Quantinium

  * * *

  Through one of the tunnels, dug by the intruder drill, a torch light is jiggling around and getting closer. The mist begins to clear as the light gets nearer, stops moving around so much and gets bigger.

  Daley’s locator showed the guys just up ahead at the competitor drill and two unknowns.

  “Wait for me guys,” puffs Daley as he walks from the mist, late as usual, “I had to phone my girlfriend, she’s had a boy,…” Daley stops and looks around inside a large cylindrical shaped cavern.

  “Where are you, guys? Can you hear me? Come in please!” pleads Daley. The cavern is empty and the roof is beginning to break up, with pieces of rock falling down. Daley sprints back to the relative safety of the tunnel he just came from, checks his locator showing no one, not even him, as he tries his radio one more time, “Come in guys, come in please!”

  Daley looks as his location jammer. It’s now switched on and he reaches inside a flap in his suit to switch it off, but pauses and remembers his military training, “No I’d better leave it on – when you sense trouble, go to stealth mode, until your situation becomes clear.”

  Daley, often reprimanded by Drew for not taking certain missions seriously enough, used Pod 16 B earlier to check his Earth messages and send wishes back to his girlfriend. As a safety feature, Pods de-activate personal locators, as the Pod’s own sensors take over. But SEAL location jammers switch on automatically, if the personal locator is switched off.

  Running back, he eventually reaches Pod 16 B and jumps inside to think, grabs some food for later, stuffing it inside his suit. Daley re-checks the locator and still no one is displayed. He replays the locator history, showing an outline of the tunnel, minute by minute for the last 10 minutes. Daley sees himself disappear first, as he entered Pod 16 B to message his girlfriend. His team mates gathered around two others and an oblong object, then they all disappear, to be replaced by a much larger cavern, outlined on his locator.

  “The evidence is conclusive,” thinks Daley, “something happened to the guys when they were powering down the intruder drill,” remembering Page’s brief, “that cavern looked man-made too and with rocks just starting to fall, it was newly formed. I can smell a rat.”

  Daley remains in the Pod for a while to plan his next steps and concludes: “take the transporter back to Mars Base along a different route, avoid detection by jamming the vehicle locator. Break into the base via the garage and create a hole-up (a place to hide and sleep) in the storage area. Use the ventilation ducts to get into Page’s lab. Download his console activity and copy evidence. Take appropriate action regarding Page.”

  For Page, these circumstances may be unfortunate. Daley is designated as ‘Support’ for a reason. Not only does he have all the training of his team mates to effectively ‘support’ each of them, he also has to be a specialist in covert, evidential and, worryingly for Page if he knew, assassination.

  Daley stuffs more food into his suit, exits the Pod and jogs to the transporter.