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“No idea,” Miller replied. “But someone knew you were coming.”
“Yeah, thanks for the brilliant police work,” Amos said with a snort. “No way we woulda figured that out on our own.”
Holden ignored him. “But they didn’t know why, or they would have already gone up to Julie’s room and gotten whatever they wanted.”
“Does that mean Fred’s been compromised?” Naomi said.
“Fred?” Miller asked.
“Or maybe someone figured out the Polanski thing too, but didn’t have a room number,” Holden said.
“But why come out guns blazing like that?” Amos said. “Doesn’t make any sense to shoot us.”
“That was a mistake,” Miller said. “I saw it happen. Amos here drew his gun. Somebody overreacted. They were yelling cease-fire right up until you folks started shooting back.”
Holden began ticking off points on his fingers.
“So someone finds out we’re headed to Eros, and that it is related to the Scopuli. They even know the hotel, but not the room.”
“They don’t know it’s Lionel Polanski either,” Naomi said. “They could have looked it up at the desk, just like we did.”
“Right. So they wait for us to show, and have a squad of gunmen ready to take us in. But that goes to shit and it turns into a gunfight in the lobby. They absolutely don’t see you coming, Detective, so they aren’t omniscient.”
“Right,” Miller said. “The whole thing screams last minute. Grab you guys and find out what you’re looking for. If they’d had more time, they could have just searched the hotel. Might have taken two or three days, but it could have been done. They didn’t, so that means grabbing you was easier.”
Holden nodded. “Yes,” he said. “But that means that they already had teams here. Those didn’t seem like locals to me.”
Miller paused, looking disconcerted.
“Now you say it, me either,” he agreed.
“So whoever it is, they already have teams of gunmen on Eros, and they can redeploy them to come at a moment’s notice to pick us up,” Holden said.
“And enough pull with security that they could have a firefight and nobody came,” Miller said. “Police didn’t know anything was happening until I called them.”
Holden cocked his head to one side, then said, “Shit, we really need to get out of here.”
“Wait a minute,” Alex said loudly. “Just wait a goddamn minute here. How come no one is talkin’ about the mutant horror show in that room? Was I the only one that saw that?”
“Yeah, Jesus, what was that all about?” Amos said quietly.
Miller reached into his coat pocket and took out the evidence bag with Julie’s hand terminal in it.
“Any of you guys a techie?” he asked. “Maybe we could find out.”
“I could probably hack it,” Naomi said. “But there’s no way I’m touching that thing until we know what did that to her and that it isn’t catching. I’m not pushing my luck by handling anything she’s touched.”
“You don’t have to touch it. Keep the bag sealed. Just use it right through the plastic. The touch screen should still work.”
Naomi paused for a second, then reached out and took the bag.
“Okay, give me a minute,” she said, then set to work on it.
Miller leaned back in his chair again, letting out another heavy sigh.
“So,” Holden said. “Did you know Julie before this? Naomi seems to think finding her dead like that really knocked you for a loop.”
Miller shook his head slowly. “You get a case like that, you look into whoever it is. You know, personal stuff. Read their e-mail. Talk to the people they know. You get a picture.”
Miller stopped talking and rubbed his eyes with his thumbs. Holden didn’t push him, but he started talking again anyway.
“Julie was a good kid,” Miller said as if he were confessing something. “She flew a mean racing ship. I just… I wanted to get her back alive.”
“It’s got a password,” Naomi said, holding up the terminal. “I could hack the hardware, but I’d have to open the case.”
Miller reached out and said, “Let me give it a try.”
Naomi handed the terminal to him, and he tapped a few characters on the screen and handed it back.
“Razorback,” Naomi said. “What’s that?”
“It’s a sled,” Miller replied.
“Is he talking to us?” Amos said, pointing his chin at Miller. “ ’Cause there’s no one else here, but I swear half the time I don’t know what the f**k he’s on about.”
“Sorry,” Miller said. “I’ve been working more or less solo. Makes for bad habits.”
Naomi shrugged and went back to work with Holden and Miller now looking over her shoulders.
“She’s got a lot of stuff on here,” Naomi said. “Where to start?”
Miller pointed at a text file simply labeled notes sitting on the terminal’s desktop.
“Start there,” he said. “She’s a fanatic about putting things in the right folders. If she left that on the desktop, it means she wasn’t sure where it went.”
Naomi tapped on the document to open it up. It expanded into a loosely organized collection of text that read like someone’s diary.
First off, get your shit together. Panic doesn’t help. It never helps. Deep breaths, figure this out, make the right moves. fear is the mind-killer. Ha. Geek.
Shuttle Pros:
No reactor, just batteries. V. low radiation.
Supplies for eight
Lots of reaction mass
Shuttle Cons:
No Epstein, no torch
Comm not just disabled, but physically removed (feeling a little paranoid about leaks, guys?)
Closest transit is Eros. Is that where we were going? Maybe go someplace else? On just teakettle, this is gonna be a slow boat. Another transit adds seven more weeks. Eros, then.
I’ve got the Phoebe bug, no way around it. Not sure how, but that brown shit was everywhere. It’s anaerobic, must have touched some. Doesn’t matter how, just work the problem.
I just slept for THREE WEEKS. Didn’t even get up to pee. What does that?
I’m so f**ked.
Things you need to remember:
* BA834024112
* Radiation kills. No reactor on this shuttle, but keep the lights off. Keep the e-suit on. Video asshat said this thing eats radiation. Don’t feed it.
