The Freezer Read online

  I fired and the blast hit his leg again, the same one I’d connected with earlier in Module A. He slammed the hatch behind him, leaving only the smell of burned meat, and I bolted to the viewport. He was outside and running for the jumpship, which was still waiting on the ice.

  I could fire through the viewport, kill him right there...

  And then I glanced back at Shaheen. She was the only one not in a vacsuit. The depressurization would kill her.

  I had to follow.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “Get her in a vacsuit and everybody get out of the module!” I screamed as I rammed my helmet down on the locking collar. I grabbed the handle of the air lock—

  Damn. It wouldn’t open.

  Lefave had left the outside hatch ajar, preventing the inside one from opening. Clever.

  The others worked to hurriedly get Shaheen into a suit from the emergency locker. She looked around, dazed from the anesthetic, in pain from the operation—though I was sure that priority nanos were inside her, healing the massive wounds—but she cooperated, accepting the situation in stoic silence. Marius had already cauterized her incision.

  Finally her helmet was on and I fired out the viewport—

  Lefave was nearly at the jumpship now. He was running as if there was no injury, though he had stopped to spray more sealant over his vacsuit’s leg and arms. Despite the white camouflage he was now easy to spot: blood coated his upper torso; the multiple patches over his body were gray in color, not white; and bloody droplets splattered the inside of his visor.

  The pulse seared past the viewport, instantly melting through and venting the clinic. Everything not bolted to the deck flew toward me. Between that and the shaking from the growing crevasse, the interior of the clinic was chaotic. I managed to hold on to the pistol this time, and as soon as the air was gone, I opened the hatch and climbed through and out onto the ice.

  Behind me the others were rushing out as well. The sudden venting had caught Cray by surprise—his helmet had been off while attempting to get Shaheen suited—and he had to quickly seal it to keep from blacking out. He made it, thankfully. Then they too ducked out through the small air-lock hatches, helping Shaheen, and carried Dinova’s motionless form out.

  “Get far away from the dome!” I yelled as I sprinted for the jumpship. It was difficult to move quickly in the low gravity, but I adopted low lunges and dug the toes of my boots into the ice with each leap.

  Lefave was approaching the jumpship’s ramp. The pilot was staring out the viewport now, clearly conflicted. He saw me running with a pistol, firing madly at Lefave. The director covered in blood, sprinting to the jumpship...

  The pilot couldn’t tell who was the victim. The white vacsuit was military—

  But he also knew that I was in the CCF.

  He made an instant decision and hauled on the controls. The ship lurched upward in a flash and rose above the ice—

  And Lefave closed the distance with one mighty leap and grabbed the lowered ramp. There he dangled, as the pilot stared out the control cabin viewport in shock.

  Above, Jupiter was in full shadow punctuated by lightning strikes as its gas clouds roiled about a tumultuous atmosphere, and the distant sun illuminated its perimeter, giving it a white halo.

  I raised my weapon, though I was weak and dizzy and not moving as fast as I wanted. The jumpship was lurching from side to side, I was running and panting madly and the ice beneath my feet was also quaking.

  “Don’t damage the jumpship!” a voice cried in my helmet. It was Sato. “It’s our only way—”

  “I know,” I growled in dry response. I understood the dilemma here, but I couldn’t let him commandeer that ship. I looked to my wrist controls and keyed a broadcast across every frequency. “Pilot, do you read?”

  “Go ahead,” came the immediate reply. “And tell me what the—”

  “That man in the white vacsuit is a murderer. I’m a homicide investigator. It’s imperative that you do not let him gain control of your craft.”

  As I said it, Lefave was hauling himself up the ramp, which was a long steel grate with openings large enough to insert his fingers into. It made an excellent surface for him to climb.

  The jumpship abruptly yawed to the side and Lefave’s legs swung out over the ice. The jumpship moved closer to me, and I realized what the pilot was doing: bringing Lefave to me so I could deal with him.

  I took careful aim...

  But Sato’s warning was still ringing in my helmet. If I brought down the jumpship, we might all die here.

  I lowered the weapon and dropped it to the ice. “Run to the east,” I told the others. “Get away from The Freezer.” And then I started toward the advancing jumpship once again. It was only ten meters from me now, and I leapt for it—

  And collided with the ramp and Lefave as he desperately hung on.

  “Kyle!” Shaheen called. “Be careful!”

  I glanced below and saw the group running from the clinic. Sato was dragging Dinova behind him, her helmet bouncing on the ice as they struggled to get some distance.

  The clinic was sinking in sharp jerks, and vapor rose from the surrounding area. The fracture was opening quickly and had reached Module C. To the west, I watched as Modules E and B collapsed into the canyon, splitting open and spilling their contents everywhere.

  And then the clinic fell. The ice under it finally calved away, a massive slice fifteen meters wide, almost reaching the group running frantically from the destruction. The primates had been in that module. Lefave had experimented on them, and they had also suffered as the jumpship survivors had. Their deaths were merciful.

