Tag: the strange case of webster domaine

Praise Jesus. Tomorrow, I clean it all up, and get it out the door for Kickstarter backers. …Again, praise Jesus.

It wasn’t a bad plan, Tobias told himself later. The babble juice had worked enough to give the details of the cult’s last-ditch bolt-hole: a warehouse filled with junk that wouldn’t be useful as raw materials for months yet. The cultist had even admitted that they hadn’t installed any deadman switches or spoilers, yet.

That ‘yet’ had gotten Tobias moving, complete with three guards for backup. Unfortunately, the cultist had forgot to mention that the Silver Dawn had gained control over the security and environmental systems, which was why those three guards were now on the other side of a sealed door. One reason not to charge in first, I guess.

Yes, Commander. One reason of many.

Better and better, the air pressure had dropped so quickly after Tobias was sealed in that he almost didn’t get his emergency mask on in time. Best of all? Miller was in here, and made her presence known by doing her damned best to hamstring him. Fortunately, he had jumped just in time, but his pants were never going to be the same. And they’re the best ones I have, too.

“Stand still!” Miller called up to him, brandishing a short, foul hunk of sharpened metal in one hand. “I just need a little flesh and blood! Enough to keep you in check! It’s the only way we can all be safe!”

I believe that the woman thinks she can perform some sort of magic ritual on you, Commander. Asenath gave one of her pauses. Naturally, she is being delusional — but I suggest that you keep moving anyway?

Tobias thought that was an excellent suggestion.

Getting close!

Nobody said anything to him about Domaine’s death. Not even unofficially, which surprised Tobias, briefly. Then again, what was there to say?

Then again, the cleanup process probably helped with that. There were a number of spacesuits still technically usable, if briefly; he had requisitioned one and had a volunteer (Abbie, as it turned out) put on another. Together, they wrapped Domaine’s body in plastic, shoved it in a body bag, shoved that in a vacuum-rated storage capsule and put the whole thing in the refinery furnace Heinlein Base used to get rid of problematic items. Then they cleaned every surface of the room — with chlorine gas — and put everything that had touched Domaine in the last week into the furnace. Then they added Tam’s corpse, and what was left of Oates’, and all of the files and books that the Silver Dawn had accumulated. Finally, the two carefully shucked their own temporary suits and tossed those in, too.

They didn’t overwhelm the furnace, but it was definitely more of a load than usual. On the other hand, Tobias kind of enjoyed the extra heat. It felt reasonably satisfying.

Getting close to done, thank God. And a literary reference!

Tobias jumped — or at least he thought about jumping in alarm, which would apparently have to do. Asenath! Are you all right? Where did you go?

I am unchanged, Commander, even if you are not. The answer to your second question is complicated, and would require me to discuss things you previously did not want to discuss. Has that changed?

No, Tobias thought immediately. Everything is bad enough as it is.

I assumed that would be the case. However: Commander, are you aware what is happening now?

Yes, Asenath. There was … [SPOILERS] … and this is all my feverish hallucination where I’m trying to fight off the disease.

Tobias felt, rather than saw, Asenath’s imaginary blink. An impressive interpretation of the observed facts, Commander. But what about the corpses moving around on their own power?

I don’t know. Special shoes!

Took a turn, it did.

Tobias was slightly disappointed by this ‘Great Dark’ of [SPOILERS] (Or is it [SPOILERS] now? he wondered). The [monster] had made this void of infinite darkness sound like an absolute terror, but… he was alone, for the first time in months. The worst had happened. There was nothing he could do about anything, now. No more decisions, no more Cold Equations, no more watching people die by inches in front of me. This is the closest I deserve to resting.

He idly wondered how long it would take him to go insane. Or more insane. Tobias supposed it would be something to look forward to, in its way. He certainly was going to have to make his own entertainment, from now on…

Are you done, Commander? This attitude of relieved despair seems to be very counterproductive.

Dear Lord, but this is actually almost done!

“What can you tell me about Choundry?”

“Tam’s girlfriend? I hated her,” Domaine said promptly. “She didn’t like me, either. Tam was very careful not to put us in the same room for any length of time. Why do you care about her, though? She couldn’t have possibly be involved in Oates’ murder; she’d been dead for weeks by then.”

“True, but I’m trying to get a feel for Tam, because he might have been involved in the murder. So, what was the problem?” Tobias asked. “She just rubbed you the wrong way, or vice versa? That happened sometimes, even Before.”

“Well, that would be the polite answer. The truth was, Choundry liked having her man on a short string, and every so often she would jerk on it, just to watch him jump. Tam Stuart was my friend, Commander. I don’t like seeing my friends get treated badly.”

He sighed. “The problem was, Tam liked being on that string. I thought it was dangerously codependent, what the two of them had, although I suppose the base psychiatrists didn’t. Still, they were definitely stable together, and it wasn’t exactly my business, so I kept my mouth shut and stayed away from her. When I heard she died in Piper Dome, I tried to feel bad for Tam, at least, but I couldn’t manage it. There were just too many other people who deserved my sympathy more.”

That’s the new title. It works better, alas. I don’t think I’ve shared this clip, but I can’t share the clip I was working on, because it gives too much away.

“Yeah, I was the last person to see the corporal,” Gillian Waite told me. “Except for the murderer, I guess. Who was not me.”

Tobias hadn’t expected to get any real leads from the power plant skeleton crews, but Waite’s name had popped up. She just wasn’t one of the people on those crews; she had been the one who first reported Oates as being missing. She had come in for another interview with ill grace, but was still answering questions.

“I didn’t ask if you were,” Tobias pointed out. “Why assume?”

“Why not assume? I’m always getting asked about stuff I didn’t do. What’s one more?” She shrugged one shoulder. “I guess I got one of those faces.”

Tobias was forced to admit that yes, she did. Waite wasn’t ugly, or even plain: big green eyes in a delicate face, with her frizzy black hair in a spaceman’s bun. But her mouth was set in a smirk, and those same eyes were cynical and assessing. She had a clean record with base security, but they didn’t list ‘congenitally untrustworthy’ as a possible demerit charge.