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“We’ve got a problem,” Nate said, glancing back into the common area before coming closer. He shot a look at Gunn. “You’ll want to hear this, too.”
Gunn and Maddie shared a charged glance and moved in closer.
“What’s wrong, guys?” Maddie asked although she knew what he was going to say.
Eric turned to Nate who nodded then faced Gunn and Maddie again. “I was checking the satellite,” he said softly. “The damn thing’s getting signal, but I checked my cellphone right before I went out so I knew that signal wasn’t making it into the building. So, I checked the connection on the box and then checked where it comes into the building. I thought maybe a connection had wiggled loose, but that wasn’t the problem. Then I started pulling up the coax.” He drew a deep breath before blurting, “Someone cut the fucker in half.”
Maddie took in his expression. He sounded angry. His face was taut. She glanced at Nate. His expression was a little harder to read. Yes, he was frowning, but his gaze was more troubled. Maybe worried. Neither displayed an inappropriate reaction given the problem.
They both looked at her, and then Eric’s head tilted to the side and his eyes narrowed. “You knew.”
Maddie dropped her gaze. Then firming her mouth, she glanced up again. “Gunn found the problem first thing this morning.”
Eric moved back a step. “So, you asking me to check the dish—was that some sort of fucking test?” he asked, his voice rising a little at the end.
Gunn cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “It was my call,” he said softly.
Nate nodded slowly. “I get it. You’re trying to eliminate suspects.” He patted Eric’s arm with the back of his hand. “Someone took out Mateo. This isn’t about us, man. Hell, he’s lookin’ at everyone.”
“Bet he’s not looking at Maddie,” Eric said, his gaze landing on her and hardening.
Maddie blushed. They knew about last night. “He can’t rule me out. I had just as much opportunity as any one of you.”
They stood in the kitchen, and Maddie knew the weight of the discovery was dragging down their shoulders, settling in their bellies.
“So, what do we do now?” Nate asked. “No one’s safe. Our theory about someone from the outside coming in to take out Mateo doesn’t hold water. It’s one of us.”
Maddie blew out a breath that billowed her cheeks. “We have to tell everyone. Everyone needs to know so they can be watchful and keep themselves safe. That means we’re always in pairs.”
“Go in threes when we can?” Eric said. “More than one of us armed?”
She nodded.
“What did Polardyne have to say about this?” Nate asked, turning to Gunn.
“We haven’t heard back from anyone,” Gunn said. “I called the Brotherhood Protectors and told them what happened. They’re going to talk to Lieutenant Commander Navarro and Clive at Polardyne to see what they want to have happen. My guess is that they’ll want to pull the plug and bring everyone in.”
“In the meantime, I need you to repair the coax,” Maddie said. “We need to be able to communicate and load whatever data we have. Continue as we have been until…” She closed her eyes briefly. “I hate the thought of packing up. We’ve only just started.”
“Our last winter on the ice,” Nate muttered.
“So, for now, we operate as normal? Then pull everyone together tonight?” Gunn said.
Nate and Eric gave sharp nods and left.
“Guess there’s no point in hiding the fact I’m putting up a surveillance camera on the dish,” Gunn said. “At this point, we need to deter whoever cut the line from trying it again.”
After Gunn returned to his room to grab an extra spycam, Maddie and Gunn headed out to take care of their list; first, topping off the snowmobiles and then carrying a ladder and setting it up on the corner of the building nearest the satellite dish and within sight of Nate and Eric, who were busy splicing cable.
When they all finished, Maddie raised her cell phone. “We have signal. Good job, guys.”
“You’re going to tell them, right?” Eric said.
“I am. But after dinner. Go ahead and let everyone know we have connection. They’ll want to file their reports.” Maddie turned to Gunn. “You coming? I have my own data to upload.”
“Right behind you.”
They made their way to Mateo’s office. Maddie unlocked the door, then stood to the side while Gunn filed inside. Commander Navarro had said that Mateo’s computer had additional encryption software installed, but Mateo had still felt the need to upload directly to the dish. However, since the box that he’d used to plug in directly had been destroyed, this was their only option for uploading the data she’d retrieved from Mateo’s platform.
