Authors: Benjamin Blue
He looked at Rocky. “The FBI and Secret Service will find out what Rosen is all about.” Rocky nodded in reply.
He continued, “Based on all of this, the plotters both here and apparently on Storm Killer want it destroyed. So doing what they want doesn’t seem to make a great deal of sense. Therefore, I am going to order the missile strike aborted.”
Rose let out the air she had been holding in her lungs for what seemed a lifetime. “Thank God, sir. That’s the right decision!”
The President keyed the phone line connected to his Russian counterpart. “Vladimir? Are you there?”
“Yes, Mr. President, I am here,” the Russian replied.
The President spoke, “I must order the missile strike be aborted. Certain information has come to light that changes everything. Please issue the abort order.”
“Are you sure, Mr. President? If we do this thing, we would not have time to launch another strike before your station goes completely rogue.” The Russian president responded.
“Yes, dear friend, I know that. But it must be aborted. So, please, destroy your missile.”
“As you wish. Before I issue that order, I wish to make sure our agreement for certain concessions is not voided by your request to abort.” The Russian wanted his prizes.
“Yes, we will honor our agreement just as if the missile had detonated and destroyed the station.” The President’s face had a small, tired smile playing on its features.
“Very well, I will issue the abort at once. And I think this concludes our involvement in your situation. Yes?” Vladimir asked.
“Yes, thank you. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye and good luck,” the Russian ended.
The President turned to Rose and said, “Rose, there’s three things I need you to do.”
He reached for the top piece of paper on the pile next to his hand. “I want you to tear up this letter of resignation. I do believe that Dr. Rosen will more than suffice as the scapegoat for this whole thing. And why would I want to fire someone as competent as you are?” He handed her the letter. She smiled at him.
“The second thing I want you to do is contact Adam Sand and tell him about the missile abort, and get an update on where they stand on getting control back. Tell him to go through Hardy for any further communications. And then I want you to do one more thing. Allow this Marine,” The President pointed to the uniformed man at the door, “to take you to the hospital for a checkup.”
“Yes, sir!”
“All right, everyone, this crisis is far from over, so let’s all get to work!” the President ordered.
78
Lt. James glided into the elevator terminus at the hub. He saw Kim’s PPU tied to the side of the terminus and he observed another PPU floating nearby.
Who did that belong to?
Drawing his gun, he cautiously entered the terminus. He could hear voices coming from the reception room just beyond the access shaft. He moved to the last rung of the ladder leading to the access shaft, stuck his head over the edge so he could see and hear down the shaft, and listened. He could hear at least two men and woman arguing. The arguing was almost drowned out by a personal communicator ringing.
He heard Bolino’s voice, “Greg, let’s just shoot her and go! That missile will be here soon!”
The other male voice was Greg Ballard’s, “No! Hell, I never wanted anyone dead. This whole thing has gotten way out of hand. Get the duct tape. We’ll just tie her up and let the missile do the dirty work.”
He heard Kim’s voice, “You guys aren’t going to get away with this. We’re on to you. There’s plenty of evidence against you.”
Greg responded, “Yeah, there’s plenty of evidence but it’s almost all here on the station. So when the station’s destroyed, so will the evidence, and so will you.”
Bolino said, “Here’s the tape, I’ll hold the gun on her while you tape her. You can check Sand’s tape too while you’re at it.”
The lieutenant inhaled a breath and muttered, “Sand was in there, too, and was taped up? I guess I had best act.”
He heard sounds of what seemed to be a struggle and shouts from Bolino and Ballard.
“Get her!” Smack!
“Watch out!” Thud.
And then there was a scream of anguish and Greg’s voice ordering, “Kim, stop! Back up into the corner! Do it, or I’ll shoot you.”
He made his way down the shaft and peeked into the reception room. Kim was backed into the far corner facing Greg who held the edge of the desk with one had and covered her with Hoch’s gun with the other.
Bolino floated aimlessly around the room with what appeared to be a broken arm and a large welt over his right eye. He was out cold.
Kim seemed ready to launch herself at Ballard. She seemed almost like a cornered animal. Her eyes were slightly glazed over, her breath came in heaves, and her face had a somewhat crazed look. She moved her fingers almost like claws.
It suddenly dawned on Lt. James. Oh no, she’s high! She took more of that drug crap! What an idiotic thing to do. Get high while about to make arrests of very dangerous people. She’s gone stupid on me.
The lieutenant made a quick decision.
This has to end now!
Adam Sand had yelled at Ballard to leave Kim alone. He had turned slightly to look at Sand. The lieutenant saw that this had gotten Ballard’s attention away from Kim. She made ready to launch herself at him.
Lt. James gathered himself up and launched himself at Ballard’s back. They collided with considerable force, knocking the breath out of both of them. The gun in Ballard’s hand fired.
Fighting in freefall was not easy. There was nowhere to get leverage on an opponent. The lieutenant wrapped one arm around Ballard’s neck and applied pressure. He pressed his gun against Ballard’s temple with the other hand. “Enough, Greg, it’s over. Toss the gun away.”
He could feel Ballard tense up struggling to find some way out of the headlock. He applied more pressure to Ballard’s neck and quietly said, “Stop, now. It’s over.”
He felt Ballard go limp and saw the gun float away. Almost at the same moment, the personal communicator ringing stopped.
He looked over at Kim to ask her to get the gun and saw the shot Ballard had pulled off had hit her. The blood was bubbling from the wound in her right shoulder. A bleeding wound in free fall was very different than in gravity. The blood bubbles out of the wound and forms little balls of blood that float around.
