The Freezer
The Freezer
By Timothy S. Johnston
A Tanner Sequence Novel
2402 AD
CCF homicide investigator Kyle Tanner and his girlfriend are on their way to Pluto, en route to a new life together. Just one little death to check out in the asteroid belt first. But when you’re as tangled up in conspiracy as Tanner is, a few hours on a case can change your life. Or end it.
The mystery is a strange one—one man dead, a cryptic message his dying breath. Still, Tanner’s ready to wrap it up until another gruesome murder shakes him to his core. The discovery of a microscopic bomb near his own heart offers the first faint clue, but the clock is ticking. He has four days....
A desperate search for answers takes Tanner to The Freezer, an isolated facility on one of Jupiter’s moons. With anti-CCF dissidents targeting the facility, a team of scientists conducting experiments the military would rather remain hidden, and a mysterious man in white hunting him on the ice, Tanner will have to choose his allies carefully. Putting his faith in the wrong person will leave him bleeding out in seconds.
98,000 words
Dear Reader,
August here in North America is one of last-minute frenzy for many of us: fit in as many more days at the beach as possible while it’s still blazing hot, get one final vacation in before school starts, and read as many excellent books as you can before next month’s books arrive. Okay, maybe that last one could be said of every month (at least for me) but with beach time and vacation time does come more reading time, so I find I often get to read more in August than any other month.
This month, kick off your beach reading with a little contemporary crack romantic suspense from Lisa Marie Rice. I’ve been a fan of her writing for years, and I’ve read everything she’s written, so I was thrilled when she agreed to come write for me at Carina Press, and revive her popular Midnight series in Midnight Vengeance. Longtime fans of Lisa Marie Rice will see a return to her well-known, compulsively readable, alpha-tastic story and characters. Readers new to Lisa Marie Rice can dive in to Midnight Vengeance and discover just what I mean by contemporary crack, compulsively readable and So. Darn. Good!
Fans of contemporary crack–type reads will find themselves drawn to Heather Long’s Some Like It Deadly, a book everyone on the team found themselves talking about just how much they liked it. As attorney and best friend to a grand duke, Richard Prentiss has dealt with everything from the paparazzi to business moguls, but when he takes an interest in Kate Braddock, his new “personal assistant,” it’s up to her to keep it professional—unbeknownst to him, it’s her job to step in front of the bullet with his name on it.
New York Times bestselling author Shannon Stacey is back with her final (for now) novel in the Kowalski series. Meet Max: a little bit odd, a little bit obsessive, a whole lot sweet and sexy. He’s ready to find his perfect match, someone he can share his days and nights with. Meet Tori: a little bit flirty, a little bit sassy, a whole lot happy being single. She’s ready for some temporary fun, to help Max get in dating fighting form. What she’s not ready for is to find herself longing to be the person Max spends his time with. After having a front row seat to her parents’ bitter divorce—and bitter after-divorce—she’s determined not to go down that road herself. And Max is determined to be the one to change her mind. Don’t miss Falling for Max—you’ll fall in love with him too.
If you’re in the mood for more contemporary romance, I urge you to pick up Stacy Gail’s One Hot Second. Stacy has mastered the art of creating a contemporary romance that’s both deeply emotional and offers laugh out loud moments. And for those contemporary readers who love the Upstairs, Downstairs feel of Downton Abbey, you’ll love Tamara Morgan’s contemporary romance When I Fall. After a leaked photo forces rich, privileged media trainwreck Becca Clare to lie low for a few weeks, she puts her trust into the hands of the last man in the world who’s qualified to safeguard it—Jake Montgomery, a profligate playboy whose one ambition in life is to have no ambitions at all.
Kate Willoughby follows up her dynamite debut contemporary romance release, On the Surface, with Across the Line. Left winger for the NHL San Diego Barracudas, Calder Griffin is hellbent on proving he can be a top six player like his hotshot older brother, but when he meets Becca, he discovers that, like hockey, love demands a lot of hard work and pain, but in the end, it’s worth the fight.
Fans of paranormal romance will be drawn to Dangerous Calling by A.J. Larrieu. Powerful telekinetic Cass Weatherfield has learned to control her dangerous abilities, but when she faces a terrifying new enemy, she’s forced to embrace the dark side of her powers, with devastating results.
And for those looking for a little more erotic with their paranormal, Nico Rosso’s Ménage with the Muse should be right up your alley. Two very different demon rockers, Wolfgang the wild drummer and Ethan the solitary guitarist, find their fated Muse at a music festival, and it’s the same woman, Mia, a musician who’s been hurt so many times she’s slow to trust anyone, let alone two satyrs who have drawn her into their world.
