Metafire

"OK, John. Right now." Jill started to type in that communication, and then realized that they had a special opportunity. "John, suppose we allow Metafire to join with the Russian supply capsules. It would be natural for us to search the capsules first. Why don't we arrange for there to be some kind of sleep gas or bomb that we could trigger remotely on those capsules? It could give us a measure of control."

"That's a good idea. Do we have the Russian capsules identified?"

"I don't know. Is Major Henderson around?"

"We can get him in." Ferguson signalled a guard who disappeared. A moment later the Major walked in.

Ferguson began talking, "Major, do we know about these Russian supply capsules?"

"Yes, we know a little. The capsules are there. They are owned by Whitefire. We've contacted the Russian authorities. They don't know that anything in particular has happened. Let's hope the Russians don't see the USA Today article. Or, at least, they don't do their addition and see the connections. We've already notified them that we would require a search of the capsules before they would be allowed to join with the American colony. They seemed to have no problem with that. They simply required that they be present during the search."