Someday the Stars by John E. Siers

Author:John E. Siers [Siers, John E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Theogony Books
Published: 2021-08-09T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

Lorna directed Mike to give Tommy Sakura a heads-up regarding the promised call from the U.S. Navy, then turned her attention to the latest financial reports from Terra Corporation. Business was good, she noted, but she resolved to get someone on her staff to review the things in more detail. This was the area of the CEO’s responsibilities with which she was least comfortable, but one of critical importance to the financial health of the nation. I need a real financial analyst on staff. Hmm, maybe Kim’s son would be a good choice. Have to take a look at his file.

Next, she turned her attention to the Fleet construction schedule, reflecting that even that aspect of her job had changed forever. While Ian was alive, she’d only had to worry about getting ships built and deployed; now she had to worry about how to pay for them.

Her interface beeped to tell her a scheduled visitor had arrived, and she looked up as Charlie Bender came into her office, followed by Sergeant Bartley. Bartley took up her usual position against the wall and stood at parade rest, her right hand never far from the holstered pistol on her belt. Bender glanced over his shoulder at the Marine, then gave Lorna a look of smug satisfaction. The requirement that a Marine guard be inside the office whenever Lorna had a visitor—any visitor—was one of Charlie’s new security measures. Lorna hadn’t objected, but she had reminded the Marines anything they saw or heard in the office was confidential—classified Most Secret.

“All right, Charlie, what’s up?”

Bender seated himself in front of her desk. “Good news and bad news, Admiral. The good news is that we’ve made progress with the investigation. The bad news is you’re not going to like what we found.”

“And why might that be?”

“Because some of our own people—Lunar citizens—are implicated.”

“You have my attention,” she said.

“We found a box in the back room of Joe’s Deli. It caught our attention because the printing on the box indicated computer parts—molycirc interface cards, not something you’d expect to find in a delicatessen. Lab analysis shows the box contained the guns—not just any guns, but the ones used by the assassins. Their fingerprints were all over the box, as were several others, but we didn’t look into those until we reconstructed the shipping label.

“The label was removed, but whoever did it needn’t have bothered, and obviously had no concept of what modern forensics can do. Anytime you put a printed label on a box, you get an image transfer at the molecular level due to ambient radiation—not enough to be visible, but with deep spectrum analysis, we were able to reconstruct the entire label. The box came from an alleged computer parts supplier on Earth. We checked, and there is no such company, but it was addressed to Doctor Lawrence Devereaux.”

Lorna looked at him in disbelief. “You’re telling me the guns were shipped to Devereaux?”

“We checked the shipping records, Admiral. The sonofabitch signed for

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