Then blood began dripping onto her as he started coughing it up, and blood oozed from his nose, ears and eyes.
He looked down at her, gasping as he struggled to speak.
“You’ve killed me..., you bitch,” he stuttered. Then fell forward onto her, his dead weight almost taking her breath away for a moment.
She forcibly pushed him slowly down then off her body. Knowing that, though he was for all intents and purposes dead already, his heart would continue beating for nearly a minute before the poison had finished doing its work, so she had to work fast.
She stood up, rearranging her clothes as she did so. Then taking his keys off the table ran over to the safe, searching for the correct key as she went and inserted it into the lock.
Then quickly ran back to him, and, picking up a pair of heavy-duty scissors from his desktop, used them to severe his thumb.
She knew she had to be fast. If the thumbprint scanner had a temperature sensor, then speed was of the essence.
She hurried back to the safe, placed his thumb on the scanner. Then, with a turn of the key, the safe opened.
Looking inside, she saw the book her contractor had instructed her to steal, and put it in her bag then closed the safe, and flung his thumb on the floor.
Ten minutes later, after using some tissues and his hanky to clean off the blood and semen from her body. She put on her blouse and tidied herself up, again. Then breathed a sigh of relief knowing that it had ended, and she had completed her contract. Hurriedly smoothing her hair, she picked up her bag. Then left the building, after checking that she hadn’t left anything incriminating.
Judith Morante reached her apartment four blocks away from the government building, feeling happy with the realisation she had completed this contract. Yes, of course, she was an assassin. Everyone seemed to be these days. It was certainly worth earning the money, even though her seduction method was somewhat unconventional.
Although she had toyed with the idea of looking through the book. Up until now, she had not.
However, the book still belonged to her until she held the sixty thousand dollars’ payment for it in her hands.
She had a hot shower. Then curled up on her sofa to relax with a shot of whisky over ice. She felt much better knowing this utterly revolting Tex, had finally, got his comeuppance.
She was more relaxed now but found her gaze wandering back to the book that she had placed on the table in front of her.
The book seemed ordinary to her, in fact, no more than a dollar’s worth in any shop. H’mm, a very expensive contract for that, she thought to herself
Finally, having made up her mind, she got up and poured herself another drink, then sat down and opened the book.
Studying it, she realised that it was full of dates, with the details of monies that had changed hands, names and places, and… some sketches.
She slowly finished her drink while thinking about the contents of the book. Then gradually realised why someone would want this book so badly.
Inside the book, she had seen references to a government plot to destroy the starship Acarea, when it was out in space and far away from Earth.
She got up and started rummaging through her correspondence drawer. Looking for the information, she had on Captain Traven.
She had met him a month ago when she had tried to join the Acarea. His contact number would be on her copy of the application form. She found it and dialled the number on her secure phone.
“I’m afraid Captain Traven cannot be contacted,” came a male voice. “Can I help you?”
“Not unless you can put me through to the Acarea.”
“Perhaps. To whom am I talking? I assume that you’re a Miss.”
“I’m Judith Morante and what makes you think I’m not married?”
There was a moment of utter silence before the man replied.
“I’ve heard of you. You’re an assassin I believe.”
“Yes, and my work has brought something to light that Acarea must be informed of now, and, I mean right now.”
“I see…, he replied while thinking about what she had said.
“I’m Michael, by the way,” he added. “Meet me in the lobby of your apartment block, in five minutes.”
“You don’t know where I am,” she pointed out.
“Just meet me. Five minutes,” he reiterated then the phone went dead.
Thinking about the conversation, she realised that she didn’t know whom she was meeting, and that left her at a disadvantage. So, she placed a small revolver in her bag. Quickly dressed and went down to the lobby. Once there, she stood and waited. With her back to the wall to protect her.
“Judith Morante?” she suddenly heard someone say. This startled her. She had been sure that no one was near her. Nevertheless, here he was, standing right next to her.
“I’m Michael Bernstein. Shall we sit and talk?” he politely asked, pointing to some chairs on the other side of the lobby
“Sure, lead on, she replied, feeling happier following him.”
They sat next to each other, and without saying a word, she took the book from her bag.
As she did so, Michael noticed the revolver in her handbag. “You won’t need that with me,” he remarked.
“Sorry, it’s force of habit,” she replied, then opened the book to the relevant pages.
Michael studied the pages. Then looked at her, with a worried expression on his face.
“Come with me,” he said as he rose.
“Not a good idea,” she snapped.
“I suppose you realise that, if I wanted you dead, you would be?”
“It’s not you I’m worried about.”
“Ah, your contractor. Don’t worry. You’ll be safe with me. Come on,” he repeated.
“Get in, we’re in a hurry,” he said, as they reached his car.
They entered Michael’s safe house in Hinson Road almost ten minutes later. After having had to divert, to avoid an angry mob that was descending on the government building where Judith’s latest victim had been discovered.
