“Can you draw the curtain?”
Lucinda did. Maricia slipped the bloody double-breasted tunic off. Her camisole also had some bloodstains where it had soaked through. “For the last hour or so,” Maricia started, “I’ve been thinking about a couple of things.”
“Oh? And they would be?” Lucinda asked.
She dabbed at the stains over her breasts with a cloth set with peroxide. “I’m sorry that I was so angry with you. The more we learn, the easier it is to see that what happened between you and Raul”—she paused—“what happened was not your fault. I’m sorry, Luc, for being a bitch.”
“Everyone is made miserable in some way by Parambi.”
“There is another thing. You said something upstairs. The timing of this meltdown is bothersome, too coincidental. It is like he knew something.” She stopped cleaning and looked at Lucinda.
“Raul agrees. I was going to ask him to see if there was any way that Parambi could have eavesdropped on our conference.”
“Great idea. Let’s go talk to him.” She donned a clean size two, fastened the connectors, and asked with a look if she looked OK.
Lucinda nodded her approval. “We’ll need to take the lift. You are recovering, girlfriend.”
Lucinda opened the curtain. Zhivago and Jekyll were imaging and assessing their patient, while Ivanna worked on separating burned clothing from skin. The women exited to the lift.
The cleaning robot was at work in CAC. Blood, fire, hasty napalm, extinguisher, and other destruction had left a huge mess. It buzzed about as Savanna and Cyrus talked.
“That was good thinking about the lift. I really didn’t think it would work.”
“I didn’t think we had other good options. Besides, I wanted to hit you with a toolbox.”
“You succeeded. I have the bruises to prove it.”
“Good. I’m curious about Lucinda’s question of the timing of Parambi’s actions. Is there anything to that?” For twenty minutes, it seemed their relationship was back at where it had been before launch until she asked that question. Cyrus iced over.
“Not that I know.”
“It is too much of a coincidence. Anyway, do you want me to do anything?”
“Not until I’m off shift.” He looked at her with a smile perhaps intended to be seductive. She only felt disgust and was surprised at her visceral response. The twenty-minute reprieve was clearly over for both of them.
“I’m going to Medical to check on the injured.” With that, she went down the stairs. As she was passing the threshold to COM, she saw Lucinda and Maricia walking from the elevator toward the COM station. She detoured and followed them.
“Hey, ladies,” she called out. They both turned.
“You saved the day, Savanna,” Lucinda said. “Nice work. When did you learn to be an elevator repairman?”
“All in a day’s work-around here. Mar, let me see your forehead.” Savanna lifted up the headband and inspected the fine surgical work for a couple of seconds. “Looks painful.”
“The price of being spastic.”
“Girls get knocked up in the dark.”
“Ha.”
“So what’s up?”
“We came to ask Raul something,” Lucinda said.
Savanna waited for more information. Nothing came. “Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all,” Maricia said. They walked a few steps and found Raul, legs splayed and wearing a headset, unaware of their presence until they appeared in his visual field.
He removed the headset and looked up from his chair. “This is a lot of estrogen,” he said with a smile. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“We are curious, hon,” Maricia said. “Is there any way that Suresh could have overheard our powwow?”
“He has been locked out of the system. He could not have activated a mike or a camera.”
“Can you check if our conversation was transmitted?” Lucinda asked.
Raul thought for a moment then started tapping icons. “I can look through some of the logs. Let’s see. Nothing here. Nothing here,” muttering mostly to himself as he searched.
“How is Parambi?” Savanna asked.
“The bastard is still alive,” Lucinda responded, “pissing away our resources.”
“This is his third neurosurgery in a fairly short time,” Maricia said. “Then there is the burn. He is not likely to recover very well.”
“If he makes it to landing, he’ll make it hell on K-70, or whatever we call the place.” Lucinda said, her arm around Maricia’s waist.
“I doubt he’ll make it thorough ultra-hibernation,” Maricia said.
“What’s this?” Raul muttered. Well, well, well, Cyrus opened an audio channel from CAC just before the meeting using a—I bet he thought he could not be tracked by doing it that way. He is not a COM guy,” Raul bathed in self-satisfaction until the realization of what he discovered sunk in.
There was silence until Savanna spoke. “So, Raul, what are you saying?”
“Cyrus opened a mike. This allowed someone, Suresh, for example, to eavesdrop on the meeting.”
“He could have heard and seen what was going on in the conference?” she asked.
“He could not have seen anything. He potentially could have heard all of it.”
“Can you tell if he was listening?” Lucinda asked.
“Maybe,” Raul muttered as he spent another twenty seconds looking through data. “There was an open speaker in quarters. So, yeah, he was listening.”
“What in the hell was Cyrus thinking?” Savanna thought aloud.
“The idiot almost got me killed!”
“I’ve had enough of this bull,” Raul said.
“Let me talk to him before you all let him have it,” Savanna proposed.
“Can we trust you?” Lucinda challenged. “I thought I could trust everyone when we took off. I am learning otherwise.”
“He lied to me about this. If we all gang up against him, it may go poorly. He does not do well when cornered. If he has just a little warning, it might help. Just give me five minutes before you come upstairs. By the way, how much longer will Suresh be in surgery?”
“At least an hour,” Maricia said. “He will be unconscious for several days.”
“You have three minutes,” Lucinda said with poorly masked hostility.
“There’s one more thing, Savanna, that you may want to know.”
“Now what, Raul?”
“I started looking into Suresh and his activities the past few days.”
What he told them brought tears to all three. Then a resurgence of bitter anger filled the room.