She paused to let her words hit, but a feeling of dread soon settled in the pit of her stomach as she watched Rufus’s smile widen across his smarmy face. She scarcely noticed when Barbie took the flash drive out of her hand and plugged it into a port at Joey’s station.
“Oh, I’m sorely tempted to humor you, and to ask whatever it is you think you’ve uncovered.” Rufus drew out the moment and glanced over his shoulder at the desert view out the window behind him. Hannah wanted nothing more than to reach through the monitor, and the hundred thousand or so kilometers separating the cockpit of the Midden from Rufus’s executive office at The Ranch, to smack that smug grin off his deceitful face.
Rufus turned back to the screen. “But none of that really matters.”
Hannah’s laugh tasted bitter. “It’s going to matter quite a bit, once we tell the whole world what you’ve done and let everybody judge you for your actions.”
His smile dimmed, and Hannah felt the rush of that small victory. Barbie jostled her slightly as she reached for her keyboard and started typing away, her eyes on the right-most screen.
Rufus leaned forward, filling the frame with his self-satisfied leer. “You think I don’t have contingencies in place, Ms. Cuthbertson? You believe I would be able to rig something like the Klondike prospector, and not see to similar measures on the very craft ferrying my employees to and fro?”
Sid’s grip tightened on the back of Hannah’s chair. “No way he boobytrapped the prospector. That was done by Star System Mining, before the thing even headed out to the Hariasa asteroid.”
“Be that as it may, Captain Sturbin. But if I were able to use another corporation’s anti-theft measures to my own advantage, don’t you have to ask yourself just how far and how deep my influence might reach?” Rufus’s smile tightened, and Hannah found herself leaning back in her chair to put a few extra centimeters between herself and Rufus.
“No way. He can’t touch us,” Joey said, but the uncertainty in his voice mirrored the question on his face.
Sid nodded to his pilot. “Get on it. You and Manny.”
Joey pushed away from his station and flew through the cockpit toward the corridor.
On the small screen, Rufus leaned back in his chair and chuckled. “Run whatever tests on the ship you can think of, captain. You won’t find anything.” He steepled his fingers like a villain in a superhero movie, and Hannah scoffed at the cliché.
“And so, Ms. Cuthbertson, Mr. Niffenegger, I’d advise that you rethink any plans you might have. DayLite out.” The screen went dark.
“DayLite out? Who even talks like that?” Barbie kept typing away, not even bothering to look up.
“He couldn’t actually do anything, not from where he is, could he?” Gary’s voice was tinny in Hannah’s ears, and she only vaguely heard Sid’s response—something about hacking safeguards and trusted mechanics.
Feeling as though the air had been sucked out of the room, Hannah rested quietly in the chair and gripped the console for some sense of stability. Each breath was deliberate. Adrenaline spiked in her system as her eyes tracked the many scores of switches, monitors, lights, gauges, and other instruments in the cockpit.
How many systems and circuits were onboard the Midden? How many places could a bomb be stowed? How many millions or billions of lines of code might be embedded in the ship’s computers, hiding whatever bit of malware Rufus might have uploaded so he could blow the airlocks or send the ship into the sun?
It had taken hours for Barbie, Sid, and Joey to weed out the bug Manny planted in the ship’s navigation system, and that was when they knew what they were looking for. There was no telling what trap Rufus had laid.
“If there’s anything nefarious onboard, our guys will find it,” Sid was still reassuring Gary.
“Okay. I’m all done.” Barbie looked up from her keyboard. Her grin was the only brightness in the cockpit.
Hannah blinked at her. “What? What did you do?”
“I sent your file, like you wanted. The stuff on the flash drive.”
Hannah’s eyes widened, and she felt her stomach drop to her knees. “You did what?! Weren’t you listening to what Rufus just said? He’s threatened to kill us!”
Barbie motioned to her right-most screen, where green characters on a dark background displayed all manner of gobbledegook Hannah couldn’t begin to make sense of. “I used his signal to drill down into his system, and from there into the servers at, what did you call it? The Ranch?”
