Eve On Station

Chapter Nine

Eve sagged against the wall of the lift for a few seconds trying to recover her equilibrium. The last hour or so had been stressful to say the least, first with the vision and then the bomb. Eve had never experienced any psychic powers previously, but at least on a superficial level, there did seem like there was a connection between the vision and her premonition about the bomb. The problem was that she had never been to Vietnam, so how could she have had such a detailed vision? Maybe the explosion of the grenade in the vision and the potential explosion of the bomb was just a coincidence as was the fact that Adair's grandson would contribute to the development of fusion reactors and it was a fusion reactor where the bomb had been placed. It was something Eve was going to have to bring up with her employers, though she felt a strange reluctance to do so. Surely, she couldn't be starting to credit the remarks that the woman in her vision had made about her employers holding out on her, even deceiving her could she?

The lift had almost reached its destination when Eve's wrist communicator buzzed. She glanced at the caller ID and was tempted not to answer, but that would only be prolonging things. "Halt," she gave a verbal order to the lift and then accepted the call. "Hello Ms. Reynolds, what can I do for you?"

"I just had a report from Engineering about a bomb that almost blew up my station," snapped the Station Administrator. "I was wondering why my head of security hadn't bothered yet to tell me about that little incident."

Eve knew she probably should have counted to ten, or maybe a thousand before replying, but she didn't feel in the mood for it at the moment. "For starters Ms. Reynolds, Chief Engineer Null and I finished dismantling the bomb less than five minutes ago. I figured it was better for Null to report it to you while I went looking for the person or people who planted it and who might have a backup plan. Now if you don't mind, I would like to get on with doing just that."

"I am not used to being talked to in that tone Ms. Gold," snapped Reynolds.

"Feel free to request a new head of security from Earth then Ms. Reynolds," responded Eve. "It should only take about six months for a ship to stop here that is headed back to Earth, for them to consider your request, hire someone and send them out on the next available ship. I plan to find the murderer and whoever planted the bomb long before that."

There was a long pause from the other end of the communications link and then Ms. Reynolds said, "I see. Very well Ms. Gold, I will leave you to get on with your investigation for now. I still would like to be kept up-to-date on your progress, at your convenience of course."

"Of course," Eve agreed, ignoring the sarcasm in the other woman's voice, and disconnected. She had been tempted to ask Ms. Reynolds if she knew how to build a bomb, but had decided that was pushing her luck. Thinking about that though brought Eve up short suddenly. Whoever had planted that bomb was presumably still on the station which meant that either they were some kind of fanatic who didn't care if they blew themselves up with the station, or they thought they had a way to get off the station when the bomb blew. Jasleen had mentioned about some of the Isolationists being fanatics, so tracking their leaders down for a little chat was something Eve needed to add to her to do list.

"Resume," Eve order the lift and straightened up. It would never do for the head of security to look like she was having a moment would it? The lift doors opened and Eve stepped out onto Plus Two which was a commercial level on the station with a number of shops and a food court. Eve thought all the places in the food court were locally owned, but among the pizza, taco, Chinese food and other establishments, Eve saw a sign that made her stop short.

"Over 1.3 Googol served!"

Eve's eyes went from the sign up to the golden arches and she stifled a groan. Almost forty light years from Earth, you could still buy a Big Mac and oversalted fries. Eve didn't think there was enough matter in the entire galaxy to make that many meals, but maybe the fries were the dark matter that was keeping the universe together after all. Giving her head a shake, Eve started scanning the food court and after a few seconds located the person she was searching for.