He located the nearly depleted oxygen cylinder and quickly replaced it with a fresh one. As he was about to exit the module, he noticed a science-supply canister attached to a bulkhead in a position reserved for waste receptacles. Stencil markings on the canister identified it as belonging to the Mars Project.
“Goddamn Martians act like they own the place,” muttered Dan. He detached the canister and shoved it gently in the direction of its proper storage area. The canister wobbled slightly and struck a dry-goods cylinder with a loud thud. Dan instantly realized the canister held something far more massive than usual.
He opened the lid. Carla Sue Gamble stared back at him.
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered. “Jesus H. Christ and a half.”
They were in the deepest recess of the logistics module, well hidden from anyone who happened to float past the hatch. Dan had waited until after Lorraine completed her therapy session with the European tech before asking her to accompany him. He did not want to arouse suspicion.
“Asphyxiation. Eight, maybe ten hours ago,” said Lorraine, her voice dropping in response to Dan’s urgent gestures. “I’ll get another body bag.”
“Not yet,” whispered Dan. “We’re going to leave her right here.”
Lorraine held her hands palm up as if asking why.
“I know I didn’t kill her and I’m pretty sure you didn’t either. After that, I’m not certain about anyone. Every innocent person on this station thinks we have a killer locked away at the observatory. If they learn otherwise, we’ll have a real panic on our hands. And the shuttle is still at least two days away.”
“But someone will notice she’s missing.”
“We’ll deal with that problem when it comes up. Help me with this.”
They closed Carla Sue in the canister.
“Lorraine, can you take over for me for a couple of hours?”
“Me?”
Nodding, “Stanley’s on watch at the command module. If you have any problems, he can help. I don’t know where the hell Freddy Aviles or Lance Muncie have gotten to.”
She saw the anxiety on his face, heard it in his voice. “Sure, Dan. But where will you be?”
“I want to visit O’Donnell. Maybe I was wrong about him.”
In the main airlock. Dan sucked oxygen from a mask as he worked himself into an EMU. Prebreathe was a pain in the ass. The pure oxygen was so dry it felt like sandpaper rasping his sinuses. And it was boring. He usually fumed about NASA, ESA, and Trikon’s joint inability to fashion a space suit pressurized to one atmosphere, but this time he actually welcomed the forced inactivity. At least he wouldn’t discover any more dead bodies.
His thoughts turned to O’Donnell. What did he expect to accomplish by traveling to the observatory? Would O’Donnell have any answers, any clues about what the hell was happening on Trikon Station? Did he expect to return O’Donnell to the station? And if so, as what? An advisor? An ally? An instant source of panic?
Dan snapped his helmet into place and called Lorraine over channel D, the secured comm link he had designated for their chatter.
“I’m all gassed up and ready for egress,” he said. “Any of my crew show themselves?”
“Just Stanley,” said Lorraine, her usually husky voice sounding thin over the tiny speaker. “I haven’t seen Lance or Freddy.”
“Any other problems?”
“Not a one. No one’s asked about Carla Sue yet.”
“I won’t be gone long. Out.”
“Take care,” she replied before he cut the link.
Outside the airlock, Dan backed himself into an MMU and ran a quick check of its propulsion and guidance systems. Finding everything in proper order, he undocked and jetted off on a path that looped around the raft of modules at a safe distance. The brilliant wash of sunlight and earthglow exhilarated him, and he found himself thinking not of Weiss or O’Donnell or Carla Sue but of Lorraine. For reasons he could not fully understand, he sensed that their relationship was about to change. Everything that had happened before—the early days of their stint on the station, the blood-pressure testing, her fling with Kurt Jaeckle—slowly diminished into irrelevance. He did not know exactly what lay ahead for them, but he felt certain that a new relationship between them was beginning. It almost made him smile.