Excerpt:
“If you must blame someone, blame me,” Dr. Wei said. “Mr. Cooper takes his orders from me, as does the rest of my crew. He was acting on those orders, which the rest of my people were unaware of for obvious reasons.”
“Dr. Wei, you’re our guest, albeit a rogue one at best. It’s about time you and your crew acted like it. You want NASA on your side and you have it. But this stunt does nothing except set back relations between us. Our trust has been—”
“Violated? Whether NASA was aware of Homeland Security’s intentions or not, our expectations of trust and respect do not stop at your organization.”
“We had nothing to do with this!” She huffed for a moment as if she were gathering her thoughts. “The feds are not under my jurisdiction.”
“Why not?” Cal replied over the comm. “Seeing as we’re on your base, you would think you’d know what your other guests are up to at all times, too.”
“I can’t speak to that, but someone had damn well better tell me who authorized movement of the pod from the landing site in the first place.” That last part sounded like she was talking to those outside of the MCC and not us. If she didn’t know about the attempted theft of our pod, then who did?
“The CIA,” an officer said over his earpiece. “We had orders from our agency to move the pod to a more secure location where it couldn’t be accessed by any foreign entities.”
“You’re an idiot,” I replied. “You can’t get more secure than outer space, which is where it was going.”
Jaxon activated the thirty-second countdown on the glass and the flashing security lights to warn people back. He must have finished laying out the course and double-checking his calculations. I began waving everyone out of the area. None of them wanted to leave, so I started shoving them to get their attention. It took a tremendous amount of thrust to get those engines revved high enough to push the pod through the Earth’s gravity.
“No way.” Several of the officers began to move, but the lead guy didn’t. “I have my orders. That pod stays here.”
“Your orders are going to get you blown to pieces, if you don’t get out of the way,” I shouted. “There’s an initial blast to give the pod a jumpstart.”
“He shuts those engines down now or I’ll blow a hole through the glass.” He aimed his gun. “Tell him to stand down! Now!”
Worry etching his face, Jaxon pressed his hands against the glass at T-minus ten seconds. Once the engines started, turning them off wasn’t advised, since the ignition already used up a third of the power cell. Igniting it again, the pod will never make it back to the Bridgeway without a recharge. I doubted the feds would allow us to let the solar panels sit in the sun for even six minutes without trying to steal it.
Since the stupid officer wasn’t going to move, I raced back and heaved him out of the way. A blast sent us flying. We tumbled down a small hill. Pain sliced through my upper arm before we landed in the grass. We watched the pod rocket into the air.
“Damn it!” The officer leaped off the ground and stared. He turned his ire on me. “We had our orders! Keep the pod safe.”
“Too bad your orders didn’t include the Bridgeway crew.” Unable to move my throbbing arm, I crawled toward the tablet, grabbed it, and prayed it hadn’t been cracked in our nosedive.
Pain shot through my arm again. When I touched the spot, I noticed blood coating my palm. It hurt like someone stuck a hot poker through my skin and out the other side. Thankfully, it was the meatier side, but it still stung like hellfire.
