Storm Killer (13 page)

Half of the lab had been turned into a rudimentary manufacturing plant to validate the feasibility of mass-producing the super sharp knife blades. Several thousand blades of different size and shape were now packed in special boxes awaiting shipment Earth-side for live testing on the blades’ life and uses.

The blades were so sharp that special packing boxes had to be designed that held the crystal by the spine, the thickest part of the blade. If the sharp edge of the blade came in contact with any substance weaker than a diamond, the knife was guaranteed to cut through the substance like butter.

As Kim was rushing to Closet 21, two small shaped charges placed hours before at each end of the crystal lab detonated severing the lab’s tether lines. A third small charge taped to the underside of the lab detonated in a planned action to overcome the lab’s inertia, and the lab began slowly moving away from the center of the core.

The lab began a gentle float toward the station’s floor a half-kilometer below. It took forty minutes for the lab structure to impact with the floor. When it did, the lab’s forward momentum caused its complete destruction.

Impacting the rotating floor, the lab turned over and over and began to disintegrate as it hit more substantial structures attached to the floor. The thousands of knife blades released from their packing cases caused part of the disintegration. They cut through the lab walls and floor with ease as they randomly flew around the tumbling structure. It rolled almost half a kilometer before coming to rest.

Lab contents and razor-sharp, broken crystal was strewn from the point of impact to the point of rest almost half the way around the interior of Storm Killer. Parts of the knives had sliced through the inner wall and were imbedded in the inner wall of the station. Two crewmen had bee unlucky enough to be where shards of the knives landed. One man lost his right foot as the shard sliced through his ankle. The other died within minutes from multiple internal injuries from several shards that had passed through his body.   Murder was now to be added to the list of charges against the perpetrator.

27

Lt. James was waiting by Kim’s desk when Hoch strode into the room.

“Have you seen Kim?” asked Lt. James.

“Why, no. I sent her a voice message about my latest findings. She hasn’t answered yet.”

“This worries me. It is not like her to ignore her voice messages. I left her one, too. If she is not here in another ten minutes, we start a search,” Lt. James said. He was worried. He never admitted it until now but he really liked the gutsy, smart woman. She was his equal in every way. After all of this was over, he would tell her how he felt.
No use throwing a monkey wrench into the works and screw up the investigation with emotions at this point,
he thought.

Lt. James cleared his mind and asked Hoch, “So, what have we learned so far? We might as well share our latest facts and set a plan of attack that we can pass by Kim.”

Hoch nodded and said, ”I found a white powder on the arm of the chair at the workstation that the perp used to get the worm into the system. Also found it on the memory stick reader. Didn’t you find some powder at the first crime scene?“

Lt. James nodded. “The powder I had the lab check out turned out to be a modified corn starch. And it was everywhere that one would assume a person might touch. I checked the station stores catalog and found only two cornstarch items onboard. One is a standard cornstarch used by our kitchen. The other item is medical examination and surgical gloves. Did you know many doctors favor the medical examination gloves containing cornstarch as opposed to a powdered glove? Interesting, don’t you think? Maybe we need to check with Dr. Cruz on her supply of gloves.”

Lt. James had been startled at Hoch’s first mention of the powder. That he had found a similar powder on the reversed input wires from the first incident was a matter of record. Powder from medical examination gloves at both scenes and the good Dr. Cruz was at the first scene.
This house of cards may be falling!
he thought. Just one or two more pieces of evidence and they might narrow the list to one suspect.

A problem with getting to one suspect was what he had learned about the reported broken camera. The camera had stopped functioning four days earlier and had been written up as ‘NRTS’ by the technician. NRTS meant
Not Repairable This Station
. Lt. James had personally tested the camera and found it functioning perfectly. The technician who had NRTS’ed the unit was none other than Rafael Denuza, the technician that Dr. Cruz had treated at the site of first incident.

“I’ll package a sample of the powder I found and send it down on the next shuttle. The lab should be able to verify it is the same stuff you found. Although, I have no doubt it is the same,” Hoch said.

Lt. James nodded and quickly filled Hoch in on his latest information. They discussed the case for a few minutes when Lt. James looked at his watch and stated, “OK. Kim is now officially missing in action. Let’s find her!”

Hoch, who had been sitting on the edge of Kim’s desk, started rummaging through the papers on top of the desk. Finding nothing there, he tried to open the desk drawer only to find it locked. He snapped to attention at this. It was standard protocol for the security agents to leave the desk unlocked and always place materials needing protection in the safe in their office. Same with their weapons; they were always kept in the safe.

“Lt. James, her desk drawer is locked,” Hoch reported pointing to the desk.

As senior security agent at the station, Lt. James had master keys for all desk drawers on the station. He went to the safe and got the key ring. He located the key that corresponded to the lock number and unlocked the drawer.

He immediately saw the evidence bag and the note addressed to him. Grabbing the note, he read, “I’ve received an anonymous message telling me to come to emergency closet 21 for important information about the case. I’m going armed and ready. Here are some interesting facts I got out of Brad Bolino that points a strong suspicion at Dr. Cruz somehow being involved.”

The note went on to describe Bolino’s confessions.

While Lt. James had been reading the message, Hoch called up the real time vehicle map and found Kim’s cart back at the reception garage.

With quick agreement, Hoch headed off to check out Kim’s vehicle while Lt. James pocketed his Glock and headed for Closet 21.

Before he left, he had opened Kim’s desk drawer and picked up the small black leather bag he had seen when he was searching earlier. He unzipped it, surveyed the contents, closed it, and stuck it in his pants pocket.
Kim and I have something to talk about later,
he thought as he exited the room.

