A Spaceship Named McGuire Page 4

use underlings. And I'm afraidsome of them might be in the pay of the ... ah ... opposition. Theygot nowhere."

  "In other words, you may have spies in your own organization who areworking with the Viking group. Very interesting. That means they knowI'm working for you, which will effectively seal me up, too. You mightas well have kept Brock on the job."

  He smiled in a smug, superior sort of way that some men might haveresented. I did. Even though I'd fed him the line so that he couldfeel superior, knowing that a smart operator like Ravenhurst wouldalready have covered his tracks. I couldn't help wishing I'd told himsimply to trot out his cover story instead of letting him think Ibelieved it had never occurred to either of us before.

  "As far as my staff knows, Mr. Oak, you are here to escort mydaughter, Jaqueline, to Braunsville, Luna. You will, naturally, haveto take her to Ceres in your flitterboat, where you will wait for aspecially chartered ship to take you both to Luna. That will be a weekafter you arrive. Since the McGuire 7 is to be tested within threedays, that should give you ample time."

  "If it doesn't?"

  "We will consider that possibility if and when it becomes probable. Ihave a great deal of faith in you."

  "Thanks. One more thing: why do you think anybody will swallow theidea that your daughter needs a private bodyguard to escort her toBraunsville?"

  His smile broadened a little. "You have not met my daughter, Mr. Oak.Jaqueline takes after me in a great many respects, not the least ofwhich is her desire to have things her own way and submit to no man'syoke, as the saying goes. I have had a difficult time with her, sir; adifficult time. It is and has been a matter of steering a narrowcourse between the Scylla of breaking her spirit with too muchdiscipline and the Charybdis of allowing her to ruin her life byletting her go hog wild. She is seventeen now, and the time has cometo send her to a school where she will receive an education suitableto her potentialities and abilities, and discipline which will besuitable to her spirit.

  "Your job, Mr. Oak, will be to make sure she gets there. You are not abodyguard in the sense that you must protect her from the peoplearound her. Quite the contrary, _they_ may need protection from _her_.You are to make sure she arrives in Braunsville on schedule. She isperfectly capable of taking it in her head to go scooting off to Earthif you turn your back on her."

  Still smiling, he refilled his glass. "Do have some more Madeira, Mr.Oak. It's really an excellent year."

  I let him refill my glass.

  "That, I think, will cover your real activities well enough. Mydaughter will, of course, take a tour of the plant on Ceres, whichwill allow you to do whatever work is necessary."

  He smiled at me.

  I didn't smile back.

  "Up till now, this sounded like a pretty nice assignment," I said."But I don't want it now. I can't take care of a teenage girl with adesire for the bright lights of Earth while I investigate a sabotagecase."

  I knew he had an out; I was just prodding him into springing it.

  He did. "Of course not. My daughter is not as scatterbrained as I havepainted her. She is going to help you."

  "_Help_ me?"

  "Exactly. You are ostensibly her bodyguard. If she turns up missing,you will, of course, leave no stone unturned to find her." Hechuckled. "And Ceres is a fairly large stone."

  I thought it over. I still didn't like it too well, but if Jaquelinewasn't going to be too much trouble to take care of, it might workout. And if she did get to be too much trouble, I could see to it thatshe was unofficially detained for a while.

  "All right, Mr. Ravenhurst," I said, "you've got yourself a man forboth jobs."

  "Both?"

  "I find out who is trying to sabotage the McGuire ship, and I baby-sitfor you. That's two jobs. And you're going to pay for both of them."

  "I expected to," said Shalimar Ravenhurst.

  Fifteen minutes later, I was walking into the room where I'd left myvac suit. There was a girl waiting for me.

  She was already dressed in her vac suit, so there was no way to be sure,but she looked as if she had a nice figure underneath the suit. Her facewas rather unexceptionally pretty, a sort of nice-girl-next-door face. Herhair was a reddish brown and was cut fairly close to the skull; only awoman who never intends to be in a vac suit in free fall can afford to lether hair grow.

  "Miss Ravenhurst?" I asked.

