Crossfire Station by Richard Tongue

Author:Richard Tongue [Tongue, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-16T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Quinn pushed the remains of his dinner around on his plate, the meat leaving a slimy trail as he soaked up the gravy. Theoretically, he was eating roast beef, but he couldn’t help but conclude that it was more likely modified guinea pig. Dropping his fork on the plate, he pulled out his tablet, skimming through the messages in his inbox, noting that Elliott had already managed to complete the training logs for the day.

Fifteen simulation runs, not one of which had led to a successful strike, ten of which had resulted in his death. Not a record to be proud of, but at least they seemed to be improving. He glanced at his watch, shaking his head at the time. Almost midnight, again. If he was going to improve his reflexes for the next batch of training flights, he needed to at least attempt to get some sleep.

As he was putting his tablet away, he heard a faint tone, an indication that there was a message newly arrived in his queue. No sender was listed, and he stabbed to open it, the filters sweeping it for viruses before accessing the file. All it contained was a pair of numbers. Fourteen, and twenty-nine.

Meaningless. Perhaps some sort of mistake, perhaps a systems check he didn’t know about. Maybe even an incomplete message, send inadvertently before it was ready. There was no sender listed, and as far as he could see, it almost appeared to have come out of nowhere. He rose to his feet, leaving the remains of his congealing meal, and walked out of the canteen, making his way around the corridor to his office, catching Cortez as she was leaving.

“Getting some sleep, boss?” she asked.

“In a bit. Have you made any progress checking out the work crews for the data storage installation?”

“I’m getting there. They were all over the damned place, and with no good reason that I can see. I’ve been working with Petrov to check out anything that looked suspicious, but so far, nothing. Oh, Dupont is the only one still on the station who was with the work crew, but two others are listed as missing. Killed by the prospectors. They went into business together.”

“Names?”

“Klein and Smith. Both of them were IDC employees coming to the end of their contract, and cashed in their pensions to buy a second-hand shuttle. I think I vaguely remember Klein, at least. Loudmouth, that one. All talk, nothing to back it up. That’s what I remember about him, anyway. He didn’t make a very good impression out here.”

“How long did he have to make it?”

“Only a couple of weeks.” She paused, then said, “I take it you don’t think that their deaths were an accident.” Frowning, she added, “They went out, but they didn’t come back. I suppose someone could have sabotaged their ship. I know the prospectors were working on that theory at one stage.”

He paused, nodded, then pulled out his tablet, handing it to her, then saying, “I know it’s late, but I need you to take a look at something.

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