"Good, then we are no longer in need of your services!" With that, I heard her say rather loudly "No!" and let out a partial scream, which was wrenched to silence by the crackle of a plasma exploder. The force of the impact threw her body against the comfort cube wall and a small pouch fell to the deck at my feet. I snapped up the pouch and slid back into the comfort cube as the smell of burned flesh almost overcame me.

I waited for what seemed to be several minutes before peering into the passageway. It was totally silent. Nothing—not a sole, no evidence of the plasma exploder or the woman, nothing! Great! Who was ever going to believe me now? One dead Marks—my comments—no girl, and of course, now I had stolen and destroyed station property and run away.

I returned to the comfort cube. They would be looking everywhere. Where could I hide? Then I remembered the pouch! I opened it. There were credits, a Council I.D. badge that read "PR," and some holophotos. One of the holophotos was of the woman from the Pretoria. Or at least a woman wearing a feathered robe. There were two other women in the holo. The image had been taken from some distance and the faces were hard to make out. The Level designator and the tube area were on the wall behind them in the holo. "Level QA, tube two." That was somewhere near the support team for the Corpett Project. Maybe this was a way to safety?

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