by A Keuser
“You can’t do anything more here,” Eri said and turned Nala toward the lifts.
She led the way to the security office and through the curious staff therein. They had locked the killer in the only interrogation room the colony had, a room no one had used in Nala’s memory.
Chadha and the others stood in the observation chamber, separated from the interrogation room by a pane of glass.
The woman sat in the chair with her gaze affixed to the table where her hands had been cuffed to a metal ring.
"Who is she?" Eri asked, looking through the notes that had been downloaded to her tablet.
"No one seems to know." Chadha crossed her arms over her chest and glared in at her. "We have a number of problems on top of murder and power failures."
"Did anyone else show up on the sweeps who wasn't supposed to be here?" Eri asked.
Chadha shook her head, eyes still on their murderer. "No, but four people are still missing. I can only hope they're accounted for soon, and that they're safe."
Nala nodded, losing track of the conversation as she looked through the glass. The woman showed the signs of a long and hard life. The top half of her left arm was covered in mottled, shiny scar tissue and the ear above that was mangled and twisted. When she looked up and cast a smile toward them, only the right side rose.
Injuries like that came from a bomb blast. It was likely she’d been the one who made it.
“Does anyone want to draw lots, or should I take a stab at questioning her?” Chadha asked.
No one in the room offered to take her place. With her mouth screwed into a frown, Chadha left them and after a moment’s disappearance, entered the other room.
The woman looked up at her with a sneer.
“I’m Partner Chadha,” she said, stepping around the table. “What is your name?”
The woman didn’t answer the question. Instead, she turned her focus back to the table and said, “I won’t talk to you unless you bring me the two women who found me.”
Chadha paused before saying, “The security guards are still patrolling, looking for any of your friends, and any surprises you might have left behind.”
“Not the girls in blue, the black girl, and the Asian one too.”
Eri put her hand on Nala’s shoulder as if to hold her back, but Nala had no intention of going into that room unless she absolutely had to.
“That’s not an option.”
“Yes it is. If you want me to tell you anything, you’ll bring them to this side of the glass. If you want to know everything I know…. ”
“Or I could lock you in a hole and look for the rest of your damage while you rot.”
“And if I have a partner in crime? It could be anyone. It could even be the long gone Verity.”
Chadha’s eyes narrowed. “Is Verity your partner?”
“Verity is only truth and truth cannot be anyone’s friend.” Her gaze slid from the table up to the window separating them. “And you can see what one of Verity’s little toys did to me. I am no friend of hers. Now, bring me the women who found me.”
Chadha leaned on the desk, studying her. “Why do you want them to join us?”
“They deserve the honors for the cameras.” She smiled up to the black box in the corner and then turned back to Chadha. “If you ask them to join us, I’ll tell you my name.”
Chadha looked behind her and shrugged.
“That’s good enough. My name is Diana. Like the ancient goddess of the moon and the hunt.”
“Diana,” Chadha said uncertainly, “Why did you kill Adam Jones?”
Nala heard the man’s name for the first time and tried not to let it affect her. Failed.
Diana smiled and played with her chains. “That wasn’t part of the bargain.”
Without waiting for Eri to give her permission, Nala pushed out of the room she was in and went toward the other. She paused with her hand on the door.
Movement signaled Eri’s presence behind her, and the partner placed a hand on her shoulder. “If you need to be in there, I’ll go too.”
Nodding her thanks, Nala stepped inside.
“There they are, the heroes of the hour,” Diana said with a half grin. “Truth and Justice. Looking as fine as ever.”
“Answer her questions,” Eri said sternly from her place against the wall.
Shrugging, Diane said. “I killed Jones because I was bored and wanted to get your attention. You were taking too long.”
Nala felt like a mouse staring down a cat, and if the irritated grimace on Chadha’s face was any indication, she felt similarly.
“Well then,” Chadha said opening the doors and calling for guards. “I guess we’ll just truss you up and send you to the full lunar council for trial. If you’re doing this because you’re bored, I don’t need anything else from you.”
"Don't lie to me. I know truth when I see it." Diana cast a quick glance to Nala and then returned her attention to Partner Chadha. "You want to know if I'm the one who set the bombs; if I'm the one who cut your precious power... if I'm the one who put those bodies in the core."
Simply by knowing about Nala's dead crewmen, the woman had given away her involvement – in whatever capacity it might have been. She weaved her hands in a lopsided figure eight over the hook that held them and hummed a dissonant tune.
"We already know you've killed. I only want to know how many."
"I’ve fewer deaths on my conscience than the three of you combined."
"And how many do you think we've killed?" Eri asked.
"Two hundred and forty three thousand, nine hundred and twelve." Diana leered at them, “Add to that the seven hundred and sixty two….”
Chadha stood upright and walked to the edge of the room beside them. "Clearly she's insane. We'll lock her in a cell until we can determine what other damage she might have done."
"There’s no chance she was working alone," Nala said.
"What makes you so sure?"
“Kiln and Sharpo were large men and she is petite. Can you really imagine her… breaking their necks and dragging them to the Core room, much less lifting them over the safety rail to drop them down? She couldn't have done that by herself." Nala glanced back at Diana. "If she has a partner, they're not here now, or they're someone who's supposed to be here."
