The Freezer Read online

  I watched Snow as I said it, and she glanced at Cray.

  Bingo.

  “Dinova also felt rage for what she’d been through. She wanted to get back at him, so she used me.”

  Marius shook his head. “I can’t believe you’d kill Bojdl to arrange this, Marina. It’s insane!”

  “Be happy she didn’t pick you,” I said. “She could have used you or Bojdl.” He looked shocked at this fact, and I pushed on. “She implanted the bomb in him and waited.” I studied her expression for a moment. So far I was right about everything. “You watched him die and felt little. It was more important for you to get to The Freezer, wasn’t it?” I sighed. “So here we are. My investigation turned up a lot about this place. I know what you’re all doing here, in fact.”

  Cray snorted. “You’re good Tanner, but you can’t be that good. What could you possibly know about...about this?” He gestured to the decaying man. “You’ve only just discovered it!”

  I exhaled slowly. Then, “I know you’re manipulating his nerves, Doctor. I know you’re experimenting on his central nervous system. And I know you’re working to create a better soldier.”

  * * *

  My statement floored them. They seemed completely surprised. Even Cray.

  “There are a few reasons I know this. Firstly, you’re all well-respected physicians, but your specialties gave it away. Experts in the human genome. The central nervous system. Nerve regeneration. Biochemistry. In Lefave’s cabin I saw a book on myelin sheathing!” I shrugged. “I put it all together.” I paused as I soaked in their expressions. “But there’s one more important item. I’ve already mentioned it. Bojdl’s foot.”

  Sato blinked. “His foot?”

  “Yes. That injury helped lead me to the truth.”

  Cray was shaking his head, and his expression had softened.

  “Back at Fort Iridium, when we discovered the micro-bomb in Bojdl. Marius was shocked that such weapons existed. Dinova’s response to that bordered on disgust, almost as if she felt that he should have known the CCF would resort to such things.” I turned to her. “Isn’t that right, Doctor? You said, ‘Weapons engineers will use any technology to assassinate somebody,’ or something along those lines. Correct?”

  She met my eyes. “Yes.” Her voice was a whisper.

  “You knew it because of this very facility! The Freezer isn’t here to study life on Europa! It’s here to develop something for the military! This is a secret project that Francis Lefave is running for the CCF!”

  * * *

  Many of the others were nodding now in appreciation. My deduction had also astonished Sato.

  “It’s why none of you can tell me what this place is really for! As hideous as this seems, the CCF has actually authorized what you’re doing!”

  I paused to take a breath. “Then there are the three big fractures south of the facility.”

  Cray frowned. “What do they have to—”

  “Dyson told me they formed eight months after The Freezer was built.” I threw my arms up. “It was because of this! Carving this out caused the cracks. When Sato mentioned that the sounds were louder in Module A, I realized that something was going on here, under the dome. This construction disturbed the ice and caused the fractures. Dyson said the cracks had stopped growing long ago, so I knew the disturbance was over.”

  I circled the man in the center of the chamber again as I continued with my evidence. “Lefave is Council rep here, and right under his nose what did he find but three dissidents! And they were speaking openly about the evils of the Council!” I snorted. “Of course he would have informed on you, turned you over to the authorities. But if he had, it would have drawn attention to this facility. So instead he transferred you and made you someone else’s problem.”

  Sato said, “How do you know all this?”

  “I know how the CCF works, Sato. Lefave is director and Council rep. He should have acted instantly against the three here, but didn’t.” I exhaled harshly. “There had to be a reason, and that’s it.”

  “But what are the scars?” Sato asked. “You mentioned the nervous system.”

  I nodded. “Bojdl didn’t feel pain when the acid hit his foot. I saw books on A-delta nerve fibers in Lefave’s cabin. At first I thought they were ‘unimportant’ here on Europa.” I snorted. “Then why were they here? I realized that later. There must be a reason for them! And later I overheard Dinova and Marius talking about HSAN Type IV!” My brow wrinkled. “They pretended to be discussing something else. But I’m not stupid! I spent a few minutes looking that stuff up and realized immediately what was happening here.”

