The Cloudy Skulls (Cloudy Sandbox Book 1) (3 page)

‘I wish we’d had a clinician here to do an autopsy.’

‘Rin, calm down,’ Parker said, and stopped walking so he could turn me to face him. He had to stoop as he was a lot taller, but when his warm brown eyes met mine I felt much more relaxed. ‘You’re seeing what you want to see. Keswick is a good engineer. And a good man. He lost a lot of friends today so he’s shaken up and not acting himself, but that’s no reason to go accusing the poor guy of anything. Just relax. We’ve had some bad luck, but things will be better in the morning. You’ll see.’

We went back inside after that and the rush of warmth was welcome. Another officer came to speak with Parker and he apologised and left me.

I didn’t know quite what to do since my “kids” were happily settling in and I hadn’t been officially made commander at the base then there wasn’t really much work that could be done yet. Instead my thoughts drifted back to the power cut, and I remembered what I’d been about to do when Parker found me so I went back outside, this time with a warmer jacket and a handheld p-luma. The light wasn’t great, the crystals needed recharging, but the beam was strong enough for me to find my footing as I did a perimeter check of the base. I passed another couple of officers who were doing the same, but while they were keeping an eye out for victim activity, I was looking for something else. I had no idea what I was looking for, but I was sure I’d know it when I saw it.

Behind the hangar was particularly dark as there were no wall mounted luma panels. The gravel crunched beneath my boots and I had to shine the p-luma down to make sure I didn’t twist my ankle or anything. This turned out to be rather fortunate, as I might have otherwise missed the lump of charred plastic on the ground. I crouched down and shone the light at it from several angles, but it was hard to tell what it had once been. Was it debris from the construction? If so why was it burned? I shone the light out over the rest of the gravel but there was nothing else that I could see. Not satisfied I pocketed the item and began kicking around in the gravel. Eventually I unearthed another of them. Then another. The first one had just come free from where it had been hidden. Were they supposed to be there? They didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen before. I reburied the others and took my prize in with me, but when Parker noticed me coming in he asked me if I was okay and why I was obsessed with going outside. I just smiled politely and told him that I enjoyed the fresh air.

Until I could stop these uneasy feelings in the back of my mind, I wasn’t going to trust anybody.

I addressed my soldiers briefly and turned the dormitory lights off myself once I’d done the rounds to make sure they were all in bed. As soon as the door slid closed behind me I heard the hum of the luma panels coming to life again but I couldn’t bring myself to go back in there and tell them off. It was their first night, and they’d just been dumped into a dead zone where death stalked outside the gates. There was no harm in letting them enjoy their first night here in peace. Come tomorrow I’d whip them into shape and show them what they were in for.

My room was in the officer’s suite, down the corridor from the dormitories. Though that night it was bustling with people as we had officers staying in the guest quarters, once they all left in the morning I’d be all alone. I’d have the entire suite of bedrooms and meeting rooms all to myself. As the door closed behind me on my quarters I wondered if that was a good thing, it would be really quiet without anyone here.

The single bag I’d packed was waiting for me on my bed where I’d dumped it earlier, some of the contents were spilling out as I’d dug through it to find the combats and tank top I’d changed into. I’d already checked and one of the store rooms housed plenty of uniforms ready for distribution tomorrow. Just because I was an officer didn’t mean I was going to wear the starched shirts and skirts befitting of my rank. There would be no other officers here to see it, and I wanted to be prepared in case we were ever under attack, so I was going to wear the same as everyone else. I also planned to go on missions myself, though I hadn’t told Parker that.

After I’d put away the underwear and other few clothes I’d brought, along with a few personal effects, I went and sat at my desk. It was a simple affair of brushed metal that matched the rest of the room perfectly. The walls were panels of light grey, the ceiling was the same but chequered with luma panels. The floor was carpet at least, but also grey. It wasn’t a big room but it was private so I had to be thankful for that at least.

I took the item I’d found behind the hangar out of my pocket, and set it down on the desk. Now that I had better light I could see that it was some kind of device that had charged but fried itself in the process. There were no engravings to mark it as UR tech, in fact it looked like a homemade job, something that had been cobbled together with mismatched parts. Probably why it had burned out and melted. I could guess what it was for, but I had no proof at all, so instead I set the lump of plastic aside and switched on my PCD and began running through personnel files, so I could at least address people by name tomorrow.

