The morning traffic commutes were a challenge and often he would decide to walk the four miles. When he was late he would resurrect the Mercedes from its parking spot out on the street and face the hordes pouring into the city from the suburbs.
Jake had been shadowing Kevin Dodd, husband of Evelyn Dodd, at Mrs. Dodd's request. He started the surveillance on the same day as the meeting between Jackson and Wolverine, alias Mia Anderson, had taken place. Mr. Dodd was 40 years old and a wealthy business owner. One of his businesses, Dodd's Hardware, was doing extremely well, selling mostly to contractors who were building new houses.
The second business, a liquor wholesale store with outlets in several areas, had grossed ten million dollars the previous year and was doing even better in the current year. He also owned a real estate business called Dodd's Real Estate, specializing in older homes, selling at reasonable prices.
Kevin Dodd was reveling in his growing finances and this had kick-started his appetite for living it up which did not always include Evelyn. She had her suspicions that he was seeing someone else. Jake had followed Kevin to an empty house in a northeast suburb of Baltimore and found that Kevin was indeed meeting with another woman. With the aid of the same listening device used for the Jackson meeting in Lafayette Square, Jake was able to establish that the couple had already met twice and planned to meet once every week, at 12:00 noon on a Wednesday.
On this occasion the woman had exited the home, looking a little flushed and disheveled. The couple had been in a hurry to leave and, but for a few hand-blown kisses, had not embraced or kissed. They were using one of the empty homes on Kevin's real estate listings for a meeting place.
A background check revealed that she was the wife of a Senator in Baltimore, a name that Jake immediately recognized. That's when things got really interesting. He recalled a recent photo in the Baltimore Times, taken during a local charity fundraising campaign—her name was Camilla Jackson, Arthur Jackson's wife.
Armed with this new information, Jake wondered how he should approach the matter of disclosure. He may be putting the Dodd family in imminent danger if he reported what he had discovered. Evelyn would certainly demand to know who the other woman was and if Jackson found out that Kevin was involved with Camilla there was no telling what he may do to the family. The Dodd family included two young children and Jake would hate to see them lose a parent.
He contemplated the possibility that Jackson might have an inkling about his wife's infidelity and she might be under surveillance. He realized that he could be placing himself at risk by following Kevin around and this would not be acceptable. Jackson must never find out that Jake was in any way involved. This could lead to danger for Colleen and Kenny, a thought that terrified him, given Arthur Jackson's cold-blooded mindset.
Jake decided to let it rest for the moment so that he could think and strategize, knowing that whatever decision he made would probably not avert the potential danger. He would still have to reveal his findings to Evelyn Dodd, but if he played his cards right the collateral damage might be reduced—he needed to get home, shoot-up, relax, and think!
∞∞
Chapter Seventeen
Death Stalks the Miners
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
0231 hours
Timmy Rose stood at the door. It was clear to Jet that something was not right. Timmy's face was pale and he appeared to be struggling to breathe. Perspiration was pouring from his forehead. He appeared close to collapsing. Jet grabbed him by the arm and shouted, "What gives, Timmy? What's happened?"
Rose swayed and then fell slowly toward the floor as Jet attempted to grab him more firmly. Rose was bigger and heavier and despite the lesser gravity, Jet could not prevent him from going down. Speechless, Jet looked down at Rose's chest and saw the cause of Rose's distress. Two nasty holes were oozing bright red, frothy blood, and it was clear that Timmy had been shot at point-blank range, damaging his heart and lungs.
Jet tried diligently to revive the stricken Operations Manager, but it was evident his wounds were too severe and that he was dying.
"Timmy, Timmy, speak to me! What happened to you? Who did this?"
Rose's eyes had a glassy look and he was trying to mouth words but Jet couldn't make anything out. Timmy Rose exhaled a final breath and died.
