Dead Space by Kali Wallace (e novels to read online .TXT) 📗

challenge to provide a wilder one. The Symposium disaster had taken that from me. I hadn’t considered before that it might have taken it from David as well.

“Did he have a problem with anybody on the crew? Anybody have a problem with him?”

Hunter shook her head firmly. “No way. No. Everybody likes him.”

Adisa pressed, “No disagreements or fights? Even if they didn’t seem like a big deal?”

“No. Nothing like that. I’ve been trying and trying, and I can’t think of any reason anybody would want to hurt David.”

So why, I wondered, and not for the first time, had Sigrah tried to convince us his death was personal before we even started? I had assumed she had somebody in mind before, but now I was less certain. Her insistence made little sense without others in the crew telling stories about personal strife or conflict.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out, aye?” Adisa spoke in a low, kind voice, leaning toward her, his expression a mask of sympathy. It was quite effective in putting the girl at ease, and it was a stark contrast to the studied disinterest with which he had spoken to Mary Ping. “What did you talk about when you talked about work?”

“Oh, everything. I mean, we’re all stuck here, right? David helped me a lot. He was so brilliant with the bots. This is my first contract, and there’s so much I don’t know.” Hunter took in a breath and sat up straighter. She rested her hands on the table, then immediately lifted them to wipe her tears again. That gesture, small and innocent, made me angry, then it made me sad. She was too young to be this far from whatever home on Yuèliàng she’d left behind. “I owe him a lot. He helped me when I first came here. I got hassled, you know? Because of my family. Because everybody assumes there’s no way I know what I’m doing, or I must have, I don’t know, bribed my way into this job.” She let out a sharp little laugh. “God. As if this is the job I would buy my way into, if that’s what I wanted.”

“People in the belt aren’t shy about sharing their opinions, yeah?”

“Yeah. I don’t mind, really. I know you want to ask, so I guess I can just tell you. I’m here because I didn’t want the life my family wants for me. That’s all. There’s nothing more to it than that.”

I very much doubted that was true.

“When did you last speak to David?” Adisa asked.

“The evening before he—the evening before. At dinner. He didn’t have much to say.”

“No? Why not?”

“I don’t know,” Hunter said. “I could tell something was bothering him, but I didn’t ask.” Then, more plaintively, her voice falling to near a whisper, “I should have asked. I was just going on about stupid things. I have this bootleg copy of the HalfLiquid immersion show on Asteria and I thought he might want to watch it with me. That’s so sad, isn’t it? I can’t believe that was the last thing I talked to him about, some stupid concert, instead of asking him what was wrong. I could have . . . I don’t know. I didn’t even try.”

“Did you ever hear or see anything that made you think David was involved with something he shouldn’t have been?”

Hunter worried her lower lip. I felt a shiver of excitement.

“You can’t get him into any trouble now, aye?” Adisa said gently. “We only need to know what he was doing.”

“I don’t know. I would tell you if I knew. I swear.”

But she wasn’t looking at us. She was staring at the table, tracing an old stain with the tip of her finger, every line of her body tense and uncomfortable.

“Anybody else on the crew? We know a bit of black market dealing isn’t uncommon on a station like this.”

“I don’t know,” she said again.

Adisa waited a moment, giving her a chance to go on. When she didn’t, he changed tactics. “How did he work with Mary Ping? Bit strange, having two sysadmins on a crew this size, yeah?”

She was relieved to leave the topic of criminal activity behind. “I don’t know. I don’t think David liked her much, but it was no big deal. He said the Overseer didn’t like her either.” Hunter gave a quick, self-conscious smile. “I mean . . . you know what I mean. He knew Overseers don’t like or dislike anything. It was just a way of talking about it.”

“So they didn’t work well together?” I said.

“He said he spent half his time fixing problems she’d created or doing things she should have done already.”

“Like what?” I asked.

Hunter only shook her head. “It’s all beyond me. I’m good with the bots, but not the Overseer stuff. He said she let things slip through the cracks, things that she ought to have trained the Overseer to catch. I don’t think David was overwhelmed with work or anything. Sometimes he seemed kinda bored, to be honest. He’d go around helping other people. He helped me a lot.” A quick shrug. “I don’t know.”

“Did David ever talk to you about the Aeolia incident?” I asked.

Hunter frowned. “I don’t think so. No more than, you know, the way anybody talks about it, when it comes up.”

“Did it ever come up?”

“I don’t think so? Everybody kinda tries not to mention it. It’s so dark.”

As casually as I could, I asked, “What about Symposium? Did David ever talk to you about that?”

She wiped away a tear. “Not about the . . . you know, the attack itself. He never wanted to talk about that, even when other people tried to ask him about the trials or whatever. But sometimes he would talk about the research he was doing on the Titan project. I always wanted to hear it, you know? He was a brilliant roboticist. I learned so much from him. But it was more than that. It was . . .” She tugged on the ends of her sleeves; the gesture made