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24
CASTOR
“Roll it back again.” Eros holds her on his lap in the middle of the pod bed. The tablet lies on her legs, and the rest of us huddle around them. I don’t want to be the one to call it, but Michio and Forrest have to be dead. Watching the dome come down over and over, there’s no way they could be alive.
It’s the tenth, no, twelfth time we’ve watched the dome come down. I get it. He’s gutted. The chances that Michio and the Stele governor are alive are, well, slimmer than surviving a massive wild kraken attack.
“You’re sure?” Annabelle’s voice is dim.
“Yes. You guys don’t have to watch it with me.”
“No, it’s fine. We’ll stay with you.” Annabelle puts her hand on Eros’s leg.
“Oh, fuck. You think I’m doing some strange, morbid my-brother-is-dead thing?”
No one says a word until Annabelle speaks up. “Uh, Eros?” She turns in his lap. “Yes?”
“No. That’s not what’s going on here, Sunshine. I fucking wish I had the rest of my equipment.”
“Okay, we can get that for you,” she answers. “We should probably get dressed.” She tries to move off the bed, but he clamps his arm around her waist like a safety restraint.
“Haven’t you all been watching it?”
“Yes,” Holter says slowly. If Holter doesn’t know what’s going on—and he’s one of the smartest people I know—how the hell should I?
“Play it again, Sunshine. Just the last twenty seconds.”
“Okay.” Her lips thin in discomfort.
“Now stop. I thought, watching it in real time, I could see more of it. See it?” He points to the tablet.
“No,” I add. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What are you pointing at?”
“Right here. A shimmer.”
“What shimmer?” Nico leans in.
“I see something.” Annabelle squints. “I didn’t want to suggest the projector because it seemed, well, kind of macabre. But Holter showed me a documentary video on blue whales when I couldn’t sleep a while back. Couldn’t we?—”
“Sunshine, you’re brilliant.” Eros plops Annabelle on my lap and rolls to the bedside table, grabbing a remote from the drawer. “Hook us up, Nico.”
“Ready?” Nico waits for Eros to move back to the middle of the bed. But instead, he charges to the wall. Nico hands the tablet back to Annabelle.
“Ready.” Eros nods.
“Okay.” Annabelle starts the video. Their projector system is top-notch. Not only is it clear, but it has a touch of depth to it as well.
We turn off the commentary after the second time through.
“Stop it here.” Eros points to a small area above the dome. And he’s right. It does shimmer, or rather there is a smudge when stopped and blown up to twenty feet wide. “Start it.” We watch for another ten seconds. “Stop, back it up. Okay, stop. There.”
Annabelle sits up taller. “There’s a second shimmer coming out of the top of the dome before it explodes.”
“Exactly.” Eros raises his fist in triumph. “And who has access to security council tech?”
“You,” I say.
He glares. “Yes, but so do the members of the security council. Forrest Mason.”
