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Chapter 15 – Business is looking pretty good right now.

[Location: Decontamination Depot t3rm1nu5 - Cafeteria]

Charlie walked into the cafeteria and saw Ruben and Jack playing a card game and the prisoner reading an e-book. He grabbed a chair and sat next to the card players. “We need to have a meeting. I got some bad news for you.

A serious look appeared on their faces and they tossed their cards on the table. Harry glanced up from his e-book for a second and then continued reading.

Charlie took a breath and sighed. “Your buddy Jozef…he had an accident.”

Concern washed across Jack’s face. “Is he okay?”

Ruben sat motionless in stunned silence.

Charlie had always been one to quickly rip a Band Aid from his hairy forearm instead of pulling it off slowly, so he didn’t mince words with his reply. “No, he’s not okay. He’s dead.”

Jack sat back in his chair wide eyed and covered his mouth with his hand. Ruben remained silent while his eyes started to well with tears.

Harry joined the conversation. “What happened? Did he get drunk and take a wrong turn into the hydrogen processor?” He chuckled under his breath.

Charlie adjusted his chair and brought it closer to the table. “Industrial workplace accident.”

Harry’s face lit up. “Wow, you’re gonna have to tell us all of the juicy details. Was a decapitation involved? Radiation poisoning? Some form of body part dismemberment? Was there a lot of blood?” He rubbed his hands together like a child with a gift on Christmas morning.

“It was an accident.” Charlie looked at Harry with disgust. “He was electrocuted while he was working on the replusor.”

Harry frowned. “Not my cup of tea.” He tilted his head a bit and nodded. “But definitely effective.”

Charlie glanced at Jack. “I wanted to ask ya…do you guys normally store your side arms on the ship?”

“Store our side arms?” Jack’s face wrinkled. “What do you mean?”

“Well… when we found Jozef’s body, his side arm was missing from his holster.”

“Missing?”

“Uh huh. He had his duty belt around his waist, but no side arm in the holster.”

Jack puckered his lips. “That’s a breach of protocol. We keep our side arm with us at all times. If we do store it, like when we go to sleep, we store the holster and side arm together in our bunks.”

Curiosity ate at the soft flesh of Charlie’s insides. Where was Jozef’s side arm? Was this really an accident? He didn’t want to show his concern, so he fought back his nerves and remained calm.

Ruben wiped his eyes with a white paper napkin. “Who’s gonna be the squad supervisor now?” He looked at Jack. “Is it Tom?” He blew his nose.

Jack glanced at Ruben and then steepled his hands and placed them onto the table in front of him. “No, it’s not Tom. It’s me. I was designated as second in command by Elixer. It’s my job.” He paused and looked at Charlie. “So, what’s the plan?”

Relief filled Charlie hearing Jack’s answer. Ruben was a quiet kid and definitely not the supervisor type. Tom was too much of a loose cannon to be supervisor—besides, Charlie just didn’t trust him. Heck, for all he knew, Tom might be involved with Jozef’s missing side arm. And if he was involved with that, who knew what else he might be involved with?

“I moved his body to warehouse number three. I stuck him inside of an extra shipping container. My thinking is that you guys get that replusor fixed and get going toward Mars. I’ll wait until you’re on your way to send the accident paperwork to Central. That way OSHA will do all of the questioning and investigation on Mars and stay outta my hair.”

Jack nodded. “Okay. Tom knows repulsor repair; I’ll get him on it.”

“By the way,” Charlie furrowed his brow, “where is Tom? Jozef told him to stay here and watch McCormick.”

“No idea. Now you can see how it is between those two.” Jack sighed. “Jozef normally gives Tom the shit jobs and Tom rebels and doesn’t follow orders.” He turned toward Ruben. “You come with me and we’ll load Jozef’s body onto the Elysian Fields. We’ll have to see how large the shipping container is and figure out where we can store it.”

Ruben stood from the table and nodded in agreement.

Jack glanced at Charlie. “We’ll take a look for Jozef’s side arm in his bunk, but I doubt it’ll be there.”

“Yeah…lemme know what ya find.”

“Hey, what about me?” Harry chimed in, looking away from his e-book. “I can help.”

Jack replied, “Thanks for the offer, but the only thing you’ll be doing for the rest of this trip is cooling your heels in your cell.”

Harry stood and pressed a counterfeit frown on his face. “Now that’s too bad…” the frown began to slowly morph into a smile, “because killing is my business.” His smile grew into a wicked grin that caused the ends of his mouth to curl. “And business is lookin’ pretty good right now.” Then he gave a slow, scratchy laugh and turned back to his e-book.

Charlie studied the other two men in silence, thinking about what Harry had just said, then looked away. Like any good puzzle-maker, he was trying to complete the edge first, but the pieces that connected to the missing side arm didn’t fit at all.

Jack keyed his mic. “Salsbury.” There was no reply.

Jack waited about fifteen seconds and keyed his mic again. “Salsbury.”

An angry voice blurted through the speaker. “Whhaaaaat!”

“Where are you?” Jack huffed impatiently.

“Don’t you worry the fuck about where I am. What do you want?”

“I need you to go to the high power lab and repair our bad replusor.”

“I thought the Ukraninan numb-nut was doin’ that. And by the way, who made you high honcho all of a sudden?”

A look of frustration came across Jack’s face. “He needs your help. Now get yourself to the lab and help him get that replusor fixed. We need to disembark in a couple hours.” From the conversation, Charlie guessed that Jack didn’t want to discuss Jozef’s death over the handheld.

Tom replied sarcastically, “Aye, aye Captina Bly. That hamburger did a number on my insides so I had ta stop by the shitter. When I’m done, I’ll head over to the lab.”

Jack glanced at Charlie and then keyed his mic. “Fine. Whatever. Just get that repulsor fixed.

“Sounds like you got things under control.” Charlie started to walk toward the doorway. “I gave Roy an assignment and I need to check in on him.”

Jack replied, “We’re gonna head over to the warehouse and then over to the ship.” He and Ruben collected their gear and started to leave.

Harry chimed in again, “Nobody is gonna keep me company?” He glared at Charlie with a smirk. “How about your wife? I bet she would jump at the chance to keep me company.” His eyes narrowed and his chin lowered slightly as he displayed an evil smile.

Charlie’s blood pressure increased a few ticks as he glared at McCormick in silence. He knew responding to stupid comments like that wasn’t worth his time, but somewhere inside of him a spark of anger erupted. He was able to quench it, but it remained there smoldering and waiting to fully re-ignite. Charlie wasn’t a big fan of Harry McCormick to begin with, but any respect he had for the guy was decreasing the longer he knew him.

Charlie watched as Jack turned and walked back to the cubed cell. “That reminds me.” He pulled a controller from his pocket and put the cell into isolation mode. “Since nobody will be able to keep eyes on him, it’s best to keep him fully secured while we’re gone.” Then he and Ruben headed toward dock number three.

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