Jet began to experience symptoms of shock. The sight of his friend's body lying at his feet triggered a feeling of weakness in all his joints. He finally sank to his knees and cradled Timmy's head in his hands. Visions from the past flooded his mind with the day Christina had died! Jet had rushed from the province of Alberta but arrived at the hospital too late to be with her in her final moments. Sitting on the bed, hunched over her body with his head touching hers, he had cried for an hour. He never had the opportunity to say goodbye. Now, his friend Timmy Rose was gone, and Jet remembered their jovial conversation over drinks the evening before in the conference room.
After a few minutes Jet pulled himself together and stood slowly to his feet. Grabbing Rose's body by the shoulders he propped it up against the wall outside his door. His first thought was to get Beth Eaton up to see if there was anything she could do.
Moving as fast as he could, he reached the door to Beth's room and began banging on it. Beth appeared at the door looking as though she had just woken up and said that she had heard the knocking but thought it was a dream.
"Come quickly, Timmy's been shot!" shouted Jet still shaking violently from shock.
Beth looked at him incredulously, not fully comprehending what he was saying. "Been shot? What do you mean?"
"Just come with me and see, quickly." He grabbed her by the hand and pulled, heading off down the hallway as quickly as gravity would permit.
Beth was stunned into silence but began to show signs of comprehension as they arrived at Jet's door. She stifled a scream when she saw all the blood on the floor and then knelt down next to the body and checked Rose's vital signs. After ten seconds she looked up at Jet and said, "He's gone! Timmy's gone!"
Jet quickly gathered himself and said, "I am going to wake the Commander. We have a killer on the loose— better go back to your room and lock the door."
Jet moved through the sleeping quarter's hallways as quickly as he could and arrived at Commander Miller's door. To his surprise the door was open and Miller was lying on the floor. Jet was staggered to see blood oozing from Miller's chest. It was clear that the Commander had answered the door to someone and was shot in the process.
Jet felt for a pulse but found none. This night was turning into a nightmare, and he wished he could wake up. Who else would he find murdered and who was the perpetrator? He thought about their gathering in the conference room the previous evening and the dark figure of Chekov, making his notes, came to mind.
"Chekov!" he said aloud to himself. He pushed himself off toward Chekov's quarters but on arrival realized that the man might be on shift. Then he remembered that Chekov never had drinks if he was on shift the next day. He had to be on days off and in his room. Jet stood at the door wondering if he should take Chekov on. If Chekov was the culprit, then he would be armed. Jet had no weapon.
He decided to go back to Beth's room. Together they could seek a solution and also see if anyone else had been affected. Whoever had shot Rose and Miller had somehow smuggled a gun past security on return from furlough. Neither he nor Beth had heard a shot, so the gun must be equipped with a silencer.
Jet and Beth stood in the middle of her room, their hands intertwined as they faced each other, neither able to speak.
Finally, Beth, through tears and quivering lips said, "We have to go to the control room and check on the remaining staff members."
That seemed like a good idea so they moved out, silently edging along the wall and down the hallway to the control room. On entering the control room, there was the dissonant hum of equipment, but the room was empty. No one was there. Jet and Beth stared at the empty room and for a moment Jet was confused until he tu
rned to look toward the airlock. He saw that the red light above the entrance was blinking, indicating that the airlock was depressurized which was normal. The airlock would only be pressurized if someone was going out or coming back in. He pressurized the lock and waited for the light to turn green before opening the inner door. The airlock was empty, but he noticed that the emergency oxygen tank that hung on the side wall was missing. There was no sign of the two on-shift robotic operators.
Jet closed the inner door and turned to Beth. "We now have more than half the staff missing or dead. We must search the rest of the Base and if there's no one else left, we need to go out to the dig sites.
They started a systematic room-to-room search, not bothering with the rooms of those they knew to be dead, hoping to find the missing members unharmed. At the top of the corridor was Chen Ng's room, the door was slightly ajar, and they realized their worst fears. He was dead on the floor, killed in the same manner as Miller and Rose.
