New Frontiers Read Online Free PDF

to the cup and tapped the ball. His final score was six below par.
    The only way for MacTavish to beat him would be for him to chip the ball directly into the cup. The Aussie tried, but his chip was too hard, and the ball rolled a good ten meters past the hole. He ended with a score of four below par.
    Ramjanmyan won the tournament at six below par. Mai came in second, five below, and Sam surprised us all with a three below par score, putting him in fourth place.
    *   *   *
    EVERYONE CELEBRATED FAR into the night: golfers, tourists, staffers, and all. Sam reveled the hardest, dancing wildly with every woman in Dante’s Inferno while the band banged out throbbing, wailing neodisco numbers.
    I danced with Mai, no one else. And she danced only with me. It was well past midnight when the party started to break up. Mai and I walked back to her hotel room, tired but very, very happy.
    Until I thought about what tomorrow would bring. Mai would leave to return to Earth. I’d be an unemployed golf course architect stranded on the Moon.
    â€œYou’re awfully quiet,” Mai said as we stepped into her room.
    â€œYou’ll be leaving tomorrow,” I said.
    â€œI’ll get the best lawyers on Earth,” she said as she slid her arms around my neck. “Earth’s a big place. Your ex-wife can’t harass you anywhere except Singapore.”
    I shook my head. “Don’t be so sure. Her mother has an awful lot of clout.”
    â€œWe’ll find a place…”
    â€œAnd spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders? That’s not what I want for you, Mai.”
    She kissed me lightly, just brushing her lips on mine. “Sufficient for the day are the evils thereof.”
    â€œHuh?”
    Mai smiled at me. “Let’s worry about things tomorrow. We’re here together tonight.”
    So I tried to forget about my troubles. I even succeeded—for a while.
    *   *   *
    I WAS AWAKENED by the phone’s buzzing. I cracked one eye open and saw that Mai was sleeping soundly, peacefully curled up beside me.
    â€œAudio only,” I told the phone.
    Sam’s freckled face sprang up on the phone’s screen, grinning lopsidedly.
    â€œMai, I’ve got the medical reports here,” he began.
    â€œQuiet,” I whispered urgently. “Mai’s still asleep.”
    â€œCharlie?” Sam lowered his voice a notch. “So that’s where you are. I called you at your place. We’ve gotta talk about financial arrangements.”
    Severance pay, I knew.
    â€œCome over to my office around eleven thirty. Then we’ll go to lunch.”
    â€œMai’s flight—”
    â€œPlenty of time for that. My office. Eleven thirty. Both of you.”
    They say that today is the first day of the rest of your life. I went through the morning like a man facing a firing squad. The rest of my life, I knew, was going to be miserable and lonely. Mai seemed sad, too. Her usual cheerful smile was nowhere in sight.
    We got to Sam’s office precisely at eleven thirty and settled glumly onto the sawed-off chairs in front of his desk. Sam beamed down at us like he hadn’t a care in the world. Or two worlds, for that matter.
    â€œFirst,” he began, “the radiation badges we all wore show that the nanosuits protected us just as well as the standard suits protected everybody else.”
    â€œDr. Cardenas will be pleased,” Mai said listlessly.
    â€œYou bet she is,” Sam replied. “We’re having dinner together over at Selene this evening.”
    Dr. Cardenas was a handsome woman, from what I’d heard of her. Was Sam on the hunt again? Does a parrot have feathers?
    â€œOkay,” he said, rubbing his hands together briskly, “now let’s get down to business.”
    The firing squad was aiming at me.
    â€œCharlie, you don’t have much experience in business administration, do