I think I'm starting to understand now.
I watch her for a few minutes, trying to think of the right thing to say. I'd call her, but I don't have her number.
Maybe there's another way…
I open up the browser on my crappy phone and pull up Twitter. Using the account I created to talk to Capricorn I @reply her.
Do you think Dixon is innocent?
There's a bubble sound from her computer as the message goes through. A second later I can hear her type a response.
I think it looks suspicious.
I type my reply.
Follow my account. I have something to tell you.
A few seconds later she sends a direct message.
This better be good.
Would you help him if he asked for it?
Probably.
Would you listen to what he had to say and not call the cops?
I'd do the right thing. You figure out what that means.
I need your help.
Who are you?
David.
Bullshit.
Promise me you won't scream?
Why?
I take a deep breath then type:
Look out your window.
Laney does a very slow motion turn. When she sees me she lets out a scream anyway that echoes off the aluminum walls of the trailer park.
"Shut up!" yells one of the boys from the next room.
She sits there staring at me. Eyes wide, not sure what to say.
After collecting her thoughts, she asks, "What happened to your hair?"
"I had a Brazilian. I thought you weren't going to scream?"
"I thought you were lying." She gets out of her chair and finds her way to the window and looks around the yard.
"Come on, get inside." She slides the window all the way open and pulls at my shoulder.
"Maybe I should use the front door?"
"I don't want my brothers seeing you. They won't shut up about it."
I pull myself over the ledge and land in a room decorated with unicorns and spaceships.
"How old are you?" I say, picking myself up off the floor.
She has me sit on her bed then shuts the window and closes her blinds. "Twenty-three. Oh, this?" She looks around. "Infantilization often goes hand-in-hand in dealing with a handicap."
"Oh…"
"I'm not a virgin," she awkwardly volunteers.
"Um, I wasn't asking. I was just worried if your parents were here."
"I'm sorry. That was weird of me. I just never thought I'd have an astronaut with an AFI of 8 say that to me."
"An AFI?"
Her face goes red. "Um… it's a thing space groupies came up with. I'm not one of them, but some of my friends are. AFI means Astronaut Fuckability Index. A five is solid. An eight is exceptional. Elevens are reserved for Neil Armstrong and Yuri Gagarin."
"Good luck with them."
"Elon Musk is a ten." She pauses. "Bennet was a nine. So was Peterson. I'm sorry. This is horrible." She wipes away at her eye. "What the hell happened? Why the hell are you here? I mean, what the hell?"
53
Support Crew
Laney stares at me like I'm a ghost. I'm having serious second thoughts about coming here. As she sits under a shelf of model rockets and glass unicorns, I feel like I've just brought an innocent into something very dangerous.
Peterson and Bennet are dead. So is Bennet's son, Tyler. This is a bad idea.
I stand up. "This was a mistake. Give me a head start if you're going to call the police."
"Sit down," she says, rising to her own feet.
There's something about the complete conviction in her voice despite the fact I can see her legs are about to betray her.
"There are some bad people who could be here any minute."
She puts a hand on my shoulder. "Sit down. I have a gun." She pauses, "I mean, I'm not going to shoot you. But if they come…"
I fall back on the bed. "This could be very bad." I nod to the room next door where her brothers are loudly playing their game.
"Understood. Tell me what's going on and we'll figure it out."
I give a nervous glance towards the window, trying to decide if I should run.
"I knew something weird was going on at the Korolev station," she says.
"How do you mean?"
"Before you even docked with them. They have an open channel and a secure one. There has been almost nothing on the open one. They use it for talking to school kids and stuff. The place was on some kind of lockdown before you even got there."
"Yes…"
I don't know what I should tell her. I notice a tall bookcase in her corner filled with binders. I walk over and take one down and start flipping through. It's a schematic of the Soviet N1 heavy launch system. Not just outlines, but detailed drawings.
I take down another one. It's filled with specs of the X-20 Dyna-Soar, an Air Force space plane that never made it past testing.
"Are all of these rocket schematics?"
"Communications systems. Space suits. I have them all on my computer but I like the physical copies best."
"And you've read them?"
"No. They're just there to impress guys. Yeah, dumbass. I've been collecting them since I was a kid. I couldn't decide if I wanted to fly them or build them."
"Why not both?" I reply, sitting back down.
"Yeah…" Her eyes drift off to the side. "Peterson and Bennet? Are they really dead?"
The image of Peterson's dead body floating by the window is still in my mind. "Yes."
Laney wipes at her eye. "I'd talked to Peterson several times. Did you know that? She was always nice. And Bennet, oh my god, he's a legend. What it must have been like to have learned from him. He knew Armstrong and Musgrave."
"Bennet was something else… So was Peterson."
Laney puts a hand to her mouth. "I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what it must be like for you."
"It's fine. To be honest, I'm still a little numb. There's time for that later."
These were people I worked with. For Laney, they were heroes. In some way, maybe she even feels more strongly. Peterson wasn't just some cool person she could fawn over. Peterson may have been a role model, a version of Laney in a different universe.
Laney uses her wrist to wipe away a tear. "Why are you here?"
"Why aren't you calling the police?"
"Because nothing makes sense. The Russians are lying and I get the impression you had nobody to turn to."
I nod. "Pretty much."
"So what the hell is going on?"
I make a flash judgement to trust her. "There's a nuclear weapon onboard the Korolev. The head of the Russian space agency is planning to detonate it in order to stage a coup."
"Holy shit. Zhirov?"
"Yeah, him."
"He's an asshole. You know that he's been trying to militarize their space agency into another army?"
"I don't think Radin is going to let that happen."
She sits there for a moment processing everything. "Why isn't our government doing something about it?"
"Zhirov has a spy inside our intelligence community. They already had a rendition team torture me."
"Oh my god!"
"I… got away." I prefer to gloss over that episode. "Anyway, apparently we're worried if it gets out there's a nuke on the K1, Zhirov will go ahead and pull the trigger."
"Who is we?"
"As far as I know, it was Bennet, his son, Peterson and someone else. You heard about Tyler Bennet?"
"Yeah. They killed them? Why?"
"I don't know. But they did. I've encountered some nasty people."
"So what can I do?"
"I don't think I should get you involved. It's not safe."
She rolls her eyes. "Whatever. I'm involved now. Why did you come here? Just tell me that."