“We’d expected to come up with it pretty quick. Actually, I think what happened was that when we didn’t see it, we told him to take off. They told us to take no chances with him.”

“Then what? You went back and looked some more?”

“We kept looking until we heard the cops were coming up. There was no way to get clear, so we switched to our secondary mission.”

“Bugging the place.”

“Yes.”

“But you did that strictly—”

“To provide a cover story. As we were instructed to do.”

“And you, and none of the other guys, ever gave the real reason for the break-in.”

He shook his head. No.

Weinstein felt a sense of admiration. “You took all that heat.”

“We were told to keep it quiet.” He leaned forward, his eyes locked on Weinstein. “If this story ever comes out, I’ll deny everything.”

30

“I still don’t know why I had to stay up here,” grumbled Bucky. “After all, every Moon landing we ever had, two went down and just one stayed behind to pilot the ship. That’s you.”

Ben Gaines smiled. “Two went down. That’s them.”

“But you don’t need me up here,” continued Bucky. “I don’t know the first damned thing about running the ship.”

“You don’t know the first damned thing about landing on the Moon and taking off from it.”

Then came the final argument. “It’s my expedition, damn it! I’m paying for it, so I should go to the surface if I want to.”

Gaines chuckled. “There’s the hatch. Feel free to leave.”

“Maybe I should fire you for insubordination,” said Bucky with a smile.

“Be my guest.” Gaines returned the smile. “I’m tired of driving this thing anyway. You take over.”

“Oh, hell, I guess you can stick around.” Bucky laughed, and Gaines joined in. He looked at the numerous dials and readouts on the control panel. “Have they landed yet, do you think?”

“Soon,” said Gaines. “Maybe another twelve or fifteen minutes.”

“Good. I’m getting tired sitting here doing nothing.”

“Well, we couldn’t send them until we’d picked their landing spot.”

“It seems so inexact,” complained Bucky.

Gaines frowned. “They’ll land within a few hundred yards of the descent modules.”

“I don’t mean the landing is inexact,” said Bucky. “I mean we still don’t know why Myshko and Walker went down there in the first place. Do you see anything else?”

“Not a thing, Bucky.”

Bucky paused, staring out through the port. “Where the hell is the lander?”

“You can’t see it right now,” Gaines said. “We’ve got the wrong angle.”

“Damn! I should be down there!”

“You’re starting to sound like a broken record,” said Gaines.

“They stopped making records before you were born,” growled Bucky. “What do you know about it?”

“Hey, I still collect vinyl,” said Gaines. “Not every record was transferred to CD or MP3 files. Especially old comedy records, topical ones.”

“You really collect them?”

Gaines nodded. “Mort Sahl, the original Second City, Stiller and Meara—almost none of them made it to CD. Same goes for a bunch of old Broadway shows that weren’t big enough hits to get revived. There’s really quite a large market for that stuff.”

“You live and learn,” said Bucky. Suddenly, he grinned. “Here I thought I was putting you down, and you made a fool of me. I like that in an employee.”

“So I get to orbit the Moon once or twice more before you fire me?”

“Maybe even three times.” Bucky turned his attention back to the panel. “Have they landed yet?”

“Bucky, take a nap. I’ll wake you when they’re there.”

“Shut up.”

“Okay, then—go to the bathroom. By the time you get back in all your gear, they’ll have landed.”

“I liked you a lot better five minutes ago,” said Bucky.

“Ditto,” said Gaines.

“You wouldn’t talk to me like that if we were back on Earth,”

“Sure I would.”

“You’re a good man, Ben. I chose the right pilot.”

“You didn’t choose me at all,” said Gaines.

“Maybe not, but I chose not to fire you a couple of minutes ago. That counts for something.”

They kidded and teased each other for another ten minutes, and finally they got the message they’d been waiting for.

“We’ve touched down in Cassegrain Crater.” It was Marcia Neimark’s voice.

“Everything okay?” asked Gaines.

“No problems of any kind.”

“You want to talk to the boss?”

“Sure—but it makes more sense for him to wait until we have something to tell him.”

“Can you see the modules?” asked Bucky.

“Yeah. We’re a good distance away, but we can see them.”

“Is there anything else?”

“Negative.”

“Can you see any reason why they might have gone down there?”

“Not yet, Bucky. But give us a chance to look around a little. We’ll be climbing down out of the lander in a couple of minutes.”

“Make sure you set up a video camera on one of the landing legs so we can see what’s happening.”

“Of course, Boss,” she said.

“Just making sure.”

“Bucky, that’s the fifth time you’ve made sure today.”

“Sorry.” He was grateful that she couldn’t see his guilty smile.

“Okay.” Bassinger took over as the voice on the speaker. “Are we all set for a Moon walk?”

“Help me secure my helmet, and I am,” said Neimark.

A moment later, they’d set up the video camera, and Bucky was able to watch them descend to the surface.

“It’s a shame the people back home can’t see this,” said Gaines. “But we can’t transmit this until we’re on the near side of the Moon.”

“Just as well,” said Bucky. “I’d like to know precisely what we’ve got before we start announcing stuff. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.”

“Well, I don’t think there’d be any problem showing them walking on the surface,” said Gaines, “as long as we don’t show what they’re walking toward.”

“We’re not entirely sure what they’re walking toward,” said Bucky, staring at the screen.

“Oh, come on, Boss. What do you expect to find? A Russian base?”

“Save the sarcasm, Ben.”

“Okay. Sure. But we can show them walking, right?” persisted Gaines.

“Ask me when we’re in a position to transmit it.”

Bucky learned forward, concentrating on the two images on the screen. Like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin half a century before, they seemed suddenly unfettered by gravity, even by the weight of their assignment. They jumped up again and again, then trotted in huge strides that would have lifted them over high hurdles had there been any.

“My God, I feel reborn!” exclaimed Neimark.

“We haven’t had any gravity in the ship for a couple of days, but it’s not the same thing!” Bassinger could barely contain himself. “I never want to go back!”

“Use up all your oxygen, and you won’t go back,” said Bucky. “What can you see?”

“Bunch of rubble,” said Bassinger.

“That’s all?”

“Bucky,” said Neimark, “try to be patient. Give us a chance to get to the modules.”

“How close are you?”

“Maybe a quarter mile.”

“I thought you were supposed to land closer.”

“Oh, come on, Bucky—we’ve traveled 250,000 miles and landed maybe five hundred yards from our target. You can’t get much more accurate than that.”

“Okay, okay.” Bucky looked at Gaines. “I knew I should have gone down with them.” Then he leaned over the mike again. “Just get on with it. I want to know what’s over there.”

“There’s probably nothing, Bucky. Except the descent stages.”

“Just take a look, okay? There had to be a reason for the initial landings.”