Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (top fiction books of all time txt) 📗

fielded a half a dozen calls from the mayor and the territorial governor.

Seething with frustrated anger, he finally left the disaster area and headed to the capitol building to report.

He discovered when he emerged from the access pool inside the building that the atrium was full of victims of the recent attack and bustling medics. Instead of heading directly to the dryer, he stopped to survey the scene and finally made his way along the aisles that had been formed, unable to resist the urge to search the faces for people he knew. He didn’t see any but since most of the people he looked at appeared to be land dwellers, he didn’t take much comfort in it.

He paused beside the physician in charge. “This is the tourists?”

The doctor stared at him blankly for a moment, his mind clearly elsewhere. “All of the survivors we managed to find,” he said finally. “The blast demolished their water gear. We needed to get them inside quickly.”

Simon nodded grimly. “Any idea how many were killed yet?”

Anger flickered across the doctor’s face. “No numbers. Most of these people aren’t going to make it, though.”

Simon ground his teeth, but he left the medics to their work and headed to the dryer. He barely paused. He was already almost dry. By the time he reached the council chambers, he would be presentable enough.

There were robes in a locker near the dryer. Pulling one out, he shrugged into it and headed for the stairs. The council was in the middle of a heated debate when he was announced. The room fell silent at his entrance. A dozen pairs of eyes turned to nail him.

“I hope you have some news for us, High Guardian!” the governor barked.

“How the hell did they get past our security!” the mayor demanded at almost the same moment.

Simon glanced from one man to the other and finally strode to the seat reserved for him and settled. “Would you like a preliminary report? Or would you prefer to pelt me with questions I don’t have answers for?” he said sardonically.

Both the mayor and the governor looked taken aback and then deeply offended, though why they should was a mystery to him. They ought to be accustomed to his forthrightness by now. They’d complained about it often enough! He wasn’t a damned politician, though, and he saw no real benefit to beating around the bush.

“It’s been hours since the attack!” Mayor Grissom snapped. “You don’t have anything?”

Simon narrowed his eyes at him. “I’ve got a lot of bodies and a lot of people in need of medical attention,” he growled.

Grissom paled. Governor Harding spoke before he could think of another reproach. “Give us your preliminary report—has the saboteur been caught? And what is the likelihood of another bomb going off in our midst?”

Simon settled back in his chair and scrubbed a hand over his face tiredly. “Most of the watchmen were detailed to protect the citizens. As much blood as there was, it was like ringing the fucking dinner bell. I had to get them out there to prevent shark attack and the like.

“Preliminary ‘guess’ on getting the plant back up to full production is a month.

Until then, it’ll be working at about half, which means the water will have to be rationed for a while unless you can come up with an alternative plan … or the feds lend a hand and we all know how likely that is.

“We were able to determine that no one left the city either directly after the bomb went off or in the hours since. It’s possible the bomb was remote detonated—we haven’t found all the pieces yet and can’t rule that out. We found … hamburger inside, though, so I’m leaning toward a suicide bomber. It might have been a tourist, but that’s doubtful since they hadn’t actually made it inside, that we know of, before the explosion and there shouldn’t have been any workers in that area at that time—although we haven’t yet ascertained the identities of the dead and we can’t rule that out. The shift supervisor is trying to track down the identities of everyone who was inside the plant when it blew up.

There were twenty men on the clock at the time of the explosion.”

“My god! The tourists!” Grissom exclaimed as if it had just occurred to him.

“The publicity! This is a disaster!”

Simon narrowed his eyes at him. “It was pretty much a fucking disaster for the colonists caught in the blast, also.”

Grissom glared at him. “It’s a disaster for the colony all the way around!” he snapped. “I’m not downplaying local repercussions, damn it! Don’t take that attitude with me! I’m the mayor! I have to worry about the city and the citizens, but that god damned bus was full of potential colonists! There’ll be shockwaves all the way to Washington and god only knows what the repercussions will be! Everyone in the states already considers the territory wild and lawless! This will only make us look worse!”

Simon slammed his balled fist on the table top, half rising from his seat. “That god damned bastard that just killed several hundred people isn’t from the god damned colony! You can bet your ass he’s a god damned air breather from the ‘civilized’states!”

“Do you know that for certain?” the governor demanded sharply.

Simon sucked in a breath to blast him with his temper and then folded his lips together again. “Not for certain.”

“Then find proof, damn it! And find it fast! We’re going to have to have a defense when Washington comes down on us about this! Grissom’s right … as badly as I hate to agree with him