Chapter Fifteen

WARNING…INTRUDER ALERT…NEGATIVE…TRANSPORTER'S ADVANCE WARNING SYSTEM OVERRIDEN…LOG-IN DETAILS CLASSISFIED…REASON FOR NO ACTION STATUS: CLASSIFIED…

I woke to find Grainger dead, sprawled out in the back of the transporter, her oxygen mask ripped from her face. The angle of her body, the way the arms and legs were splayed, made me deeply suspicious. It suggested that some kind of struggle had taken place, that someone had overpowered Grainger and forcibly removed the mask, exposing her to irradiated air. As if to confirm this, I found some quite pronounced bruising on her neck and both wrists. But if Grainger had been murdered while I slept, why hadn't the assailant attacked me, too?

I slumped down on the nearest seat, put my head in my hands, and tried to rationalize the situation. But all I could really focus upon were Grainger's words of yesterday, "there's something following us…we're being tracked, by what or by whom, I have no idea."