Chapter 353

The Women's Construction Trailer at The Retreat

Charlotte Bankston had received a small black light flashlight in the mail while she was at her mother's. With the flashlight were instructions to search the drainage pipes that had already been or would soon be delivered to the jobsite. The other women were over at the dining trailer playing cards and socializing with the men. Danielle had tried to get her to go with them, but Charlotte had declined the invitation, saying she was going to relax and read a book she had bought during the holidays.

After waiting until she was sure the others weren't going to make a quick return, she came to her feet, donned her cold weather gear and dropped the tiny flashlight into a pocket. After pulling on her gloves, she stepped out the door onto the small porch where she stood casually looking about her. There were obvious cameras stationed around the large fenced compound – cameras that she had paid little attention to before. Now they seemed to be accusing her almost as if they were pointing fingers.

Oh, shit. How do I do this? I know I need to appear casual, but who can appear casual walking around in this wind and cold when I could be inside relaxed and warm? Be calm, she admonished herself. You've walked around before bedtime before. But not when the temperature was fifteen below zero, she answered herself. At least the wind seems to be slacking some and it has stopped snowing – for the moment. You're just out for a stroll to let your meal settle before bedtime, she told herself as she pulled her hood up.

Making up her mind, she boldly walked over to the fence directly under one of the cameras, then paralleling the enclosure, began walking briskly north, her boots making a squeaking sound in the new snow. A couple of hundred yards farther along, she made the turn toward the west, which would eventually bring her to the area where the excess rock and dirt were going to be pushed into the crevasse.

She knew she was being watched – the guards were obvious at their stations, and a notification had been on the waiver all of the workers had to sign before being allowed on the Matthews' property, so she turned well before the edge in case they had something like a suicide watch. One slip at the edge and it would all be over. Other than this one place, the whole compound was fenced, and that single wire strung along insulators at the top of the fence was doubly intimidating.

Now is the time, she told herself. I can walk along the fence as it borders the edge of the drop-off, or I can start directly toward our trailer which will allow me to walk between the stacks of pipe and building materials that have already been delivered.

Tightening her hood more securely about her head and face, and slapping her glove-clad hands together as if she were cold – which she was– she cut across the supply area in the direction of her trailer. There was already a large stack of six-inch, steel drainage pipes more or less in her direct path. As she walked through the stacks of supplies, most covered with tarps, she was fairly certain she was out of direct sight from any of the cameras, but she was still fearful there might be other cameras that she hadn't spotted yet.

As she neared the stack of pipes, she palmed the small light. Both ends of the pipes had plastic caps to keep foreign matter out during shipment. According to the note, one of these would have a one inch circle on it that would react to the black light.

Frantically, she shone the tiny light from one to the other of the end caps, systematically working through the stack, but the light revealed nothing out of the ordinary. She knew that anyone observing her stroll would wonder why she was taking so long to cross through the storage area. Returning the light to her pocket, she jogged toward the edge of the area, then slowed to a walk as she strolled into the open.

I still have the other ends of the stack of pipe to check. Worried, she wondered if she could get away with the same ruse again tomorrow night so that she could complete her task. Shit! I hope it's not there. I can't do this, but I can't let them kill Mom, either. Damn their sorry souls to hell.

Worried almost sick, she forced herself to stroll calmly back to her trailer. With one last glance about her, she went back inside. Knowing she would have a hard time going to sleep, she got a glass of milk from the refrigerator and sat to drink it. When she was done, she rinsed the glass and put it in the dishwasher, then sat on her bed. After a moment, she took her billfold out and sat staring at a picture of her Mom, then slid a picture of Art Hanes from where it was concealed behind other pictures. It had come with the flashlight and showed the face of a very nice-looking young man, but the picture was grainy and the color was off as if the picture had been taken from a distance. Can I even identify him from this? she worried. I think I've seen him, but I can't be positive. If I'm going to save Mom, I'll have to kill him, but I certainly don't want to kill the wrong man – assuming he ever comes close enough to me so I can even attempt it. The thought of shooting someone – someone she had never even met, was making her wonder if the milk she had just drunk was going to stay down.

Sighing, she slipped the picture behind others, returned her billfold, undressed and slipped into bed. Thirty minutes later, her noisy roommates returned, giggling about teasing the men – as usual. Although she faked sleep, she lay awake for a long time before true sleep overtook her tired brain.

Inside the Retreat, Jeff, along with others, was sitting in the living room waiting for word of his wife and Selina when he suddenly sat up straighter as Ship spoke in his mind.

"They're back?" Arlene asked.

But Jeff was shaking his head. "No," he said, drawing the word out. "Ship assured me yet again that Selina and Di were okay, but Ship wants to discuss something with me."

"We'll go with..." Arlene began as she stood with her father, but he reached out a hand to touch her shoulder.

Again, Jeff shook his head. "Stay where it's warm. This shouldn't take long."

Arlene conceded, "I'll make some fresh coffee while you're gone." Then, "Wear a coat, please Daddy. It scares me to think of you going outside wearing only a shirt and jeans with it this cold and the way the wind is blowing."

"But I don't..." he began, but seeing the look on her face, smiled and simply said, "Okay, Love."

