{Those dustsuckers.} Ell shook her head, padding to her closet for a change of clothes. {Okay, then. I’m headed back down to Midland to interview the two women Janus mentioned last night. Get some rest. When you wake, see if you can’t find proof the cartel’s active on Hawking right now.}
{Will do, boss,} Quinn sent on a yawn.
Ell signed off, and then reached for Rafe. She didn’t waste time with pleasantries when he accepted the connection.
{Check this out,} she said tersely, pushing the data Quinn had sent over to him.
Thirty seconds later, he erupted in a string of curses. {You on your way down there?}
She sent him a mental nod. {Still have two possible witnesses to interview.}
{I have a few things to do first, but we need to loop in local law enforcement. I’ll set up a meeting with Midland’s police chief so we can update her.} He dropped a map to her overlay, a locator icon flashing on a Midland coffee shop.
{Meet me there in two hours,} he instructed—and then he was gone.
Half an hour later, Ell slipped aboard the 8:05 just as the maglev’s doors were closing. Dropping into the first free seat, she opened the additional information Quinn had handed off and began to study it as the maglev car sped toward the spaceport.
The amount Peres supposedly owed was staggering. People this in debt to the cartel often found themselves taking a spacewalk without a suit.
Well, crap on a comet, she thought, staring out the window at the blurred urban landscape, the chances of finding Peres alive just dropped considerably.
NINE
Tube Thirty-Two
Hawking Habitat
Just outside Midland, at a temporary site erected by the Public Works department, Tracy had all but forgotten the rude woman who’d shoved past him the night before.
His thoughts were fully occupied by a new annoyance.
His city-issued security token had triggered an alarm when he scanned it at tube Thirty-Two’s access point, causing an ES field to snap into existence and deny him entry.
He lifted his eyes skyward on a long sigh as those in line behind him groaned. His companions just slapped him on the back and snickered at his bad luck.
Everyone waited while the SI reinitialized the gate and instructed Tracy to try again. This time, the system accepted him with no issues.
Neither he nor his friends thought anything of the incident, beyond the momentary laugh they had at Tracy’s expense. It never occurred to them that the security glitch could be traced back to a quick brush of the hand that a stranger made in passing.
It was the kind of contact only an elite operative would have known to look for, and the maintenance team had neither the training to detect it nor a reason to suspect such a thing might have occurred.
Yet it did.
TEN
Other Brother Coffee
Midland
Rafe ducked out of the squadron’s operations meeting early after turning it over to Bravo flight’s commander. A quick shuttle flight later, and he was on the elevator down from Midway ring.
Stepping out of Midland’s spaceport into the habitat’s sunny streets, he paused to let a swarm of hurried people pass before inserting himself into the flow of foot traffic.
The coffee shop where he’d told Ell they’d meet was across the street from Midland’s City Center, a few blocks away. It was a good forty-five minutes before she was scheduled to arrive, which was just fine with him.
He had someone else to see before Ell got there.
Querying the pubnet for Cassandra DeWitt’s location, Rafe was unsurprised to see it led to that same coffee house. When he arrived, he found her seated at a small outdoor table, under a colorfully splashy sign that proclaimed, ‘Other Brother Coffee’.
True to form, the woman had a large to-go cup sitting beside her. Not true to form, it sat forgotten, off to one side.
Cass’s attention seemed fully engaged in something she held in her hand. Whatever it was displeased her, if the expression of disgust on her face was any indication.
As he approached, she tossed the item onto the table, and a colorful curse flew softly from her mouth.
He caught her wince and shoot a quick apologetic glance over at a nearby table where a father sat with two young girls.
Yeah, Cass’s vocabulary isn’t always rated for little ears, he chuckled to himself as he pulled out the chair beside her and flipped it around. She looked up with a scowl as he straddled it.
“You look mighty pissed-off for this early in the day,” he observed.
Cass leaned back in her seat, emerald green eyes sweeping him from head to toe, the expression in them enigmatic as always.