If you love your science fiction with an edge of mystery, The Freezer by Timothy S. Johnston is a chilling whodunit at a claustrophobic and secluded station; a classic murder mystery scenario transformed into an electrifying techno-thriller... It’s a case where the only thing that can prevent the investigator from dying a cold and cruel death is the love of the most remarkable woman he’s ever met.
Also in the science fiction category, irrepressible heroine Cherry St. Croix is back and returning to fog-choked London to settle her debts once and for all—and to rescue the Menagerie’s wicked ringmaster, whether he wants it or not, in Karina Cooper’s steampunk Engraved.
As always, don’t forget to visit the awesome collection of romance, mystery, science fiction and fantasy in our backlist including titles from Ava March, Shannon Stacey, and Vivian Arend.
Coming in September, 2014: Mystery week! I can’t wait for you to get your hands on our “lifestyle Elvis” mystery! Also, the riveting conclusion to Lynda Aicher’s Wicked Play series, romances from Christi Barth, Alison Packard and more!
Here’s wishing you a wonderful month of books you love, remember and recommend.
Happy reading!
~Angela James
Editorial Director, Carina Press
Contents
Epigraph
Prologue
Part One
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Part Two
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Part Three
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Part Four
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Part Five
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter
Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Epilogue
A Note to the Reader
About the Author
Copyright
“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?”
“I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active—not more happy—nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.”
—Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849
2402 AD
Prologue
I left Mars on a Tuesday in a jumpship bound for Ceres, and I didn’t know it at the time but by Saturday I would be dead.
Obviously I wouldn’t have left had I known, but when you’re a homicide investigator and your contact sends you out on a case, you don’t waste time. You get to the site of the murder before the echo of the orders has faded into oblivion—otherwise the witnesses are gone, the area hopelessly contaminated, and any hope of finding evidence to capture the killer is either ruined or a hell of a lot harder to find.
The fact that the killing had occurred on the largest asteroid in The Belt between Mars and Jupiter didn’t help matters any. A nine-hour voyage from Mars, and during it I imagined all kinds of things happening to that crime scene.
The time it took to get there, however, didn’t affect the outcome. Soon I would be infected with a deadly agent, without a cure and without a chance in hell.
A cold knot crawls up your spine when you know that you’re only days from death. It settles in the gut and stays there, a numbing fear—nearly paralyzing—as you wonder what threat is coming around the next corner.
And who exactly has killed you.
Part One: Tuesday—Four Days Left
*** CCF COMMUNICATION *** SECURITY DIVISION *** HOMICIDE SECTION ***
* * *
From CCF HQ, MARS
Contact: Tajiki, B. Capt.
To: Tanner, K. Lt., Security Division, Homicide Section, CCF
17 May 2402
Destination: Ceres
Orders as follows:
Possible homicide at Fort Iridium, Administrative Division, Ceres. Proceed immediately.
Victim: Bojdl, Marek Lt., Physician, CCF, age 47.
CCF Security Division contact, Ceres: Lawrence, M. Capt., CCF
End Message
Chapter One
Murder filled my days.
One investigation after another, one capture after another.
And one execution after another.
Ceres was my latest destination. Largest asteroid in The Belt, home to miners, military, doctors and service personnel. I get sent all over system, usually staying at a colony for six months or so before getting shipped out to some other nearby settlement. Earlier it had been Mars, and now it was The Belt. I wasn’t too bothered by it; my life had been the same for the past twelve years. But now there was something different, something more than just my work—more than just the gore and pain and the splintered end of a broken bone. Now I had Shaheen.
I’d been a loner since childhood, since my parents’ death, even during my years in Seattle on Earth while living with my uncle. I’d come to love being by myself, the silent nature of my journeys. The independence had made me harder and more capable in my profession. But then I’d met Shaheen Ramachandra, the East Indian blue-eyed beauty, an extraordinary engineer and the most intelligent woman I’d ever met. Once she entered my life, I’d realized how alone I had truly been. Now she accompanied me on my travels and had changed me forever. For the first time since Seattle, despite the nature of my profession and the hate and rage I dealt with every day, I was happy.
Ceres grew slowly in the tiny jumpship’s viewport. Gravtrav brought us in, pushing against the pull of the Sun—which was considerable even at this distance—and I studied the asteroid. Small, oblong, tumbling serenely against the starry vista. The girders and structures of Fort Iridium were clear on the rock, portholes and starlights dug into the iron-nickel remnant of the solar system’s formation billions of years earlier.
I grunted and Shaheen looked at me, pulled me closer. “Nervous.” It was a statement, not a question. She knew me well.
It was a feeling akin to that of someone scared of public speaking preparing to give a lecture to ten thousand people. A churning in the stomach. Queasiness. It was always there at the beginning, but went away as soon as the investigation started.
