Angel of Europa by Allen Steele Read Free Book Online

eighteen meters in diameter and five in height, connected to each other by a short tunnel. Their construction was simple: two inflatable domes covered by two meters of chipped ice as a radiation shield. A couple of radiation-armored rovers, each resembling fat sausages mounted on caterpillar treads, were parked outside the main airlock; the discarded cargo landers lay fifty meters away, never to fly again now that they performed their task of ferrying all this hardware down from orbit. As they came closer, Danzig saw the flag post planted by the first landing team; the flags of the ISC countries participating in the International Jupiter Expedition — England, Germany, France, Brazil, and the U.S. — were held erect by the wire braces that allowed them to flutter in a nonexistent breeze.
    The airlock wasn’t big enough for all three of them to cycle through at once; Kevin and Evangeline let him go first. Danzig was surprised to find that he wasn’t reluctant about stepping into an airlock; his memory of the accident may have been afflicted, but at least he hadn’t come away with any lasting phobias. Three minutes later, the inner hatch opened and he stepped into a small room with a low ceiling and orange plastic panels for walls.
    “Otto. How good of you to visit.” Walter Mahr was waiting for him, his voice carried by the prong he was wearing. He came forward to guide Danzig toward a suit rack. “I was afraid I wouldn’t see you again until we returned to Earth.”
    “Thanks, Walter.” Danzig said. “I just wish it could be under more pleasant circumstances.”
    The smile faded from Walter’s broad Bavarian face. “So do I,” he said as he bent down to clamp the rack’s foot restraints. “This could have gone better.”
    Danzig had always liked the Explorer’s executive officer; as the IJE’s second in command, his perpetual joviality was a welcome contrast to Diaz’s no-nonsense stoicism. It was unfortunate timing that two men had perished while he was on Europa; Danzig remembered how, the first night out from Earth, Walter had waxed euphoric about the prospect of setting foot on what he considered to be Jupiter’s most interesting moon. Danzig had little doubt that his sense of wonder had been tampered by the tragedy. Walter and Klaus had been close; he was probably still hurting from the loss of his friend.
    But that wasn’t the most important issue just then. Evangeline had the next turn to cycle through; she was already in the airlock, and it was possible she might tap into the comlink and hear anything he had to say to Walter.
    “ Wen wire in Minute erhalten, mochte ich Sie treffen, ” Danzig said as he opened the suit’s top hatch. “ Jose und Yvonne, auch … in privatatum. ”
    “ Ich dacht, dass Sie wurden. ” Walter lowered the rack’s horizontal bar so that Danzig could reach up to grasp it with his bare hands. “ Ich habe die um um anderen gebetum, um uns Konferenzsall in einer ungefähr Stunde zu treffen. ”
    “ Danke. Ich Schatze es. ”
    A short buzz signaled that the airlock was about to open. By then, Walter had agreed to bring Jose Amado and Yvonne Benoit, the two other expedition members currently at Consolmagno Base, to the conference room in about an hour for a private meeting. As Danzig pried himself from the hardsuit, Walter went over to help Evangeline. He was as cordial as usual, but Danzig noticed that his hospitality was guarded.
    And even after she opened her suit and he was able to see her again, it was impossible to tell what Evangeline was thinking.

VI
    “I HAVE NO DOUBTS whatsoever. She killed Klaus, and John, too.”
    Yvonne Benoit glared across the conference table at Danzig. Although not as attractive as Evangeline, the expedition’s only other French member possessed a dark beauty that, if anything, seemed to be enhanced by her anger. Danzig gazed at the paper coffee cup in her left hand and wondered if she was about to crush it within a clenched