Page 55 of Warped

He says the wordex-boyfriendlike it’s something sour he wants to get out of his mouth.

I shake my head.

“I found all this stuff by accident,” I explain. “A couple of months ago Stanley, my ex, started acting strange, distant. He was working even longer hours than usual, breaking off plans at the last minute. I started to suspect that he was cheating on me, so I… you know…”

I blush, too embarrassed to go on, so Rek finishes my sentence for me.

“You went through his phone.”

I nod.

“Damn,” Traven says with a slight chuckle. “You’re even nosier than I am.”

“I thought my boyfriend was cheating on me!” I shout a little too loudly.

For a second, the fire of jealousy burns brightly in Traven’s eyes. Then he sees the tears in my own eyes, and his expression softens. He steps closer and strokes my hair with his massive hand.

“I’m sorry Binx. I shouldn’t be so insensitive. I can’t imagine how hard this has been for you.”

Holy shit. Did Traven—the asshat extraordinaire—just apologize to me?

Well that’s… unexpected.

I knuckle the tears from my eyes and go on: “Incidentally, Stanleywascheating on me. With several different women. I’m not sure where the fucker found the time. But honestly, I stopped caring about that pretty quickly once I found out what a monster he was.”

When I was going through Stanley’s messages, I stumbled onto something far worse than mere infidelity. I uncovered a plan that would end the lives of billions of people, all so Stanley and his buddies at the Gaia Group could make a few extra credits.

Here’s the plan I discovered…

The volcanic world known as Caldera was one of the first exoplanets to be colonized by humans following the development of Warpgate technology. Since then, Caldera hasdeveloped into a densely populated planet situated at an important nexus for interstellar trade. A prime piece of real estate, for people who think in those terms. People like Stanley and his friends on the board of directors.

The Gaia Group is the biggest terraforming firm in the whole galaxy. They take planets that are basically uninhabitable and transform them into lush green paradises. They make a lot of money doing it. A hell of a lot of money.

Stanley figured out a way they could make even more.

The board of directors liked his idea.

The plan isn’t exactly simple, but it’s simple to explain. Using certain devices that Stanley had cooked up in the R&D department, they could trigger a mass volcanic eruption on Caldera that would wipe out pretty much everything on the surface of the planet, including the human population. The whole thing would look like an unexpected natural disaster. Nobody would suspect it was actually murder on a mass scale.

After that, Gaia Group will buy the destroyed planet for next to nothing, terraform it back into its formerly splendid state, then sell it off piece by piece for a hundred thousand times what they paid for it. Considering Caldera’s strategic location along the interstellar trade routes, they would make a bundle and a half. Kind of like flipping a house, but on a planetary scale.

And with billions of dead bodies in the basement.

The whole evil plan is detailed in Stanley’s messages with his bosses on the board of directors. The same messages which are saved on my datastick, and which Rek and Traven have now read.

“Why didn’t you go to the authorities with this?” Rek asks.

“I did,” I tell him. “As soon as I found out, I went straight to the local Intelligence Office.”

“What happened?” asks Traven.

My blood chills as I remember. It was only a few days ago, but somehow it feels much longer than that.

“I spoke to a young intelligence officer,” I explain. “A woman named Katie. Even though my story was outlandish, she took everything I told her very seriously. After I showed her the messages, she took it even more seriously. She made a copy of all the files, and we exchanged information so we could meet again after she had taken the matter to her superiors for further review.”

I take a deep breath to calm my nerves. Then I keep going.

“After that, everything happened so quickly. I got a message from Stanley asking to meet up. I made some excuse about not feeling well. I decided to go back to my apartment. I was going to gather some things and spend the night at a hotel, just in case Stanley tried to come over. I didn’t want to see him. Right as I was arriving at my building, however, I got another call. This time, it was Katie. I answered it immediately. Before I even had a chance to say hello, she blurted something out. ‘Don’t go home!’ she warned me. ‘Whatever you do, don’t go home!’ Then I heard what sounded like a gunshot, and Katie stopped talking. A few seconds later, the call went dead.”

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