“Come on, Tanner,” she continued. “Your reputation is likely powerful here, same as everywhere else. They remember The Torcher. They remember you.”
It was my most famous capture. A serial killer hunted by many, but only I had been able to finally cure humanity of that particular cancer.
“True,” I finally managed. “Nevertheless...”
The mood hung in the air between us as we docked at the colony.
As did the knowledge that yet again I was about to poke my nose into matters that someone wanted kept secret.
* * *
Fort Iridium was mostly a mining settlement, a focal point for the work going on in The Belt, but it was also a jump-off station for travelers to the outer reaches of the system as well as a trading port. The population was over fifty thousand, so it was not exactly a frontier town, but neither was it a thriving metropolis.
And still the crimes remained. They seemed to travel with us, no matter where we went.
Our ship’s ability to manipulate gravity guaranteed a constant one gee; our feet clanged with purpose as Shaheen and I disembarked the jumpship in the pressurized landing facility. The port was spacious—the rock ceiling high overhead—and the sounds of vessel maintenance and shouts of arriving and departing travelers echoed everywhere. At the base of the ramp, a man in the black uniform of the CCF—which Shaheen and I also wore—stood waiting for me. It was, after all, a military base, even though the principal purpose of the colony was to mine asteroids.
There was a pistol on the man’s thigh.
His salute was crisp. “Lieutenant Kyle Tanner?”
Admiration and excitement were clear in his features. Inside I groaned. I didn’t appreciate fame brought on by the death of others. All I could manage was a quick nod. He would interpret it as callousness, but Shaheen knew better.
“Captain Lawrence,” he continued. “I’m in charge of Security Division here in the Administrative Section. I’m also your new contact.” I guess the low population meant that he had time to come and get me personally and not send a crewman.
“You don’t have homicide investigators here?”
“One, but I had to send her to Titan. When we filed the report, I guess you were next available. I hope the trip wasn’t too bad.”
Shaheen and I had passed the time in our own special way—a way that we couldn’t get enough of. “The trip was agreeable.”
Shaheen snapped a look at me.
“Good,” Lawrence continued, oblivious. He wouldn’t make a good investigator. “I’m happy they sent you, to be honest. We were unsure about this one. About...”
“How could you be unsure if it was murder?” As I said this I stumbled slightly over my words. They brought back bad memories of another recent case that had started under mysterious circumstances. Sometimes just a plain killing out of revenge or anger could be so much less agonizing for me.
He shifted his feet, as if interpreting my question as an accusation. Eventually he gestured toward a hatch and we began to move to it. “The death seemed natural. But what Bojdl said just before, well, it confused us.”
The victim was Marek Bojdl, a doctor in his late forties. Natural deaths at that age were growing more and more rare.
“What was it?”
/> Lawrence glanced at me as we passed through a set of double doors meant to contain pressure in case of catastrophe. He said nothing.
* * *
Shaheen split off from us after receiving our cabin assignment, and I promised to meet her shortly. She was to continue on to Pluto and a new engineering post in only a few hours and needed some rest after our strenuous trip from Mars. I glanced at her and her eyes met mine; we knew what was coming when I was done with Lawrence and the facts in the case.
Lawrence brought me to his office in CCF headquarters on the asteroid. Carved from rock, the surfaces laminated with a hard plastic to eliminate dust, it was quite similar to other outposts on airless worlds where the crust itself made an effective barrier to vacuum beyond. Mercury, for instance. On some worlds, however, the crust was too porous for this and engineers designed domes to provide a habitable environment. Nanos were good at building them cheaply and quickly.
Lawrence murmured a few words and a holographic keyboard appeared on his desk. The surroundings were utilitarian and bare, as should be the case in military settings. I found it comforting, in fact. The path through HQ had been less comfortable for me—people had stared and whispered to one another as I followed my new contact to his office. It bothered me—and contrary to my silent wishes, it wasn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, the response seemed to grow as time passed.
“Bojdl died while having lunch.” He said the name Boy-dill.
“In the mess?” I asked.
“He was carrying a tray to his table.”
“He just collapsed?” Taking in this information was crucial to the case. I needed to know everything in the seconds—and even days—leading up to the death.
Lawrence nodded.
“And you mentioned that he said something...”
“Indeed.” And then silence.
“Do you have a surveillance recording?”
He pushed a key and a second later the office around us dissolved. In its place the mess hall appeared, complete with every person present at the time of the incident. I nodded my approval. Holographic video, in color, complete with every conversation going on at the time. We could zoom in on any table, any person, and amplify any voice we wanted. To make things even better, it was a continuous stream as if we were watching it happen. Some surveillance systems only took snapshots of events every few seconds.