“Major Zander.” She drawled the name almost insolently.
His lips twitched. “Last time I looked, you weren’t in the Navy any longer. These days, the only time you ‘Major’ me is when I’m in trouble. Am I in trouble, Cass?”
He folded his arms across the back of the chair, a wicked glint in his eyes, as he added, “Or…maybe that means I’ve finally talked you into coming back on as a crew chief. You know you were the best I never had.”
She smirked, all too aware of the double meaning behind his remark.
“Best damned missions I never went on, too,” she said, eyes lighting up in shared humor over the playful, cryptic exchange.
They had history, he and this auburn-headed minx. They’d served several tours together, with Rafe as captain and Cass, his crew chief and flight engineer.
Scimitar, their DAP Helios, was still one of the Geminate Navy’s sleekest and sexiest vessels. Like he’d told Micah yesterday, he missed flying her—some days, more than others.
Their motto had been ‘we own the black.’ Yesterday’s exercise reminded him how true that credo still was. He’d never been more alive than when he’d piloted those dangerous missions for the Alliance, the ones no one talked about, ever.
Those days were past for both him and Cass. While he’d stayed in, Cass had left the Navy after their third tour. She’d gone on to manage Hawking’s engineering division, and did a damn fine job of it, too.
“Crew chief, huh,” Cass said, her eyes glinting with a sudden humor. She nodded at the holopips on his collar. “You sure that’s a fair offer? Not a lot of maintenance work for a crew chief to do if her commanding officer’s flying a desk, these days.”
He thumped a fisted hand against his heart. “You wound me, Cass. You truly do.”
That earned him a snort. “Hey,” she said, leaning forward in curiosity, “one of my guys told me someone saw a pretty sleek looking ship flying through Hawking’s MOA yesterday. Was that one of ours?”
Rafe’s expression blanked at her mention of a vessel, spotted inside the cylinder’s Military Operations Area. “Cannot confirm or deny that. You know the regs.” He kept his tone bland but he let his eyes telegraph an unspoken admission.
She nodded slowly. “Well, please pass along my hellos to anyone I might not know, if any ships I might not see aren’t there.”
He hid a grin, wondering how she’d managed to keep her tongue from tripping over that mouthful.
“Might have to do that, if there was any truth to those rumors,” he said noncommittally. “By the way, you ought to stop by and have a drink with me at the officer’s club tonight. It’s been a while since you’ve dropped in.”
Cass narrowed her eyes. “Tonight’d be a good night, huh.”
Rafe nodded solemnly, and he saw the smirk she suppressed.
“Well then. I just might at that. Sure as hell beats trying to figure out this damned nuisance,” she grumbled, raking a hand through her hair and dislodging the messy bun she’d tied it into.
With a muttered oath, she reached for a node bungee she’d conveniently clipped to her belt and wrapped it around her recalcitrant curls.
Rafe swiped a hand over his mouth to hide a grin at the action. It was so very Cass-like.
Lifting his chin to indicate the relay
, he asked, “Okay, so I gotta know. What’d that thing ever do to you, to warrant a good cussin’ out?”
Cass flicked a finger at the offending part in disgust. “Refused to give up its secrets, that’s what. And right in the middle of a mag-field tube refit, too.”
He barked a laugh. “Just cuss at it some more. Always seemed to work for you, back on the ship.”
She scowled and then squinted at him suspiciously. “What’re you doing so far away from base? Checking up on me again?”
He smirked. “At least you didn’t accuse me of checking you out again.” He waggled his brows suggestively but sobered when he saw her ‘I’m serious’ look.
“A civilian contractor went AWOL.” He looked around. “Elodie should be here soon; we’re headed over to City Center to talk to the police chief about it.”
Cass nodded and then tilted her head curiously. “Sounds important.”
He nodded, not elaborating. Cass being Cass, she let it drop. “What about you?” he asked. “You decide to go AWOL today, too?”
