Chapter 6
Four heavily armed men stationed themselves alongside Cory as he unlocked the main cargo bay door and heaved it open. Bright light streamed out into the dim hallway, and they squinted for a moment as they peered inside. They lowered weapons when they saw no one but Jackknife and Lopez inside.
Jackknife shook his head in an exaggerated display. “We told you he ain’t here any more, Cory. You didn’t have to bring a whole freakin’ platoon with you. Of all the places those guys ought to be, this ain’t one of them ‘cause they won't find him here. You ought to lock this bay up tight, seeing as this is the only place we know he ain’t at.”
Cory looked past Jackknife and scrutinized the room with a sharp eye. The system of interconnected containers hung in its center like a gill net full of choked salmon Hundreds of small objects that had been ejected from smashed units filled the empty spaces. A thick, oily substance exuded from a nearby container, trapping passing debris in a tangled glob.
“Are you sure there was only one person in here?” Cory asked. “Seems like there’s plenty of room for someone else to hide.”
“Beats me, but I only saw one guy go out the door, and I’m sure we woulda heard something by now if there was somebody else in here with us. You can send in your girl scouts to check the room if you want.”
Cory motioned to the men at his side. “We’d better make sure. If it’s clean, we’ll seal it off like Jackknife said.” They entered and began sweeping the room for any sign of another intruder. Cory turned back to Jackknife. “You look rough.”
“I’ve been better, I’ve been worse.”
“And you, Lopez, you okay?”
“Me? Yeah, I’m all right. Man, it was pretty wild around here.” He discreetly glanced over at Jackknife and then shrugged apologetically. “I had a hold on him for a while, but I kinda let him get away. Jackknife was on the way to pin him in, but I sort of lost my grip and he shoved me into a bunch of containers. By the time I got free, he was long gone. Then he locked the door, and then Jackknife—” he paused briefly as he weighed his words, “—well, he almost had him, but not quite. I mean, he was right there but just a little behind, and then—”
“He got away,” Jackknife muttered.
“Uh, yeah, he got away.”
“Did you see which way he went?” Cory asked.
“Not through a closed door, I didn’t. But I’m pretty sure it was right or left.”
Cory ignored the attitude. “And how long ago was it?”
“About ten minutes ago.”
Lopez spoke up cautiously. “Probably more like twenty. Jackknife was sort of, well, out of it for a while.”
“Okay,” Jackknife snapped. “Ten, twenty, whatever. He was here then, he’s gone now. He’s out there and we’re in here. He’s moving, we’re talking.”
Cory stiffened slightly but didn't push back, instead directing his next question to Lopez. “Did he say anything to you?”
Lopez thought for a moment before he spoke. “Mostly he just kind of made noises. You know, like everybody does in the middle of a fight. Like when you hit ‘em in the belly and they grunt ‘cause they weren’t expecting it. But now that I think about it, he did say something once, back when I had him in a tight hold. What was it now? Oh yeah, something like, ‘not now’ or maybe ‘not yet.’ It’s hard to say.”
“What do you think he meant by that?”
“Hmmm. I guess it was kind of like a threat. Like I caught him off guard and he was saying he was going to deal with me when he was ready and not before. He probably didn’t want to wrestle in the dark any more than I did, so he was probably upset he didn’t get a clean shot at me.”
Cory nodded his head and looked Lopez in the eyes. He spoke in the plain, direct manner one uses with a child. “It’s important to tell me everything you can remember. Any information you recall could help us. Did you see or hear anything else?”
“No, Cory, that’s all. He might have said something else, but there was things crashing all over the place. I know Jackknife was yelling from across the room, but I couldn’t even make out what he was saying. I just held on and—oh yeah.” He reached behind his back and produced the ripped prison shirt. He turned it over a few times and then held it up with the name tag visible. Cory studied the name for a moment and then acknowledged its significance with a grave nod.