Next to Chen's room were the rooms of Clem Brookes from the USA, and Gunter Kolke of Germany, both Robotic Operator Specialists and off-shift at the time. Both were dead. These rooms were off a hallway to the left of the main corridor, and it appeared that the killer was systematically waking the occupants, getting them out of their sleeping bags, and shooting them when they opened the door. A quick look into Chekov's room showed it to be empty.
Jet approached Lui Wong's door with dread in his heart. The door was not locked. Sliding open at the touch of the keypad, an empty room was revealed. Lui had slept in her bunk, but there was now no sign of her. She had vanished. Was she the killer or had she fled from the assassin?
The killer must have murdered the staff in the control room first before entering the sleeping quarters to murder the rest. It would seem that Rose was the only one to have put up a fight. Although mortally wounded, he had somehow managed to beat off the attacker, escape from his room, and awaken Jet.
Jet's gratefulness to the fallen Operations Manager burst forth in a show of emotion. His eyes moistened up and his voice was a bare croak as he looked at Beth and tried to articulate to her what he believed must have happened. She put her arms around him and remained silent. There was nothing to be said. Jet also thought of his friend, Chen Ng, who had saved his life out on the dig site. For a few minutes, he was overcome with grief.
When the moment had passed, Jet straightened up and looked thoughtful. "I wonder if Miller had managed to arrange for the main communications antenna to be repaired. We must try to make contact with Earth Mission Control. There was a Helium-3 retrieval shuttle planned for arrival today, at the platform. They need to be warned."
Beth acquiesced and they moved to Miller's office. Jet sat behind Miller's desk, turned on the computer, donned the microphone headset, and attempted to raise Earth Mission Control. There was nothing but static.
"I guess there hasn't been time to repair the communications antenna. We need to find Lui, if she's still alive. She would more than likely know what to do to fix it."
Beth answered, her voice quivering, "What about the killer?"
Jet composed himself and said, "Only a few of us appear to be left. You, myself, Lui Wong, Shou Satou and Colonel Chekov. There is no sign of the two on-shift operators—they are nowhere to be found. I can't see that it could be Lui...it must be either Satou or Chekov!"
"What are we going to do?" asked Beth pensively.
"I'm going to find a weapon and, if we are the only ones left on the Base, we will have to put on our suits and go find them."
*
Earlier that evening Lui Wong awoke with a start. She had heard something, but was not sure of the source. Slowly unstrapping herself from the bunk, she quietly moved out of the sleeping bag and sat listening. Sound did not carry that well through the walls of the room, so she crept to the door and waited. It sounded as though something was happening next door in Jet's room.
After two or three minutes she overcame her timidity and opened the door a few inches but could not see anything until the door was opened enough for her to stick her head out of the apartment.
The sight awaiting her prompted a stifled scream as she saw Timmy Rose, propped up against the wall in a gathering pool of blood. Lui was petrified but brave enough to tiptoe up to the body and place her finger on his jugular.
She sat motionless for a moment and then stood up, looking into Jet's room. It was empty.
Beth's room was also empty, so she went further up the corridor to Miller's room and made the shocking discovery of his dead body. Fear gripped her as she realized that a killer was on the loose, realizing that her own life was in imminent danger, Lui moved out of Miller's room and down to the end of the hallway, slipping quietly into a general janitorial storeroom. The store inventory contained tubs of cleaning materials, long-handled cleaners with special wipes, extra sleeping bags, and general supplies. Lui hastily moved some tubs and boxes to form a hideaway in case someone came looking for her.
**
The Elusive Colonel Chekov
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
0250 hours
Apart from the hum produced by the computer fans and soft resonance of the breathable-air system, the control room was eerily quiet. The harmony of human voices that made up the normal sound of shift activity was missing.
Jet and Beth steeled themselves to check the sleeping quarters again. The Lunar Base appeared to be devoid of any other living soul.
