Black Tide by Anthony M. Strong

Author:Anthony M. Strong [Strong, Anthony M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: West Street Publishing
Published: 2021-02-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 33

One hour later Decker stood beside Thomas in Claudia’s office and looked over her shoulder as she inserted the SD card into her laptop. When the icon appeared on her desktop, Claudia clicked it. A new window opened, displaying a folder created by the camera. Claudia clicked again to open it, and Decker was surprised to see two files contained within. The card had been blank when they started recording. Decker had checked it himself to make sure there was enough space. Both recordings had been made the previous night.

“That’s odd,” Decker said.

“I agree.” Claudia peered at the screen. “There should only be one video file.”

“Unless an unknown person stopped the recording and then restarted it. That would create two files.” Decker leaned close. “Setting up the camera was not a futile exercise, after all.”

Claudia clicked on the first file. “That’s play it and see what we got.”

The spinning wheel icon appeared while the computer processed the file, then a video player opened up. A view of the corridor that ended in the umbilical hatch door appeared on the screen. It showed Decker discussing the placement of the camera with Thomas. He stepped out of view as the conversation continued, then a few minutes later, silence. The recording continued this way for a while, with only an occasional distant murmur of conversation breaking the silence. Decker knew this to be the sound of the team polishing off the bottle of bourbon. Eventually even the conversation faded away as the lights dimmed, and the habitat transitioned into night mode. Soon the recording was still and quiet.

“Can we pick up the pace?” Decker asked. “The recording is several hours long, and I don’t want to stand here all day.”

“Right you are,” Claudia said. She clicked her mouse, and the recording sped up, first to four and then eight times the speed. Soon they were zipping along at sixteen.

When a figure stepped into frame again, Decker instructed her to return to regular speed. “That’s me. I came down to make a mug of tea around two in the morning.”

“We’re almost at the end of the first recording,” Claudia said, pointing to the nearly completed time bar. “Can’t be more than a minute or two left.”

“This will be interesting,” Decker said. He focused his attention on the screen as the remaining time on the recording expired. With a couple of seconds left, a long shadow appeared on the floor, but its owner remained hidden. Then the recording ended.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Thomas said. “We’re no better off than we were before.”

“That’s not true,” Decker replied. “The shadow on the floor confirms that it wasn’t a camera glitch or some other malfunction. The recording was turned off deliberately and then restarted sometime later.”

Claudia nodded slowly. “The question is how much time later.”

“That’s easy to find out.” Decker motioned toward the files. “Select the second file and view its properties. The timestamp will tell you when the recording resumed.”

“Of course,” Claudia said. She clicked on the file to bring up the properties window.

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