Night Traveller (Gay Romantic Sci-Fi)

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen 

Lieutenant Oliver discovered a couple of interesting things on his trip down to Kapunda on the shuttle. The bald headed man he had seen with Callan was Kurt Anderson. He had a history of minor offences, petty theft, assault, until the last two years when it appeared he had cleaned up his act. His present employer was listed as KowLoon Enterprises. Now where had he heard that name recently? 

Half a minute later he had the answer. KowLoon Enterprises was the company who owned the Sprite, the ship Callan's company had been escorting when they were attacked. The ship the so-called businessman Jian Chang had been travelling in. Well wasn't that an interesting co-incidence? Dane Trenwith was going to have quite a bit of explaining to do when he caught up with him. 

While he was mulling that over, the latest news flash from Kapunda caught his attention. The reporter was interviewing a serious, compact woman with short white hair, cut about a centimetre long, wearing the crisp dark blue uniform of Kapunda's police.  

"How many people have been injured, Captain Spier?" the young reporter was asking earnestly. "Have there been any fatalities?" 

"At this point we have one confirmed fatality," Captain Spier answered, her voice grave. 

"Injuries?" he reminded her. 

"Nothing serious," she sidestepped the question neatly. 

"Do you have any information on the motive behind the bombing? Has anyone claimed responsibility?" 

"All I can tell you at present, is that the police are following up several leads." She looked directly into the recorder. "If any of your viewers have any information that might assist with our investigations, could they please contact the Victory Task Force. Thank you." She nodded in dismissal and moved determinedly away.  

The reporter turned the recorder back to the front of the hotel and zoomed in on one of the guests who was exclaiming excitedly to anyone and everyone how he had been in room 207 and taken refuge in the bathroom when he heard the explosion. "That's supposed to be the safest place, right? I thought the whole building was going to come down around me!" 

Lieutenant Oliver tuned out. Captain Spier was the police officer he had liaised with over the attack on the Argos. He wondered whether Captain Spier really had any leads or if she was simply spinning a line for the public. Had anyone drawn her attention to Callan and Anderson yet? He hesitated. He didn't like the fact that Callan had not been admitted to a medical clinic, when it was obvious he had been injured, but he didn't know what Callan had got himself mixed up in, did he need help or not? He didn't want to make things worse for him. Perhaps he should wait until he spoke to Dane, he would force him to tell him what was going on, whether he wanted to or not. He smiled grimly to himself at the thought. He checked his wristcom, only ten more minutes til they landed. Surely Callan would be alright until then. 

XXX 

Callan looked from one man to the other, neither appeared particularly friendly, in fact the man in red gave the strong impression he would be only too happy to bring out the burning irons if Callan didn't give him the answers he wanted. For the first time he felt that perhaps he needed to worry about more than his hearing loss. 

He tried to stay calm. He focussed his gaze on the man who was standing over him, he at least seemed sceptical rather than actively hostile. "Let me tell you what happened at our end, from the beginning. Ser Keating called me when he got your message-"  

"What message?" the man in red broke in, but Callan didn't hear. He continued, "-and asked me to accompany him, to provide security." Tate made a quick placating gesture to the other man, he wanted to let Callan tell his story uninterrupted, the first time. 

"He was uneasy about the message, he wasn't happy that you'd changed your method of communication but it was signed with the right code so he thought something urgent must have happened. Some sort of problem. Anyway, I arranged for three of my men to come with us, Talyor, Vinh and Muller, they've all trustworthy, been in my employ for years. The next morning we took the Rover direct to Kapunda and walked to the Victory. Didn't see anything out of the ordinary on the way. I sat with Ser Keating in the foyer while Talyor and Vinh checked out room 201, and the rooms on either side for good measure. Unfortunately we didn't check the room above."  

He paused and Tate handed him a glass of water. Callan took a couple of sips before continuing. "Then Chang and his men arrived and went up in the elevator, followed by the man in the messenger's uniform. Everyone was there so Talyor called me to come up. I suppose there was something about the whole setup that had me on edge right from the beginning, when I got in that room and heard a noise above, I just knew something was wrong! Well, you know what happened after that," he cast a brief glance at the man in red. "Talyor and I went up to investigate and Chang and one of his guards came too. The room was obviously rigged, the bomb went off as soon as Chang opened the door." 

Tate pursed his lips. "Can you tell me the exact wording of the message that was supposed to have come from Chang?" 

'Supposed', huh? Callan found he was scarcely surprised, it made too much sense now for the message to have been false, a decoy. It dawned on him that the chances were extremely high that Change had received a similar message purporting to have come from Ser Keating. 

He winced, it looked like it was going to be a long night. 

XXX 

Lieutenant Oliver flashed his ID outside the Rover's hatch. Vinh opened the door, his expression under tight control, hiding the anxiety he was feeling. "Lieutenant." He ushered him inside, "Any news on Callan or Talyor?" 

"Not yet. Where's Trenwith and Ser Keating? I need to know what's going on." 

"We're all in the passenger cabin, this way." Vinh wasn't at all convinced that they should be letting the Lieutenant into their confidence but Trenwith had overridden him.  

"We haven't done anything wrong," he'd protested. "Not really. And anyway, Ryan's safety is the most important thing now." 

Oliver followed Vinh into the passenger cabin and found three men looking anxiously towards him. Well to be honest, Muller was wearing an inscrutable guard face but Dane and Ser Keating were definitely worried. Ser Keating looked as if he might be suffering from shock, his colour was not good, and his hands trembled slightly when he got up to shake Oliver's hand. 

Dane's eyes were wide and instead of a handshake he pulled Mike towards him for an emotional hug. Suddenly their bodies were pressed hard against each other. For a horrifying moment, Oliver thought Dane was going to kiss him. "I'm glad you're here!" Dane said, his blue eyes seeking his. "I'm so worried about Ryan!" 

Hiding his awkwardness at the public embrace, Oliver held him at arms' length and spoke sternly to him. "So tell me what's going on. I can't do anything to help Callan until I know more." 

Speaking more gently he turned to Ser Keating. "Perhaps you could start Ser? What is all this about?" He sat down beside him. 

Ser Keating tried to gather his scattered thoughts. He managed to give the Lieutenant a more or less coherent, if sanitised, account of the deal he was attempting to make with Chang and to tell him how he had asked Callan to provide security but he faltered when he got to the point when they arrived at the hotel. Vinh took over then and described what had occurred in room 201. There wasn't much more to tell, after all, none of them had gone with Callan when he left to investigate upstairs, but before Vinh could finish, and before Oliver could start on the hundred questions he wanted to ask, the latest news flash caught their attention. 

"Breaking news! Governor kidnapped! One hundred thousand credits demanded!"

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