“How can I believe you, David? You lied to me. If there really was another spy on board, you know you could have trusted me. We could have looked together.”
“But your father told me not to say a thing. I had to keep my mouth shut, or end up in here. Lot of good that did.”
“He said you would tell me that, and that it would be a lie. I’m done, David. Father might have been hard on me, but he’s never lied, never withheld the truth. Goodbye.”
“Liberty!” I shouted till my voice went hoarse. “Liberty, please, wait.” But the channel was dead.
I removed the earpiece and tossed it on the floor. Liberty had turned her back on me, so what was I to do? There was no one left to help me. I kicked the bars of the cell while shaking them with my hands. They didn’t budge. I began to slide the gasket from my ring finger to throw it away. Who needed to remember that fateful day? It had brought me nothing but trouble.
Heavy footsteps pounded up the hall. I stood up, leaving the gasket in place, craning to see who was approaching. I slid my foot around the earpiece, sweeping it beneath the tiny bench I had for a bed.
“Leave us,” the Captain said, waving off security. He entered the section and sealed us in alone. I could fix this, he just had to listen.
“Captain, please! Let me out,” I said. “I didn’t do anything. You know it’s true. You chose me to find the target. And I’m close, damn close. I think I know who it is, or could be, and he’s part of your security staff.”
“So,” the Captain paced, eyes fixed on nothing but a thought. The fists clasped behind his back tightened, his arms going rigid. “Then you didn’t defile my daughter? Didn’t place your manhood inside of her to feed your devious pleasures?”
I swallowed. Oh shit, had he watched the act? A disturbing thought. This man, this father, might just kill me and call it an accident. Then again, bad as it was for him, did it matter right now?
“I’ve been watching you for months,” he said, eyes drilling into me. “I hoped you would just back off. I’ve made attempts to dissuade her without being specific, but it seems she was persistent. Girl always has been. You entered my daughter and made filthy her temple. I’ll be lucky to have anyone take her as a wife now. Try and deny it, Goddard! Give me the pleasure of bearing proof.”
My attention trailed onto the floor. “I can’t and I won’t. I’ve loved your daughter ever since we were kids back on Mars. Look, I know you’re angry at me for crossing the line, and I can understand, but you can’t let us perish for that. You know I’m not the target. Let me out so we can fix this together. So we can tell Liberty and the rest of the crew it wasn’t me. We have to catch him. We have to catch the one at fault.”
The Captain grinned, looking both smug and superior, just like his daughter but three times her size. “So naive. Can’t you see? I’ve always known you weren’t the target.”
Worms worked their way into my stomach, churning the oil into a frothy black cream of filth. “What? I don’t understand.”
The Captain laughed so hard it made his belly shake like Jell-O. “There never was a target, Goddard. Are you so blasted foolish? I merely needed someone to carry the blame.”
My hands began trembling. “There is a spy! I know there is! The tracking code I found, I have a copy on my tablet. I’ll show you! Let me get it.”
“You mean the code you were about to install? The code you were installing when Griffin was alone, that would let our enemy know our location more specifically and increase their hit probability?”
I barred my teeth and growled, nose touching the bars, arms stretched out towards him. “You bastard!”
He took a step back. “Perhaps, but I’ve killed two birds with one stone.”
“What about the Axis? What about the engines? Without me you can’t slow us fast enough to engage the enemy. No one can fix those engines but me. The Razor will reduce Arsia Mons and Valles Rojo to dust! Who are you? Who are you if you don’t save them? You’re the traitor, Captain! Those are our people!”
He shook his head gently, a man in total control of every aspect of life. “Far from it, Goddard. I am a patriot to the bone. And you, the real traitor, the devious spy, are a dead man.” Captain Fryatt turned and left me in the cramped cell, shutting off the lights as he went. “Good night, Goddard, sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
[17]
The Captain knew about Dad. He must have finally gotten caught. And the sentence for treason? Ten years in prison. Dad had never been physically fit, never taken good care of himself. He’d smoked three packs a day for thirty years, drank till his liver was pickled and spiced, eaten whatever the hell processed junk he could get his hands on, and never exercised. In prison, all he’d have to live on was four ounces of dried beans a day and one gallon of water. He’d even have to cook his own beans with that. Resources were stretched as thin as paper on the Martian prison front.
He wouldn’t last long.
One guard per two hundred inmates. That was the ratio. But there wasn’t much they needed to do. All they did was deliver their measly meals and listen to complaints. The cells were designed to be inescapable and the prisoners were never let out. It was little more than a high tech dungeon whose keys had been thrown down a black hole. Nevertheless, after two days in the Vindicator’s brig, I was starting to feel a bit of envy.
Not one bean, not one plate of slop had found its way to my nearly vertical cell. I was thankful for a water fountain and toilet, at least I wouldn’t die of thirst. But the hunger was maddening, that dull, stabbing pain in the side of my stomach. I wasn’t sure how long it had been since my last meal. One day? Two days? A week? They’d left this section on perpetual midday cycle with no change in visible light, and so, time had become irrelevant. How long would it be till they fed me, if at all? I screamed sometimes, hoping to get someone’s attention, but the section was sealed off. No one could hear me. I was forgotten, a lowly, traitorous spy left to wither under artificial light.
My fingernails had been chewed down to the quick. For as much as they shook, I was shocked I’d even caught hold of them. I closed my eyes and tried not to focus on the prison bars encasing me. I needed to get out. I tried to sleep, but it was impossible curled up like a dog on sheets that smelled of someone else’s sweat. Man wasn’t meant to be in a three by three box.
Boy, had I fucked up. I just couldn’t let curiosity lie.
The hatch opened and I slowly rose, swallowing as Dour Face entered the room. I was so weak I thought he might be a hallucination, then I saw he had a tool belt clutched in his hands, fingers wrapped around its band like a wet towel being wrung out. I had a sudden vision, him striking me against the back with it, trying to get information out of me and keep up the ruse. Was he the target? No. But someone had to be. I didn’t care what Cap said, the spy was real. I saw the code.
“Is this yours, Goddard?”
I shook my head as little as I could, holding on to my anger tighter than my fear. I growled, “No. It’s not fucking mine. That’s César’s, but last I saw it had turned up missing.”
Dour Face considered this for a moment. He shook his head and took a seat on one of the power breakers, his body deflating. “Damn nasty work that’s been done to the ship. How we gonna fix it now?”
“I can fix it,” I said. “But why would you want me to?” He looked up at me, his brows twisted and confused. “Just bring me back when I’m done. I promise I won’t hurt anyone.”