Chaos Vector by Megan E. O'Keefe

Author:Megan E. O'Keefe [O'Keefe, Megan E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780316419635
Google: tlwwzAEACAAJ
Amazon: B0827TG2C4
Goodreads: 49088636
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2020-07-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 44

PRIME STANDARD YEAR 3543

THERE’S ALWAYS A BIGGER PROBLEM

Sanda was sure he wouldn’t stay here. He had to have known the switch wouldn’t remain undiscovered for long, and he’d need to get out as quickly as possible. What would a Nazca do if they needed to get off this station in a hurry, without anyone growing suspicious until it was already too late? Schmoozing his way through the docks seemed unlikely, given the timeline. What would Tomas have done?

Exactly what they’d done on Ada Station—make for the docks via the maintenance access passages and try to steal a shuttle.

“Arden,” she ordered, “get me cameras all over this station, get me comms, and get me access to any maintenance pathways. I need maps, and I need them now. Shortest route between SecureSite holding and the shuttle docks.”

“On it,” they said.

“Could have gone for an evac,” Nox said. “It’s riskier, but if he was sure of a pickup coming for him, then it’d be easier to get to a pod than the docks.”

“True. Arden, check for any recently launched pods—how many pod docks are there?”

They squinted at their pad. “Dozens, but I can’t see launch history. Something’s corrupting the data.”

“Motherfucker is trying to confuse things. We’ll need visual. Nox, check the pods west-to-north, Graham and Knuth take south-to-east. I’m going for the shuttle docks.”

“Alone?” Graham’s voice was strained.

“Unless you see another combat-ready friend hanging around, yes. Alone.”

“Conway—”

Sanda pressed her earpiece. “Conway. Novak did a runner. Stand ready to shoot down any rogue shuttle. Track everything in the immediate vicinity. You find anything the tiniest bit suspicious, flag it and call me.”

“Understood,” she said.

“I don’t understand,” Liao said. “Novak was new, he’s just a young engineer, there’s no reason to shoot him. He’s probably frightened that we’ll get in trouble and wants to destroy the evidence.”

“Leo Novak is the alias of a Nazca, one of an organization of intergalactic spies spread across the inhabited universe. Your broken governors allow signals to reach the energy protocols for the gates. You’ve handed a flask full of self-replicating nanites capable of shutting down the Casimir Gates to a spy. Consider yourself briefed, this is classified, just shut the fuck up and let us work. That flask cannot leave this station.”

Liao snapped her mouth shut and backed up slowly, bumping into a wall, but Sanda didn’t have time to deal with her shock.

“Arden, maps.”

“Got it,” they said. In the same instant, a layout of Monte bloomed on her wristpad. The station homed vast stretches of aeroponic farm space spread throughout thousands of cubic meters of air.

“Dios,” she muttered, panning around the place that Arden had flagged as SecureSite holding. The maintenance passageways of the station were another world unto themselves, set up to facilitate the farming done here, but incredibly fucking annoying for tracking down a fugitive.

“Arden, priority on maintenance tunnel cameras. Weapons authorized to kill, Nazca are dangerous when cornered, and it’s not like we can trust any intel a goddamn spy gives us. Everyone move the fuck out.

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