The other men returned from searching the bay and reported it clean, assuring Cory there was no other way in or out. He agreed they should leave the room and designate it off-limits. After ordering everyone out into the corridor, he shut the door and set the deadbolt.
“The only problem is that the lock—as you know—can be opened from the outside. That could allow our guest to get back in and hide where we’ve already looked. We’ll have to put a padlock on it to seal it off for good.” He took an appraising look at the men around him and addressed the pair on his right. “You two, I want you to head back toward Docking Bay D where the others are. We know he didn’t get that far, so you can start from there and work your way back. I want every cubic inch searched. Understood?”
They nodded in unison and left. He turned to the other pair. “And you two, I want you to head back the other way toward the mess hall. Stop when you run into the nearest search team, and work your way back this direction. Got it?”
They followed their orders, leaving Cory alone with Jackknife and Lopez.
“Lopez, I want you to find Ramon and tell him everything you told me. He’s heading up this search, so he needs as much information as you can give him—don’t leave anything out. And update him on the two teams I just sent out. It may be wise to pull in the others from the extremities and have everyone search within the new bounds. But Ramon knows this station better than anyone. If there’s any way this guy could slip past through a maintenance shaft or air duct, Ramon would know about it. I’ll trust his judgment in placing the teams.”
Lopez flashed him a broad, gaptoothed grin as if he had been entrusted to carry Caesar’s orders to the battlefield. He beamed proudly to Jackknife, and deflated only slightly when he received no response. A graceless kick off the doorway sent him sailing down the corridor.
After Lopez left, Cory turned to Jackknife. “As for you, I want you to get down to the supply module and round up as many chains and padlocks as you can. I’ll wait here and keep this door secure until you get back, so make it fast.”
Jackknife didn’t stir. Cory hesitated for a moment, like a boy whose rocket failed to launch when the fuse burned down. “Is there a problem?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, there is. It sounds a lot more like you’re telling me what to do than asking me. That’s a problem.” As he drew closer, the final words were punctuated with thick smoke that curled around Cory’s face. “‘Cause I don’t work for you no more, Cory.”
Cory’s expression perched between anger and disbelief. “Jackknife, this is not the time—”
“No, Cory, this is exactly the time. The time I got left belongs to me. Not to the company, and not to you. I’ll spend it as I see fit, and that don’t include taking orders from you.”
Cory discreetly reached back and felt the wall close behind him. He maintained his ground and tightened his fists in case they were needed, but softened his tone considerably. “Look, Jackknife—”
“No, you look. You might control paychecks around here, but I don’t see as that counts for much anymore. The one thing you definitely don’t control is me.”
Cory drew a deep breath and continued in a placating tone. “What I’m saying is—”
“There you go again, Cory. You just don’t get it, do you? I ain’t interested in anything you’re saying. Now, if you take a notion to start asking, I might be inclined to listen. Or I might not, depending on my mood. But I won’t be ordered around any more like you've done me for the last year. If I decide to go back to the crew quarters and drink myself into a coma like Biggs, that’s my business and there ain’t a damned thi
ng you can do about it. But if I decide to find this guy, it’s because I want to, not because you’re telling me to, so don’t even waste your breath.”
The struggle between protocol and expedience played itself out in the shifting lines on Cory’s forehead. The final arching of his brows in conditional surrender signaled that expedience prevailed. “We can’t afford the time to argue about this, so how about telling me what you want to do.”
Jackknife responded with a self-satisfied smirk. “First I want to go back to the mess hall for some supplies. After that, I plan to settle a little score I got with somebody that slammed a steel door in my face. Now, there happens to be some other guys around here that are looking for him, too, so it’s in my best interest if they help me find him. Since the supply room is pretty close to the mess hall, it wouldn’t be much of a problem to grab a few chains and padlocks and give you a couple, as long as you realize I’m doing it on my schedule, and because it’s what I want to do instead of what you’re telling me to do.”
“I can live with that,” Cory said.
