Haywire by Justin R. Macumber Page A

their right, so with a turn of the massive steering wheel he drove around until he had the dock’s roll-up doorway lined up as best he could with the rear of the truck. He backed up slowly, taking every care not to raise any red flags. Loud beeps escorted the truck as it rolled in reverse. Everything went smoothly until the rear bumper hit the dock, sending a dull shudder through the vehicle.
    “ Sorry,” he said, slipping the truck into neutral and pulling the hand break. “Been a while since I drove anything what had wheels on it.”
    “ It’s fine,” the doctor said. “Let’s just… get this over with.”
    Gimble looked through the side and front window, hoping no one working in the area was looking back, but there were few people outside the cab, and none of them seemed to have noticed. Grateful for small favors, he opened his door and dropped to the cold lunar surface.
    He climbed up to the dock and approached the rover’s rear door. Laroux appeared from the other side, the doctor and her son in front of him. Both of them looked pensive, but in the young man’s eyes there were daggers. Gimble couldn’t blame him, but while his courage was admirable, it was also inching him closer to an early death.
    “ Dr. Campbell, if you’d be so kind,” Laroux said, gesturing toward the control panel that operated the loading area’s doors. He then lifted an eyebrow at a camera looking down on the dock over his right shoulder, its red recording light bright and steady. “Oh, and please, disable all the cameras. No use leaving more evidence behind than we must, no?”
    The doctor nodded as she went to the control panel and hit a series of buttons. The door opposite the truck rolled up seconds later, and soon after the red light on the camera turned off. Gimble glanced at the other cameras in the docking area, and all of them turned off as well.
    “ Very good,” Laroux said. He then looked at Gimble and gestured at the back of the truck. “Open it.”
    Gimble unlocked the back of the rover, hit the depressurize switch, and then pushed the door up. The pirates – all of them dressed in delivery uniforms – were already getting crates loaded onto dollies.
    “ Where’s the Titan?” Doctor Campbell said as she entered the truck bed and looked around.
    Laroux gestured toward a large crate at the back, next to the one that contained the unconscious delivery men. “She is in there. It took all of us to lift her into it. She is… quite heavy.”
    “ Cry me a river,” the doctor’s son said under his breath.
    Gimble leaned over to him and whispered, “The next time you want to get smart, consider how your mother will look weeping over your dead body.”
    The doctor grabbed her son’s arm and pulled him toward her. They’d barely moved a step before a voice called out from the dock behind them.
    “ Dr. Campbell, I take it things went well at the landing pad?”
    Everyone inside the truck bed turned to see an officious young man standing just inside the dock. His clothes were tight and stuffy, and the look on his face said he hadn’t had the best of days. Gimble shook his head, chuckling at the pompous git. If this was a bad day for him, he didn’t know how good he had it.
    Beside Gimble Crowe said, “Fluffy bugger, isn’t he?”
    “ Indeed,” Gimble replied.
    The doctor dusted her hands and walked out of the truck casually. “Yes, Joseph. This has been a… unique experience.”
    Her assistant smiled, but the expression went no further than his lips. “I’m sure. Well, we’ve been rather busy here, with calls coming in nonstop. Speaking of which, your boyfriend called to reconfirm your lunch date. I told him you would call him back.”
     
    Gimble could see a pained expression cross the doctor’s face, but she buried it quickly.
    “ Thank you. I’ll do that as soon as I can.”
    Her assistant looked around for a moment, then turned toward a group of men near the back of the dock, each one with a