After a long pause, Gary laughed. “Oh, you clever, clever girl.”
“Right?” Barbie’s grin widened, and she practically vibrated with excitement. “So everything got released. You know, globally. Right from his own system. Not just your movie, but all the documents and stuff from your friend, Olivia. I dumped all that out there, too. Everything.”
Barbie handed the flash drive back to Hannah.
Hannah gripped the drive tightly. That small piece of plastic and metal, in Barbie’s hands, might have just killed them all. “How did you—?”
“From when she sent all that data to you before, remember?” Barbie’s expression went suddenly and cheekily coy. “I told you. I hack stuff.”
Gary, Hannah, and everyone besides Manny and Joey huddled together in the Midden’s modest galley, and it was a tight fit. Hannah was secured awkwardly in Gary’s lap as he anchored himself at the table via foot tethers. Sid and Dana were in a similarly stacked arrangement, while Brett occupied one long side of the table with his outstretched, splinted leg. Barbie floated to and from the galley’s cupboards and acted as barista and bartender, making sure no one ran out of drinks.
Manny and Joey were active over the comms coming through the galley speakers as they searched the ship from bow to stern, hunting for any sign of sabotage. Sid was calmly certain that his ship was sound, but he’d ordered a thorough inspection to set everyone’s mind at ease. Still, the Midden was hovering outside of Earth’s primary orbital lanes until they’d proven the ship wouldn’t pose a danger to any other craft.
Gary emptied a bulb of cheap vodka mixed with mango-strawberry Tang and found a fresh drink in his hand—care of Barbie—before he could clear his watering eyes. The poor man’s Buzz Aldrin cocktail left a great deal to be desired, but it was apparently Brett’s favorite.
The bar supply was a hodgepodge of spirits the crew of the Midden had thrown together—with the addition of a bottle of tequila pilfered from the lunar plant. Gary made a mental note to figure out how to replace what they’d taken from the living quarters there—tequila, first aid supplies, some dried fruit snacks—though he imagined the shipping charges would be outrageous.
Sid lifted the bottle of tequila, which he’d outfitted with a stopper and some surgical tubing for easier zero-gravity consumption. “A toast to our guests, Hannah and the Face of Space!”
“The Face of Space!” Dana and Brett called out with glee.
Gary cringed. Hannah laughed and patted his back, but beneath her smile he could see she was feeling just as apprehensive as he was. Rufus had proven that he was not someone to be trifled with, and now they’d gone and destroyed his burgeoning empire with a single data blast.
Gary couldn’t fault Barbie for her impulse; in fact, what she’d done, and how she’d done it, was nothing short of heroic in the grander scheme of things. He expected the Mars Colony Program would grind to a halt—but only long enough to be overhauled, not canceled. Supply missions would still launch on schedule to support the colonists already in transit; they would just be on their own on Mars a bit longer than anticipated. Such were the immediate assurances coming out of the United Nations, anyway.
And when the program was ready for the next round of colonists, they would be selected and trained and prepared with heavier oversight, greater security and safety measures, and considerably less drama—much to the disappointment of the viewing audience, probably, but there would be no shortage of other entertainment streams and manipulated realities
to choose from.
Sid sucked down a mouthful of tequila and then offered the bottle to Dana. She made a disgusted face and pushed the tequila away. Sid laughed and nipped her on the neck, so she slapped him—hard enough to leave a pink mark on his cheek.
Hannah sucked in her breath at the altercation, but Sid laughed again and pinched his wife’s hip—earning him a sharp elbow in the ribs before Dana playfully tousled his hair.
Gary thought back on his conversation with Dana as they’d walked across the lunar surface. She’d said her relationship with Sid was complicated, that the marriage didn’t always work, and that traditional conventions looked different 20,000 kilometers off the ground.
Space changes everything. Gary wrapped an arm around Hannah’s waist and gave her a gentle squeeze.
In the hours since their documentary, Behind the DayLite, had gone live, there had been emergency meetings of government agencies and international committees regarding the laws and regulations of the space salvage industry. Big changes were coming, not all of them comfortable. Sid and Dana’s way of life would look drastically different in the coming months. Gary hoped that would be a very good thing.
