Free Mars by Ben Bova Page A

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 firmlyJamie 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 inthe 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