  And then I noticed a massive cloud of mist from the crevasse. It was rising from the crack now, stretching south as far as I could see, at least three kilometers. Steam filled its entire length—thick, dense, swirling in the thin atmosphere of the moon. Shattered travel tubes that had been resting on the ice were now falling into the canyon, which continued northward, toward Module F and the landing pad.

  I swore at the speed the crack was spreading. Below me, as Lefave and I clung to the jumpship ramp and our legs swung wildly beneath us, the others were running as fast as they could to avoid the widening gap. Shaheen was stumbling, her arm around Marius, and Cray scooped up her other arm and hurried her along. Sato’s legs were pumping for all he was worth, but Dinova’s limp form slowed him greatly.

  “Let her go if you have to,” I muttered. But I knew he wouldn’t.

  Beside me Lefave’s iron grip kept him locked to the ramp. My own was far weaker—days without sleep, open-heart surgery, the pummeling I’d taken at the director’s hands, my fatigue from marathon runs across the ice and my own death meant that I would fall far sooner than he would.

  And yet I knew I no longer had a choice here.

  “Take us over the canyon,” I said in a soft tone. The jumpship responded in an instant and swung over the crevasse...

  The vapors completely enveloped the ship; everything but Lefave was lost to sight. His eyes were narrowed; they were dark slivers in a face of red.

  “You can’t beat me,” he growled.

  “I’m going to try.” And then in one fluid movement I released the ramp and swung onto the director’s back. The jumpship was shaking now, buffeted massively by the raging vapors.

  As I looked below, an unexpected scene met my eyes: the ocean was surging up the crevasse. The split had stretched through the entire layer of ice, penetrating right to the waters below. Massive forces had cracked the crust, and the tides shifted the ice, tearing it apart. The Freezer itself had caused the weak spot, like a spike driven into a rock, and the moon’s natural systems had simply taken over to finish the process.

  The churning water rose rapidly; the near vacuum here meant that dissolved vapors in the liquid bo
iled outward violently. It would freeze within minutes and seal the wound on the surface.

  Lefave screamed as I wrapped my arms around his neck. I was taking a chance that he wouldn’t release the ramp and kill us both...

  “Tanner, where are you?” Shaheen called. “We can’t see you!”

  I clenched my jaw and groaned in effort. My fingers scrabbled at the latch...

  “Damn you!” Lefave cried. “I’m better than you! Better than anyone in the CCF! This project was mine. The discoveries mine! You can’t have them!”

  “You’re not thinking clearly, Lefave,” I managed to gasp. “The process has affected your mind.”

  “For the better!”

  My fingers closed over the mechanism and I pulled. It slid easily...

  Something he had said on the ice came to me. When he had first tried to kill me. I repeated it softly: “The only thing here for you is death.”

  And then the helmet released. His air vented in a puff and mingled with the steam already surrounding us.

  He jerked instinctively and reached up to reseat the helmet—

  And let go of the jumpship. In a flash I grabbed the grating on either side of Lefave’s helmet—

  And he fell out from beneath me.

  I hauled myself close to the ramp and turned my gaze downward. The director’s body spun madly as he plummeted.

  He was still trying to seal the helmet.

  And the churning maelstrom of icy water swallowed him.

  He was gone.

  * * *

  A few muttered orders from me and the jumpship swung away from the crevasse and the steaming canyon. Segments of the fifty-meter ice ridge were even plunging into the water. The facility was now entirely gone. The landing pad, communications array, Module F, everything.

  The water surged up suddenly and spread out over the ice.

  And as I watched, it began to freeze. A thin skin developed over the wound, and I knew it would continue to thicken until the entire crevasse was refrozen and solid ice once more.

  The fissure and water had completely erased The Freezer from the surface of Europa.

  As if we had never been here.

  * * *

  I dropped the last few meters to the surface and landed easily. The steaming scar was a kilometer to the west, and the nearby figures of Shaheen, Cray, Sato, Marius and Dinova—unconscious still as Sato dragged her—approached.

  Cray and Marius continued to support Shaheen, but as they neared she pushed out from under them and took the last few steps by herself. She threw her arms around me and pressed to me—tenderly due to our chest wounds—and I could hear her sobbing through the helmet that touched mine.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  Her body continued to shudder as she cried. “Dr. Marius told me what’s been going on...”

  “You died,” I whispered.

  “So did you.”

  “He saved you.”

  “He saved us both.”

  “In a way.”

  She tilted her head as she studied me. “What do you mean?”

  “You saved me, Shaheen, when I first met you months ago. I couldn’t just let you die like that. Couldn’t let her plan succeed.”

  A look of bewilderment. “You caught the killer?”

  I gestured at Dinova’s prone form. Sato was down on one knee, gasping for air. The run from the collapsing ice shelf had been intense, but he had done it.

  “I’m taking her in,” I said.

  Shaheen pulled back and we stared at each other through the faceplates. Her brilliant blue eyes shone despite the torture her body had endured. Despite the aneurysm and the surgery only minutes earlier.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I muttered.

  * * *

  We boarded the jumpship and got settled in the seating area directly behind the control cabin. The pilot helped us strap Dinova down, and Marius administered more sedatives. Letting her awaken and attempt an escape was the last thing we needed.

