The Callisto Protocol

CH/\PTER 05: Taken

His head was still buzzing and throbbing, pain and confusion and anger swirling around into one incoherent mess.

The bots marched them around the big vehicle to the back, up a ramp, and then into a mostly empty rear compartment. The security guard had nearly turned into a bot himself, silent and stiff, almost like he was no longer handling people but cargo.

He worked in the most isolated, notorious prison in the solar system, Jacob realized with a start, so that's probably precisely what he now saw them as, for whatever reason. The bots sat them down roughly across from each other and then stood nearby, still and silent as statues.

"Stay," the guard said after bringing the back loading ramp up into place and mercifully cutting off the howling snow, and then he'd walked forward into the driver's cabin, shutting the door behind him.

A moment later, they had started driving and bumping along.

Jacob stared across at the woman. She stared back. What had been her name? He'd heard it on the news, but he'd been annoyed and not really listening. D something. She was staring at him now, her arms crossed petulantly.

He could feel his anger slowly beginning to overtake his pain and confusion. He squeezed his hands into fists until his knuckles cracked as he kept staring at her. He glanced briefly at the door to the front cabin. What the hell was going on? What was this guy doing? Did they think he was somehow involved with the attack? Did they think he was part of the Outer Way? Surely not, they had records, recordings, transcripts, a mountain of data proving he was a legitimate contractor who'd been running their goddamned cargo for six fucking months!

Maybe they were just low on time, or even patience, and were just going to haul him back to the prison, patch him up in the infirmary, interrogate him for a bit, make him sign some kind of waiver dismissing them of liability, and then booting his ass off Callisto on the next shuttle out. A new thought came to him, a good one for once.

Maybe they were going to just give him the bonus and get him out of there if he agreed to shut his mouth about what happened. The Outer Way made them look bad. Bringing down a whole cargo freighter with special cargo in it would definitely look bad. Jacob felt a slight amount of relief hit him. Maybe he could still turn this around. He'd gladly shut the hell up about this, let them say it was some kind of accident.

But Max was still dead.

Dead.

Gone.

Forever.

What in the name of God was he going to tell Kaya? They'd been together for years. They had a daughter for Christ's sake. And now she no longer had a father. He was going to give at least half of whatever hush money they gave him to Kaya and Harriet, help them out. God, what if they decided to take it all? Not give it to him and say he had to deal with it or they'd pin the crash on him? He looked back over at the bitch.

She still had her arms crossed, smirking at him like a petulant child.

"What the fuck are you looking at?" he growled.

She said nothing, just kept staring with that fucking smirk. Jacob could feel his blood boiling. There was perhaps ten feet of space between them. They weren't in cuffs or secured at all. He could be up on his feet, across the cabin, and wrapping his hands around her scrawny fucking neck in no time flat. Literal seconds.

The only thing actually stopping him was that bot standing in the corner.

The door to the driver's cabin snapped open suddenly and the guard stepped out again, the second bot following him in lockstep.