Metafire

The speakerphone at Metafire was connected to a speakerphone in the situation room. John Ferguson was getting tired, but he was still alert. The Bluebird crew was able to tap into the conversation with their listening device, even though they weren't invited to the party. "John? Is this John Smith?"

"Yes. I assume this is George Davis."

"Yes. John, that was a mistake last night! We now also have one of your people, Steven, as a hostage. I'm afraid he's tied up."

"Yes, we know. I'm glad to hear he's not hurt. What do you want? You called us."

"Yes. We are prepared to release all the hostages. There are three, as you know. We want only to obtain our rightful property and move to the outer reaches of the solar system. We will certainly not survive this. We want to go in peace, without further interference."

"I'm listening."

"We have property in orbit. It's two capsules in New Vladisvostok. We ask that your tug up here tender us over to those capsules. A Russian tug will be required to effect the joins. It will join those capsules onto our Russian capsule."