Deserter by Mike Shepherd Page A

wall across from the tub lost a harem scene as the requested calendar came up. Nelly had already added dates from Penny’s search. The woman came around the tub to stand beside Kris. Her hand went down the list of dates and times.
    “That’s about it. I don’t see anything missing.”
    “When did Tommy decide to take a vacation?” Kris asked.
    “Hmm.” Penny ran a hand through her long blond hair, pursing her full lips. Some women are born with it all. “We had AttackRon Six’s officers pretty well locked down for the first two months after the mutiny. If you think you had a bad time, be glad you weren’t with them,” Penny said with a bit of a blush. This also changed Kris’s appraisal of the woman. She was using the bureaucratic “we” far too comfortably when it came to the security and intelligence maggots who had made Kris’s life miserable after the dustup in the Paris system.
    “You must have gotten to know Tommy pretty well,” Kris said, her voice carefully even.
    “Tom was just one of six officers I was tasked to debrief. Each one on a different ship. I don’t think Intelligence trusted us much more than they trusted you mutineers.” The woman smiled.
    “Paranoia can be a survival trait,” Kris said dryly.
    “So I’m learning. Anyway, all the crews knew they hadn’t a firefly’s chance in vacuum of leave until we gave them a clean bill of health.” Penny made a stab at the calendar. “That was when the Typhoon ’s crew got their release,” she said pointing to a Monday that was a good two weeks before the Space Adder left for Castagon 6.
    “You got to know Tommy pretty well. Did he invite you?”
    “Tom is an easy guy to get to know. Very easy to get to like,” Penny said as Kris suppressed an even deeper sigh. “From questioning him I knew he was curious about the Three. He said everyone on Santa Maria was always hunting artifacts left by the Three a million years ago. He was going crazy, stuck on the Typhoon tied up to the pier, under observation by every roving cat and dog. They couldn’t message out, except for a weekly note to family.” Which explained why Kris hadn’t heard from Tommy.
    “He did net searches on the Three in his spare time.” Penny studied her wrist unit for a long minute. “He started the search here.” She made a second stab at the calendar, a good two weeks earlier. “Found Itsahfine here.” That mark was three days later. “And asked me if I’d like to spend some leave time on Itsahfine here.” That marked the Monday before they were cleared for leave.
    Kris didn’t ask Penny if Tommy told her about his hobby, or if the intelligence officer found out about it while bugging her subject’s computer. The latter would make it a whole lot easier to not like this woman, and Kris was feeling a real strong need to dislike the woman Tommy had asked to spend his leave time with. “Nelly, when did Tommy book passage on the Bellerophon ?”
    “Monday afternoon,” Nelly answered and that datum appeared on the wall screen.
    “I got my ticket the same time.”
    Nelly added that datum.
    “So the bad guys could have known at least three weeks before the Space Adder left dock,” Jack said, rubbing his chin.
    “Excuse me, Kris,” Nelly said. “May I add something?”
    “Go right ahead.” Penny was staring at Kris like she had two heads. Maybe she did.
    “When I heard of Lieutenant Pasley’s search on rental space, I thought it a very good starting point, and I’ve been expanding her search as the dates have run backward. I also found another very interesting point as I was doing that search.”
    Kris rolled her eyes at the ceiling. Nelly’s new ability to move ahead on her own was nice. Her development of tact, however, was slowing her down. Maybe a tactful computer was not such a good thing. “What might that be?” Kris asked, trying to get things moving as fast as a computer was supposed to.
    “On Tuesday, after Tom and Penny booked their