Rebirth

by Philip R Benge

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  Back on Earth, Special agent Formby was at last getting some breaks of one kind or another. First, the CCTV, which operated inside of the Earth spaceport, showed two interesting episodes. The first episode showed the Claytons arriving to check in for the flight to Persephone, except they arrived through the entrance doors that took people into the spaceport from outside and not through the inter-flight doors that would have been easier for passengers transferring from the Mars flight. Their luggage had been taken directly from the Mars shuttle to the Constellation check in area so it was waiting there for them; however, it seemed to take them a while to find the luggage. They had also carried into the check-in area a crate that looked exactly the correct size needed to contain the high tech stolen equipment, and it matched the one taken by the security camera at the Chichester Laboratories. But why were they carrying such a crate if they were truly the Claytons, surely this item should have been with their other luggage, it did not prove a thing, but it was interesting. The second episode inside the space port though was much more interesting, for it showed Tirana arriving to hand over a small bag, what was in the bag Formby didn`t know of course, but it showed a clear link between a man suspected of being an alien spy, and the two people known as the Claytons. Why had Tirana slipped up once again, it could only be because of the sudden need to make these new arrangements, and it hadn`t given him enough time to fine-tune his plans.

  The second lead Formby had found himself on his computer screen. One year ago, secret plans had been stolen from a research centre in Australia, no one was ever caught but there were two leads. A woman looking much like Mrs Clayton had been seen in the area minutes before the robbery, and the security guards there had been poisoned by someone who this time had foolishly left a set of fingerprints upon one of the whisky glasses, one that still held traces of the poison. The criminals had missed this in their haste to get away, for a police car had suddenly arrived, drawn to the scene by a silent alarm that one of the security men had activated before finally succumbing to the poison that ran through his body. The fingerprints were not on any file anywhere on the planet Earth, now maybe they could be found in deep space, within the new world colony ship Constellation.

  The last lead came from Mars, there was no sign of the Claytons in the CCTV pictures taken by the spaceport cameras, this in itself was a mystery as everyone arriving or departing Mars, walks within camera shot of a CCTV camera. Special Agent Formby said a quiet thank you to Tyler Burrows as he quickly sent all of this information on to the Constellation with his recommendation that the two of them be arrested on suspicion of murder, and that their fingerprints be taken and matched against the ones found at the Australian crime scene. All this information had arrived quickly and within minutes of each one, if only they had asked these questions earlier Formby thought, one life may have been saved and the lives of the two agents wouldn`t be hanging by a thread, if only but then life is full of such thoughts.