Once inside the house, they found two of his armed guards sitting in the living room. The guards hurriedly stood up. Then turned to leave as they realised who had entered.
“Close the door on your way out, gents.”
“Yes sir, we’ll be just outside if you need us,” one of them replied, then winked at Michael on seeing Judith’s attire.
Once they had left, he took out his special-encoded phone to call Tanner, at Acarea’s Earth control centre.
“Michael, do you have anything to drink, alcohol wise?” She called out.
“Yes, in that cabinet over there. Pour me a whisky while you are at it. But no additives,” he warned her.
Judith smiled at him, knowing exactly what he meant.
“Well, you are an assassin,” he pointed out, as he entered Tanner’s number.
“Yes, Michael?” Tanner replied his voice sounding strained.
“I need to talk to Captain Traven, urgently.”
“So do we, but we’re experiencing communication problems with the Acarea.
We don’t know if it’s just their transponder back to us, or something else.”
“Tanner,” Michael hurriedly interrupted. “There’s a plot to blow the Acarea up. It’s vital that you contact me as soon as your comms link has been re-established.”
“Hell, Michael. Maybe that’s why we can’t contact them.”
“Then, send a warning to them. Just in case, they can receive but not send. Tell them to search for a box somewhere in the front equipment area. Apparently, it’ll have the words ‘Cebro Tran’ marked on it.”
“Got that, Cebro. Tran,” he repeated as he wrote it down. “I’ll do it this instant. Michael, I’ll come back as soon as I have any new information.”
“Thanks. Unfortunately, that’s all I could see that was relevant from my source material,” Michael ended, then put the phone down and slumped back on the sofa.
&
nbsp; “What now?” Judith asked, handing him a shot of whisky.
“Thanks. All we can do is wait,” he said as he took a swig.
“Would you like me to show you my seduction technique?”
“I don’t think so,” he replied, chuckling.
“If I wanted you dead, you would be by now,” she snapped, slightly annoyed by his refusal.
“Touchy, aren’t we.”
Judith took his empty glass and placed it next to hers on the side table. Then slowly looked him over. “Well, Michael, what’s that bulge in your trouser front. Just pleased to see me, are you?”
“Well,” he said. “I have to admit that you do intrigue me…and I miss the relationships that a family can provide. My wife, Alice, died nearly three years ago, and my only son is on the Acarea.”
“So… you’re at a loose end.”
“You could say that.”
“Well, Michael, you’ve got the right person.”
“Have I? Who?”
“Me, of course.”
“Huh, I hope you’re not going to try your assassination techniques on me?”
“You’ll have to wait and see,” she replied her voice sounding husky and sensual, as she moved closer to him and, looking directly into his eyes, started to unzip his trousers.
Chapter 12
Panic
Paul and Tommy had just finished the predictive calculations needed to enable the upcoming course change that would take them to the Delta Pavonis star system.
“We’re ready to go, Captain,” Paul informed him.
“Good. How long will we need to run the manoeuvring jets for?”
“Exactly nine minutes, and twenty-one seconds Captain.”
“Ok, final checks now. We’ll start the directional change in four hours, barring any problems.”
“Captain, are we actually staying with GMT?” Tommy asked.
“Good question, I’ve been thinking about that. We’ll stay with GMT as a datum, but call it ‘Ships time’ for the rest of the voyage.”
“So, will we be staying with the existing simulated night time reference as well?” Henry asked.
“Of course. Even though there’s no actual change on the ship, our bodies need to experience night and day,” Tony pointed out.
The comms suddenly started beeping, denoting an incoming priority message from Earth
“Let’s hear it, Tommy.” With that, Tanner’s voice came over the Receive transponder section of their comms system.
“Captain Traven. We have been trying to contact you but have not received any replies to our calls. This is urgent, so I hope and pray that you can hear me.
We have been informed that an explosive device has been planted aboard the Acarea.
You must find it, Traven.
All we know at this stage is that the box or container is labelled with the words Cebro Tran. Therefore, it is probably up front, in the cargo bay.
We have no information on the type of explosive, or, on when it is set to detonate.
I repeat, you must find it, Traven.”
Then came a pause that lasted more than six minutes, before they heard Tanner’s voice again.
“Your lack of acknowledgement is disturbing, Captain. Let me repeat. If you can hear me.
Find the damned thing, Traven.” Then the call ended.
By which time, Traven had already ordered a search.
“Henry, see if you can find the Cebro box on the ship’s manifest. That should give us the location of the box, and its contents.
Tommy and I will stay here and check the cargo bay’s cameras. We may be lucky and see something, a label may be,” he said as Tommy joined him at the central control desk.
“The rest of you, get to the equipment bay and try and find the damn box.”
“It’ll take us three to four minutes with these mag boots, Captain,” Nick told him.
“You’ll just have to move as fast as you can, and hope the thing’s not ready to go off yet. Hurry up then,” he ordered as the others left the control room and headed towards the equipment bay at the front of the ship. With everyone trying to slide their mag boots along the floor using a ski-like motion.