The device was always in the back of my mind, though. Since there had been several of them and they’d been hidden under the gravel, I could only assume that whoever put them there didn’t want them to be found.

-

The bang woke me up, but then there was such still silence afterward I stalled in my reaction and just sat there for a long moment as if waiting for another sound to confirm I hadn’t been dreaming. I’d fallen asleep at my desk with my head pillowed in my arms, but I was wide awake now with my ears straining for any little sound, which wasn’t good because the next thing that happened was the siren right above my desk screamed to life. I was still dressed so all that remained was to jam my feet into my boots and grab a jacket. I met another officer as I left my bedroom, but everybody else was still getting changed it seemed, because when I ran out into the main courtyard where the posters told us to assemble, all I could see were lines of sleepy soldiers. They were in varying stages of dress but they were there. It took three minutes for all the officers to arrive, though I noticed Parker at least looked awake and alert.

‘What happened?’ yawned the officer whose immaculate blonde hair had yesterday been in a ponytail, but now hung limp down her shoulder. Her tie was crooked, too.

‘It’s an emergency alarm,’ I told her. ‘Did you really need the tie?’

She frowned but said nothing and stood up a bit straighter. I ignored her and turned to the amassed soldiers. ‘I’m glad to see my soldiers at least know how to follow emergency protocol. This is not a drill, so I want everyone to stay out here until the incident is under control. Sir?’

Parker nodded at me and we broke away from the group back inside the base. We were followed by the blonde lady and another man that I’d already forgotten the name of. I didn’t speak as I led them toward the officer's meeting room. There wouldn’t have been any point anyway, the sirens would have made speaking tough. Parker tried, though, and I heard him yelling something behind me but I just ignored him.

‘-FIRE PERHAPS?’ Was all I did hear, because at that moment the sirens stopped.

‘Did we do that?’ asked the male officer.

‘Hardly, I’m not by a console,’ I said, quickening my pace. ‘It takes an officer’s code to stop the alarm system. Or an engineer…’ I said the last part more to myself, as it had just occurred to me that Keswick hadn’t been with the group outside.

My intention had been to go for the officer's meeting room, where there was a computer bank from which I could assess all of the systems and isolate the problem if there was one, but somebody called my name from down the corridor and I stopped and turned back to find a soldier running toward me. His red eyes were set against tanned skin, and dark hair, and he was tall and graceful as he came to a stop before us. Lucan Peruzzi. I’d made sure to remember all of the soldiers with red eyes, they would be powerful soldiers. Peruzzi had stuck out in my mind more than the others, though.

‘Peruzzi?’ I asked.

‘The hangar is on fire,’ he said simply, and I was glad to find someone like me that didn’t like to beat around the bush.

‘Shit,’ I said, and started running back the way we’d come.

‘Where are you going?’ Parker called.

‘Didn’t you hear?’ I asked, turning back briefly. Peruzzi had been by my side and he skidded to a stop too.

‘What are you going to do about a fire?’ Parker asked. ‘We need to find the appropriate people to-’

‘Appropriate people?’ I could have laughed. ‘Where are we going to find them? We’re in the middle of an abandoned island. The base has a handful of officers and a bunch of soldiers, and one engineer who for all I know is in the middle of the inferno right now. I’d love a nice truck of firemen but the UR didn’t provide me with any, so I’m going to have to make do. If you have any better ideas I’d love to hear them. Quickly.’

He just stood with his mouth open. So I carried on running, following Peruzzi out into the freezing morning air. The sun had barely had time to rise so the sky was a canvas of pinks and oranges, but it was easily light enough to see my way. And also to now see the plume of grey against that gorgeous sky. The chatter of the soldiers hopping around to keep warm was electric, and I could hear the questions being thrown around but I had no answers to give them yet. The hangar was around the other side of the U-shaped base, beside the large training hall, and as soon as we turned the corner the wall of heat hit me. Flames crackled and I could see why I’d been awoken by a bang; the aircarrier that had brought the soldiers over to Japan lay in pieces, with smashed glass and dented metal panels all over the place. There was no time to think too much into that, though, the fire needed to be put out before the hangar itself was ruined. The fire wasn’t huge but there were fuel tanks on the carrier and if one of those got hit then we’d be in deep trouble.