But Rufus had disappeared. The news reports said his office looked like it had been ransacked when authorities came looking for him, and there’d been a similar scene at his apartment at The Ranch. His accounts—the obvious ones, anyway—had been frozen, but Rufus had been prepared. He was long gone by the time warrants were issued. With enough of a head start, he could have fled literally anywhere on Earth—or even off of it.
And so, whatever onboard surprise Rufus might have planned for the Midden could still be in play. Gary couldn’t figure out how or when Rufus would have made such arrangements. But given his dealings with companies across international borders and multiple industries, there was no telling how deep his influence ran. It was even possible, through a winking contract here and a nefarious deal there, that he’d managed to rig every salvage ship in orbit, as a simple contingency. Gary shuddered.
“Docking bay clear,” Joey reported over the speaker. “Moving on to aft storage.”
Manny’s voice followed a moment later. “Yeah, the head and shower look okay, but geez, you guys need a plumbing upgrade. And haven’t you heard of housekeeping?”
Sid laughed and took a deep drink from the tequila bottle. Barbie laughed, though her frown made it clear she’d taken Manny’s comment personally.
As Gary surveyed the galley, it wasn’t difficult to spot the signs of tension beneath the jovial veneer.
“It’s going to be okay.” Hannah sipped her cheap wine and squeezed his shoulder. He liked these little reassuring touches from her as they adjusted into their new dynamic. Gary patted her thigh in response. He hoped they would have many years together as a couple and as a team. Real partners. For now, though, every moment felt like borrowed time.
“Can’t be too sure of that.” Gary said.
Sid passed him the tequila, and Gary sucked down the rough equivalent of a shot. The alcohol burned its way down his esophagus to his stomach, and he sighed gratefully as the warmth spread into his chest.
“So what’s next?” Dana asked.
The alcohol was having a greater impact than Gary had expected, because it took him a few long seconds to realize the question was directed at him.
Hannah passed the tequila to Brett. “Gary’s got it all planned out.” Her voice was light, but she held her arms close to her body as if preparing for an attack. Gary wondered if she was even aware of her body language.
“Programs about space exploration,” Hannah continued. “But the real deal. Not like all this Mars Ho and Space Junkers dreck.”
“Hey, I kind of like the Space Junkers show,” Barbie protested as she hovered over Brett. She was like a lovesick Florence Nightingale, making sure he drank equals portions of water to the whiskey and wine he was downing, fetching him a blanket he didn’t need, and massaging his exposed foot.
“Sure, now that you get to be one of the stars.” Brett pinched her arm, and she retorted by pretending to slap him.
“It’s a lot better than Mars Ho,” Barbie protested. “Honestly, I’m surprised no one’s died inside that dome yet. You know, from what I was reading in those documents from Rufus’s computer.”
Sid cleared his throat.
“What? I’m just saying Space Junkers is a better show.” Barbie smiled at Brett. “In my expert and on-camera opinion.”
“Well, all that footage is evidence now,” Gary said. He lifted the bulb of artificial fruit-flavored vodka to his lips, then thought better of it. There would be plenty of time later to drink and to celebrate. He hoped.
“Aft storage looks good, captain,” Joey’s voice came in over the speaker. “And we’ve already gone through personal quarters.”
“I’m sure someone will release it all on YouTube or something,” Gary offered Barbie as a token comfort. “And you’re in Behind the DayLite, too, so you’re probably already a household name.”
Barbie’s face brightened. “Not like the Face of Space, though. Man, I hope I get a cool nickname like that.”
“Take it,” Gary replied. “I’m done with it.”
Hannah kissed him on the cheek, filling him with a tender heat that a whole bottle of tequila couldn’t match. Still, his stomach burned. He didn’t think he’d feel at ease again until he was on the ground, until he knew that Hannah and everyone else was safe. There was nothing he could do now but wait.
“Ventilation is clear,” Manny said over the speaker. “That’s the last system. On my way to you.”
