The Freezer Page 6

  They were too scared.

  The CCF had assumed total control over humanity. There was a governing body—the Council—made up of ten people, one from each major colony. So it was not exactly a dictatorship. Some Council members were more powerful than others, however, and they therefore controlled the military. Citizens did not vote them into power—military and corporate leaders who were sometimes one and the same appointed them. And the military controlled society.

  I didn’t complain about the situation—I worked within the system. I tried to do the best for people. To right wrongs. However, I did sympathize with hostility toward the Council and the CCF. It was the one crime that I could overlook, because to me its definition as a crime was tenuous at best. Dissidents were still good people. They simply craved freedoms that humans had lost because of weak and corrupt governments.

  They said the structure was corrupt...corrupt through power now. Before it had been greed.

  I sighed. “Is this why you left The Freezer, Dinova?” I said.

  She had closed her mouth and breathed heavily. Her face was still red, her fists tight at her side.

  I turned to Marius and put a hand on his shoulder. “Simon. Answer me.”

  There was a long pause before he finally nodded. “Myself, Dinova and Bojdl. All dissidents. We couldn’t stay here any longer.”

  The Europan crew were glaring at their two former colleagues. I looked at Lefave. “You could have reported them.”

  He shrugged. “Having them leave was the next best thing. I didn’t want torture for them. Or death.”

  “So you arranged the transfer to Fort Iridium.”

  “Yes.”

  Dinova looked ready to skin the man alive. “You are a fascist!” She slowly rose to her feet.

  “I’m the director of Europa One!” he shouted back. “I’m in command here!”

  Marina Dinova, a woman in her fifties and highly intelligent, was seconds from attacking the man. I had seen enough confrontations to recognize it.

  And then a new voice spoke. “You are a cancer that needs to be destroyed.” It was an angry rasp.

  I turned to Robert Cray. He was staring at Dinova with hatred in his eyes.

  He continued, “You are the worst type of person in the Confederacy. The Council has given us incredible technology. We are colonizing the galaxy. We were stagnating on Earth. And you’d end all of that.”

  “I wouldn’t end humanity! The Council is doing that for us!”

  “The Council is strict because they have to be. Before the Confederacy, society was weak. There were too many freedoms. People were suffering. Too much crime.”

  I grimaced inwardly at that. I dealt with a lot of crime, but the CCF suppressed knowledge of it. So while it seemed that society was peaceful, the reality was far from it.

  Dinova seemed ready to tear him apart. Her face was flushed and her teeth bared. I grabbed her arm. “Enough,” I said as I pulled her away from the chairs. “Marius, come with me.” I said to Lefave, “They need a place to stay, to unwind. Where can they bunk?”

  Lefave was watching his former colleague’s rage unfold. For a second he didn’t respond. Dinova was taking in huge gulps of air, and I worried that she was soon going to pass out.

  Finally: “She can have her old cabin. Simon as well.” He gestured at Dyson. “The crewman can escort you all there.”

  I nodded at him as we marched from the rec area. I could feel their eyes frozen to our backs as we departed.

  * * *

  When we were safely in Dinova’s cabin, which was just a small chamber with a bed and a tiny washing facility, I said, “What the hell was that?”

  She was calmer now, sitting on the edge of the bunk with her head in her hands. “I really lost it there,” she groaned.

  “You just committed a crime against the CCF. I work in Security Division.”

  She exhaled harshly. “You could arrest me for this.”

  She was correct, in fact, but fortunately for her, there was no CCF HQ on Europa. The nearest was on Ceres. At that point all I could do was confine her to the cabin until she could control herself. “You were ready to kill them.”

  “Cray is a fanatic. He and I got into it all the time. And Lefave used to be my boss. What can I say? He’s a terrible leader. He doesn’t know how to manage a group. He’s a dictator here. Rude, callous, cold.” A grunt. “He’s also CCF.”

  “Most of us are CCF, Doctor. It doesn’t make us villains, as you say.”

  She finally looked up at me. “The Nazis would have said the same thing, Tanner.”

  The statement hung like a thundercloud in the air.

  * * *

  I sealed her and Marius in their cabins. Marius was quiet, wouldn’t meet my eyes and crawled onto the bare bed and looked away. He probably thought I would send him to prison for this.

  He might have been right.

  I turned to Sato, who had accompanied us, and said, “Time to get started.”

  He looked startled. “What about the investigation?”

  “It’s going. Takes time to get people to the point where they want to tell you things.” I shrugged. “They can wait.” I, on the other hand, could not.

  Time was ticking.

  And my aorta was thinning with every second that passed.

  * * *

  Back in the rec module, thirty minutes later, the others were having a heated conversation. This had caught them totally off guard.

  Which was precisely what I had wanted. But as Sato and I approached, their voices cut off abruptly.

  “Director Lefave,” I said to the man. The others were watching warily. “We’re going to have to discuss what evidence you had regarding those three and their dissident activities.”

