Metafire

Beth smiled to humor him, "Not bad Randy. Good idea. Might be fun. We might also have time to put something together like that. Maybe you can be our idea guy. Stan was a guy like that. You don't know him. He was with Metafire a couple of years ago."

Suddenly, everybody moved involuntarily out toward the front of the cavern.

"We're stopping." Isolova noted. "Grab on. This tug pilot is pretty wild sometimes."

Back in the communications area, Frank said, "OK, Scooter. That's good. We are within a few hundred yards of the Russian group. I see three tugs and a capsule."

"Frank?"

"Yes, Scooter?"

"I am removing my gripper right now, but I am going to keep it poised just above the latch. I want my $40,000. I've been nice. I would hate to make a mistake right now and puncture your superstructure. It'll take more than tape to fix that one, I'll wager."

"Gee, Scooter, don't you trust us? You did a good job. Back off so I can see you. I don't want you brushing us as you leave. I'll transfer the $40,000. You'll have to forward my encrypted message to the bank. It contains our digital signature for $40,000 exactly, payable to Scooter... What's your last name?"