“I hope we don’t just end up as a brief flash amongst the stars. After what we’ve been through,” Tommy remarked to Traven as he started to search via one of the cargo bay’s cameras.
“Captain, what do we do if we find it?” Henry asked as he continued checking the manifests. Traven was also busy searching for the box via one of the other cargo bay cameras however and didn’t answer.
“We could just shove it out the through the airlock, Captain,” Tommy suggested. “No, that won’t work, it will still stay with us because we’ll both be travelling at the same speed,” he added.
“Yes. I was thinking about that, Tommy. Perhaps we could re-programme one of the service droids, to make it push the box out of the ship. Then use the droid’s manoeuvring jets to slow the box down.”
“It’s easy enough to re-programme a droid, Captain,” Henry interrupted, sounding as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
“I can programme one of the droids from here. But, we’ll then have to write the droid off because it’s going to be moving in sync with the box.”
“Yes, I can’t see any other options Traven replied while sounding as if he was deep in thought.
“There’s nothing listed on the ship’s manifest with Cebro Tran as a heading, Captain,” Henry informed them as his search came up blank. “There’s nothing listed separately either. Not that I expected anything to be.”
“Okay Henry, come over here. Camera 3’s out, its view is completely blocked.
Get on Camera 4,” he ordered as Henry joined them at the camera’s control position on his central console.
“This camera’s a bit better, but the earth movers are blocking most of my view now.”
“It’s good Tommy, the rest of the crew have just reached the bay,” Traven said, as his camera showed the men entering the bay and shuffling along in their mag boots.
“We’re in, Captain,” Nick said, his voice coming over the comms.
“So I see. Get a move on. We’re not going to be able to help you much, our camera views are restricted.”
“Understood.”
Traven felt nervous about the incidence. What if the damn box wasn’t in the equipment bay, after all, he wondered.
Then shrugged. There was no point in wasting energy worrying about it, he decided. They couldn’t do anything to help from here, as the cameras were useless.
His crew would have to save the day.
Eight minutes later, and Captain Traven was starting to feel even more nervous.
It’s taking too long, he thought.
Then, a couple of minutes later, Nick’s voice came over the comms, startling him from his thoughts.
“We’ve found it, Captain. At least, Trisha did. She said she saw where the box was, like a picture in her mind.”
“Good. Get it over to the airlock, then get out of there and tell me when you’re safe.”
“On it Captain,” Nick confirmed as they started to slide the box to the main airlock, then suddenly stopped.
“Captain, the box has magnetic attractors,” he said, then paused for a moment, thinking.
“OK. We’ll mount it on the magnetic-repeller trolley. Then, when you open the main airlock, we can use the trolley’s reverse flux to make box float above it, enabling the droid to push it outside.”
“Good thinking,” Traven replied as he turned to Henry.
“Now you can run your programme. As soon as the airlock door is, open enough. Order the droid to push the box outside. Then, to push it well behind us.”
“Aye, Captain,” Henry, replied.
Then Traven suddenly remembered his talk with Michael Bernstein.
‘Picture in the mind’ he had said. Traven’s hands started to shake, as he remembered what Nick had just told him about Trisha seeing an i
mage in her mind.
“My God. Maybe she’s not what she seems to be,” he said aloud.
“Are you alright Captain?” Tommy asked looking at Traven’s trembling hands and horror-filled face.
“Yes Tommy,” he finally answered, wiping beads of sweat from his forehead.
The box now came into view on their screen. They saw the crew lift it onto the Repeller trolley. Then push it closer to the outer airlock door.
As soon as Nick saw that. He activated the door’s remote control. Then the men all headed back to the inner airlock door through which they had come.
Moments later, with the crew on the safe side of the lock, Nick called Traven.
“We’re all safe, Captain. The box is ready to go.”
“Well done Nick. Retrieve the air and let’s get this box outside. Henry’s programmed the droid.”
Traven watched the dials, indicating the airlock's status, as the air was sucked out and into a recycling air storage container. This air would be used later to re-pressurise the air lock.
Once all three red lights had turned green. The main airlock door started to open. Then, Henry entered the command for the droid to shove the box through the airlock. While, Nick reversed flux on the repeller trolley as the little droid sprang into life.
All of them watched as the droid darted across to the box, which was now floating above the repeller trolley, and pushed the box towards the airlock door.
The airlock door was only half open, as first the box, then the droid, with its manoeuvring thruster jet flaring out behind it, shot out, and into space.
“Close outer airlock,” Nick yelled into the control unit beside the door, not wanting it to stay open any longer than necessary.
The door then closed, silently, and the airlock started to re-pressurise.
Captain Traven, together with Henry and Tommy. Watched on the rear monitors, as the little droid, with its manoeuvring jets flaring white under full power, shot past the Pusher Plate on its way to its own inevitable demise.
Acarea. A Triumph or Disaster? (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 5): A Novel by Gerry A. Saunders (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy) Page 9