“Got anything left for me?” Joey appeared in the galley doorway and barely squeezed in at the table beside Brett. Barbie tossed him a bulb of unidentified alcohol from one of the cupboards. Joey caught it easily and sucked down the contents in a single, long swallow.
Gary shook his head. He should have expected a salvage crew to be a hard drinking lot, even when they didn’t have anything to toast or fear.
Barbie gripped Brett’s shoulders to keep from drifting away from the table. She looked expectantly at Gary and Hannah. “So, can I be in your new show, too?”
Hannah looked to Gary, her eyebrows lifted. “Uh, well, we haven’t really gotten that far—”
“Hey, what’s that beeping noise?” Manny appeared in the corridor outside the galley. He turned in a circle as he craned his neck up and down, scanning the walls. “Anybody else hear that?”
The galley fell silent as everyone stopped to listen. A soft, high-pitched pulse sounded from somewhere nearby.
“I take it that’s not normal?” Gary asked.
“Not so much,” Manny replied. He glanced at Sid and Dana. “Captains?”
“Find it,” Sid ordered.
Everyone but Brett lifted away from the table and started to inspect every surface. Barbie threw open the cupboards and batted away their contents as she looked for the faint electronic beeping. Gary looked over his head and spotted one of Hannah’s cameras mounted to the wall. Its red light was blinking.
“Hannah? Is the camera supposed to do that?” Gary pointed upward.
She followed his gesture and frowned when she saw the camera. “I swear I thought I’d collected all of those.” She moved toward it, but Gary held her back.
“Listen.”
The compartment fell silent again. Gary very nearly held his breath as they waited. Sure enough, the camera’s light was blinking in time with the soft beep.
“That just means it needs to be recharged,” Barbie offered, her voice uncertain. “Right?”
“No. It shouldn’t do that at all.” Hannah reached again for the camera, but Joey beat her to it.
“I don’t think you want to be touching that.” Joey pulled the camera off the wall, studied it for a moment, and then tossed it to Manny.
“I’ll check it out.” Manny disappeared down the corridor.
Joey turned to Hannah and Gary. “How many of those things do you
have left?”
Gary had no idea. He hadn’t been party to the tech inventory prior to launch and hadn’t paid attention to the equipment after they arrived in orbit. He’d taken pretty good care of the pair of cameras Hannah entrusted to him when the ships separated, but he’d turned them both back over to her after the lunar rescue and hadn’t thought about them since.
But Hannah had placed cameras all over the Churly Flint and the Midden, too.
“Two dozen to start.” Hannah’s eyes narrowed as she did some mental calculations. “We lost twelve on the Churly Flint, when it crashed. There are eight more positioned around the Midden, plus the four I’ve been using ad hoc. So, twelve total.”
“Eleven more?” Joey asked.
Hannah nodded.
“Show me where they are.”
Hannah cleared the galley table and made her way to the corridor.
“Wait!” Gary called. “Are you saying the cameras are bombs? Does that even make any sense?”
Sid pushed away from the table and followed his crew out of the galley. “Nothing over the past week has made any sense. Why start now?”
Gary was sweating. He practically panted as he dashed—the microgravity version of dashing—from the galley to Hannah’s quarters to retrieve the four cameras she had stowed there. He was a little tipsy from the celebration in the galley. His pulse pounded in his head, and he heard beeping around every corner, even when there was no camera anywhere in sight.
The danger hadn’t yet been named—Manny was working on figuring out whether that one camera from the galley was any threat, while everyone else scrambled to collect the remaining cameras scattered across the ship. Brett and Barbie were in the cockpit, sorting out whether there were any signals, incoming or outgoing, connected to the devices.
Pushing himself along, Gary got his fingers tangled in a wall-tether and got yanked backward. He tumbled in space before he caught the tether again and righted himself. He gave himself a second—but just a second—to take a breath and get reoriented. He was so angry and terrified he could barely think straight.
Lovers and Lunatics (Mars Adventure Romance Series Book 2) Page 21