  He looked defiant and strong, even though he knew a tribunal could call him up for not reporting treasonous discussions.

  “But before we do,” I continued, “we need a lab.”

  He flinched at that. “Pardon?”

  He looked from me to Sato and back again.

  “I need a medical station to do some work.”

  “And a computer workstation with remote operating capabilities,” Sato added.

  Lefave seemed immensely curious, but eventually he nodded. “Come with me.”

  We followed him back through the travel tube to Module A, the facility’s workplace and lab area.

  Sato leaned in to me. “We’re going to need the help of some doctors. Do you trust these people?”

  I considered that. He was right. We needed Dinova and Marius. I exhaled slowly and watched my breath condense before my eyes. I was unsure about this place and the people here. “Let’s do what we can without them first.”

  He grunted. “Sooner or later we might have to try something invasive.”

  It wasn’t a pleasant thought.

  * * *

  Lefave brought us to an area on the second level of Module A. It was near the bulkhead, which curved inward, and there was a large viewport facing the ice ridge beside the station.

  “Your arrival is quite unexpected,” Lefave commented as Sato oriented himself with the computer.

  “Do you have nano programmers and control devices?” Sato interjected.

  “I’ll get Dyson on it,” he responded.

  I sighed. “I’m trying to solve a murder, Commander. Making people comfortable is not a priority. I just want to give closure to the situation.”

  He was silent for a long moment. Then, “How did it happen?”

  “Bojdl?”

  “He was a good man, despite his failings.”

  “A microscopic bomb.” I studied Lefave’s face closely as I said it.

  “Are you serious?” He put his hands on a console a
nd leaned on it. “Where was it?”

  “Near his heart.”

  “I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

  “It was difficult to locate the evidence.”

  The older man stared at me. “If you found it, you must be good, Tanner.” And with that, he spun on his heel and left.

  * * *

  Sato thought the first thing to try was to simply make contact with the bomb. He felt that since doctors could communicate with nanos while they were inside a human body, a similar method might work here. I was doubtful, because no one who was capable of constructing the thing would make it so easy to deactivate, but I played along. Still had three days anyway.

  Still lots of time.

  Right.

  Sato had me lie on a procedures table while he attempted to signal the device. As he started a series of protocols engineers used to contact nanos, I ran through the case in my mind. I already had some ideas about it. It was a completely unique situation for me. Perhaps the military was using such weapons already, but if they were, I hadn’t heard about them.

  There was a first for everything, I guessed. Just too bad I could end up being one of the victims.

  As Sato worked, I turned my head and looked through the viewport at the ice ridge. The scale was difficult to perceive, but I knew from our descent that some of those towers were fifty meters high. Some had crashed to the ice below, where there were large splinters—the remnants of fallen columns.

  I had been shivering for a while. I was also exhausted. I hadn’t slept since the call about Shaheen, and I’d only just fallen asleep before it had ripped my life apart, meaning I had slept about an hour in roughly forty-eight.

  Sato’s gravelly voice interrupted my thoughts. I had closed my eyes and I think I had begun to drift off. “No luck, sadly.”

  I did a good job containing my disappointment because I had expected it. “It’s damned cold here.”

  “Tell me about it.” He turned to me and hesitated for a heartbeat. “Tanner, you need some rest.”

  I grunted.

  “What was she like?”

  “Huh?”

  “Your girlfriend. The one who...” He was looking at me closely, and that persistent smile of his was gone.

  “Shaheen. She was beautiful, and brilliant.”

  “What did she do?”

  I sighed. “An engineer in the CCF. Designed a heat shield that made her famous. Was on her way to Pluto to work on an elevator project.”

  “And...” He trailed off, clearly worried about saying something.

  I waved his concerns away. “Go ahead, it’s okay.”

  “You think that you were really the target.”

  “Yes.”

  “And somehow the bomb got into her system.”

  “Both of ours,” I reminded him.

  He snorted. “Of course.” A long pause, and then, “Where is she now?”

  “In a freezer.”

  That hollow feeling in my gut surged back with a vengeance. She was lying alone, inside a stasis field, waiting for an autopsy.

  That Y incision might soon cross her torso.

  I couldn’t let that happen to her.

  At that moment a crack sounded and a long, low creak, almost a subaudible shudder, reverberated through the lab. It lasted nearly a full minute. It echoed for another few seconds after it had ended. I had reached out unconsciously and grabbed either side of the table I lay on. I watched the ice outside, fully expecting to see a fracture appear and portions of the facility fall into gaping, growing crevasses.

  “What the hell...” Sato whispered.

  Interesting place here, I thought.

  Chapter Six

  I found a cabin near the others in Module B and retired finally for six hours of rest. Despite Shaheen’s death and the thoughts churning through my mind, I collapsed and was instantly asleep. It wasn’t very peaceful, however—I dreamt of the cold. Snow and ice and blizzards and frozen landscapes. I knew why it was happening, even during the dreams: I was shivering in bed under just a thin sheet. I desperately needed to get warmer and more comfortable.

