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Authors: Benjamin Blue
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authorization to commence.”
Adam asked, “Brad, do we have anyone on the station security team that has any criminal investigation experience? We’re certainly out of our depths, unless one of you has a hidden past.”
“I’ve asked myself the same question,” Brad replied. “Yep, our onboard CORDEX security force contains a person who was a detective on the Kansas City Police force prior to joining our project. She’s the one waiting outside. A real ball-buster type.”
“She? Do you mean Kim Danby? What’re her credentials?” queried Greg.
Brad scanned the screen on his personal wristband computer and replied, “Apparently she was hired because of a paper she wrote on dealing with crimes in space. Seems the international nature of our space program leads to some interesting twists and turns in jurisdiction and adjudication. She started out as lawyer and became a police officer after the disenfranchised minorities uprising of ’09. Her family was murdered during the Los Angeles riot that year. The murderers were never caught. She, herself, was badly injured by the perpetrators. Her successfully closed case rate as a cop is over ninety percent.”
Adam smiled and stated, “Kim is going to earn her pay this week. Let’s get her in here and brief her. I suggest we let her run the investigation and get the hell out of her way.”
To this both declaration, Brad and Greg nodded their head in agreement. Brad added, “She can have what ever she wants and needs on this.”
Adam said, “Call her in.”
Security Officer Kimberly Danby entered the conference room with no fanfare. She was an above average looking thirty-eight-year-old woman. There was just a hint of gray streaks in her brown hair. She wore no makeup and dressed in the dark blue and white unisex uniform of a CORDEX Security Officer.
She wasted no words and tersely summarized the current situation and then asked for the authorizations to start an immediate investigation. She never smiled nor frowned. She was thoroughly professional and no nonsense in the eyes of the three men.
Adam nodded at Brad. Greg made a thumbs-up sign. Brad moved to his desk and spoke as he was typing on his keypad. “Officer Danby, y’all are hereby authorized to investigate the incident that just occurred and you may utilize any resources of this station in that mission. Adam, Greg, myself, and the various department heads will defer to your experience in this matter and take orders from you related to furthering the investigation. We will continue with our current schedule to begin Storm Killer’s attack on Hurricane Edna while you mount the investigation.”
The laser spit out a formal order from Brad to Kim covering the items he was discussing verbally. This written order was instantly transmitted to the department heads.
Kim took the paper, folded it, and placed it in her pocket. She looked at each man in turn and then simply stated, “Gentlemen, we have a saboteur in our midst. Let’s flush him out.”
18
Storm Killer Attacks
On command, Storm Killer slowly turned herself, positioning the reflective web to best capture the unfiltered sunlight of near Earth space.
The three remaining webs of magnifying films began to slowly flutter as the SKIDs worked to move the webs to the optimum-computed positions. At exactly eight hours sixteen minutes ten seconds, all the webs were in perfect alignment. The entire bottom third of Storm Killer was ablaze with backwash white light so bright anyone staring at it for more than a few seconds would be forever blinded. No laser had ever generated such a large intense beam of light.
The brilliant beam of light arched down toward the boiling storm named Edna. Specks of dust trapped in the upper atmosphere sparkled as they almost instantly reached their flash point and boiled away in the intense heat contained in the concentrated sunlight. As the beam traveled the thousands of kilometers to the
Adam asked, “Brad, do we have anyone on the station security team that has any criminal investigation experience? We’re certainly out of our depths, unless one of you has a hidden past.”
“I’ve asked myself the same question,” Brad replied. “Yep, our onboard CORDEX security force contains a person who was a detective on the Kansas City Police force prior to joining our project. She’s the one waiting outside. A real ball-buster type.”
“She? Do you mean Kim Danby? What’re her credentials?” queried Greg.
Brad scanned the screen on his personal wristband computer and replied, “Apparently she was hired because of a paper she wrote on dealing with crimes in space. Seems the international nature of our space program leads to some interesting twists and turns in jurisdiction and adjudication. She started out as lawyer and became a police officer after the disenfranchised minorities uprising of ’09. Her family was murdered during the Los Angeles riot that year. The murderers were never caught. She, herself, was badly injured by the perpetrators. Her successfully closed case rate as a cop is over ninety percent.”
Adam smiled and stated, “Kim is going to earn her pay this week. Let’s get her in here and brief her. I suggest we let her run the investigation and get the hell out of her way.”
To this both declaration, Brad and Greg nodded their head in agreement. Brad added, “She can have what ever she wants and needs on this.”
Adam said, “Call her in.”
Security Officer Kimberly Danby entered the conference room with no fanfare. She was an above average looking thirty-eight-year-old woman. There was just a hint of gray streaks in her brown hair. She wore no makeup and dressed in the dark blue and white unisex uniform of a CORDEX Security Officer.
She wasted no words and tersely summarized the current situation and then asked for the authorizations to start an immediate investigation. She never smiled nor frowned. She was thoroughly professional and no nonsense in the eyes of the three men.
Adam nodded at Brad. Greg made a thumbs-up sign. Brad moved to his desk and spoke as he was typing on his keypad. “Officer Danby, y’all are hereby authorized to investigate the incident that just occurred and you may utilize any resources of this station in that mission. Adam, Greg, myself, and the various department heads will defer to your experience in this matter and take orders from you related to furthering the investigation. We will continue with our current schedule to begin Storm Killer’s attack on Hurricane Edna while you mount the investigation.”
The laser spit out a formal order from Brad to Kim covering the items he was discussing verbally. This written order was instantly transmitted to the department heads.
Kim took the paper, folded it, and placed it in her pocket. She looked at each man in turn and then simply stated, “Gentlemen, we have a saboteur in our midst. Let’s flush him out.”
18
Storm Killer Attacks
On command, Storm Killer slowly turned herself, positioning the reflective web to best capture the unfiltered sunlight of near Earth space.
The three remaining webs of magnifying films began to slowly flutter as the SKIDs worked to move the webs to the optimum-computed positions. At exactly eight hours sixteen minutes ten seconds, all the webs were in perfect alignment. The entire bottom third of Storm Killer was ablaze with backwash white light so bright anyone staring at it for more than a few seconds would be forever blinded. No laser had ever generated such a large intense beam of light.
The brilliant beam of light arched down toward the boiling storm named Edna. Specks of dust trapped in the upper atmosphere sparkled as they almost instantly reached their flash point and boiled away in the intense heat contained in the concentrated sunlight. As the beam traveled the thousands of kilometers to the
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