Remembering what he had promised Arlene, Jeff stopped by the coat racks and took out a jacket. By the time he opened the outside door of the garage, it had begun to snow hard, and the visibility was down to only a few yards. A normal person would be able to see only a faint glow from the nearest of the night lights, but the Prime's vision had already shifted and the area was bright, but even with his enhanced and very acute vision, he could still see clearly for less than a hundred feet as the snow began to pour down.

Nevertheless, he knew where the Ship was, and with his body's awareness, could have maneuvered around the property with his eyes closed. Anxious, he jogged toward the Ship.

As he neared, the ramp materialized and he barely slowed as he jogged up it and through the hatch. Inside, his jacket and clothing now free of snow, he tossed the jacket onto a seat. What's up? he asked Ship mentally.

Something ... odd just happened in the fenced in compound, and I thought you would want to review my recording of it, Ship returned in her mental voice.

Jeff slumped into a seat. "Show me," he responded aloud.

The wall/bulkhead facing him changed into a screen to show Charlotte Bankston as she walked out of the trailer, stood for a moment, then began walking the compound fence.

"Cold night for a stroll, but I've done the same," Jeff commented as Charlotte neared the drop-off, then stood looking back toward the trailers for a moment. "Do you think she's contemplating taking her own life?" the Prime said, concern evident in his voice.

Ship hesitated before saying, "I ... do not think that is the reason for her late walk in the snow. Continue to watch, please."

As she approached the area where the supplies were stored, Jeff's attention grew. "Is she cold? Is that why she aborted her walk?"

"At this point, I knew that I was going to lose sight of her, so I deployed remotes."

The scene shifted as the micro remotes took up the visual. Charlotte worked her way between the pallets and stacks of supplies to stop at a stack of pipe. Before Jeff could say anything, she took something out of her pocket and shone its light – the Ship making the ultra violet light visible on the screen – onto the ends of each of the pipes. After thoroughly inspecting the caps of each pipe, she put the light back in a pocket and jogged to the end of the supplies where she resumed a casual walk back to her trailer.

"What the hell was she looking for?" Jeff asked, not expecting Ship to answer, but she did.

An image of the pipes appeared, the camera/remote obviously moving around for a more direct view of the ends of the pipes where Charlotte had shone her black light. All appeared normal there, but the remote moved to the other end of the stack of pipes. Within seconds, a red circle appeared superimposed around the end of one of the pipes. As the camera moved closer or zoomed in – Jeff couldn't tell which – an outline of a handgun appeared on the screen, the weapon nestled just inside the end of the six inch steel pipe and concealed by the end cap.

"Well I'll be damned," Jeff muttered. "We must have an assassin, but I know Security has run an exhaustive check on everyone, particularly after that guy gave himself up. Mayfield is too good at his job to let an assassin sneak in with a weapon. In addition to the scanners at the gate, all the guards wearing invisibility camouflage have scanners that they use on everyone from time to time. Hell, I've even chatted with her. Admittedly only long enough to say hi and pass a couple of words between us when I walked by where she was working, but she damn sure fooled me."

Then almost talking to himself, "This doesn't make sense. I've read the bio on every last one of these people. She's been with the company for a number of years and has moved up to operator. Her supervisors have given her top ratings on every review. She tends to be a loner and goes home to be with her mother every chance she gets. There isn't one black mark on her job record. Surely, that isn't the bio of an assassin. But what in the hell else could she want a handgun for out here? Why would she risk her job to get one? And who put it in that pipe, and how did she know it was there?"

Ship didn't know and didn't respond.

"I need Lieutenant Mayfield to meet me at the Ship, ASAP," he subvocalized into his throat mike.

Selina and Diana's Mission

..."Well, you had better find something in the next few seconds or we and you are going to be sucked into that black hole," the Queen said, her voice suddenly calm.

"I..." the AI hesitated, "understand. I do not want to die either, but we need at least ten miles free of any appreciable mass before we can safely warp out. While the channel is open for the next fifteen light minutes, it is not wide enough to allow our warp drive to function properly. There have been crews that have warped out and never been heard from again. Eight, to be more precise. No one knows what happened to them, but it has been speculated that they did not have a large enough mass-free area when they engaged their warp drive.

"One crew did manage to return after a flawed warp-out, but even they were not certain what the cause of their problem was. I have their statements in my data banks and they generally surmised that there must have been a substantial mass near enough to their drive to cause them to arrive far from their planned destination. Although they did eventually manage to return, they were low on food and air upon their arrival. They said it had taken them weeks to finally determine where they were, and still more weeks to return to base.

"An intensive disassembly of their warp drive divulged nothing out of order. The drive was reassembled and it worked perfectly. Thus the speculation that their course deviation occurred because of a mass in close proximity to their vessel when they went to warp..."

"Course laid in," Diana told her Commander. "If we stay, we know we're dead. I'd rather take a chance on dying some other way. If we wind up in another galaxy, we'll find a planet, resupply our air and go exploring."

Selina took another look at what was probably the accretion disk of a black hole as their speed in relation to it neared zero. "Initiate," she said.

"But..." the AI began.

"Initiate and put every ounce of power we have into the warp drive, and I do mean every ounce," Selina ordered.