Morgan could hear Hector stumbling along behind him.
Vasca made a point of abandoning his post just before they arrived. Nobody was looking their way. Something close to a hundred angry heavy-gravity natives did a great job of focusing the Militia's attention elsewhere.
The door controls were blinking when they arrived. Morgan slapped the controls and the shutters came up. Hector slipped under the rising door and Morgan followed, closing it behind them.
A long, dark, empty hall greeted them. It was a simple matter to find 26-A. Hector waved Morgan back and his eyes lit up as his datalenses activated to access the security lock on the room. A few false starts and a few false passwords and Hector had the storage area opening hungrily for him.
It wasn't much to look at, an empty warehouse space like any other. A big, dark room with nothing in it, just some big metal canisters piled up in a back corner. The lights came on and Morgan took a look around at what was left.
Or rather, he smelled it. The distinctive stench of Ammonium nitrate, just like back in the Xbalanque enclave. Fertilizer or bomb, he still couldn't tell.
Hector called out from the corner.
“Hey, Gannis! You reading this?”
Morgan turned around and started sauntering over to where Hector was looking over the barrels, eyes still flickering with active datalenses.
“Hector, tell me something. You smelling what I'm smelling?”
“I smell a lot of stuff. This place is an armpit. Void, I can't even smell you over it.”
“A sharp smell, kind of like, I don't know, cat piss, right?”
Morgan met Hector's blank stare.
“You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?”
“The whatever-animal-urine thing? Don't know, don't care. But yeah, if you're talking about the subtle notes of NH4 NO3 on the air, yeah, I smell that. Listen, buddy, as much as I could get into a good game of 'name that smell', the clock is ticking until the Militia gets back and we have another impromptu reunion with your old friend the Planetary, so how's about we skip it, huh? Now come on over here and take a look at this.”
He nodded towards the barrel he was inspecting. Morgan started circling the container, looking at the markings. Nothing out of the ordinary yet, just the usual Innes Conglomerate markings.
“Not like that, with your eyes on, huh? Man, are you even wearing your lenses?”
“Not since the first time they arrested us.”
“And you never asked them to get them back when we were released?”
“Why would I?”
“For real? I... neverevenleakingmind...”
“What? Just tell me, what am I looking for here?”
“Nothing you can see, apparently.” Hector sighed and breathed a barely audible 'dirtwalkers' under his breath. He leaned on the barrel and Morgan saw it move slightly.
“Alright, so let's try it this way. Morgan, what strikes you as weird about these canisters here, huh?” Hector didn't pause for an answer, he just kept rolling on. “They're the only thing that didn't get stolen, right? Right. Now why do you figure that is? The answer has get to be that...”
“They're empty.” Morgan rapped his knuckles against the side and it echoed like a drum.
“Wait? What? But the seal hasn't even been...?”
YOU ARE READING
In Every Eden (The Heroes We Can Afford)
Science FictionHumanity has spread itself to the stars, colonizing habitable worlds and terraforming less hospitable ones. But although humans can change entire worlds, they cannot change themselves. Humanity remains the same, as flawed and desperate as they've...
