Keeper Hunter

Jean was just ahead of me as we exited the captain’s cabin into a darkened corridor.

“What the Hell!” she growled.

Some sense of danger had me grabbing Jean and pulling her down and out of the light from the door. I heard the pop, pop of a suppressed weapon as we hit the floor the bullets targeting the place we’d been. A second later the door closed plunging the corridor into total darkness. In one swift motion I had Jean’s pistol in my hand and fired back. Flashes of gunfire lit up the darkness and the sound echoed down the corridor. A cry of pain indicated I had hit my target even though I’d fired blind. The door opened flooding the corridor with light Clements stood there framed in the doorway shock upon his face. Aware we were still in danger I leapt up and pushed him back into the room. Jean stumbled in behind me.

“What is the meaning of this!” Clements said.

“Just shut the fuck up!” Jean snarled at him her face ablaze with anger.

“Sorry,” I apologised to Jean trying to calm her down. She could have matched the Valkyrie for temper.

“Don’t be you saved my damn life!” She glared at Clements. “This is you fault!”

“What is going on?” I saw him looking at Jean’s pistol in my hand.

“Someone just tried to kill us,” I said sounding calm but underneath I was trembling in fear my heart beating like a drum. I was certain the bullets weren’t for me. It was a novel experience not being a target. What it did not explain was why Jean?

“Someone with a suppresser on their weapon,” Jean told him.

“I run a tight ship!” Clements countered.

“So tight that you allowed someone on your ship attempt to murder us. That tight enough?” I matched Jean’s words with my own sarcasm towards to Clements.

Jean was speaking on her comms as I said that. “I’ve got a squad of my Marines on the way.”

“You’ve not no jurisdiction here Captain Gardner!” Clements barked at her.

“When someone tries to put holes in me. I damn sure I have!” Jean shot back.

I decided now was the time to intervene. “Captain Gardner we need to secure the scene. Ask your Marines not to disturb anything?” I turned to Clements his face red and his breath harsh. “The goes the same for you Captain Clements.”

Clements bristled at that his eyes narrowed. “Don’t you dictate to me you jumped up bureaucrat!”

“I’m an investigator sent by Lady Broaden herself. If you have a problem take it up with the lady otherwise step aside and let us conduct an investigation?” I didn’t have the authority to do this. I was sure there would be consequences later but for now I had to find if the attack was on me or there was something deeper here?

Clements eyes bulged he opened his mouth to say something. I cut through anything he was about to say. “Consider this attack may have been to kill you. I must ask the question how many of your crew knew you would be alone in your quarters?”

The door comms buzzed in what seemed to me as rhythm. Three short buzzes followed by three long then another three short buzzes. Morse code if my guess wasn’t off. But why send SOS as a code?

Jean had a broad grin on her face. “Let them in Glenda,” she said.

I handed her back her pistol I’d rather not be shot accidentally if they thought I was the danger. I knew how trigger-happy Imperial soldiers could be. I opened the door and stepped back, several Marines barged through the door weapons at the ready.

“Ma’am!” a Marine with sergeant’s stripes on the pauldron of combat armour asked.

I recognised the voice. It was Woody, Claire and Silivia’s sergeant.

“We were shot at,” Jean stated simply.

“Any injuries?” Woody asked.

“None on our side sergeant.”

“So the blood trail was the shooter’s?”

“Yes, you can thank Glenda for that. It’s the pity the shooter isn’t dead.”

“We do need them alive for questioning?” I reminded Jean.

“You are right Glenda. Take three of my Marines and follow the trail.”

She handed me back her gun. “Take this since you are so handy with it. And for the Empire’s sake do not take risks.”

“Aye ma’am.”

The corridor was well lit and it was easy to see the blood on the floor guarded by two Marines in full combat armour their coil assault guns held at the ready.

“Hey Glenda!” one of the Marines shouted to me Claire by the sound of the voice.

“Claire,” I responded.

“You sure like action?” she said gesturing to the blood on the floor.

“I get annoyed when people shoot at me,” I said to her.