"The deadliest of the three is the smartest," Diana sang in an off kilter melody before she stopped and stared at Eri. "Too bad she's going to get you killed next."
"Get her out of here," Chadha ordered, snapping the two guards to attention.
They pulled the prisoner’s wrists from their tabletop bindings and placed a different pair of cuffs around them. Laughing hollowly, Diana got to her feet and stretched out her shoulders.
When the guards nudged her, she lunged forward at Eri. Nala stepped between them.
Laughing , Diana went boneless against the guard's sudden return to vigilance. "Just like lovebirds," she said, leering at Eri. Her wicked smile disappeared, replaced by kissing noises.
The guard pulled out her stun gun and placed it on Diana’s rib cage. Nala saw the trigger pull and watched Diana’s face contort with pain as the silent jolt of electricity brought the woman to her knees. The guards dragged her out of the room, and Nala remembered to breathe again. She stepped back from Eri, her eyes turned down and away.
"That was unfortunate," Chadha said to Eri. "Do we need to have a word about this?"
Eri shook her head vehemently. "No. Like you said, she's insane."
Nala caught enough of Chadha's expression to know the Partner wasn't convinced.
Eri steered Nala out and away from the security offices. “Go home and get some sleep.”
“I don’t go off shift for… hours.” She didn’t remember how much longer she had.
“You do. I’m superseding any other orders you have. When you’re rested and have your head on straight, you can deal with the comm tower issues. Until then, I want you off duty. You don’t have to sleep… medit
ate or read or… do whatever if that’s what you want.”
She nodded in agreement and left Partner Dendrond with the rest of the LCVI council to clean up the current mess. She did not, however, follow orders.
In the lift, Nala hummed a tune her mother had taught her. She got off at level twelve. Her feet carried her around the corner and she stopped dead in her tracks. Angela stood in the hallway looking at the metal plate that temporarily covered the hole Boudri had cut through the door to extricate her from the skywalk.
“My Susie liked Jones,” Angela said, without looking over her shoulder. Some days I wonder why we’re up here… but I never thought I’d live to see the day I worried my baby girl would have to fear the people we live with.”
“All life has risks.”
Angela sighed and said, “And I should have taken the Earth-based assignment instead of this one.”
Nala couldn’t say anything to that, so she glanced at the site of her imprisonment and asked, “Looking for something we missed?”
“No, just wondering if this is where our troubles started, or if it was something else.”
“Come on, you need a drink, and I need one too.” Wrapping her arm around Angela’s waist, Nala led her down the corridor.
Nala's comm pinged before they'd walked fifty feet. She grumbled as she dug it out of her bag. "I thought this wasn't supposed to work…. Klef.”
"Verity, you should never have changed your name.” Diana’s voice came across the comm with a static chuckle.
Before Nala could say anything, Diana continued, “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure they get it right on your death certificate.”
Nala had never been good with threats. “I’m pretty sure your bomb’s failure made it clear; I’m not going to be easy to kill.”
“You have no idea what we're capable of." Diana’s voice cut out, but her words sent a shiver down Nala’s spine.
“Diana?” Angela asked, worry written in the lines around her mouth. "I thought she was locked up."
"Looks like Boudri wasn’t joking when he said he was the reason this place ran so well."
"We both know that was a gross exaggeration." Angela glanced down the corridor. "We should get to another level before they put the place on lockdown. She's out for blood and it sounds like she wants yours. Granted, if it were me, I'd run. They know what she looks like, they know her MO. She's probably been tagged."
"There are ways to work around tagging."
Angela snorted a laugh. "I'm sure you know all about that... a holdover from your previous life as an ecoterrorist?"
Nala flinched, even though Angela’s tone was jocular. "Boudri showed me, in case I ever wanted to avoid the Partners."
Angela glanced at her. "Did you know you've still got some of that white powder on you?”
Nala looked down to where Diana had brushed against her when she’d lunged for Eri.
“When this is over we’ll see if there isn’t some way to get you dusted off. Unless you like looking like a baker."
Nala started to laugh, but it died in her throat, sounding like a hiccup. "Holy crap! That's it," she said, looking at Angela with wide eyes. "The dust."
"What about it?"
"One of the LTVs…. When I checked the surface level before the eclipse one of the LTVs had dust on its tires. It didn't strike me as odd – people don't always clean up the equipment after they use it, but what if it wasn't one of our colonists? What if it was Diana?"
Angela took off for the lifts before Nala did. They sprinted through the corridor and Nala used the back wall to stop herself. The metal flexed under her hands, letting out a warped sound.
As the lift went down, she pulled the old-school 'talkie from her belt clip and pressed the transmitter. "Someone needs to meet us down on the surface level."
Static cut her off before she was able to say anything else, and she released the button so she could hear the response.
"Diana escaped. Get to a secure location until we can find her." Chadha's orders were crisp and punctuated with her irritated tone.
Nala didn’t bother to hide her irritation. "I know, she commed me – I don't know how she got past the glitch. I think she's been coming and going as she pleases, and I think she'll be leaving with one of the LTVs. So like I said... get down to the surface and help me deal with the problem."