Her thoughtful expression morphed back into a scowl. Reaching for her coffee cup, she jiggled it in disgust when she found it empty.
“Nope,” she said, drawing the word out and popping the ‘p’ as she sat back and indicated the street. “I’m waiting on that physicist over there.”
Rafe turned and saw a woman with short blonde hair standing in front of the City Center building, in animated discussion with some of Cass’s maintenance team.
“She the one St. Clair sent you to assist with the upgrade?”
Cass nodded. “We’ve been at it all morning. Figured it was time for a break. She had a few things to wrap up and told me to go on ahead.”
He lifted a brow and reached for her coffee, tilting it so he could see inside. “Can’t argue that logic.”
Cass grabbed the cup from him but then paused, the expression on her face telling Rafe she had an incoming ping. Most wouldn’t have noticed, for she hid the distraction well.
He just happened to know her better than the average person.
He rose.
“More?” he mouthed, motioning to her empty cup and she nodded an absent thanks, handing it over.
Ell walked in as he stepped up to the counter. She waved away his unspoken offer to get her a drink and moved to one side while he grabbed a coffee for himself and a refill for Cass.
“I see now why you said to meet here,” Ell said with a smile and a meaningful head-tilt toward the woman seated on the patio.
Rafe just grinned. “We’re still a few minutes ahead of Asato’s schedule. Come say hello.”
Ell fell in beside him. “You get a chance to look at the data more closely?”
That wiped the grin off his face.
“Sure did.” He heard the hard edge in his own voice. He glanced over, seeing an answering gleam in Ell’s eyes. “This is more your jurisdiction than mine, but something feels off.”
“I agree,” she said quietly, but then fell silent when they came to Cass’s table. He set her refill in front of her, and flipped his chair back into its proper orientation. Ell pulled up a seat next to them.
Cass’s gaze snapped back into focus. “Hey, Ell,” she greeted as she took a sip of the fresh brew.
“Trouble back at the plant?” he asked, lifting his own cup for a careful sip.
“Yeah, with one of the tubes. Its plasma core developed some turbulence, and that kicked it out of superconductivity,” Cass explained.
Rafe saw confusion cloud Ell’s expression.
“It can’t be superconductive if there’s any resistance to the electrical current, right?” he said, with a wink at Cass. “Resistivity has to be zero, and that can’t happen if there’s any turbulence in the flow.”
Cass lifted a brow, a smile playing about her lips. “Give the major a gold star.”
He jerked his chin at her. “I had a good teacher. So your fancy exotic plasma is acting up, huh?”
“That shit’s about to get a whole lot fancier with the refit, but yeah,” Cass said. “Its field strength has dropped by over sixty percent, so it just volunteered to be the next tube we upgrade.”
“Yikes,” Ell said, leaning forward, concern etched into her face. “Isn’t that dangerous for it to drop that low?”
“Ordinarily, no. Since the tubes are designed to overlap, we could lose one altogether and the tubes on either side would compensate for it.” Cass’s eyes took on a slightly worried look. “But the tube that’s acting up is two over from the one they’re in the midst of upgrading.”
Rafe swirled his coffee cup, looking into it thoughtfully. “You worried about that?” he asked.
Cass made a face. “Never been a fan of tightrope walking without a net.” She shrugged. “There’s not a lot we can do about it, other than get Thirty-Two up as fast as we can. As long as Thirty-Three holds, then Thirty-Four’s fluctuations and Thirty-Two’s refit are a non-issue.”
Rafe saluted her with his coffee. “Here’s to Thirty-Three, then. May it live a long and healthy life.”
That earned him an eye roll. She turned and pointed to the blonde physicist, who had made it across the street and was now hovering politely, several tables away.
“And that’s why I have a wingman, all the way from Ceriba to back me up. We’ll stay on it until we get it figured out.”
Rafe nodded. “I know you will. You always did. On the ship, and now here on the habitat.”
