Magazine - Asimov's Science Fiction - 2003 - Issue 03 - March (v1.0) [txt] by March (v1.0)

Author:March (v1.0) [txt] [March (v1.0) [txt]]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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CH004 *The Waste Land* by Charles Sheffield This final story from the wonderful Hugo- and Nebula-award winning author, Charles Sheffield, who died in November, is a science fiction mystery tale that takes a compelling look at a peculiar murder in ... The Waste Land.

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Jeff King groped at his belt and wondered what mad impulse had let him come here without his gun. Or without his partner, who should have been covering him from ten paces behind. Or without his sanity, which he must have left at home. The alley was one he knew well. It led from Pennsylvania Avenue through to H Street. There were lights, but at midnight they were dimmed. Even so, it should still be easy to see anybody in the alley -- except that night cleaning staff for neighboring buildings used the narrow throughway as their private parking lot, and any of a dozen vans and pick-up trucks could hide a man -- or woman -- crouched behind it. All he had seen was a running black-clad outline. Jeff moved forward, carefully and slowly. He could feel his heartbeat, the pulse fast and irregular. The alley was perfectly quiet. Then suddenly it wasn't quiet at all. A telephone was ringing -- his own phone, whose presence made about as much sense as the absence of his gun. * * *

Jeff jerked upright. Instead of midnight in Washington, DC, he opened his eyes to the clear pale light of an Idaho dawn. The ringing phone was the one at his bedside. As he reached for it his heart felt ready to jump out of his chest.

"Security?" said a woman's nervous voice. "Yes." Jeff shouldn't be getting a call at home, Johnny Talbott was on duty. What time was it, anyway? He squinted at the clock. Five forty. "This is Security. Jefferson King speaking." "This is Lauren Begler with Remediation." "Yes?" Meaning, I never heard of you, and why the hell are you calling me at this hour? "I'm in charge of the Number Three Nuclear Waste Section. We have a survey operation going on in Site 62, as part of the Snake River aquifer tests. Two of my staff were out on a night run, checking reference points with a GPS terminal. When they were driving between two corner markers they saw something and went for a closer look. It was a body. A dead body. They called me." "Sweet mother." Jeff was already looking around for his shoes. Eighteen years of habit made him say, without thinking, "Natural causes?" "I don't know. I haven't seen the body -- I'm heading out there now. But my staff don't think so. They say there's something very peculiar about it. Should I call you when I see the -- the dead person? I thought you ought to know about this as soon as possible." "Smart thinking. No need to call me, though -- I'll be there myself. Give me driving directions." "Wonderful." The relief in her voice was enormous.

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