“Do they do that often?” Claire asked.

“Too many times I just wish they didn’t.”

She laughed. “Say you guys mind if you swap?”

“No chance,” one of the Marines with me said. “This is as much excitement I’ve had since I saw Malcolm getting his ass whooped. The captain assigned you this task we have ours.”

“Perhaps next time,” I told her secretly relieved. I rather she was safe here than having to mourn the death of another friend. I know she was a soldier but I’d rather not be the one that was responsible. I had too many ghosts to lay to rest without adding to them.

“Yeah later then Glenda.”

The trail of blood was easy to follow. I did wonder why no one else had walked in on this? I followed the trail down the long corridor interspersed with bulkheads and doors. Here and there was a smudge of blood where the wounded person had leaned on the wall. The trail led to a door with a bloody handprint on the wall beside a door console. I flicked a signal to the guards glad I had learned them from Jervic. The Marines got my signal and flanked the door weapons at the ready. I stood ready my pistol aimed at the door. I nodded the Marine closest to the door.

“Open it?”

“He pressed the button and the console light stayed red. It was locked.

“We can get a bypass run through it but we’ve not got the equipment with us?” a second Marine said.

I knew a quicker method. I hoped the nanobots were still active in my blood. “Got a knife?” I asked the Marines.

“Here,” one of the Marines said passing me his combat knife.

It was the twice of the length of my hand and sharp. I made a small slice into my thumb and pressed it against the console. The Marines must have thought I was mad but they didn’t comment. Immediately my blood soaked into the console and the red light turned green.

“Open it?” I said.

The door slid open to reveal a communal bathroom. With three shower stalls, three stalls and three washbasins. The doors to the lavatory stalls were closed, but from the amount of blood pooling on the floor in the one furthest from the door was our likely candidate. The Marines stormed in before I could stop them, ramming the end stall door open.

“Shit,” the Marine said stepping back.

I moved forward to see what he was looking at. A woman with short dark hair sat on the lavatory the side of her pale green jumpsuit stained with her blood. She was dead.

I waved the three Marines back. “I’ll handle this.” Not that I wanted to I’d seen too much death. I approached carefully not knowing what I’d find.

The woman was killed by a single shot to the head. The bullet had entered under the chin and exited through the back of the head leaving a fan like spatter of blood and other things. The fresh tang of blood wasn’t one of those things I would never get used to. There was a Seven Double ‘M’ on the floor a silencer attached. One had hung limply down where it held the pistol. Which explained why it had made little sound when fired. I turned my attention to the wound in her side. The bullet had gone deep and she would have eventually bled out. I regretted what I had done but I just reacted. On the arm of her jumpsuit was and engineering flash and on a tag on her breast was the name ‘Maria Garcia’.

I glanced at the closest Marine. “Find out what Maria Garcia’s duties were.” I winced at that I wasn’t in charge I was a civilian on this ship. I should have just handed this over to the captain and walked away. I knew I couldn’t just yet.

“Aye ma’am,” the Marine said as if he was following orders from his superior.

I waved to the second Marine. “Let Captain Gardner know what the situation is?”

“On it ma’am.”

“Anything else ma’am,” The third said. He wasn’t questioning my authority he wanted orders.

“Yes I want a medtech here ASAP. See if you can get one that knows forensics?”

I really shouldn’t be doing this it wasn’t my place. I was supposed to be going to Paranova. This was Lady Broaden’s problem not mine I refused to get involved. And Yet I was in this up to my neck.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Glenda!” Claire called out breathless. “Silivia found a bomb under the table in our barracks.”

“Does Captain Gardner know?” I asked her. No, I wasn’t getting involved. My next words proved that a lie. “Have all Marine quarters evacuated. “We’ll need someone with expertise to disarm it and any others we may find.”

“You think there may be more?” Claire asked.

“That I don’t know. We need to put the ship on red alert?”

“Yes ma’am,” Claire replied.

“We have to take this carefully one step at a time.”

I was going to regret taking charge but someone had to do it.