Up Against It - M. J. Locke [165]
Jane gestured to Vivian, who told the police chief about Glease’s transaction with the nurse-assassin. Jerry took notes and asked questions. Finally he said, “All right, well, we’ve all had a long night. Go on home, both of you, and get some rest. Come to the main precinct station tomorrow and my detectives will take your statements.”
But this wasn’t over yet, and Jane was not about to rest. After the police commissioner signed off, she leaned toward Vivian and quietly asked, “Can you do one of those stealth bubble things?”
Looking puzzled, the Viridian flicked hir fingers. A faint, glistening bubble settled over them. Outside its walls settled a glittering sphere of fizzing, dying “Stroiders” dust.
“Something is bugging me,” Jane said. “Why would they want to harm some random kid?”
Vivian shrugged. “Spite, perhaps.”
Jane frowned. “I don’t think so. There was more to it.” She remembered that Ian had been helping Sean the other night. Sean might know more. “Vivian, can I make a call through this?” She gestured at the bubble surrounding them. Ze flashed a smile. “Sure … now that you have Arachnid installed. It should penetrate any security barrier. Even ours.”
Jane put in a high-priority call to Sean. He materialized in wave.
“Sean, where are you?”
“Still out at the docks. The PM freed the ships, and we’ve got departures happening left and right. Things are crazy out here.”
“Well, I’m at the hospital. Someone just tried to kill your young friend, Ian Carmichael.”
He gaped. “What the fuck?”
“We got here in time. He’s OK. There’s something more important I need to know. Have you heard from Xuan?”
He opened his mouth to answer. Then he looked thoughtful. “Hmm. Good question. Don’t go away.” A moment later, he returned, visuals activated, looking worried. “Xuan’s ship hasn’t returned yet, and no one has heard back from Geoff Agre or his companions.”
“Xuan is in trouble,” she told Sean, “and I think Geoff and his friends are, too. Where did they go?”
Sean started to answer, but Vivian gripped Jane’s arm. “I get it now! Glease had me crack the cluster’s asteroid registry and alter data on a claim. I changed its location coordinates. They were laughing about hiding it in plain sight.”
Which explained why they thought they had Xuan, and why they needed Ian dead. They wanted to obscure Geoff’s asteroid’s location till they could hide or destroy it. Ian was the only one left on Phocaea who knew its actual coordinates. Jane said to Sean, “We need to organize a search. But you’ll have to get the coordinates directly from Ian. The location of Geoff’s stroid has been altered in the registry.”
“You bet. I’ll contact Val and get a Security cruiser prepped to launch. High-gee accel. We can be there in less than an hour. Why don’t you head back to our place and get some rest? I’ll call you.”
“Thanks, Sean.”
Jane hung up. Xuan, she thought. Xuan, don’t you die on me.
* * *
Geoff woke suddenly, heart slamming into his rib cage. A sound had awakened him, from a dream in which he had been playing connect-the-dots with stars in a royal blue sky.
He saw what had awakened him. A skeleton had entered the shadowed chamber. It floated about the low-ceiling chamber, capering and flailing, and bumped against the overhead piping. The impact burst it in midair and sprayed a cloud of assembler grapes. Professor Xuan stirred, but Amaya and Kam slumbered on, and it wasn’t long till the older man settled once more. Irritated, relieved, Geoff relaxed again in the gentle confines of the hammock mesh.
He was certain they were missing something. There had to be a way out. But nothing came to him, and he finally sighed in defeat. He listened to the familiar whispering echoes of the mine and tried to relax, but he couldn’t fall back to sleep.
The thought of dying didn’t frighten him nearly as much as it should. But when he looked over at Amaya, at Kam, at the professor, he felt all the terror for them that he couldn’t feel for himself.
I can’t let anything happen to them, he thought.