The Freezer by Timothy S. Johnston

Author:Timothy S. Johnston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

All eyes were now on Dinova. Marius, her closest friend, was disgusted. There was pure distaste on his face. Dinova’s expression, on the other hand, was cold and impassive, but her gaze was fixed to mine.

“You knew he was about to die,” I whispered. “You knew about the acid burn and that Marius had injected priority nanos in him, that he had maybe fifteen minutes of life left. You followed him to watch it happen.” I studied her for a long moment. She seemed frozen in position, not knowing whether to object or admit it.

I continued, “And you left a micro-bomb in my quarters, hoping to infect me.” I was sure that Lawrence would confirm this, when and if we finally restored communications. “You also got Shaheen. You murdered innocent people...for what?” I knew it had something to do with The Freezer. Whatever this base was for, it had caused Bojdl’s death. “And when I forced you to come here, your response was odd.”

“In what way?” she finally said. Her voice was soft.

“You seemed to be acting.” I hesitated for a heartbeat. “I also noted that you didn’t cremate Bojdl. Usually the physician would run the autopsy immediately—which is protocol, and you followed it—but then you deliberately left the body in your freezer.” Another thought crystallized...it was all coming together. “You wanted me to examine it! You wanted me to find the bomb, to realize it was murder and not a natural death!” The thoughts were roiling through my brain now. “And when I first met you, your reaction was weird. You recognized me, didn’t you? You had wanted me to come to Ceres, right? Because you knew who I was...knew my reputation...”

She watched me silently, but didn’t say a word.

She had killed Shaheen. Had planted a bomb that tore a hole near her heart and ripped her away from me. An innocent person...collateral damage...

And then a thought shot through my brain and made my stomach drop. “Oh, my God,” I whispered. And then I stabbed Dinova with a look. “All this time I thought Shaheen was a mistake, but she wasn’t.” The idea continued to resolve itself in my mind. “You meant to kill her from the start.”

She sighed and dropped her eyes. “I needed you to bring me here. I needed to give you a reason. Your lover’s death was certainly a good one.”

My hand snapped to my pistol and it was out in an instant. I leveled it at her face. Everyone gasped except for Dinova. She simply met my weapon, her expression blank.

I ground out, “You killed two people—three with me included—to get back here! But why, for God’s sake?”

No response.

And then a crack rang out and stretched on for a long moment. It was sustained and loud. Sato had indeed been right: they were louder in Module A.

He was watching me, thinking the same thing.

And then I grunted. “All right. Let’s get everything on the table.” I stepped back and trained my pistol on the entire group.

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