Space Murder by NL Haverstock

Author:NL Haverstock [Haverstock, NL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Space Opera
Publisher: Ranch Dog Entertainment, LLC
Published: 2019-10-04T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Within the hour, the plan was ready. For better or for worse, we were committed. Chloe had been monitoring the cave entrance. She confirmed that every fourteen minutes, a shuttle passed overhead cruising down the coastline from the left. They would then disappear off to the right as the cliffs blocked her view.

Our stolen police shuttle was in pretty bad shape. We moved it onto the beach exactly thirteen minutes after a patrol had passed. The shuttle slowly, and quite unsteadily, rose until it was roughly level with the top of the cliff. Raph held the shuttle there for fifteen seconds until the next patrol appeared around the bend, right on schedule.

Eugene’s red light flashed with excitement. “The patrol has locked on with their scanner. Go!”

Our shuttle shot toward the atmosphere in what we hoped looked like a frantic bid for escape, but the patrol shuttle was right its tail. They must have switched out shuttles from the ones that had chased us earlier in the day because this one had massive firepower.

The first shot missed, but the second and third were direct hits. The police shuttle abruptly shifted directions with each hit, and part of the ship fell off into the ocean below, causing the gulpers to rise to the surface. Finally, as we had suspected would be the case, the patrol shot a rocket. It rose into the air, slowly gaining on our former transport until the moment of impact. The resulting explosion was so bright it looked like a second star had been born in the atmosphere. It probably blinded everyone within miles.

By the time the visual flare had died, there was nothing left in the sky but a faint puff of smoke. The pieces, no bigger than the large red grains on the beach, fell slowly. They looked like a dark cloud slowly drifting down over the ocean.

Raph stood next to me at the entrance of the cave. “Do you think they bought it?”

“I’m hoping so. It is well known that you can’t fly a shuttle without being in the shuttle. If they believe we were making a mad dash for escape and were killed in the process, they will stop looking for me, or rather us, as they surely knew that someone helped me. Eugene, are you picking up anything?”

A second then a third patrol ship showed up overhead. They hovered at the top of the cliff, orientated toward the ocean.

“Yes,” Eugene said. “The first contact patrol is reporting that he picked up the heat signature of four passengers and they refused to listen to his commands to land and be boarded. The pilot says that criminal vessel sent a confusing message in reply, so he followed orders to shoot it down. No survivors.”

I looked at the AI suspiciously. “What message did you send?”

“‘Hasta la vista, baby.’ I pulled it from my ancient history database. The context was goodbye because we are leaving in a glorious fashion.”

I suppressed a smile. “Well, it worked. In fact, I’m a little concerned with how quickly the three of you rigged that up.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.