  “I’m not a doctor, Tanner,” Sato said, bewildered. “I’m a programmer.”

  “I’m no expert either, but A-delta nerve fibers transmit pain, Ed. HSAN Type IV is a hereditary illness, rare, but it is a known disorder in which those affected do not possess the nerves. The rest of us do. They do not feel pain.”

  He mulled that over. “Like Bojdl when the acid hit his foot.”

  “Yes. He didn’t feel any pain until he put his elbow in it! The A-delta nerves in his foot were gone, removed surgically! He couldn’t feel his feet, Ed, because Lefave had used him as a guinea pig here. Before he got some other live subjects.” I again glanced pointedly at the abomination in the chamber.

  Cray was smiling slightly now. “Incredible,” he whispered. Strange that my abilities could make this angry man react so.

  “I’m not done.”

  His jaw dropped.

  “Janice Snow’s thesis. I saw it in her file. What was it, Doctor?”

  Snow exhaled. “It was on HSAN Type IV.”

  “You could have worked anywhere in the Confederacy, and yet here you are, because you’re an expert on this disorder.” I shook my head. “And because you’re all working for the CCF, you were forbidden to speak to me about it. It is weapons research, highly secret, and even though my position puts me in a different category than ordinary ranks, Lefave must have convinced you that you couldn’t trust me. Our arrival was unexpected and it made him more protective of the facility and the project.” I paused. “But he has done more than just research here, and I have proof.”

  “More?” Sato seemed bewildered.

  “When the man in white attacked me on the ice. I remember thinking that he was abnormally fast. In fact, I figured that the impact of his first strike had concussed me. I thought I wasn’t seeing him correctly. He was almost a blur, he darted about so quickly.”

  “But that doesn’t have anything to do with nerve fibers or lack of pain receptors.”

  “No, but Dinova and Marius mentioned stimulation of the adrenal glands.” I stepped toward them. “Didn’t you? You were talking about the experiments here, wondering what stage Lefave was at.” I studied everyone for long seconds. “You’re working to create a better soldier. Imagine fighting someone who can’t feel pain! They would fight until they were dead! They wouldn’t retreat, wouldn’t back down, wouldn’t fall until their legs were gone! Make them think and react faster by thickening the myelin sheathing! And make them more aggressive by stimulating the adrenal glands.” I frowned. “Were you using nanos for that?”

  “Why do you say so?” Snow asked.

  “Lefave and Cray are experts in medical nanos.” I shrugged. “Makes sense.”

  They were all watching me with wide eyes. I stepped toward Snow. “Earlier you said we wouldn’t survive because he’s unbalanced. Why?” Still she wouldn’t speak and I swore. “I know what this place is! I’ve proven it! Now answer me!”

  She lowered her head. “He’s used his research on himself. Tested some on Bojdl. Tested on this man here.” She couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

  “You brought that jumpship here.”

  “Yes. The CCF arranged it. Shipped a weapon
to us that Dyson used.”

  The crewman looked mortified at having been a part of all of this. No wonder he hated the officers there.

  Snow continued, “We sent the distress signal. Dyson shot it down. Three people survived the crash. Only he’s left.” Her last words were barely audible.

  “And Lefave has used the techniques on himself.”

  “All of them. He feels no pain. Surgery and nanos removed the A-delta nerves. We thickened the myelin sheathing in his brain and stimulated the adrenal glands.”

  I snorted. “And he’s your perfect soldier.”

  “But he’s not sane!” she snapped. “Something happened during the procedures! He seems to have different personalities now. Sometimes he’s kind and gentle. At others he’s rude, antagonistic and even physically abusive. It’s affected his mental state!”

  “And strong,” I sighed. “Strong enough to kill Aoki with his bare hands, and she couldn’t even put up a fight.”