“Speaking of ships,” she said, leaning forward, eyes dancing with an interested light, “I also heard they’ve added some really innovative new materials on the current DAP design….” She let her voice trail off as she waggled her eyebrows at him.
Ell snorted a laugh and Rafe pushed back from the table, pointing a stern finger at Cass.
“Drinks,” he ordered. “Tonight. Try that line on one of those hapless crew chiefs that might or might not show up. Maybe, for nostalgia’s sake, someone will accidentally slip you some information.”
He stood and then dipped his chin in warning, giving her a mock-stern look. “Just don’t try pumping the squadron’s CO about it.”
“Even if I happen to know him personally?” She shot him an innocent look from under arched brows.
He grinned wickedly. “Hell, Cass. We’ve been married for how many years, now? You should know better than that. I never kiss and tell.”
Ell groaned as she pushed her chair in. “Seriously, you two. Get a room.”
Cass’s grin now matched his, green eyes twinkling. “Been there. Done that. Bought the condo.”
ELEVEN
Other Brother Coffee
Midland
Sam hovered between the coffee shop’s cool interior and its sunny, table-strewn patio, chai tea in hand, hesitant to interrupt. She waited until the man and woman with Cass walked away before approaching the engineer’s table.
“Sorry,” Sam began, with a small gesture in the direction of the two who had left. “Was I interrupting something?”
“Nothing I don’t intend to follow up on later in the day,” Cass said with a sly grin, chin propped into one hand as she stared after the departing man.
“Careful there, Chief DeWitt. You’re drooling,” Sam teased.
Cass rotated her head to look at Sam. “Can you blame me?” She straightened, pointing. “That man is just a walking piece of sex-on-a-stick.”
Sam burst out laughing. “Well, all righty then. Glad we clarified that point.”
Cass tore her gaze away and refocused on Sam. “I’m sorry, what, now?”
Sam snorted. “Why do I get the feeling there’s history between you two?” she said, taking a seat.
Cass looked smug. “History, future, and everything in between.”
Sam’s bewilderment must have shown on her face, for the woman snickered. “Rafe and I are married,” she explained. “Sorry, should’ve introduced you.”
Sam felt a twinge of remorse. “I’m sorry; I hope I wasn’t intruding,�
�� she began, but Cass waved away her protest.
“No worries,” she assured Sam. “He’s here looking for some biochemist named Peres.”
Sam realized with a jolt that she recognized the name. That must be the man Linnet had introduced her to the night before. “Bill Peres? I met him last night.”
Cass straightened. “You saw him?”
“Yes.” Sam wondered at the intent look that crossed the engineer’s face. “He was at that reception I left early to attend.”
“That’s odd,” Cass murmured, as if to herself. “I’d better let Rafe know. They seem to have misplaced him.”
Sam startled at that, and a sense of unease swept over her. “That…sounds ominous,” she said slowly.
Cass pressed her lips together and then lifted one shoulder in a small shrug. “He’s one of the Navy’s contractors. I guess there’s been a last-minute change of schedule. They need him back wherever he’s based.”
Sam looked down at her chai, rolling the warm cup between her palms. “I didn’t get the impression he would be the type of person to just disappear,” she said slowly. “Do they suspect foul play?”
Cass’s eyebrows lifted as if the thought hadn’t occurred to her. Her expression grew grim and she held up a finger. “Hang on a minute. Let me update Rafe.”
Her eyes took on that expression people often had when contacting someone over a network via wire. She stared off into the middle distance, but then her gaze sharpened and her focus snapped back onto Sam once more.
“Where was he, exactly, and at about what time?” she asked.
Sam searched her wire to find a time-stamp for when she had arrived at the Merki Institute.
“Around six PM, I’d say.” She sat up, recalling the woman she’d seen. “He left the reception early, down a back staircase. I think he wanted to just slip away before anyone else trapped him in conversation. There was this server though, a member of the catering staff….”
The Chiral Conspiracy – A Military Science Fiction Thriller: A Biogenesis War Prequel (The Biogenesis War Book 0) Page 7
