Page 37 of Gunn's Mission

Maddie opened the top drawer of Mateo’s nightstand and pulled out the case, but when she popped it open her stomach fell. “Gunn…”

He stepped up beside her and glanced downward.

The case was empty.

Maddie shook her head, dread filling her belly. “How can this be? I have the only key to this room—his key—and I keep it on me,” she whispered.

“Locks can be picked but maybe we can see who entered his room.”

Gunn sat on the edge of Mateo’s bed and tapped on his phone, opening up the screen that displayed the camera feeds. He tapped on the hallway feed, tapped another button to widen the view, then hit rewind, waiting as it moved back to when they’d first lost satellite connection. Then he scrolled forward, changing to normal speed when someone moved down the hallway. He tapped fast forward through the previous night.

Maddie saw what looked like a skip in the feed. “Roll it back.”

“You see something?”

“Maybe.”

He rolled it back again, then played the video at normal speed. The darkened hallway was visible, then went black, only to pick up three minutes later with the picture of the empty hallway. “Son of a bitch,” he bit out.

“Someone erased it?”

“Or interrupted the feed remotely.”

Maddie placed her hand on his shoulder, needing to feel the strength of the muscle beneath her palm. “Someone interrupted the feed, then entered with their own key and stole the data cards.”

“They had to know there’d be something in the data we retrieved. Someone got through to them, communicated with them when there was a break in the clouds.”

“But how? The satellite was out for all of us. How would they receive word…?” Her gaze blurred with tears which she quickly blinked away. “Only you and I have satphones,” she whispered.

“They could have their own.” Gunn looked up at her. “I have to search their rooms.”

“Shit.”

Gunn stood and placed his hands on her shoulders. “This is on me. It’s my job. You pull them together, and I’ll tell them what has to happen now.”

CHAPTER12

Maddie and Gunnsat side by side on the sofa in the common room when the others began to gather. Maddie had announced there would be a group meeting at seven p.m. She’d told Gunn that such an announcement wasn’t out of the ordinary. Usually, Maddie gathered them to talk about the weather or to relate news or directions from Polardyne.

Tonight’s meeting would be uncomfortable to say the least.

As soon as everyone was seated, Maddie inhaled and released the breath, then swept the group with a gaze that reflected her regret.

Gunn felt for her. She considered these people her friends. They were more than co-workers. They’d shared weather and hardships most people never faced, and he understood her loyalty to them. He also understood the underlying heartbreak. Someone inside this room, a friend, was responsible for the death of another of her friends, and while it was unfathomable to her, she had accepted her responsibility to keep all of them safe. She had his back for what he was about to do.

“What’s this all about?” Perry asked. “Polardyne pulling the plug?”

Nate and Eric shared a glance then both clamped their lips shut.

“Is that it?” Hanna said, frowning. “Is it because of Mateo’s death?”

Maddie held up a hand. “We discovered something today. Something disturbing.”

Gunn reached out to touch her arm. “This is on me,” he said softly then turned to the group. His gaze swept over the group, and he made sure he could see every face because he wanted to be able to judge their reactions to what he was going to say.

“This morning, before most of you were out of bed, I went outside. The sky was clear in patches, which made me wonder why we still didn’t have signal inside this building. We should have. I made the trip out to the dish and verified that it was operating, receiving power, and that it was receiving a satellite signal, which it was. I knew immediately that something else was wrong.” He paused, glancing around the room, again gauging expressions and looking for anyone who seemed uncomfortable or deliberately frozen in order to hide their guilt, but he detected nothing and continued.

“I began troubleshooting, checking the coax where it connected to the box. I found no problem there. So, I decided to check the cable and dug into the snow to free it, then kept pulling it up as I followed it back to this building. I found a break in the wire about fifty feet away from here.”

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