Lt. James decided to ignore firearm notification since he was now uncertain as to Bolino’s involvement. He was fairly certain that Kim would have notified someone of her intention to carry her weapon. He would just accept the consequences of carrying his gun without proper notification.

Lt. James arrived at Closet 21 in less than ten minutes. The door was shut. He pulled his weapon and shouted Kim’s name. Nothing. Silence. Positioning himself at the right side of the door, he quickly opened the door and yelled, “Security, Freeze!” The closet was dark - nothing could be seen of the interior.

He reached around the door edge and touched the interior light panel. Nothing happened. Lt. James requested the mainframe’s to turn on the interior lights. Nothing happened. He called for Kim and got no reply.

Lt. James pulled his small flashlight and assuming the classic police stance with the flashlight and gun, he took a deep breath and entered the closet.

Kim was slowly returning to consciousness as twirling stars and rockets exploded in her head. She felt deathly ill from whatever anesthetic had been administered to her. She tried to sit up and found her arms immobile and her hands bound behind her back. Unable to sit up, she rolled over on her side and threw up. She lost consciousness for a moment and when she awoke again, she found her face resting in her own vomit. She threw up again and successfully rolled over.

She couldn’t see anything. It was totally dark wherever she was. She was still slipping in and out of awareness. She dropped her head back to the floor and slipped into a deep, drugged sleep.

The next thing she remembered was Lt. James leaning over her with a very concerned expression. He was gently holding her head and wiping the vomit from her face. He saw her eyes flicker open and recognition register. He lifted her up and hugged her tightly to his chest.

Laying her back down, he touched her face, smiled and said, “Danby, I told you that you were in over your head. How do you feel? Can you move?” as he cut the restraints binding her hands and legs. She stretched her extremities to work the kinks from her stiff muscles. She simply nodded to him that all appeared to be working OK.

Lt. James looked around the room, “Kim, did he get your gun?” Kim nodded.

Lt. James touched his cell intercom button, “Hoch? I’ve got her. Beware! The perp took her gun. So we have to consider the saboteur is now armed and dangerous.” Both Hoch and Kim groaned at the mention of her lost weapon.

Lt. James went on, “I’m taking Danby back to our quarters. We cannot assume she’s safe in her rooms and we can’t take her to the Doctor for a checkup. Until we figure out Dr. Cruz’s tie-in to this whole thing, we cannot trust the good doctor. And don’t discuss this with anyone in the executive ranks. Especially Bolino. If we really need executive aid, we’ll go to Sand.”

Lt. James sat back and watched as Kim slowly got to her feet and stumbled very unsteady out the doorway. She made it to his vehicle and dropped heavily into the passenger seat. She breathed deeply for several minutes. Each breath seemed to clear her head more and her stomach had stopped doing flips.

He walked up to the cart. “Why the hell didn’t you wait for Hoch or me before you went running off to this Godforsaken spot? Are you that hungry to claim all the glory for yourself on this case?”

Kim shook her head. “Well, if I’d had an idea of getting all the glory for myself, my current situation of having been stupid enough to go it alone, being overpowered, and having my weapon taken would certainly change that. Don’t you think?”

He got in and began the drive back to his quarters without saying a word.

At that moment, all hell broke loose as the crystal lab crashed three hundred meters away.

28

Kim and Lt. James were the first to the crash site. The lab was scattered over a long, narrow area of the station’s floor. Nothing remained of the actual structure. It had fallen apart as it rolled, being sliced apart by the knife blades, and struck the many stationary objects along its path.

Broken crystals lay everywhere and twinkled when the observer caught them in the light at just the right angles.

Kim picked up a broken shard about fifteen centimeters long and placed it in a plastic evidence bag. She really had no idea what the crystal was for, but being the law enforcement professional she was, she took a piece as possible evidence.

Kim keyed her cell and called Adam Sands. “Adam? Get your ass over to quadrant B near closet 21. One of the flying workspaces from Core City just crashed to the station floor. There is crap everywhere. There may be casualties. And send someone up to Core City and see why the tethers broke, would you?”

Kim placed the evidence bag in the cart, and then she and Lt. James began slowly walking along the side of the debris field scanning for anything that might be a clue.

It was Lt. James that found the dying crewman. Blood was still spurting from sliced arteries and his entire torso looked like a bloody sieve. Lt. James swore he could see daylight coming through the man’s abdomen. He examined the man and decided there was nothing he could do for him. Be the time the examination was over, the man had expired.

Kim had located the other crewman with the severed foot and had torn off a piece of the man’s pants and made a tourniquet out of it. She managed to staunch the bleeding and tried to make the man as comfortable as possible. She called for Francine and her nursing assistant to come and provide emergency services.

After ensuring the man was okay, she returned to find Lt. James bent over the now dead victim. Knowing there was nothing more to be done for the injured, they began to search for evidence again.

They hadn’t been searching for more than a few minutes when Brad Bolino, Adam Sand, Greg Ballard, Reginald O’Donnell, and about half a dozen other department heads arrived at the scene.

The group walked into the debris field looking at the destruction about a hundred meters from where Kim and Lt. James stood.

Suddenly, Reginald O’Donnell became very agitated. Kim saw him waving wildly and heatedly saying something to the group with him. He pointed down and all of the group’s eyes followed his pointed finger. The group began to lift their feet inspecting their shoes. They, then, began very gingerly to move back out of the debris field. The group made it to the edge and they all looked at the soles of their shoes again.