She was staring at her wound with a look of surprise and helplessness.
The lieutenant became infuriated. He saw Ballard through a red haze. He applied all the pressure he could to Ballard’s neck. He wanted to kill him. He would kill him. Ballard realized his precarious position and attempted to pull free.
Ballard’s wind had been cut off. He struggled for short time and then went limp. All of the time this struggle had been playing out, Kim had been observing in detached, almost dream-like, view of what was happening.
She snapped back to reality as she saw Greg Ballard’s face go from vivid red, to scarlet, to a shade of blue. He was being strangled.
No, I can’t let this good man commit murder!
“Stop! Stop! Please don’t kill him. He’s not worth it,” she yelled at the lieutenant. She pushed away from the wall, and leaving a trail of blood balls in the air, grabbed the lieutenant by the arm around Ballard’s neck and started pulling on it. “Stop, please.”
Ballard was limp. The lieutenant slowly emerged from the red haze of ultimate anger and regained his senses. Kim was pulling on the arm he’d wrapped around Ballard’s neck, yelling for him to stop.
He released Ballard, who drifted away, unconscious, but still alive. His face was already returning to a shade of red from the pasty blue color it had been previously.
Lt. James pulled Kim to him. He reached for his handkerchief and placed it over Kim’s wound to staunch the bleeding. Free floating red blobs of Kim’s blood splashed onto their faces and bodies.
They held each other for what seemed like forever. The lieutenant eventually held her out at arms length and said, “You took more coke, didn’t you?”
She nodded her head but didn’t say anything.
“I told you before that if I thought that crap was interfering with the investigation, I would take over, didn’t I?” he asked her.
Again, she just nodded.
“Now is the time. You were very stupid taking that crap and then trying to catch these guys.”
She just nodded again.
“Okay, so that’s done. Now let’s find that chip and truss these guys up and then get you some medical attention.”
For the first time, she spoke, “Don’t worry about my wound. It’s almost stopped bleeding. We have to get the chip back to the control center!”
Adam Sand interrupted, “Sorry, guys, but would you mind untying me before you run off?
Kim and the lieutenant both laughed. Kim began pulling the tape from Adam’s wrists, and Lt. James began taping Ballard’s wrists and ankles and then did the same to Bolino.
Adam asked Kim, “Where did you learn to hand fight like that? When you took out Bolino, it was almost like a zero-G j
ujitsu.”
Kim answered, “Hoch had come up with some unique ways of hand fighting in zero-G. He taught me and we practiced several times a week during the early days here on the station. I have Hoch to thank for still being alive.”
Adam unbound his own feet while Kim felt through Bolino’s pockets looking for the chip. Her heart skipped a beat when she felt its form inside his shirt pocket. She pulled it out and held it up to Sand and James. “We have it!”
Adam said, “Get going, I’ll finish trussing up these guys and stand guard until you get back.”
Kim replied, “Okay, we’re off to return the chip. You should also check your phone to see who was so persistent at trying to call you a minute ago!”
He nodded and pulled up the PCD phone. He read the caller id, “Its Rose Magruder! I hope she has good news for us! I’ll let you know.” He started dialing her back as Kim and the lieutenant headed down the shaft to retrieve their PPUs and head to the control center.
79
Rose was ecstatic, she had her job back and based on the President’s remarks, was more entrenched in halls of power now than she had been before. Now, to get through this crisis with minimum damage both materially and politically.
She retrieved her phone from Agent Rocky and selected Adam Sand’s number. After thirty or more rings, she hung up.
Something was wrong. Why wasn’t Adam answering? Where was he? Should I tell the President I can’t raise him?
She fretted over what to do. She decided to call Kim Danby, the security office in charge of the investigation and see if she knew where Adam was. She dialed Kim’s number and was concerned that it rolled over to the voice mail, indicating the phone was turned off.
She tried Lt. James, the senior security officer onboard, and got the same voice mail response.
What’s going on up there? Adam doesn’t answer and the two main security people have their phones turned off. This isn’t good!
She began walking back to the Situation Room. Just as she reached the door to the room, her phone rang. She answered, “Rose Magruder.’
“Rose! It’s Adam Sand! Sorry I wasn’t able to take your call. I was tied up so to speak,” Adam announced.
“My God, Adam. Am I glad to hear your voice. I was really worried that something bad had happened to you.”
“No, nothing bad. I have good news. We have the chip. It’s on its way back to the control center right now.”
“Oh, Adam, that’s wonderful! I have good news for you, too. The President aborted the missile strike.”
Adam could be heard breathing a huge sigh of relief, “Great! I’ll let the staff know at once. Tell the President we should have full station control back within a few minutes. The only thing left to fix will be the film array deployment, so we can turn off the beam. But we’ll need the beam for a while I would think, right?”
“Yes, you are to resume the attempt to “kill” Edna. Or, at least weaken her before she hits Florida,” Rose replied.
“Okay, will do! I’ll contact you again after control is regained,” Adam said and disconnected the call.
Rose walked into the Situation Room and reported the good news to the President. Things were finally returning to normal.
80
As they rode the PPUs back to the command center, Lt. James thought about the events that had just transpired. From the conversation between Brad and Kim, the lieutenant got the distinct impression that Kim was not involved with Dr. Rosen’s plot. Statements he had heard Greg Ballard make as they had talked about tying up Kim reinforced this. And then the final straw was when Greg had shot Kim.