  “Next time give me a little warning about what I’m flying into,” the pilot snapped at me.

  I cast a deadly glare at him. He was a lance corporal—a NOM—and clearly angry at what he’d just been through. But he was a lower rank than myself and should have kept his thoughts to himself. I opened my mouth to tear a strip off of him—

  And then stopped myself. He had no idea what had just happened. What we’d been through.

  I sighed and decided to keep my mouth shut.

  He went back to the control cabin and the hatch closed behind him.

  The craft rose from the ice and we stared at the barren landscape beneath us. The fresh ice that now filled the canyon was a brilliant white and looked simply like a line tracing across the face of the moon. It zigzagged for several kilometers, stopping only upon hitting the ice ridge beside The Freezer’s former location.

  Europa shrank in size as the jumpship picked up speed, and Jupiter rapidly slid into view. Three of the Galilean moons were passing in front of it.

  “It’s beautiful,” Shaheen gasped. “I’ve never been this close.”

  I snorted. “It does get boring after a while.” And then I blinked at that. I recalled Director Lefave saying the exact same thing only a few days earlier. “But maybe it’s because it almost killed me,” I continued. “We’re lucky to be alive. I’m lucky you’re alive.”

  She smiled, but then winced in pain. Finally, “Are we still going to Pluto?”

  I grunted. “I would like to see something outside of Home System, I think.”

  She frowned. “You want to see another star?”

  “There are murders everywhere, Shaheen. I can work anywhere.”

  “I don’t like your sense of humor.” She punched me in the arm. “But I like the idea.” She paused, and then, “But I have to do the job on Pluto first. I already accepted the position.”

  “Then we’ll go there together. And I’ll wait for you.” I wouldn’t leave her side again. Wouldn’t let someone threaten her again.

  And we’d be together.

  Always.

  Cray said, “Is every case like this, Tanner?” He grunted. “I can’t believe what your life is like.”

  I studied the man. I had once thought him angry and hostile, and had even suspected him of being Aoki’s killer. But he was just an officer in the CCF, forced to do a type of work he had never wanted. Forced to experiment on human beings. “What’s next for you?” I asked him.

  He looked downcast. “Not sure. I’ll have to report to CCF HQ. Maybe they’ll send me to another...research outpost. I hope not like this one.”

  “I can put in a good word for you. Maybe get you on a warship or colony ship.”

  Surprise crossed his features. “That would be great. Different.” He mulled it over for a minute then nodded. “Yes. I think I’d like that.”

  I winced as I readjusted myself in the chair. “As for me, I’m not sure how much longer I can do field work.” My body was one throbbing wound.

  “I hope a long time,” Marius interjected. “The Confederacy needs people like you.” He shook his head. “If it hadn’t been for you, Dinova would have gotten away with it.”

  I stared at her as she lay draped across a couch in that jumpship. When she awoke, she would face interrogation by CCF officials. They would demand names, incriminating other dissidents. I didn’t really want that to happen. As long as there were no violent crimes being committed, I felt that it wasn’t necessary. But still...

  Still, I worked for the Council and had to enforce their rules.

  It was a dilemma. Dinova had murdered Bojdl and Dyson. She had attempted to kill Shaheen and me, and had actually succeeded at both. For a short time, anyway. I was happy with her facing those c
harges. They would execute her for it.

  But as for exposing dissidents...

  I glanced at the others sitting with me. I had to make a major decision.

  Because it wasn’t over yet.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  We arrived at Fort Iridium a few hours later and landed in the docking facility, and Shaheen and I immediately accompanied Marius to the clinic to receive urgent attention. We actually were not feeling terrible, but there was a massive risk of infection and Marius wanted to monitor the nanos as they continued their work.

  But that’s not to say that we weren’t careful. Shaheen and I were in adjacent beds. We both had weapons and remained vigilant. We alternated shifts sleeping. She thought I was crazy at first, then thought better of it when I made a few comments and told her everything that had happened at The Freezer.

  Eventually she nodded curtly and pressed her lips together, continually watching the entrance to make sure no one would take us by surprise.

  I made two calls on my communit while Marius supervised our healing. They shed a great deal of light on the situation. I pondered the predicament for many hours, trying to decide how much to tell my contacts, and who exactly I should charge with crimes that might lead to execution.

  The staff in the clinic were sympathetic and extremely professional. I had been worried; after all, I had taken their chief physician at the point of my pistol only days earlier! I had exposed her as Bojdl’s killer, however, and they had been close to him as well. I caught the looks they shared from the corner of my eye—they were of understanding and even admiration. The staff simply couldn’t fathom what we had been through—Shaheen and I had both undergone serious medical procedures within minutes of each other, only to face a deranged and powerful maniac in a physical confrontation a short time later. And to top it off, we had both died due to micro-explosives in our aortas...and Shaheen had been in stasis for days before her revival.

  It was a bizarre and astonishing tale, and their own commanding officer had been at the crux of it all.

  Two days later Marius finally agreed to let me go. He marveled at my ability to recuperate after what I had endured on Europa. I asked him to guard Shaheen for one more hour as I had something important to take care of.