Earth Afire (The First Formic War 2)

"Evidence of destroyed ships," said Prescott. "That proves there's been an incident. It doesn't prove who's responsible."

"Five minutes isn't a lot of time to convince him," said Victor.

"You only have to hook him. Once he believes this is possible, he'll wipe the rest of his schedule clean and give you all the time in the world."

Prescott called for a skimmer, and he, Yanyu, Victor, and Imala boarded it and returned to the surface. Ukko's office was underground within the Juke tunnel system, but it was located at such a distance away that Prescott thought it faster to fly to the docking station nearest the office than to weave their way through the tunnels.

After the short flight, they descended underground again and entered a wing of the tunnels that was far more elegant and brightly lit. Here the floors were hardwood with strong magnets underneath that pulled on everyone's greaves and allowed them to walk normally despite Luna's low gravity. There were leather sofas and chairs, potted plants and abstract art, tapestries and vaulted ceilings, massive sculptures made of iron ore mined from asteroids deep in the Belt, all lit by soft recessed lights that gave the whole wing a prestigious air.

Prescott led them into the waiting room to Ukko's office, where a tank of tropical fish consumed an entire wall. Inside it, the tunneled rock of Luna had been carved out to resemble a coral reef, and eels and other vibrantly colored water creatures swam in and out of crevices and holes barely bigger than Victor's fist.

The site of it all made Victor sick. All this money, all this extravagance. Out in the Belt free-miner families slaved over asteroids to pull out enough lumps to feed their children, only to have corporates like Juke Limited sweep in, jump their claim, and toss the family aside. And what did the Juke bastards do with that money? They bought fish tanks and sculptures and hardwood floors and pranced around in their palaces while honest people went hungry.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?"

Victor turned away from the glass and came face to face with a woman in her midthirties. She wore a long, modest business skirt and loose-fitting blouse and clutched a holopad tight to her chest. "That one's a leopard moray eel," she said, pointing to one with vivid red stripes and black and white splotches. "They look vicious with that snout and sharp teeth of theirs, but they're really quite harmless. They never bother humans, preferring instead really tiny fish."

"The big preying on the weak," said Victor. "He must feel right at home."

She regarded him curiously, then extended her hand. "I'm Simona, Mr. Jukes's personal assistant. I'm assuming you're with Dr. Prescott?" She gestured to the desk across the room where Imala, Yanyu, and Prescott had gone to speak to the receptionist.

"We're to meet with Mr. Jukes," said Victor.

Simona appraised the Juke jumpsuit he was wearing. "Do you work in the observatory? I don't recall seeing your photo on file."

"I'm not with the observatory," he said simply. He didn't like her questioning him. She appeared friendly enough, but she was fishing for information.

"Dr. Prescott says this news of his is the biggest discovery in centuries," said Simona.

"He's not exaggerating."

A dot of red light on the back of her holopad flashed for an instant, and then Simona looked down at her holopad. She tapped through it for a moment then looked back up at him. "Victor Delgado. That's your name, isn't it?" She turned her screen around and showed him his mug shot, which the LTD had taken upon arresting him. Beside it was the photo she had just snapped of him. Facial-recognition software had put the two together. "It says here that you're in a holding facility with the LTD awaiting deportation back to the Belt. But seeing as how you're standing in front of me, I'm going to assume you granted yourself an early dismissal." She glanced back at the desk. The receptionist was pointing Prescott and the others toward Simona. "Dr. Prescott and Yanyu I know," said Simona. "But the other one is a mystery." She pointed her holopad, snapped another photo, and read the results. "Imala Bootstamp. Currently on probation from the LTD. This grows more curious by the moment."

Prescott and the others approached.

Simona greeted them warmly, though her smile struck Victor as insincere. "You made it," she said. "Good. Here's how this will work. Mr. Jukes's schedule is very tight. You will sit in the back of the studio and make nary a sound during the presentation. Once the holo transmission is done, Mr. J

ukes will approach you. You'll have five minutes. But before we go a step further, I need to know how these two are involved." She gestured to Victor and Imala.

"They brought the subject to our attention," Prescott said.

"And what subject is that?" asked Simona.

"We went over this on the holo, Simona. Our message is for Mr. Jukes."

She pointed to Victor. "This young man has a rather extensive criminal record and might be a fugitive. I'm not bringing him into Mr. Jukes's presence until I get some answers." She crossed her arms across her chest and raised her eyebrows, waiting for someone to speak.

"I saw something in the Deep," Victor said. "Out in the Kuiper Belt. I took a quickship to Luna to warn everyone, and I was arrested on ludicrous charges. You have them there in front of you. You can read them yourself. They don't make my story untrue."

"What did you see?"

Victor looked at the others. He didn't know how far to take this. Imala saved him the trouble. "I know you think you're only doing your job here, Simona," she said, "but we don't have time for it. Thousands of people in the Belt are dead. We have proof and we know why. If you don't take us to Ukko Jukes and he doesn't do something to help us warn the world, thousands and millions and maybe even billions of people on Earth could be next. If that happens, then people are going to look up from the corpses of their dead wives and children and ask why didn't Ukko Jukes do something when he had the chance. And do you know what we'll tell them? We'll tell them the truth. We'll tell them Simona played gatekeeper and shooed us away because busy-as-a-bee Ukko Jukes didn't have five minutes to save the world."

Simona stared at Imala, lips pursed, considering. Finally she said, "Very well. Follow me." She snapped her fingers, turned on her heels, and led them down a corridor behind the receptionist desk and into a vast, mostly empty room. The lights were off in the room save for a series of spotlights that hung from a rig at the far end of the room. Beneath the spotlights was a large spherical holofield three meters in diameter. Ukko Jukes was standing motionless in the center of it while a makeup artist dabbed at his forehead with a small white pad. Floating words scrolled upward in the air in front of Ukko, and he seemed to be mouthing the text to himself, rehearsing.

As a child on board El Cavador, Victor had feared the name Ukko Jukes. Whenever spotters spied a Juke ship in the vicinity, Victor knew it meant trouble and sometimes even violence. As a boy of four or five, Victor had assumed that Ukko captained all those ships himself, shouting orders from the helm like a giant menacing warrior. And even later, when Victor had learned the truth of who Ukko Jukes was, the name still carried an air of dread and danger.

Yet here was the man now, shorter than Victor had expected, with thinning white hair and a trim white beard and a woman at his side dabbing his cheeks with makeup. It made Victor almost laugh to think that he had ever feared such a man.