Dearborn. Sondra, this is Trudy. Did you bring a change of clothes? I thought not. Make yourself a drink. And why don't the two of you get to know each other a little while I hunt up something warm and dry for Sondra to wear?"
* * *
Bey left the room without another word and headed deeper into the house, closing the door behind him.
Sondra stared after him in bewilderment. She was exhausted. After a horrible experience with the Fugate Colony form in low Earth orbit, she had been through another one almost as bad in fighting her way to Wolf Island. With smart planes and boats and self-correcting equipment, few people died any more during transportation. But that was only another way of saying that occasionally people did die. Sondra was hugely relieved when her solo transport landed on the wind-lashed beach. She stuck the data recordings made during her trip to orbit into the pocket of her dress and jumped ashore. She didn't take a second look at the other craft, farther along the shore, and she paid little attention to the two dogs whose frenzied howls greeted her arrival. She was no longer afraid of them. In fact she was glad to have their barks pointing the way ahead as she staggered toward the house through driven sleet so thick that she could hardly see.
All the way across the ocean she had wondered what Bey was likely to say to her. Here she was again, arriving at Wolf Island without invitation or adequate warning.
It was mystifying to find him greeting her at the door like a dear and intimate friend. And even more baffling when, after the briefest of introductions to Trudy Melford, he left her alone with the super-billionaire who controlled BEC.
To hide her confusion Sondra did as Bey had suggested. She'd been offered a drink, she wanted a drink, she needed a drink. Something strong with warmth and plenty of stimulants, to calm her chattering teeth and churning belly. She mixed, gulped, and gulped again until the glass was empty. Only after she had mixed a refill did she finally turn to face Trudy Melford.
The
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