  Snow pressed her mouth close to my ear. “He won’t let you escape. He’s worried this base will fall into dissident hands.” She glanced at Dinova.

  The doctor’s lips were a thin line, but she didn’t speak.

  Snow continued, “He’s deliberately sabotaged us. He planned it, told us about it a long time ago. He even installed a program in the control systems.”

  A look of shock crossed Dyson’s face. He’d noticed that earlier.

  She said, “It caused the explosion, locked out the life support. Turned off the refrigerators in the skin of the domes. He wants this facility to disappear into the ice! He intends to kill us all!” Her voice was now a shrill rasp. “He can do it too! He’s unbeatable! Faster, stronger, more intelligent! Better reflexes! There’s no way we can stop him!”

  No one spoke.

  Total silence descended over that ice cave.

  Except for the labored breathing of the lone jumpship survivor.

  Chapter Twenty

  Hereditary Sensory and Autonomic Neuropathy Type IV was an extremely rare inherited disorder. On Earth, as I learned during my research before I confronted the people at The Freezer, there were less than a hundred documented cases. Because it was associated with the inability to perspire, most people afflicted with HSAN did not make it past the age of five. Some, however, had lived to their late twenties, but the inability to naturally cool their body temperature inevitably resulted in death.

  Pain is essential to life. Hard to believe, but it is actually a warning sign for us. Babies and children need to feel pain in order to understand what not to do. Touch the stove, suffer a burn. Lesson learned. However, a child that didn’t experience pain was susceptible to frequent injuries like broken arms and legs. They had to wear helmets during playtime, and guardians had to frequently assess them to make sure there were no problems.

  People afflicted with HSAN Type IV were also impervious to cold.

  I had noted earlier that Lefave was extremely fit. The station was freezing and he had never indicated a problem with it. A pulse blast from my pistol would have little impact if it hit a peripheral part of the man. Only if I nailed the heart or brain would my weapon have any effect.

  The thickened sheathing on his neural axons had increased his dexterity and reflexes. And with constant stimulation of his adrenal glands...

  Adrenaline had an astonishing effect on strength and aggression, and now it flooded his body.

  He would be difficult to defeat in hand-to-hand combat.

  * * *

  I studied the group before me. Dinova, Marius, Sato, Cray, Snow and Dyson. Together we would have to locate and capture—or kill—Director Francis Lefave. The image of Aoki’s body flashed through my mind as I considered how to do this. Her arm broken so badly that bone protruded. Hit so hard in the abdomen that arteries had burst and flooded her intestinal cavity with blood. Snapped ankle. And finally, the head turned backward. It was a sickening display of force.

  “What exactly is the process?” I asked. “How has it affected him in this way?”

  Snow shuddered. “The removal of the nerves is agonizing. Nothing else could hurt more, over every single part of your body. Imagine this—” She pointed to her mouth. “Every nerve in your teeth being torn away simultaneously, but it happening over a period of days. And nothing you can do will erase or smother the pain. Sure, the result is a total and complete lack of pain, but the process...” She shook her head. “Some was done through surgery, hence the scarring. Some was done with nanos—we used them to eat the most sensitive nerves in the human body. Everywhere. Extremities, skin, bone, teeth, eyes, lips, genitals.” She snorted. “It drove him mad.”

  “The myelin sheathing does something to the brain chemistry,” Cray added. “Thickening it does increase the rate of transmission—scientists in the twentieth century proved that—but it also altered how and where the signals move.” He frowned. “I haven’t figured it out yet, but the signals are moving through areas of his brain that were until now relatively unused.”

  I knew that only about ten percent of our neurons were actually active in our brains at any time.

  “What parts?” I asked.

