3

"I do not understand," said Franz Hoffman. "Does Dr. Li think that I need an assistant? A Sherpa guide to carry my baggage up the mountain?"

Jamie held onto his swooping temper, just barely. He had decided that there would be no way to avoid Hoffman in the crowded, snow-buried base so he would make a virtue of necessity by offering to help the Austrian to continue the meteorite search out on the glacier.

Hoffman had been unpacking his clothes when Jamie knocked on the half-ajar door to his quarters. It happened to be the same room that Dr. Li had just left. But already Hoffman had turned it into his personal domain. A five-foot-long photomosaic map of Mars was pinned up on the flat wall above the bunk bed. On the curving wall beside the desk the geologist had taped a smaller satellite photo of the Markham glacier, already marked with red circles where meteorites had been located. A framed color photograph sat on the government-issue three-drawer bureau, a round-cheeked young woman with twin babies in her arms smiling dubiously into the camera.

"Look," Jamie said, leaning against the doorjamb, "Li asked me to help your group through your six weeks here. If you’re interested in continuing the search for meteorites I’m willing to help."

Hoffman eyed Jamie silently, then went back to taking folded clothes out of a large suitcase on the bed and placing them in precise stacks in the bureau drawers.

"At the very least," Jamie said, "I can show you which areas I’ve already covered. Save you going over areas where nothing’s been found."

"That information is in the data bank, is it not?" Hoffman asked.

He was about Jamie’s own age and height, but thin and almost weak-looking where Jamie was solid and chunky. Hoffman was round-shouldered and round faced. His hair was already turning gray, and it was cropped close to his skull. His face was a picture of darkly brooding suspicion, eyes small and squinting, narrow lips pressed firmly together. Jamie thought, Put a monocle in his eye and he’d look like an old-time Nazi general.

"Yes, the computer has a complete file of my treks on the glacier," Jamie replied evenly. "But once you’re out there on the ice the computer data loses a lot of its meaning. Even the satellite pictures aren’t much help when you’re actually out there."

"I have done field work," Hoffman said stiffly. "I was born in the shadow of the Alps. None of this is new to me."

"Suit yourself," Jamie said. He turned to leave.

"Wait."

"For what?"

Hoffman stood in the middle of the room, his fingers drumming unconsciously against the sides of his heavy wool slacks.

"Tell me," he said, his voice a little less sharp, "why does Dr. Li think that I need an assistant?"

"It’s not…"

Hoffman did not let Jamie finish his sentence. "You did not have an assistant. None of the other geologists had assistants. Does Li think I’m incapable? Does he think I can’t make it on my own? Is this his subtle way of getting rid of me?"

Jamie felt his mouth drop open. Hoffman was just as worried and frightened as he was. Behind the brittle facade was a man who feared he would be left behind, just as Jamie feared.

Shit! Jamie snarled to himself. It would be so much easier to hate him.

4

After lunch and the base commander’s brief orientation lecture, Jamie spent the rest of the day saying hello to each of the newcomers, telling them that he was there to give them any help or advice they required. He felt awkward, more like an unwanted and unneeded accessory than a valued and trusted associate.

His insides were in turmoil over Hoffman. Walk a mile in the other guy’s moccasins, he thought. Sure. Great. No wonder the Indians got swamped by the whites.

By the time he had spoken to the first three of the newcomers, Jamie had worked out a little speech that explained quickly, with a minimum of embarrassment, why he had remained at the base and what he was offering to do. "The newcomers’ reactions varied from Hoffman’s fear of inadequacy to Tony Reed’s cynical smile of understanding.

"Does little Joanna know that you’re to be her personal chaperon?" Reed asked.

"I don’t think anybody’s spelled it out to her," Jamie replied.

Reed’s lopsided grin turned almost into a sneer. "She’d be a fool if she didn’t figure it out for herself."

"Maybe," said Jamie.

He had left Joanna for last, and now, feeling as frustrated and exhausted as he had the winter he had tried to sell magazine subscriptions bicycling through his Berkeley neighborhood, he tapped at the door to Joanna’s room.

She opened the door, looked up at him, and smiled.

"Come in," said Joanna Brumado in her little girl’s voice. "Sit down."

She still wore the sweater and jeans she had arrived in. Her room was neatly arranged, emptied suitcases stacked in the far corner, garment bag hanging behind the door. Her laptop computer was open on the desktop but its screen was dark and silent. There were no pictures on the walls, no personal items in sight.

Jamie took the chair that stood by the bunk.

"I’ve told all the others," Jamie began, "that Dr. Li asked me to stay here at McMurdo to help you and the rest of your group get through your six weeks here as easily and profitably as possible."

Joanna went to the desk and sat at the chair behind it, turning the desk into a protective barrier.

Her face entirely serious, she said, "We can be honest with one another, James."

"Jamie."

Her lips did not curve up into a smile. Her luminous dark eyes were somber. "You are here to make certain that I get through this part of the training. You have stayed behind because I am Alberto Brumado’s daughter and for no other reason."

Well, she’s no fool, Jamie said to himself. She’s under no illusions. No pretensions.

"Dr. Li asked me to remain here," he said.

"Because of me."

"It was his first big decision as expedition commander."

Her eyes would not leave his. "And what about your training? Your own group is going ahead with its regular schedule, is it not?"

"They’re going to Utah, yes."

"And you?"

Jamie made himself shrug. "I’ve spent most of my summers in New Mexico. Maybe Dr. Li figures I don’t need any more time in the desert."

Joanna shook her head. "He asked you to stay here? He himself? Personally?"

"Yes."

"And you agreed to do it?"

"What choice did I have? Tell Li that I refuse to carry out his first major decision? How would that look on my record?"

She bit her lower lip. "Yes, he did not give you any real choice at all, did he?"

"Well, I’m here and you’re here, so we should try to make the best of it."

"But you will be throwing away your chance for a position on the mission just for me."

"I guess that’s already been decided," Jamie said, surprised at the obvious bitterness in his voice.

"I could call my father," said Joanna, tentatively, her eyes sliding away from his. "I could tell him what Dr. Li has done to you."

Jamie tried to probe beneath her words, understand what was churning inside her. She was not angry, yet something was radiating from this elfin woman as she sat behind the desk. Was it fear? Bitterness? A sense of injustice?

"Are you afraid that the others will think you’re getting special treatment?" he asked.

"I am getting special treatment!"

"And you don’t like it?"

"It could cost you your chance to make the mission."

"But it’s important to your father that you go to Mars."

Her eyes went even wider.

"Is that important to you?" Jamie asked.

"Important? That I go to Mars?"

"Right."

"Of course it is important! Do you think I am here merely to satisfy my father’s vicarious desires?"