The bright red of an extinguisher caught my eye through the smoke and I pulled it off the wall, checking it was the correct type. I could see Peruzzi doing the same on the other side of the hangar, grabbing up a CO2 canister, and together we began spraying at the dancing flames. It took a while to get it all under control, but soon I was happy the fire was out. By then we’d attracted a small audience, a few soldiers were applauding, but the officers that were standing there looked anything but happy.

‘That was the only way off this rock…’ said the blonde woman, looking even more frazzled than earlier.

I set the canister down, making a note to replace it soon, and walked over to the group. ‘I’m sure they’ll send something to take you home soon.’

Her blue eyes were wild, though, and her hand rose to her hair where she began twirling a few locks around her finger. ‘But what if victims attack? What if we need to get out of here quickly?’

‘We have enough weapons to last until an airslicer can get here, we’ll be fine-’

‘I can’t stay trapped here!’ the woman said, lurching forward and grabbing the tops of my arms with her hands. She was strong and my arms are thin, so I could feel her fingers digging in.

‘I don’t see any alternative. You’re free to swim back, but as it stands we’re currently isolated, yes. I’m about to go back inside and type up a report to submit and I’ll request transport as a priority. I don’t like the idea of being stranded any more than you do, but I can’t knit airslicers, so we’re stuck at the moment. If I can ever find Keswick maybe I can add this to the list of things he’s supposed to be fixing.’

She finally seemed settled which was a shame as I had been hoping she’d go hysterical so I could slap her. Seemed like she could use a good slap. After asking a favour with Peruzzi I went back to my room to make good on my promise of compiling a report and requesting new transport. As much as she didn’t want to be there I didn’t want her there, and in my opinion the sooner Keswick got off the base the better, because it seemed like yet another coincidence that he hadn’t been around just when an aircarrier randomly exploded.

‘Thanks for this, Peruzzi,’ I said as I walked back into the hangar. The damage was minimal, the fire hadn’t spread to the surrounding structure so the only real damage was the huge hulk of metal and plastic that sat in the middle of the room.

Peruzzi was in clear view of the entrance, looking casual and reading something on his PCD, just like I’d asked him to.

‘Its fine, I’m happy to carry out any orders, ma'am.’

‘Let’s not call this an order, okay?’ I asked, as I kicked a fallen piece of glass with my boot. ‘I’d rather it not be official.’

His red eyes narrowed a little as he frowned, but he didn’t press the issue. Instead he stood up, pocketed the PCD and walked over to me. ‘Is everything okay?’

I quickly checked the time on my own PCD. ‘By now I was supposed to have accepted command, the officers would have been on their way home and we’d have maybe even started our first missions. Instead I’ve had a victim attack, an airslicer crash, a power cut and an exploding aircarrier. Call me cynical, but that’s more than bad luck.’

His eyes narrowed further. ‘You think someone is doing this?’

I sighed and ran a hand through my shoulder length black hair. ‘Call it a feeling. I found this behind the hangar last night. There were more of them hidden under the gravel.’

Peruzzi took the melted plastic that I offered him and turned it over in his slender hands. ‘Homemade.’

‘That’s what I thought. What’s your take on it?’

‘Hard to say since it’s ruined, but considering the context I’d say it was an EMP. It would account for the power outage.’

I nodded and took the assumed EMP back, stowing it in my jacket pocket. ‘That was my guess too.’

‘Have you been to the officers with this?’ Peruzzi asked. ‘What do they think?’

I shook my head. ‘Nobody would believe me. Parker just told me to calm down and relax when I tried to tell him about Keswick. My gut is telling me this was him though, he's an engineer so he’d know how to make an EMP. And he was very conveniently the only survivor of this supposed victim attack – and all the victims just happened to be gone when we got here. And I haven’t seen him since the explosion on the aircarrier either. It’s all a bunch of coincidences with him and I don’t like it.’

‘But nobody will believe you?’ Peruzzi said, watching me carefully.

‘No. The Lieutenant General will just say it’s another coincidence, and the other officers just want to get home. They don’t care about what’s happening so long as the airslicer is on its way to pick them up.’

‘Okay, so you wanted me here in case Keswick returned to the scene of the crime. So what are you going to do now? He didn’t show up, by the way.’

I liked Peruzzi, he was acting as a great sounding board, keeping me on track and asking the questions that needed answers. Something about him calmed down my emotions and made me focus. ‘I need more evidence. I'm guessing the reason Keswick didn’t come here is because you were here. Maybe he would have wanted to come back and collect any incriminating evidence. So we need to search the debris.’

