Murder in Orbit Read Free Page B

murder!” I shouted. “I want to report a murder!”
    The man looked angry. I guess people don’t like having their day shaken up like that.
    â€œIf this is a prank …”
    â€œThere’s a dead man in the Waste Disposal Tank! Are you going to do something about it or not?”
    â€œWhat’s your name?” asked the man.
    â€œWhat difference does that make?” I yelled.
    â€œI have to make out a report.”
    I rolled my eyes in disgust. “Will you get somebody over here? We can make out the report later. If we don’t get that body out of the tank soon, there won’t be anything left of it.”
    â€œWhere’s your supervisor?”
    â€œI can’t reach him.”
    â€œWhat do you usually do in case of an emergency?”
    â€œWe’ve never had one.”
    â€œWell, what would you do if you did have one?” snapped the man.
    â€œIf it was bad enough, I’d shut down the system.”
    â€œAll right, if you’re telling the truth, and there really is a body there, you’d better shut down the system. But if there isn’t, you’d better be prepared to suffer the consequences.”
    â€œThanks for nothing,” I snapped. I slapped the Off switch and took some pleasure in seeing the jerk flicker out of sight.
    Then I went and shut down the system.
    It wasn’t long before I heard from my boss. The shutdown had set off an alarm he carries with him wherever he goes.
    â€œRusty!” cried a voice from the ceiling. “What in Sam Hill is going on?”
    â€œYou’d better get down here quick, Dr. Hadley!” I yelled. “There’s a dead man in Tank One!”
    He started to ask me a question, thought better of it, and said, “I’ll be right there!”
    And he was, too. Showed up just about the time the guy from Dispute Management got there.
    I really don’t want to describe what happened next. Let’s just say they both yelled at me. Then they started yelling at each other. Then they took turns yelling at me and each other. After a while someone finally got the bright idea of looking in the tank to see what I was talking about.
    It was too late, of course. By then, the body was gone—completely dissolved. They decided to drain the tank. It didn’t do any good; there wasn’t anything left of that guy that you couldn’t have bought at your local chemical supply store.
    â€œOkay, lad, I think you’d better come with me,” said the man from Dispute Management. His name was Dyvach Jones, and we weren’t getting along in person any better than we had over the phone.
    â€œWhat for?”
    â€œA lot of things. I’ll want a statement from you. We’ll need a formal description of this ‘body’ you thought you saw. And I want to run a few blood tests on you.”
    I knew what he was getting at, and I didn’t like it. “I’m not on anything,” I said tersely.
    â€œI’ll vouch for that, Jones,” said Dr. Hadley. “Rusty’s not that kind of kid.”
    â€œThey never are,” Jones said gruffly. “But I happen to believe in Occam’s razor. And the idea that this kid has been sniffing, snorting, or popping something one of his friends cooked up with their home chemistry set is a lot easier for me to swallow than that someone in ICE-3 is a murderer.”
    Dr. Hadley shrugged. “Have it your way. I’m sure you won’t find anything.” He looked at me, and I could see the question in his eyes: You’re not going to make a fool of me on this, are you ?
    I looked straight back at him and shook my head just a fraction of an inch.
    He smiled. “You better just do what he says, Rusty. It’ll be easier that way.”
    I shrugged and headed out the door after Jones.
    I figured at least this way I wouldn’t have to clean up the mess.
    Just shows you how wrong a guy can be. There’s more