Long-face-brown-eyes nodded at Caine’s sudden fixation with his limbs. “In your case, Mr. Riordan, protective custody meant being placed in cryogenic suspension.”
Terror pulsed from the rear of Caine’s skull, across his back, and out into his arms and legs. “How long have I been in cold sleep?”
The crow’s feet bracketing the dark brown eyes bunched in a wince. “Thirteen years: it is now 2118.”
Caine felt a trembling in his limbs, was unsure whether it was a muscular spasm, or a fear reaction. Waking up after thirteen years felt like a surreal reversal of learning that you had only a dozen years or so left to live. This way, it was not he who was going to die sooner than expected, it was everyone else. There was also a sharp, sudden fear of personal obsolescence: will I even have a place in this world?
Caine shook off that doubt, willed himself not to shudder again, wasn’t entirely successful. “Why was I cryogenically suspended? That’s a risky process—or it was thirteen years ago.”
“By comparison to today, yes. But the risk to you was a great deal less serious than the threat you posed to us.”
“I posed a threat to you?”
“Your investigations for the Independent Interplanetary News Network jeopardized crucial national interests.”
That’s right: I was on my way to Luna to conduct research. Aloud: “And so you decided to ‘sedate’ me before I could step off the shuttle?”
“Oh, no. You debarked safely on Luna and were quite active for just under one hundred hours.”
“Then why don’t I remember any of those one hundred hours?”
Mr. Long-face-brown-eyes tilted his head apologetically. “Side effect of the cold sleep, I’m afraid.”
“Hold on. Cold sleep only disrupts memories that haven’t been fixed in the brain by a natural sleep cycle. So at most, I should have lost twenty-four hours. But I’ve lost more than four days. What caused the extra memory loss? And what happened during that time?”
“I wish I knew, but my superiors didn’t share that information with me. I’ll look into it when I get access to the full records, back on Earth.”
But for now, how utterly convenient for you. With no memories of those one hundred crucial hours, Caine had no way of knowing if Long-face-brown-eyes was telling the truth or not. So did I give them grounds to put me on ice? Or is that just a shrewd lie, an attempt to make me feel responsible for my own condition? A hot wave of resentment shriveled Caine’s uncertainties: either way, he was the one who had lost thirteen years, not his captors. “And you are . . . ?”
Caine was gratified to see the other man blink, but Long-face-brown-eyes recovered quickly: “I am Richard Downing.”
“And who do you work for? Why are you here?”
“I handle special projects for the government.”
“Which government? That accent doesn’t come from Mobile, Maine, or the Midwest.”
“Quite right, but I do work for the American government, and I’m here to help you get reoriented. And to prepare you.”
Caine didn’t like the sound of that. “Prepare me for what?”
“Let’s just say I’m here to prepare you to investigate the biggest story of your life.”
“Then you’ve got the wrong guy. I’m an analyst, not a reporter.”
Downing shrugged. “That’s not how it appeared to us when you came to Perry with your IINN credentials.”
“Look: that was a one-time deal so I could get to the Moon and finish my research on lunar budget cover-ups. IINN read about my suspicions in Time, asked me to write an exclusive feature on whatever I found—and I could hardly say ‘no’ to top rates and all expenses paid. Hell, I just wish I could remember what I found.”
Downing smiled. “You found that the visible Commonwealth development on Luna barely accounted for half of the new expenditures.”
“I already knew that. My guess was that a lot of government craft weren’t actually completing their listed Luna-Earth runs—”
“But, instead, were going from Tycho up to Perry City at the north pole, and then to the Far Side.” Downing nodded. “So you went on a little walk-about and discovered that our cometary ice-mining cover story was a sham.”
“So it was a cover-up for some other operation.”
“Yes. As you also guessed, we were manufacturing antimatter, using the twenty-four/seven solar power available at Perry.”
“So once I got some solid evidence, you cryoed me: surest way of keeping me silent.”
“Logical, but no; we approached you and explained the situation. And you agreed to sit on the story.”