‘Looking for bombs?’ Peruzzi guessed, and already he was lifting up one of the metal panels of the aircarrier.

‘Exactly. Bomb parts, anything that could have triggered an explosion,’ I said, as I began sifting through debris.

There was a lot of junk; bolts and electronic parts, whole panels of metal, the interior of the aircarrier with its seats and even scraps of fabric from the curtains that had been over the windows. Just as I was starting to wonder whether it was worth it a deep voice came from the hangar door.

‘Salvaging for parts? I think the aircarrier is dead,’ Parker said, and then he chuckled and stepped through debris to reach us.

I felt foolish on my hands and knees covered in soot and grease, so I stood up and tried to look as presentable as possible. I still wasn’t sure if I could trust anyone, but Parker was in command and he always had good advice. ‘Looking for something.’

His expression changed so quickly I wondered if I’d imagined it, but then he was all easy smiles again. ‘Looking for what?’

‘Not sure exactly, but-’

‘Think I’ve found something,’ Peruzzi called, from near the back of the hangar.

‘Come and see for yourself,’ I said to Parker, and picked my way over the husk of the aircarrier, hearing Parker following me. Peruzzi was crouched down behind a row of upended seats, and I knelt beside him to see what he was looking at. On the underneath of the outer chair was a black box.

‘That could be it?’ he said.

I shook my head. ‘No, it’s bolted on neatly, see? This is a backup recording device that sends data out if the main systems have no signal. It’s placed at the back of the aircarrier to keep it as far away from the main equipment as possible in case of a fire in the cockpit.’

‘Oh,’ Peruzzi said. He was trying not to sound disappointed but I could see it in his eyes.

‘Good find, though,’ I said, but I don’t think it made him feel any better.

Footsteps crunched to a stop behind us. ‘You’re thinkin’ foul play?’ Parker asked.

‘I’m not sure what to think,’ I said, and my hand wormed its way into my pocket, where my fingers brushed against the twisted plastic EMP. There was no need to tell Parker about that yet, though, he hadn’t believed my concerns about Keswick the first time and he’d just call me crazy now. Once I had the bomb too, though, then I’d have more evidence.

‘You don’t let up, do you?’ Parker asked with a chuckle, but suddenly he was down on his knees too, his neatly pressed dress uniform getting dirty.

‘You’re going to help?’ I asked.

‘Why not? Nothing better to do, and I’m going to be here longer than planned thanks to this aircarrier accident. The faster you don’t find a bomb the less crazy you’ll drive yourself, Komatsu. There are plenty of enemies out there beyond the fence, you don’t need to be seeing them where there aren’t any.’

-

We didn’t find anything. For several hours the three of us sifted through debris but we didn’t turn up anything suspicious. Peruzzi apologised and though he had no reason to I couldn’t help feeling disappointed. I had been so sure Keswick had placed a bomb there, why else would a stationary aircarrier just explode?

Keswick even had the audacity to explain it away to the officers when we all crowded into the meeting room. He explained about fuel cells, about static charge, about acts of God. All the while he talked I couldn’t help but wonder if he knew he’d put us all in danger with the stunt, and why had he done it in the first place? What was his game plan? All I knew was that we were all stranded now, and the replacement aircarrier wouldn’t be here for another forty-eight hours. It wasn’t as easy as just sending another one, the UR didn’t have the resources to send us one faster, since we weren’t technically considered an urgent cause. Everyone was fine here, there was no need for evacuation, the officers could work remotely and we had plenty of supplies.

I was about to go and wind down for the day, maybe beat out my frustration on a punching bag then grab a shower and something to eat, when someone knocked on my bedroom door. I pressed the release and found myself face to face with Peruzzi. ‘Peruzzi?’

‘I wasn’t part of it, I swear…’

Well that sounded foreboding.

‘Seth thought the officers were funny, making so much fuss about being stuck here with no aircarrier, so they came up with the idea that the base was haunted because of all the bad luck we’ve been having.’

I felt a headache beginning in my temples.

‘So then Finn suggested trying to contact the spirits, and the officers thought they were taking the piss and, well, it kind of went downhill from there.’

‘Where?’ I asked tiredly.

‘Dormitories.’

‘Thank you,’ I said as I started out of my room.

‘Lucan,’ he said, and I turned back briefly. ‘You can just call me Lucan. If you want.’

Despite the situation I almost smiled. ‘Okay. Thank you, Lucan.’

