Chapter 24
A Tomb in the Rocks
Chapter 24
Joesph Senior slid the inner door of his apartment open, slamming it against the stops. He ignored the blaring buzzer as he stomped to the cramped couch, sat, stood back up, paced a couple times, and sat back down. He rubbed his face.
“If I had my pickaxe, I would have put it in his chest,” Joseph said, his voice shaking with anger. “I never felt nothing like that.”
Hagen sighed as he slid the airlock door closed. He had to shut it twice to silence the buzzer.
“You know, we all despise Michael,” Hagen said. “He reports every little violation he spots. And we’re pretty sure he makes a lot of it up. And what he gets out of it is so stupid. A pat on the back, an extra dessert here and there. A feeling of power over people. I don’t really know. Maybe it’s just boredom.”
Joseph seethed; he didn’t want to talk about Michael.
“Are you seriously telling me you haven’t found any trace of the boys?”
“Officially, no,” Hagen said. “The governor wants to control the information about this.”
“Why? Two boys wandered off,” Joseph Senior said. “What needs to be controlled about that?”
“They don’t tell me much more than they tell the miners.”
“But you do know more?”
Hagen hesitated.
“Damn it, Hagen,” Joseph said, his exasperation getting the best of him. “Why won’t they tell me? Is Joey dead?”
The question came out with a sudden spluttering cry. A noise he had never heard himself make. He had not cried since he was a boy, and that was so long ago he didn’t even remember what made him upset.
Hagen let out a long sigh.
“We don’t know.”
“You said you could search the whole rock in a couple hours. That was two days ago.”
“Look, as we both figured, the boys went out in the field. They went south of the dig site. By the footprints, it looked like they were walking together, probably goofing off. But then they just stop.”
“What does that mean?”
“It looks like they jumped off the asteroid.”
Joseph laughed at the absurdity of that idea.
“We can’t even throw a small rock off the asteroid. How could they jump?”
“It is possible. But very dangerous. You know, working up in the Mushroom has given me a lot of time around the governor and Stan. Stan is…He’s a smart kid. Spoiled. Get this, he breaks into his dad’s study all the time. His dad knocks him around and they rework the security. But he gets in again and makes it obvious he did. It was him who disabled the alert for the recharge station. He put his name in the logs.”
“Okay, but what about Joey? Where did they go? Can you take me?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Joseph.”
“I don’t care what’s a good idea. I care about Joey.”
Hagen chuckled.
“Why are you laughing at me?”
“Not at you. I wouldn’t laugh at you, Joseph. You are the most sincere man I’ve ever known. I’m laughing at the situation.”
Joseph frowned. He wished they could just get to the part where Joey was back home with him.
“I can’t take you to see where they went,” Hagen continued. “I don’t want to be forced to retire before I’m funded. I can, however, tell you how to get there. And I can tell you a feature of your suit that will explain how they might have gotten off the rock.”
Our three days are ours, Joseph thought.