“Good, I thought you could.” Jackknife smiled broadly and started to leave. “Oh, and if you have any more… suggestions, just let me know and I’ll consider them.” He turned and gripped a set of handholds along the walls. With a large tug, he launched down the corridor and out of sight. Once he was gone, Cory contacted Ramon on the hallway intercom.
“Yeah Cory, what’s up?”
“Are you alone?”
“I can be, yeah.” The sound of Ramon clearing the room followed, after which he told Cory to continue.
“I sent Lopez your way to relay some information. I’ll let him go ahead and do that when he gets there, but there’s more to tell. In short, Jackknife and I just had a confrontation, and he made it clear that he’s done taking orders from anyone.”
“That’s bad news. What’s he plan on doing?”
“For now, I think he’ll cooperate with us as long as he doesn’t feel pressured. We need his help, so if you can keep him working with us, then do it. Tread lightly though, because we can’t afford to let him make a scene in front of the other men. They might take the cue to bolt, too. I’m hoping he just wanted to blow off some steam and tell me off, so I let him. But if he’s planning on writing his own rules and interfering with what we need to do, we could have yet another problem on our hands.”
“Every problem has multiple solutions,” Ramon replied.
“Then I’ll trust you to handle things as you see fit. Now, as soon as you can spare him, send Tyrell my way. You and Tyrell are the only guys I know I can count on, and I could use Tyrell's help sealing up the rooms we’ve already checked.”
Ramon hesitated so slightly than not even a close friend like Cory would perceive it. “Hmmm, it might be a while. I’ve got him and another guy checking some of the maintenance shafts on the outer part of West Wing. No intercoms down there. Can I send someone else?”
“No, that’s okay. Just send Tyrell whenever he’s done. I can handle it by myself for a while, and I sort of wanted to talk to him personally. I know he’s not handling this very well. We’ve always had a pretty close relationship, I think, and I know he could use some encouragement.”
“Roger that. I’ll send him when he shows up. Out.”
Cory gave the door another perfunctory check and then hand-tightened the locking mechanism. The wheel budged reluctantly and he managed only a quarter turn out of it. Confident he had done his best, he settled into waiting.
Several minutes passed as he kept silent watch over the empty corridor. When it seemed that no one would appear anytime soon, he reached inside his vest pocket and produced a worn envelope bearing his name in feminine hand. He opened it with the greatest reverence, and removed a letter dated some eight years prior.
Dearest Roger,
There’s a chill in the air, and the leaves are beginning to turn lovely shades of red and orange. The sun is just setting as I sit curled up in front of the fire with a steaming cup of Chamomile tea. I’m thinking of you.
Yesterday I took a long walk through Goodale Park and passed all the beautiful old houses we loved to look at. I went to the small studio where you bought me the hand blown glass last time you were here, but I started to cry and had to leave. On the way home, I saw that same older couple out walking their little Spaniel through the park. They always ask where my “young man” is. I smile and say you’ll be back soon.
You know how dearly I love you, but you must also understand that I can’t wait forever. When we last parted at the gate, you told me you could find a technicality to end your enlistment, but I wouldn’t want a man who compromised his word and walked away from his duties. My mind tells me you are right, even though my heart wants you here, no matter the cost. I pray there is some other way, but it seems less likely with every passing day.
My hair is long now, and I’ve set aside the blue dress you’ve always loved. I will wear it on the day you return, or never again. Should you fail to come back to me, you will always have my heart.
Love forever,
Laura
Cory felt the texture of the paper before carefully placing the letter back inside its envelope. A faint noise echoed nearby and he slipped the envelope back into his vest. He looked down the length of the corridor in both directions, but saw no one.
He unconsciously held his breath as he listened. This time he distinctly heard the sound of metal parts clanging, like someone rummaging through a toolbox. It stopped after only a few seconds, but that was long enough to determine that it came from behind one of the doors just a few meters down the corridor.