Storm Killer (31 page)

“Rocky” started to help her up and thought, Lady, you aren’t seeing anyone until I know what the hell happened here. And I’m sure not going to let a hysterical person anywhere near the President’s person.

He nodded to his team member and they each took one of Rose’s arms. He looked to the Marines and said, “Guard the door to the Situation Room. No one gets in there unless I say so. Got it?”

The Marines snapped to and stationed themselves at each side of the door with a click of their well-polished heels.

“Ms. Magruder, please come with us,” Rocky ordered. Rose attempted to break away and Rocky added, “Don’t make me cuff you, ma’am.”

Rose slumped and allowed them to walk her into the side room that the men had come out just a short time before. They closed the door behind them.

70

As soon as Lt. James had left to follow-up on, Kim fired the PPU and launched herself toward the core. She was moving vertically at about three meters per second and horizontally at about half that rate. She was pointed right at the evacuation point at the hub.

As she flew, her PCD signaled an incoming fax had arrived. She saw it was from Antonio De La Cruz. He had faxed the phone records as he had promised. She had no time to look at them. She manipulated the keys on her PCD and resent the fax to Lt. James. She then dialed his number and he answered, “James here.”

“I just faxed you the phone records from our Mexican contact. Can you inspect them to see who Dr. Rosen may have called after his call from Mexico? Maybe he talked with his men up here.”

“Got it. The fax just came through. Kim, ah – be careful. Remember you and I have a standing agreement to get you clean from the drugs. No matter how long it takes. Okay?”

Her heart skipped a beat, “Yes, sir, I’ll be careful. I love you, too.” She hung up and mentally kicked herself. I love you. What the hell was that about? Did I really say that? Oh, God. It just came out. Jesus, I probably scared the poor guy away. What the hell is wrong with me?

She flew in silence for another few seconds and then thought. I know what’s wrong. I’m stressed out. I’ll just take a small hit of my wonder drug. Not too much, just enough to get by. Just enough to take the nerves away but leave me sharp.

She reached in her pants pocket and found the small black leather bag. Since the PPU was on automatic, both her hands were free. She quickly loaded a syringe with about three quarters of a normal dose and did the injection into the vein inside her elbow.

She felt the warm rush of the drug as it raced through her bloodstream. She waited for the wonderful feeling of euphoria she always got from a dose. And, yes -- there it was! That heady feeling she needed right now. It was glorious.

71

Lt. James felt giddy and mulled over what had just been said on his call from Kim.
She had said she loved him. Did she mean it? Why would she say it now?
He was elated; he had loved her at first sight. He ached for wanting to take her in his arms and just cover her in kisses.
But enough of that, if I don’t find these guys, Kim and I won’t live another hour.  

He looked at the fax content. Immediately after Dr. Rosen had received his call from the Mexican plotters, he had made a call to Greg Ballard! So Ballard was in on this, too!

He set aside the fax. So how were Greg Ballard and Dr. Rosen connected? He pulled up the NASA personnel file for Rosen in one window and Greg Ballard’s in another window. He compared specific details of each suspect’s background.

Rosen was twelve years older than Ballard.
So, they probably weren’t friends in their youth,
the lieutenant opinioned to himself.

Rosen was born in upstate New York while Ballard was born in Mississippi. Received his BA and MBA in Computer Science from SUNYIT. Ballard went to Mississippi State for his BA in chemistry. He held two other degrees from Mississippi State. He had a Masters in Engineering in Polymer and Fiber Science from Clemson. Both were members of their alumni associations.   

There was nothing in common there.    

Neither suspect had been in the military.

Ballard had worked for an aerospace company at Area 51 following his MBA, and then came to work for CORDEX at Adam Sand’s request when the Storm Killer project was proposed and approved.

Rosen had never worked in the private sector. He had chaired the physics department at Clemson.

Clemson! Hadn’t Ballard done something at Clemson?

The lieutenant’s heart was pounding faster as he read the rest of the two men’s academic history. Rosen had been the chair of the department at the time Ballard had attended. Ballard had served on four projects Clemson had performed for the military. Rosen had lead three of those projects.
There’s the tie-in! They knew each other at Clemson!

Rosen had provided consulting services on at least five projects Ballard had run at Area 51.
These two were really tight.
  
 

The lieutenant knew he was on the right track. He decided to run a system search of the Storm Killer senior staff’s personnel records for any academic entries about Clemson University. He started the search and was happy to see that only two other people had any ties to Clemson.

Reviewing their personnel files, the lieutenant made the following notes:

They were childhood friends,

Brad Bolino and Layne Bartlett had attended college together,

They got their doctorates at Clemson at the same time, and

Dr. Rosen was the chair of the department when they attended there.

He pulled up the PCD call records from the Storm Killer internal exchange computer.

Running a search of calls made from Ballard’s phone immediately after Rosen’s call to Ballard, he found what he was looking for. A call from Ballard to Bolino only thirty seconds after the call with Rosen had ended.
Gotcha! Ballard had obviously called Bolino to pass on instructions from Rosen. There was now enough evidence to arrest them both.

The lieutenant went back to the call record supplied by Antonio De La Cruz. Maybe there were more calls by Rosen that should be looked into. Another call caught his eye. Exactly one minute after completing his call with Ballard, Dr. Rosen had called another very familiar number – Kim Danby’s number!