  She grinned and stuck out a hand. "Just call me Jack. And I'll callyou Dan. O.K.?"

  I grinned and shook her hand because there wasn't much else I coulddo. Now I'd met the Ravenhursts: A father called Shalimar and adaughter called Jack.

  And a spaceship named McGuire.

  * * * * *

  I gave the flitterboat all the push it would take to get us to Ceresas fast as possible. I don't like riding in the things. You sit thereinside a transite hull, which has two bucket seats inside it, fore andaft, astraddle the drive tube, and you guide from one beacon to thenext while you keep tabs on orbital positions by radio. It's a longjump from one rock to the next, even in the asteroid belt, and youhave to live inside your vac suit until you come to a stopping placewhere you can spend an hour or so resting before you go on. It's likedriving cross-continent in an automobile, except that the signpostsand landmarks are constantly shifting position. An inexperienced mancan get lost easily in the Belt.

  I was happy to find that Jack Ravenhurst knew how to handle aflitterboat and could sight navigate by the stars. That meant that Icould sleep while she piloted and vice-versa. The trip back was a loteasier and faster than the trip out had been.

  I was glad, in a way, that Ceres was within flitterboat range ofRaven's Rest. I don't like the time wasted in waiting for a regularspaceship, which you have to do when your target is a quarter of theway around the Belt from you. The cross-system jumps don't take long,but getting to a ship takes time.

  The Ravenhurst girl wasn't much of a talker while we were en route. Alittle general chitchat once in a while, then she'd clam up to do alittle mental orbit figuring. I didn't mind. I was in no mood to pumpher just yet, and I was usually figuring orbits myself. You get in thehabit after a while.

  When the Ceres beacon came into view, I was snoozing. Jack reachedforward and shook my shoulder. "Decelerating toward Ceres," she said."Want to take over from here on?" Her voice sounded tinny and tired inthe earphones of my fishbowl.

  "O.K.; I'll take her in. Have you called Ceres Field yet?"

  "Not yet. I figured that you'd better do that, since it's yourflitterboat."

  I said O.K. and called Ceres. They gave me a traffic orbit, and Ifollowed it in to Ceres Field.

  It was a lot bigger than the postage-stamp field on Raven's Rest, andmore brightly lit, and a lot busier, but it was basically the sameidea--a broad, wide, smooth area that had been carved out of thesurface of the nickel-iron with a focused sun beam. One end of it wasreserved for flitterboats; three big spaceships sat on the other end,looking very _noblesse oblige_ at the little flitterboats.

  I clamped down, gave the key to one of the men behind the desk afterwe had gone below, and turned to Jack. "I suggest we go to the hotelfirst and get a shower and a little rest. We can go out to Vikingtomorrow."

  She glanced at her watch. Like every other watch and clock in theBelt, it was set for Greenwich Standard Time. What's the point inhaving time zones in space?

  "I'm not tired," she said brightly. "I got plenty of sleep while wewere on the way. Why don't we go out tonight? They've got abounce-dance place called _Bali_'s that--"

  I held up a hand. "No. You may not be tired, but I am. Remember, Iwent all the way out there by myself, and then came right back.

  "I need at least six hours sleep in a nice, comfortable bed beforeI'll be able to move again."

  The look she gave me made me feel every one of my thirty-five years,but I didn't intend to let her go roaming around at this stage of thegame.

  Instead, I put her aboard one of the little rail cars, and we headedfor the Viking Arms, generall
y considered the best hotel on Ceres.

  Ceres has a pretty respectable gee pull for a planetoid: Three percent of Standard. I weigh a good, hefty five pounds on the surface.That makes it a lot easier to walk around on Ceres than on, say,Raven's Rest. Even so, you always get the impression that one of thelittle rail cars that scoots along the corridors is climbing uphillall the way, because the acceleration is greater than any measlythirty centimeters per second squared.

  Jack didn't say another word until we reached the Viking, whereRavenhurst had thoughtfully made reservations for adjoining rooms.Then, after we'd registered, she said: "We could at least getsomething to eat."

  "That's not a