Chadha didn't acknowledge her, but the 'talkie blew up with chatter after that.
"At least they're taking you seriously," Angela said.
Nala scowled at her distorted reflection on the lift wall. "First time for everything."
The lift shuddered to a stop and Nala cursed her stupidity. "We should have taken the stairs."
"Yeah... given your track record of getting trapped in small spaces with explosives, I should be worried now, shouldn't I?"
"That was one time... you act like I've made it a habit." Nala dropped to the access panel, thankful that it had an easy access latch.
She sorted through the wires. There was nothing wrong with the circuitry, someone had cut power to the system - but the lights were still on.
Looking up at Angela, she said, "Help me with the manual door release."
Together, they pried the door open and Nala scrambled out before pulling Angela onto the floor just above the elevator's floor.
"Now, we take the stairs."
The elevator made a strangled noise behind them as the doors closed and it began to move again.
“Looks like we’ll have company down there.” Angela said as she wrenched open the stairwell hatch.
Nala cast a wary glance her way before she darted inside. They ran, footsteps clattering down the metal stairs, and Nala broke through the hatch to the surface level first. She kept up her momentum, but she could already see the LTV was gone. Throwing herself at the hatch controls, she slapped the airlock override. Once. Twice.
Breathing hard, she looked through the viewport and cursed at her timing.
The LTV idled on the threshold of the outer airlock, its driver seat empty. Nala cursed the safety protocols and slammed her open palm against the door's override again. It wouldn't budge with an obstruction.
Diana moved into view, her malicious smile distorted in the oil-slick polarization of the EVA suit's visor. She raised a hand and curled her marshmallow-like fingers in a wave goodbye before she pointed over Nala's shoulder.
Nala didn't comply with Diana’s unspoken directive. Instead, she stared at the woman as she shrugged and turned to walk back to the LTV. In the space of a muttered curse, Diana and the LTV darted across the lunar surface and the airlock doors closed between them.
Nala clenched her fists and allowed herself to look behind her, her gaze falling on a metal pot from which a spray of lilies bloomed. Ire coursing through her, she walked to it with quick and determined strides and kicked the damn thing. Soil sprayed across the floor and white petals exploded from their stems.
Angela caught her by the shoulders. "She's taunting you. Let it go."
Returning to the viewport that showed nothing but an empty airlock, Nala asked, "What the hell was this about? She let herself get caught. Why?"
Behind her, the sound of the elevator arriving and of others spilling out echoed through the expanse.
Security personnel pushed her roughly out of the way. She would have hit the deck if Eri hadn't caught her. The partner made sure she was upright and then joined the others as they studied the scene of Diana's escape.
Separated from the commotion, Nala regulated her breathing and reminded herself that half her problems were over with Diana gone; the woman couldn't wreak any more havoc now that she'd left the colony.
It was a fallacy she chose to believe for the moment.
She heard the discussions start; the demand for full sweeps of the colony and the queries as to whether or not the driver of the LTV was Diana at all. If it was a trick, Nala would have been impressed. She'd seen the face behind the EVA suit visor... seen the malice in Diana's eyes
.
Angela fielded questions while Nala studied the tread marks from the LTV. She should have brought them up earlier, should have reported every discrepancy....
"Nala?"
Her head snapped up and she looked at the dozen sets of eyes trained on her. "Sorry, what?"
"You're sure she was the one driving?"
"Yes. When we got here the outer hatch was open, and she came back to the viewport to taunt me."
Chadha turned her attention to Elodie. "You were right then, this is all connected, and somehow... it's her fault."
"That's bullshit and you know it." Eri crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes. "Like the rest of the Colony, Nala is a victim in this. Don't blame her for the actions of extremist. She's being targeted."
"And you're letting your infatuation get in the way of clear thinking." Chadha bit off the words and then turned to Nala. "You are going to be watched very carefully. After all, no one else was down here when she got away. For all I know you could be in on this ruse."
"She wasn't alone. I was here too."
"Yes, you've been conveniently present for these problems."
Eri and Angela exchanged wary glances.
“I don’t care that you think I’m involved, we’ll deal with that later. Right now, we need to make sure this doesn’t go any further,” Nala said.
“It won’t.” Partner Chadha stepped beside her. “We’ve made sure of that. You are dismissed, Klef.”
Nala didn’t have the strength left to argue. She turned on her heel and stalked back to the elevator.
The controls didn’t work. Punching them again, she let out a slow string of curses and tried again. Partner Chadha stepped in behind her and pulled the keyboard from its slot in the wall. She tapped in her name and passcode and the elevator started its upward momentum.
“We are on lockdown. No one in, no one out. All systems require log in and out with passcodes. If we have another malcontent on this station, it won’t be for long. And you will transfer control of the aspersion hub as soon as we are back in the council chambers.” Partner Chadha looked at her with narrowed eyes. “Any questions?”
Nala laughed mirthlessly and leaned back against the bulkhead. “After the week we’ve been having? The only question I’ve got left is ‘what next?’”
