Pausing in at a plaza bench Marcus looked up at the stars, a dry breeze from the west gently pressing against him. 'Funny' he thought.
'how you miss little things. Like familiar Constellations.' His favorite as a child of course was Orion. At night he would talk to him as if
he were a real presence looking down at him, looking after him. Then, when his parents died he realized how much of a fantasy that
was, and hardly ever looked for the star group again.
Checking his forged uniform and documents as a messanger one last time he made his way across the rest of the plaza to the West Tower of Carron Way. An apartment complex for those a bit higher on the social ladder than most. He'd already paid a visit to Danel Wilkes home, in the East Tower. After a through search, nothing was to be found. Hoping for better luck he showed his badge to the front desk and made the excuse of delivering
urgent correspondance. Even in the 23rd Century hand delivered papers and data where not unheard of as the only really secure method of transmission for the extremely sensitive packages remained....by hand.
At the apartment door he keyed the security code provided and slipped inside. the light came up automaticly and Marcus immedialty
ordered them lowered to 10%. He went straight to the little office off the Kitchen and activated the computer console. A veiw screen appeared to
float in the air before him, 'Ready' it said.
"Accept security code Omega Sirius JM1."
"Security code accpeted, Voice pattern not recognized, I will shut down in five seconds unless visitor code supplied."
"Visitor code is Alpha Covington Palace, do not record voice pattern Omega."
"Visitor code accepted. How can I help you?"
Marcus breathed a sigh of relief. If the code had been incorrect he may not have made it out before the buildings security guards crashed thru the door.
"Reference all file entries for Boston, Anora Ro, transphasic, and transdimentional, list in reverse date entry."
Instantly there was a column of entries before his eyes. All references to Boston seemed irrelevant. But there were several notations under
Anora Ro, and the transphasic/transdimentional headings.
'So I was right' Marcus smiled. 'Ro was lying.'
It took only a few minutes for him to put together some of the story. Daniels and Jason had come across some research that they wanted
Ro to confirm. Where they got their data was not clear. But from the messages back and forth they were conviced they could sell
the research and make a fortune, providing a healthy fee to Ro.
So the question was... where did they get their data from? It seemed obvious to Marcus they were killed by whoever they got it from, or
stole it from. 'But why frame me?' he thought.
The the obvious hit him. "Computer, reference all files entries for Dinn Industries."
The result was instant. "Shit...." Marcus swore.
Suddenly the lights went up to full strength and he could hear the opening of the front door. Jumping up from the computer Marcus dove behind
the island counter in the kitchen just as a phaser beam missed him by inches.
"You know Marcus... you really did make this to easy." the voice rang from the living room.
"Well... guess I've just gotten to trusting in my old age ...... Mr. Anderson."
Marcus Dinn
President/CEO Dinn Industries
Phoenix Colony
Phoenix Federation