What the hell is going on? Kim can’t possibly be a part of this plot, or could she? 

72

Adam completed his call with Lt. James. He looked at his watch and calculated they had about nineteen minutes left. Until the chip was found there was nothing to be done. Adam felt useless.
Maybe I could help them catch Bolino? I’m useless sitting here.

He picked up his PPU and put it on. He walked out of the door and looked up at the core. He picked out the evacuation hub and fired his ascension jets. He liked manual control and loved the feeling of actually flying the PPU. He also turned off the limit controls and raised the speed of ascent to thirty meters a second. At this rate he would be at the hub in less than two minutes.
   

He didn’t have a weapon; he would have to be very careful. He wasn’t even sure what good he could do, but he had to do something.
Bolino holds the key to our survival – the chip. The chip had to be recovered at all costs.

He pulled his communications device from his belt and punched Rose Magruder’s number. It rang several times and was answered by a male voice Adam did not recognize.

“Hello?”

Adam hesitated, “Ah, hello. Is Rose available?”

“Not at the moment. Who’s calling?”

“Adam Sand.”

“Can I take a message?”

“Ah, I need to talk to her about aborting the missile.”

“What missile?”

“The Russian missile!” Adam replied in an exacerbated voice. “Don’t you realize we only have minutes to live unless the President aborts the missile? Please, I must speak with Rose Magruder, she should have reached the President by now and let him know there are still crew aboard the station.”

“What station?” the voice asked.

“Storm Killer! Jesus Christ, doesn’t anyone down there know what is going on? Where’s Rose?” Adam yelled into his phone.

“Ms. Magruder has been detained by the Secret Service. I am the lead agent on the investigation,” the voice declared.

“Investigation? An investigation of what? Rose is a victim of Dr. Rosen’s betrayals! He hit her, and then lied to the President. Rose was supposed to get to the President and tell him all of this. Did something else happen to her?” Adam explained.  

“No, we found her unconscious just a few feet from the Situation Room. She had apparently been hit on the head and passed out before she could reach the President. She became hysterical when we detained her to figure out what happened,” the detached voice explained.

She hadn’t seen the President!
The missile was still live and about to deliver its deadly payload.

Adam resisted yelling again, “Look, Rose is hysterical because lives hang in the balance. If she doesn’t tell the President about us still being on the station, when the missile arrives and blows us up, the President will have our blood on his hands. He thinks we have already evacuated the station! I can try to call the Situation Room myself, but it will not be as effective as her briefing the President. He is going to be super-pissed when he finds out we were lied to about evacuation by Dr. Rosen.”

“I’ll take it under consideration,” the voice replied.

“Consideration? Consider this! Dr. Rosen is the bad guy here. He attacked Rose, and he lied to the President and to us on the station. He is the one you should be interrogating!”

“Is that all?” the voice questioned.

“Yes. Please rush her to the President’s side so she can explain the current situation. Please!”

“We will be in touch. Goodbye,” the voice declared.

Adam attempted to dial the Situation Room and was told the President was in conference. The switchboard only offered to take Adam’s name and his message was brief. The message was:
Storm Killer not evacuated. Abort missile. See Rose Magruder in Secret Service detention for explanation.
   

Occupied with flying the PPU and his phone calls, Adam didn’t look around to see where the other players were. If he had, he would have seen Kim in her PPU in a slower ascent about five hundred meters below him. He would also have seen Brad Bolino on the elevator about one hundred meters from the hub terminus. Adam was actually going to arrive at the hub before any of the other players in the upcoming drama.

Adam was rapidly approaching the hub terminus. As he maneuvered for landing, he spotted Brad just twenty meters from below him. Brad had not yet seen him as his back was to Adam.

Adam landed with a jarring thud from too much forward speed. He grabbed the ladder rungs leading to the slowly turning central shaft leading to the reception room to steady him in the zero-G environment. He shucked the PPU and let it drift away. He moved hand over hand to the static central tunnel used to access the hub airlocks. The evacuation point was fifteen meters behind him in the reception room adjacent to the airlock. He could see racks of EVA suits awaiting their owners who would never come to claim them. There were moving shadows playing over the suits.
It must be the one of the evacuation team. Another dead body if we can’t stop Bolino! 
Adam thought.

He stood with his back to the exit shaft leading to the reception room and looked both left and right. The floor gracefully curved upward and eventually met at the top. Each of the other quadrants’ elevators terminated at ninety-degree separations around this curved floor. Each of the other elevator terminuses had a similar ladder arrangement to the exit shaft. The three-rung ladder was spread over four meters of height, but with zero-G it was easy to navigate.

Bolino arrived at the terminus and glided off the t-bar elevator to the closest handhold overlooking the vast interior of Storm Killer. He quickly scanned the empty space between the terminus and the surface of the station’s interior. He suddenly froze as if indecisive.

Sands thought, He must’ve spotted Kim making her way to his position, because he seems to be startled.

Bolino abruptly turned to the exit shaft, and then stopped when he saw Adam blocking his path. 

“Sands! What the hell are you doing here?” Bolino said in surprise. Even as he was speaking he was slowly moving his hand toward the plainly visible gun stuffed in his belt.