I drift down the corridor to the junction that leads to the docking module. Eduard and Alton are waiting there with a plastic container holding the missing canister.
“We found fingerprints on the lid,” says Eduard. He puts on a pair of gloves to open the outer box.
Florescent green prints are scattered around the metal.
“Ling’s?”
“Yes. We matched them against the station records.” He reaches inside and opens the cylinder. “I figure you wanted to check the inside.”
“Thanks. Could you take it out of the box?”
I inspect the outside of the container and its shipping box, as I’ve made it a point to inspect every square inch of the anything going into the ship.
Satisfied, I take the box from them and thank them for their help.
When I get to the lower section where the ship is docked, Samantha is waiting next to the closed hatch. She has a backpack in her hand.
“If it’s okay with you, I’d like to have a look.”
She gives me a smug grin. “Sure thing, boss.”
I pull her clothes out and let them float in the air as I search through the pockets. When I look up black thong underwear is drifting a few inches in front of my nose.
Samantha has a satisfied look on her face. I suspect the placement of the items was planned, but I don’t call attention to it. I shove her things back into her bag and hand it to her.
“Here,” she takes a small hard-disk from her pocket and hands it to me. “Cara says there was another backup. Now you can pat me down.”
She turns around in midair and raises her hands above her head. I proceed to give her a brisk search.
“I didn’t think you were actually going to do that,” she replies. “Do I get to return the favor?”
“Then it’s just foreplay.”
I key in the pass code and the hatch to the SSV unlocks.
“Ladies first.”
She takes a hesitant look inside, possibly afraid that Ling’s body would be strapped into a seat upright.
“I stowed everything in the lockers below.”
“Oh. Where should I sit?”
“Customarily human cargo sits in the row of seats behind the pilot, but I’ll make an exception if you promise to be on good behavior.”
“I promise to give you every intention of good behavior.”
“Close enough.”
I close the hatch behind us and drift into the pilot seat. Samantha buckles herself into the spot next to me.
She puts a hand on my thigh and squeezes. “How catastrophic would it be if I distracted the pilot?”
“Well, considering we’re going to be on automatics all the way down, not very, unless something unexpected happens and I have to take control. In that case, very.”
She folds her hands in her lap. “Then I’ll be good.”
I have to use all my concentration to stay focused on the controls and not on the super nova of sexual energy sitting two inches away from me.
I start up my command screen and go through all the pre-flight checks. Samantha watches with interest.
I realize that her flirtatious comments were probably her own way of distracting herself from the anxiety she feels about returning to Earth after her last attempt almost killed her.
I check in with Tamara and get an all clear. A bright green launch button appears on the screen.
“All you do is press that?” asks Samantha.
“Yep.”
“What a job. Some of us have to think for a living.”
“Clearly I’m not qualified for that.”
“Clearly.” She fixes me with an intense gaze and points to her lips. “For luck.”
I give her a quick peck, then tell her, “You’ll be fine.”
“Never say that. That’s what the doctors tell you when you’re going to die.”
“It’s all automatic and remotely controlled from here. Just about everything is now.” I raise a finger over the button.
“What is it?” she asks after noticing that I’m hesitating.
I click the comm off to make sure nobody in the Sagan can hear us.
My pulse is starting to race. “I just realized something.”
Sixty-Two
Detour
Samantha is trying her best to hide her concern. “David, now is not the time to tell me that you want to join the two-hundred mile up club.”
“Something is bothering me. When I met Ling he was wearing gloves, just to type into a computer.”
“He’s a materials scientist. Those guys tend to freak out about possible contamination. I do the same. Not to that extent, but it’s common.”
I point to the storage locker. “Eduard and Alton just gave me the cylinder.”
“The one Ling planted in my lab?”
“They found his fingerprints on it.”
Samantha thinks this over for a moment. “You’re saying that it’s odd that he’d touch it with his bare hands? Maybe he was in a hurry?”
“Possibly. But if he was going to go through the trouble of ditching the cylinder in your lab and leave his prints, it would seem it would have been a hell of a lot easier to toss it out Attwell’s little airlock.”
“So you don’t think he was trying to frame me? Just keep the cylinder hidden until he needed it?”
“No. I don’t think he put it there. I think Ling was framed.”
“Then why did he kill himself…oh shit.”
“Yeah,” I reply.
She lowers her voice, “You think he was murdered.”
“And made to look like a suicide. After I found a method for destroying the spacecraft with the canister, the real culprit wanted me out of the way and a scapegoat. Hastily framing you while I was adrift was a way to create a distraction for later on when I started the hunt for the missing canister.”
“And while I was sitting in jail, they were plotting to make Ling the fall guy.”
“You weren’t in jail…” She makes a cross expression telling me not to challenge her on that matter. “It was custody.”
She drops the matter. “Who, then?”
“The canisters could have been switched by anybody. Including someone on the ground. Tamara showed me how the robotic manipulator can be operated from any terminal. After the cargo was loaded someone could have used them to do the switch. They never needed to go near the cargo airlock. It could all be done after the fact.”
“You’re saying somebody on the ground could have done everything? Even kill Ling?”
“Attwell’s plasma airlock is computer controlled. Even the hatch. That could be triggered on Earth. But somebody had to write ‘Sorry’ on the glass. And somebody had to place an explosive in the canister and get the other one off the station. While some of this may have been done by someone remotely, there’s definitely an operative on the station.”
“Other than Ling.”
“Ling was innocent the whole time.” A painful realization sets in. “And I could have saved him.”
Samantha grabs my arm. “Don’t do that to yourself. We all heard the all hands announcement you made. Ling went the other way. If he’d listened, then he wouldn’t be dead.”
“Maybe. So why didn’t he? He’s not a stubborn guy.”
“Someone told him to go to Attwell’s lab. Wait? You don’t think it was him?” Her eyes go wide.
“The only other person with that kind of access is Tamara. Maybe Butler. Any one of those three could be the culprit.”
I turn on my secure link to Space Ops. “This is Dixon. I need you guys to tell Sagan station there’s a weather issue and we have to delay the landing by a few hours.”
“Affirmative,” says Baylor. “What’s going on?”
“Short answer, I’m not sure. But I think Ling may have been framed and the real culprit is still on the station. I need some time to figure this out.”
“Any reason to not come back now and let us sort it out later?” asks Jessup.