Of Broken Things

Chapter 2 - scene 5.

“Sensor malfunction. Initiating security systems scan,” Computer’s voice blared out of the dynamics.

Aiden woke up with a start, and the datapad slid from his lap and fell on the floor with a clang.

“What’s the problem? And turn it down, for God’s sake!”

“System glitch detected. Starting diagnostics and self-repair program,” the computer’s reply was much quieter this time.

Aiden sighed and tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. Judging by the lack of light outside, it was still night, and there was no way he could go back to sleep after that kind of awakening. His heart rate had only now returned to normal.

“Computer, time?”

“Three forty five.”

“Display the search results containing both the Nest and Arizona.” If he was done sleeping for the night, he might as well do something productive.

A screen popped into existence over the coffee table. It displayed a very short list of four names:

Juan Marco Garcia

Andrew Howie

John Dietrich

Jerry McDermott

The names didn’t look familiar to Aiden, but those were the people who had mentioned both keywords in conversations with Steven Fortworth. What was their connection, he wondered.

“Display their professions.”

He looked at yet another screen and nodded to himself. There was a geneticist, a mutation specialist, a cryogenist, and psychologist. Add to that the fact that Fortworth had been a neuro-scientist, and the obvious conclusion was that the Nest was some kind of research facility.

Aiden felt a pang of disappointment. If Steven had just been doing consulting work for that Nest, it probably had nothing to do with his murder, and Aiden had just spent two days chasing the wrong lead.

“Search for research facilities, projects and organizations with Nest in their name in Arizona.”

“Query returned zero results.”

Interesting.

“Expand search to both American continents.”

Aiden doubted that Fortworth had traveled farther than two-three time zones. He hadn’t been absent for more than two days at a time, and someone around him would have noticed if he had been jet lagged upon his return.

“Query returned two results. One - Nesting Habits of migratory birds in the Northern Sea, Anchorage. Two - Improvement and modification of the Nest-type asteroid habitats, Santiago de Chile.

Somehow, Aiden doubted Fortworth had consulted on either of those projects. And they were nowhere near Arizona. So what was this mysterious Nest that didn’t appear on any public records? Could Fortworth have been working on a classified project for the Planetary Government? He had no way of accessing the governmental databases himself, but he knew exactly whom to ask for help. His co-pilot from the Space Patrol days was now working for the Department of Planetary Defense, but Aiden didn’t want to call in such a big favor until he absolutely had to. The last think he wanted was to land Hikaru in trouble. And he also wanted to maintain the belief that the government was not behind this murder. Because if that hit on Fortworth had been ordered by a governmental entity, it would mean that Aiden had spent over twenty years risking his life, first in the Space Corps and then as a police detective, defending a lie. No, he would not contact Hikaru until he had exhausted all other leads.