  He hesitated. “The areas that control our more primitive emotions. The lizard brain. The deepest and oldest regions that evolution has cast aside as unnecessary. Areas that center on aggression and territorial dominance. Our civilized cognitive functions suppress some of those. The others are unused now. But Lefave...” He paused. “His are now fully activated. So his reflexes are faster, and more areas of his brain are aware and pulsing with energy. You should see the brain scans! They’re incredible.” His face lit up for a second as the scientific side of him recognized how unique the discovery was. Then he realized what they had actually done to Director Lefave and his expression sagged. “But it has enhanced his primitive emotions now, even superimposed them over his ‘civilized’ self. Anger. Hate. Rage. Jealousy. Greed. Ambition.”

  Snow sighed. “He did a good job covering it the past few days while you’ve been here, but it couldn’t last.”

  And now, I thought, that part of him had surged out, as if suppressing it for that long meant it would emerge with even more vengeance than it had shown before. I recalled the times that he had snapped and released his anger for just a few moments—like lightning in a storm—and the coffee that had spilled on his hand.

  The scalding coffee that he hadn’t even noticed.

  “I wish I could run more tests on him,” Cray muttered. “The psych results would have been incredible. No one would have believed.” He shook his head, as if saddened by the inevitable, which I understood all too well.

  Either Lefave would die, or the rest of us would fall trying.

  “Where are your weapons?” I asked. Each CCF officer—Cray and Snow—should have had a pistol. Unfortunately, I had left Dinova’s back at Fort Iridium when I had forced the people from Ceres to board the jumpship for Europa.

  Dyson, as a crewman and a NOM, did not have a weapon.

  “In our cabins,” Snow said.

  Technically they should have had their holsters and weapons on at all times, but I hadn’t complained upon arrival as I was investigating a homicide. The fewer weapons around the better. They were also scientists working in labs and most likely did not want the hassle of carrying them around.

  “Then that’s where we go.” I raised my pistol and tightened my grip.

  Cray said, “But Lieutenant, surely Lefave will expect that.”

  I blinked at the way he addressed me. He was now using the proper protocol and had not spoken with a snap to his words or the least bit of anger.

  “Then if he strikes now, it’ll be our chance to grab him.”

  Snow frowned. “You can’t underestimate him! He’ll—”

  “There are seven of us against one man.”<
br />
  “He can kill with one strike.”

  “So can I.”

  “Not him! You’ll have no effect on him!”

  I grunted. We’d see about that.

  Behind us, the lone survivor—if you could call him that—of the jumpship remained strapped to his supports as one by one we climbed from the chamber.

  I would have to decide what to do with him later.

  Back up in level one of Module A, the power was still out and the shadows long and ghostly. The red emergency lights flickered randomly as their batteries drained.

  I stopped abruptly and the others followed suit. They were in half crouches, searching the level for any sign of movement.

  “What is it?” Snow hissed.

  “That sound,” I said. “It’s new.”

  It was a crackling much like static from a communit, only slowed down dramatically. A second or more separated each crackle.

  Cray nodded. “It’s the facility. The hull is starting to sublimate the ice under us.”

  Of course. “How much time do we have?”

  Dyson said, “The melting will escalate over the next few hours. And once started, it’ll be very difficult to stop.”

  I glanced at Sato. I knew that as a programmer he could be useful to us. Dyson was also going to be necessary. But before we began any attempts at repairs, we had to get our weapons. That was the priority. A well-placed pulse shot could end this thing in an instant. And after we gathered weapons, then I’d outline our plan.

  I gestured toward the travel tube on the northwest bulkhead that led to the crew cabins. I marched confidently toward it. The others followed closely, continuing to shoot glances around, searching for Lefave.

  I didn’t care if he attacked now.

  Bring him on, I thought.

  But it was a foolish notion, and I would soon learn my lesson.

  * * *

  The hatch slid shut behind us and we began clanging through the tube. Our breath misted before us. Snow and Dyson in particular were breathing heavily, and the area in front of them was dense with their exhalations. Cray seemed calm and collected. He was a strong man, which I had noted earlier, with an intense expression and a deeply lined face. He might be good in a fight, I thought.