Jet suggested that they go out to the Space Platform Elevator Station and then to the storage area to check if anyone was hiding there. After that they would take the Beast and drive to the dig site area. There was no telling what they would find or what they could do if they were confronted by the killer. They donned their suits and stepped out of the suit-up area into the airlock for complete depressurization. Soon the outer door opened, giving them access to the harsh moon landscape.
Jet and Beth were immediately confronted by a horrific sight. Within one yard of the entrance lay two grotesque forms, burned black by the radiation of the sun's rays. Beth stifled a scream and turned away to lean against the side of the airlock entrance. Jet stared in horrified silence at the two figures without any protective space wear spread-eagled on the heated surface of the regolith. Their eye-balls had been sucked out by the sudden change of pressure, leaving dark sockets, staring into the blackness of space. Now Jet knew what had happened to the two on-shift Robotic Operators. The airlock door closed soundlessly behind them.
Suddenly the lunar landscape seemed much lonelier than before. They could see the beautiful spectacle of the earth, hanging in space like a giant football, however, the spectacle failed to grip them as it normally did.
The Beast's computer received Jet's command to drive to the dig site and obediently followed its order. The LTV trundled along over the sandy terrain. The Beast would take them to the front-end of Processor One. If there was no one inside the processor, they would have to travel three miles to Processor Two and check it out.
The Space Platform Elevator Station had been empty as expected, given the standard procedure with the elevator remaining up at the platform, awaiting the visiting astronauts. The elevator should have been brought down during the last shift for the loading of a gasbag but obviously things had been disrupted. The gasbag had been left in the loading area at the Elevator station, waiting to be hauled up to the platform.
It was 0350 hours when the Beast parked its two occupants outside the steps to Processor One's airlock. There were twelve metal steps to climb before stepping onto a small mezzanine which served as an entrance platform, leading to the processor's door and airlock. Jet and Beth slowly made their way up the stairs to the airlock door. They waited for it to slide open triggered by a sensor above the entrance. This was a helpful innovation that could detect any waiting astronaut miner who would often be carrying titanium sample canisters in both hands.
The door slid open and they stepped into the airlock. In Jet's right hand was a larg
e wrench from the robotic spares area, for use as a potential weapon. After the outer door had closed and the airlock had re-pressurized, they moved into the suit-up area to remove their helmet assemblies. The hiss of compressed air escaping when the inner door of the suit-up area opened surprised Shou Satou, Chen Ng's cross-over. He was in the midst of a soldering job, working on one of the robotic excavator wiring harnesses which had been brought inside for repair.
Shou was glad to see them but did not understand why they were there—neither of them should have been on shift. He had removed his suit to work in the comfort of his LCVG and had certainly not expected visitors. He smiled, looking quizzically at Jet and then at the wrench.
Jet spoke first. "Have you been here the whole shift, Shou?"
Shou, a native of Japan, had spent little time in any English-speaking community, but was fluent enough to communicate on a rudimentary basis. Like Chen, he was a first-rate robotic maintenance specialist with glowing recommendations from the companies he had worked for and had an excellent knowledge of robot dynamics.
Shou looked surprised at the question but answered immediately, "Yes, all shift. I have much work —three excavators broken—must fix as quickly as possible."
Jet relaxed momentarily and began to relate what had happened at the Lunar Base. He still suspected Chekov of the killings. It would be just like the Russians to have some reason for disrupting the process. Beth remained silent, obviously strained to the limit by all that had taken place. Jet felt sorry for her. He wanted to take her in his arms and provide whatever comfort he could but there was a murderer on the loose. It had to be Chekov—Satou just didn't fit the bill.
Shou suddenly interrupted Jet's thoughts. "Funny thing, I try to get Base on intercom but nothing, since 02:00!" he shared in his Japanese-tainted English.
"That would make sense," said Jet, turning to Beth. "It was about 02:30 hours when Timmy woke me up by banging on my door, and the killings had to have taken place before that."
The Helium-3 Conspiracy Page 13