  But even as I thought it, I knew I could never be comfortable here.

  Dissidents.

  The strict orders from CCF Command on Earth were that authorities must react harshly to anyone who expressed anti-Council sentiments. Officials at the nearest CCF base would deal with them.

  Deal with them.

  I knew what it meant. Torture. Prison. Perhaps death.

  And during the procedures, if the accused gave up any other names, then the CCF would interrogate those people. A witch hunt, and it was going on all over the Confederacy. It was the only way to keep opposition to a minimum. Or so the Council believed. I didn’t have strong opinions about it either way, but my responsibility to the CCF meant that I had to enforce the laws that held society together. Otherwise it would all unwind and there would be anarchy.

  Still...

  Still, I had encountered dissidents before. Once, on Earth while in my twenties and very new to Homicide Section, I had stumbled across a movement while on a case. A group of the victim’s friends had been meeting covertly to discuss distributing underground literature about the Council. It was vile, hateful stuff, and I should have arrested the lot of them. However, it just didn’t seem germane to my investigation. I was after a killer, someone who had strangled and mutilated their friend. And...and there had been feelings involved. A connection between one of the dissidents and myself had developed unexpectedly. She was young and pretty, and I was alone and empty inside, although I didn’t really recognize that fact until much later, when I met Shaheen. But at the time I enjoyed the woman’s presence, and I couldn’t bring myself to arrest them.

  I had looked the other way and had felt conflicted about it for years after.

  And now I’d found a similar philosophy on Europa, confronting me in full force. At least two dissidents were here with me, and I would have to decide what to do with them after the investigation was over.

  * * *

  I was rubbing my chest as I awoke. It was early afternoon on Wednesday. I dragged myself from the bunk and—still shivering—showered and brushed my teeth. The deck was freezing.

  On the shelf in the corner I found a thick black sweater, which I gladly threw on over my uniform. I immediately felt better, but not yet perfect. I still needed something.

  I keyed Marius’s and Dinova’s cabins open. They were both awake and sitting on their bunks. They’d probably thought they were going to stay there until I left for CCF HQ on Ceres, and were surprised when I released them.

  They were also wearing sweaters, like mine.

  “Feeling better?” I asked Dinova.

  A shrug. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’ll decide later. For now, I need help.”

  She raised her eyes. “With the explosive?”

  “And with this facility. I don’t know my way around. I need your help to get my bearings.”

  She considered that. “And then?”

  “I’ll decide when the time comes.”

  A snort. “I guess I can live with that. But I really want to get away from these people and this place.”

  “After I’m done. But first...”

  “What?”

  “First, I really need some coffee.”

  * * *

  Dinova and Marius led me to the galley and mess, which were located back in Module E. To get there we had to pass through A, where we could hear activity on the level overhead. The others were probably doing their regular work, and they most likely heard our footfalls.

  We grabbed coffee and a quick meal and ate quietly in the mess, which was just a cluster of steel chairs and tables located close
to the ping-pong table and conversation area where the confrontation had occurred earlier. Based on the time in the facility, I realized now, we had arrived at the start of the scientists’ day. During their breakfast.

  I filled the two doctors in on Sato’s efforts earlier. He had also joined us—I hadn’t sealed him in his cabin—and he enjoyed green tea and some powdered eggs that the automatic dispenser produced for him. He supplied some necessary technical information about his inability to contact the explosive.

  “Probably not even a receiver to accept orders,” Dinova said.

  Sato shook his head. “Every device of this sort will have a method to contact it. It doesn’t make sense not to have one.”

  “Unless the person who built it doesn’t care about collateral damage,” I murmured. The killer was so coldhearted that he didn’t care who died in the process.

  I looked at the others. “So. You are dissidents. You didn’t mention this on Ceres.”

  “You cut right to the chase,” Marius said. He seemed resigned to his fate now. “Do you think it’s why someone murdered Bojdl?”

  I paused. “He clearly said that someone had caught up to him, finally found him. Who do you think he was referring to?”

  Marina’s eyes turned instantly cold. “Lefave, of course. He tormented us while we were here. Made our lives miserable.”

  I shrugged. “He found out you were anti-Council. Why do you think the way he treated you was odd? He could have contacted CCF HQ and had you arrested. You’re lucky he didn’t.”

  “He pursued us and killed Bojdl.”

  I snorted. “That doesn’t make sense. He could have done it here, on his own, and it would have been legal because of what you three were. He would not have resorted to manufacturing a micro-bomb and somehow delivering it to Ceres to get you three.” Something else was missing here, something big. I knew that I needed to speak with the others, investigate more.

  It would take time, but I always found the answer.

  It’s what I was good at.

  “By the way,” I said as an afterthought. “Sato and I heard what sounded like a crack earlier. What was it?”