I expected him to leave me to deal with it alone, but he followed me, falling into step beside me as we made our way down the corridor, past the entrance and mess hall and straight down. As we walked I realised just how tall he was, and that his long legs could have easily carried him faster, but he slowed down for me.

‘What are you going to do?’ he asked, as I paused outside the door to the dormitories.

The metal was too thick to hear anything beyond, so I really had no idea what to expect. I could be walking into a live warzone or they could all have murdered each other already and it would be pure peace and quiet. ‘I’ll do whatever needs to be done,’ I said, and pressed my palm against the door scanner to slide it open.

It was the former. As soon as the door was open a wall of noise hit me, and as I stepped in I could see that the few officers that were in here were getting rather hysterical. Two women were screaming, another man looked as if he’d been crying, and my brand new soldiers were taunting and laughing, or else yelling back. I felt like a primary school teacher, and when I yelled for quiet nobody even batted an eyelid. So I grabbed hold of one of the metal bunk beds, and with Lucan’s help toppled it to the ground. The deafening metallic clatter got their attention, and the soldiers at least stood a bit more upright when they realised I was there. The officers weren’t so disciplined, and carried on whining, only now to me.

‘-complete lack of…of…I don’t even know!’ said the woman with blonde hair. ‘Never seen such disgraceful behaviour.’

I ignored her and scanned the soldiers in their black uniforms. ‘I’m looking for Seth,’ I said, recalling the name Lucan had offered me.

A fairly tall man stepped forward. He was a bit larger than most of the others, with floppy brown hair and warm brown eyes. I tried to recall him from the line up when they’d stepped off the aircarrier and I remembered him grinning a lot. He’d seemed like a nice kind of guy. He wasn’t grinning now, though, he looked a bit worried at having been singled out.

‘Yes, ma’am?’

I wasn’t going to make it easy for him, so I scrutinised him for a moment longer, and I could see beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead under my red-eyed gaze. ‘Care to explain what’s going on here?’

He didn’t look like he wanted to in the least, but now that everyone was watching him he couldn’t just melt back into the crowd. ‘It’s nothing, really.’

‘It’s a very loud nothing.’

‘They were mocking us,’ said the male officer, a short guy I remembered from earlier. Couldn’t recall his name though, so I had to try and make it out from the label across his sleeve. It was either Dolton or Devon, but he was too far away for me to tell which and I couldn’t remember off hand.

‘Mocking you? How?’ I asked, sparing Seth my glare and turning it to Dolton/Devon, who almost fainted under my gaze. Sometimes having red eyes was an advantage.

‘Well they were, you know, holding a séance. They were saying the base is haunted, and that’s why all these bad things are happening. They’re not taking any of this seriously at all, we’re all in danger and they’re playing games.’

I turned back to Seth. ‘A séance? Really?’

‘We think it didn’t work because the offering was a bit crap, the only food we had were ration bars. No ghost would connect with us for that. Hell I wouldn’t connect with us for that, there are probably séance’s going on right now offering chocolate cake. Finn says he thinks he heard his great grandmother, but we don’t think she blew up the aircarrier.’

I could see the officer’s face getting redder and redder, as if he were about to explode. ‘While I don’t see that we’re in an immediate danger and all going to die horribly,’ I threw a look at the officer, 'maybe we should stop pissing about. No more séances, no Ouija boards, no trying to contact the dead.’

Seth’s poorly concealed snort of laughter wasn’t inspiring, but I had to admit it was kind of funny. Which brought me to my next point, so I turned to the officers. ‘And you, I know I don’t have any say over what you do, but no more antagonising my soldiers. If you don’t like what they’re doing, don’t come down here. The officers quarters are all the way down the hall. You’re only going to be here a few more days, so just ignore them. Do I make myself clear?’

The officers all looked outraged, but they at least didn’t speak back to me. They just shouldered their way past me, and left the dormitory.

‘So does this mean no séances
ever?
Because that’s a pretty harsh rule,’ said a guy with dark black hair.

I rolled my eyes. ‘I’m sure you’ll manage.’

The laughter behind me as I closed the door to the dormitories told me they were probably going to be telling that one for months to come. I almost felt bad for the officers but the way they were panicking was ridiculous. I needed the punching bag workout more than ever so I headed off to the training hall, and worked out my frustration before grabbing some dinner, reading system reports, and then finally heading off to bed.