April by Mackey Chandler Page B

praise.
    "I can think of a bunch. Which one do you have in mind?"
    "Jon said we have spies jumping out the airlocks. But there are spies and there are spies . I can't believe an industrial spy, looking for trade secrets, is going to be armed like he was. And I can't see that a private sort of spy, would be able to call an expensive space plane to pick him up. So it makes him the government kind of spy and I have to ask: What have we got here, that requires a government spy? In fact, since we are supposed to be under USNA law, why can't they just walk in and demand just about anything they want to know, without going to all the trouble to use spies? I know the parent company in Japan has a big interest in the US subsidiary, which owns M3, but on the news, things seem sweet between the two countries right now, I don't see any Japanese sensitivities as a problem they would worry about either. Am I making sense?"
    "Yes, unfortunately you are making perfect sense and I would bet Jon is scrambling to find out the answers to those questions right now. He already mentioned what he thinks it is tied to and I can't fault his reasoning. He feels, sooner or later, we will see it's all about the Rock. What else here involves enough money?" he asked.
    He also thought about the other spy, the one that didn't get away. But Jon hadn't mentioned it to April, so he decided to follow his lead for now. They didn't really know as much about that fellow, as this Art anyway. Not even if they were connected. So why worry April with something that wouldn't touch her life at all?
    "But what can they do?" April asked. "It's all private money used to recover it, right? They don't have any interest in it to protect."
    "I haven't said much, not wanting to worry you or your brother, but there is a case soon before the World Court and there is a possibility the Court will rule the investors were illegal in occupying the rock and the government may seize it."
    "If that happens what will it do to our family?" She was angry now with herself for not watching closer. There must be news on the web about the court case. She added a search and retrieval, for news about the Rock to her alerts while she was thinking about it. She would not be in the dark again.
     "We would be hurt pretty badly," he admitted. "On paper, we'd lose maybe half of our worth, but what would be left would mostly be our cubic and other things we really need to live, not liquid assets. We'd still have a place to live. We'd kind of be back to where we were when we first moved up to M3."
    "A lot of small investors put everything they had in and borrowed heavily to buy stock, in one of the companies that bought a share and divided it up. Some of them might lose everything and have to go back Dirtside and declare bankruptcy. I suspect a few might get pretty nasty, since they bet the farm so to speak," he stopped and pinched his face up a bit. "More than suspect, because some of them have said outright they'll fight. But I'm ignoring that and not holding them to rash words," he promised.
    "Even if the court ruled our recovery legal, I've had it pointed out it could still be regarded as real estate and seized under Eminent Domain if they would be willing to pay us something. If they want to steal it they'll find a way to do it and some justification to pretty it up. They don't seem at all concerned it would probably kill any further investment in asteroid recovery for a long time. Maybe that would be a plus to them, for all I can figure out how they think."
    "Do you think maybe you could ask Mitsubishi to get involved and put the Rock into orbit by M2 instead?" April wondered.
    "Maybe somebody else could, but I'm supposed to look out for the company's interests. I wouldn't want to suggest something to help my own private venture, when I honestly think it would be bad not only for Mitsubishi, but for Japan to stick their nose in. And this looks like a bad issue to push on. I don't think the USNA is