The Descent

Chapter 13 - Sarge

Denton stared at the empty chair, momentarily frozen. Where was Gabi? Did they bring him to the wrong room? Had she escaped, somehow? How could she not be there? The guard apparently thought she would be in this room, yet she wasn't.

"I can't believe this," he muttered to himself. He closed the door to the interrogation room and marched down the hallway in the direction the guard had pointed previously. Moments later, he entered the monitoring room. He found the guard that had escorted him in and several others around a table, laughing about some joke while the monitors that covered the hallways and interrogation rooms of the secured facility were unmonitored behind them. They all looked up and immediately stopped laughing when they realized Denton stood there.

"Where is the prisoner?" he demanded.

"In room 1, where I took you," the guard said. "Isn't she?"

"No, she's not."

The guard look at his colleagues. "Did you guys move her?"

They all shook their heads without saying a word.

"So where is she?"

"Ok so wait," one of the guards said. "Sarge came through here just a few minutes ago. He had a woman with him. It could have been her, I suppose."

Denton sighed. "Could have been? Ok, so where's his office?"

The guards all pointed at the same time. "Just down the hall," one of them said.

Denton left the guards at the table and jogged down the hallway until he found the sergeant behind a desk in an office. The door had a silver nameplate on it that announced the room belonged to a Sergeant Happerborn. Denton marched right into the office without knocking and slammed the door behind him. The sergeant, engrossed in a document, jumped in his chair and dropped the paper from his hand.

"What the?" he said and stood up as he pointed towards Denton. "Who are you?"

"I'm Denton Staxx, with the Orbital Security Service, OSS. I understand you have a fugitive of mine."

"Listen, I don't care who you are, you have no right to march in here like this and..." the sergeant started.

Denton put his hands on the edge of the desk and leaned towards the sergeant, his face only inches from the now red face of the sergeant. "Sergeant," he said firmly, "I was expecting to find a fugitive suspected of an act of interplanetary terrorism in your custody. Where is she?"

Sergeant Happerborn face reddened further. "Look, Staxx, get out of my face. This is my office, you don't come in here and talk to me like this."

Denton looked at the sergeant for a few moments before he retreated to just in front of the desk. He needed Happerborn's cooperation, not another obstacle. He put his hands up and nodded.

"Fine. It doesn't change anything. Where is she?"

Happerborn pulled down his uniform jacket and sat down in his chair before he turned his attention back to Denton.

"We had to release her."

"You did what?" Denton whispered in disbelief. "You released her? Even though you had orders to detain her?"

"There was nothing I could do. She claimed diplomatic immunity. I couldn't hold her."

"Diplo...wait, she wasn't a diplomat."

"Well, she had the paperwork to prove it."

Denton started walking back and forth in the office. "This isn't adding up. Gabi was basically an engineer for one of the Descent teams. She couldn't have been a diplomat."

"Like I said, she had the paperwork to prove it. Issued from the proper department to the Terran Embassy."

Denton stopped and looked at Happerborn. "Did you say Terran Embassy?"

Happerborn nodded.

"I need a copy of the paperwork."

The sergeant shrugged and nodded. "Sure. Where should I send it?"

Denton gave him Tanner's comm address. "I need a physical copy as well."

"I'll get one printed for you."

Happerborn tapped a few buttons on his terminal, and moments later, a printer on the desk next to the computer spit out a copy of Gabi's credentials. He took it and handed it to Denton. "For what it's worth, it felt like she knew we were going to detain her," Happerborn said.

"How so?" Denton said and looked up from the paper.

"She pulled the immunity play as soon as we got our hands on her. I just had to have it checked out before I could let her go. You know there's nothing I could have done."

Denton shook his head and smiled. "Not your fault, obviously. Any idea where she was heading?"

Happerborn shrugged. "Not sure about her final destination but she was heading to one of the private shuttle terminals. I assume into orbit."

"Thanks, sergeant. Listen, I think I owe you an apology, for just a minute ago."

The sergeant smiled and nodded. They shook hands, Denton thanked the sergeant and left the office, his smile disappearing from his face as soon as he was out of sight of the sergeant. The Terran Embassy. Diplomatic paperwork. The more he dug into Jarred's disappearance, the more it seemed to point towards Earth and the more suspicious it became. Maybe it was time to see what the Terrans had to say for themselves.

~~~

The mystery of Gabi is deepening. Who is she? What does she want? Is Earth behind everything after all? What do you think?

As always, don't hesitate to leave a comment, let me know what you think and of course, vote! :)