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

not, there’s a reason for protocol. There’s a fucking inch of water in here! Somebody, or everybody, is going to get electrocuted. Oscar! Get the vac and get this floor dried up before we have another disaster!”

Caleb looked him up and down pointedly. “Guess everybody was in too much of a rush to stop to dry off and grab a robe.”

Irritation flickered through Simon, but, unfortunately, Caleb had a point. Deciding to ignore the provocative comment, he headed toward the console the three men had been Ian pointed to the screen. “Most of the surveillance cameras close enough to have caught anything were destroyed in the blast. This one was pretty beat up, too, but we lucked out and managed to get most of the feed from it. That man right there was the last to enter the building before it blew.”

Simon leaned close, studying the grainy image Ian had paused on the screen and then leaned back, trying to bring the man’s features into focus. “This isn’t worth a fuck.

Has he been identified?”

“One of the workers,” Caleb supplied.

Simon glanced at him frowningly, waiting.

“The supervisor gave us a positive ID on him—name’s Trey Carter. New colonist.”

“How new?” Simon asked grimly.

“Moved into the territory about six months ago. Applied for a job at the plant, which just happened to have an opening since one of the workers had disappeared only a few days earlier.”

Simon felt his belly clench. “And nobody thought that was worthy of comment?”

Ian shook his head in disgust. “I questioned the supervisor myself. I’m positive he didn’t have anything to do with it—he’s second generation, no known ties outside the territory. The man that disappeared was a friend of his. He said he guessed he was just too upset to consider that the man applying for the job was ‘convenient’, had his mind on his missing friend and all that. I believe him.”

Simon studied Caleb pointedly until he finally took the hint and got up, offering Simon his seat. “Any other suspects?”

“We’re ninety-nine percent certain it wasn’t anybody with the tour group. They were checked at the border before they ever entered the submersible bus and checked again before they were allowed to enter the city. We’ve determined the bomb would’ve had to have been big enough that it would’ve taken something fairly large to conceal it—it couldn’t have been concealed in their clothes—and the tourists were required to check everything before they were allowed in. Plus they were scanned.”

Simon nodded, feeling a little relieved that at least the disaster couldn’t be put down to sloppy security on that end.

“So … what have we found out about Trey Carter?”

His lieutenants exchanged a look. “Nothing. Nada. Not a damned thing.”

Simon stared at Ian in disbelief. “What do you mean nothing? He had to have the procedure to become a colonist. There would’ve been some sort of background check, at least medical! He would’ve had to have registered as a colonist.”

“Fake,” Caleb said succinctly. “All of it.”

“What the fuck do you mean by that? Did they run any background checks on him or not?”

Ian tapped the screen. “That man right there … I don’t who the fuck he was, but I know who he wasn’t. He wasn’t Trey Carter.” He tapped the keys of the console and brought up a photo of a man who looked to be around forty. “That’s Trey Carter, and pretty much everything we have on file is for that man—except that isn’t the man who applied to become a colonist.” He pulled up a photo from employment records. “That’s the man who was working at the plant.”

“Jesus!” Simon growled. “Find out which fanatical organization he was working for. He was working for one of them. It took some clout to get him in here. Someone was backing him.”

The discovery that their suspected bomber was a plant wasn’t just sobering. It was terrifying in its implications. “How many men did we lose in the bombing?” he asked brusquely.

The room got quiet at the question. “Watchman Bart Singleton was on patrol of the area when it went off. Watchmen Calhoun, Mason, and Smith were only a block away. Calhoun probably isn’t going to make it. Mason and Smith are stable and probably will, but they’re not going to be fit for duty any time soon. Tom Carson and William Singleton were killed in the Watch Center when the windows blew out. Billings got mauled by a shark after the bombing. They say he’ll make it, but he lost half his arm.

As far as we know at this point in time, nobody else sustained more than a few minor cuts and bruises.”

Simon lifted a hand to his face, massaging the throbbing pressure in his temples.

“Everyone will have to pull double shifts,” he said finally. “We need to run a background check on anybody in any position to plant another bomb in another critical facility. I want around the clock guards on our water reserves. If they blow that up, we’re looking at worse than a few weeks of rationing water. Power plants, food processing—Contact the owners. I want everybody that isn’t at least second generation Atlantean pulled from their job and kept out until they’ve been thoroughly checked out.”

Ian looked doubtful. “We run the risk of alerting any potential saboteurs.”

“Better that than taking a chance on losing anything else critical or more people dying. If they make a run for it, we’ll have them.”

“But you don’t expect it?” Caleb said musingly.

Simon shook his head and rose. “I think if there’d been others, they would’ve blown us all to hell. I’m just not willing to take a