The Darwin Effect by Mark Lukens

Author:Mark Lukens [Lukens, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2016-05-23T04:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FOUR

They followed Ward up to the third level. Cromartie was right behind Ward, and even though they didn’t have any proof that Ward had murdered Butler and then moved her body, he still wasn’t comfortable walking in front of the man. The rest of them followed Cromartie.

“It won’t mean anything if Butler’s body isn’t in the airlock,” Abraham said as they walked. “He could’ve used the airlock already. He could’ve already shot her body out into space.”

“I didn’t use the airlock,” Ward growled from the front of the group. He looked up at the ceiling as he kept on walking. “MAC! Has the airlock been used yet?”

“No, Ward. It has not.”

Ward looked back at them without missing a step. “See? There you go. I never used the airlock. No one has. I’m sure some kind of alarm would’ve gone off if someone used the airlock.”

“He’s right,” Cromartie said as he glanced back at the others, trying to calm everyone down before this got out of control. But he still wanted to see the airlock door for himself.

Ward reached the airlock door and stood next to it, pointing at it with a smile on his face. “Satisfied?”

They gathered around the door and Cromartie saw what the others were looking at. Ward noticed their attention and looked at the door. “What the hell’s that?” he muttered, backing away a few steps.

“Someone wrote on the door,” Abraham said in a low voice.

They all stared at the words that had been scrawled across the metal door in what looked like a black magic marker. The words read: THIS IS THE ONLY WAY OUT.

“Who wrote that?” Rolle asked and glanced at the others.

Ward shook his head. “Oh, I guess this was me, too?”

“You were up here by the door before,” Abraham said.

“Did you see him write on the door when he was sleepwalking?” Rolle asked Abraham.

“I wasn’t sleepwalking,” Ward muttered.

Abraham looked torn, like he wasn’t sure of the answer, but he finally shook his head. “No. I don’t remember anything like that.”

Cromartie read the words scrawled on the metal door again, and the words from his dream echoed in his mind. “This is a really sick joke,” he said and glared at Ward, then he looked at the others one by one. “Whoever did this needs to admit it right now.”

Nobody admitted anything.

“We still need to find Butler’s body,” Rolle reminded them, getting them back on track. “Someone moved Butler’s body out of the storage area, but if they weren’t going to shoot her body out into space in the airlock, then why would they move it in the first place?”

The answer suddenly clicked in Cromartie’s mind—and he saw the realization in Sanders’ eyes at the same time. Why didn’t he think of it earlier?

“Maybe we should break up into teams and go look for her,” Abraham said. “Rolle and I will team up.” Abraham looked at Cromartie. “You and Sanders will be a team, I would guess.”

“That’s okay,” Ward said sarcastically. “I’ll go by myself.

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