Enigma Glitch

Chapter 6: Test Pilot II

Murphy sat upright and cleared his throat. "With kids it's hard to tell, since the trauma of witnessing people die could be enough to throw off her emotions. But when I look back on when I ran to her, she was afraid but she was also guilty. She was looking for something."

"Guilt can cause people to run, but it can also cause them to stick to the evidence of their crime." Cooper raised an eyebrow. "Go on, deputy."

"Like I said, I can't be totally sure." Murphy's face tightened when his supervisor looked at him with disappointment. "But the room you had me sit in with three dead people gives us more evidence. Her father was in shock. He wasn't pleading. In fact, he was holding the device that killed him. That looks more like an accident than an execution or assassination. And Jordan's mother also shows no sign of foul play. She touched her husband out of concern, not knowing touching his wrist would sentence her to the same fate."

"Where are you going with this?" Victoria tilted her chin in as if intent to hear her cohort's ideas.

"There was another person in the room." Murphy raised a finger. "Jordan's father had a body language that showed shock, but was angled down as if he was talking to someone below him, but his eyes weren't pointed down low enough to be looking at Jordan. There was an overturned stool in front of him. Someone was talking to the couple and ran off when they died. They and their mystery companion had to be discussing the flying quicksilver. No execution, just a meeting with dangerous substances involved."

"I see." Cooper raised his folded hands to cover his mouth and he exhaled in thought. He raised his head again and gazed across the room. "Murphy, you're accusing the Kurosawas of involvement in a plan to murder a train full of people."

"I don't want to believe it," Murphy said. "But after taking the time to mull it over, it seems like Jordan saw her parents speaking to a bad person about shady dealings, they died, and the bad person fled. Perhaps with a threat. That would be a good reason to be guilty and afraid. It would be a good reason to run away and to also seek out the cargo where their devices might be stowed."

"I'm checking the cargo manifest now," Emma said as a typed message across the bottom feed in each person's eyepieces.

"Your theory is sound," Victoria said. "If they were executions, they would be hidden by their killers or used as an example to others. There was no attempt to cover tracks or display. Instead, they are a random accident resulting from their involvement in wrongdoing."

"I'd like to test my theory by talking to Jordan," Murphy said.

Cooper nodded.

"Thank you, boss." Murphy pointed to his green visor.

Cooper and Victoria leaned over the table as if talking to each other, but they both watched the visual feed from Murphy and listened to every sound from his microphone.

"Found something," Emma typed into their eyepieces. "The Kurosawas had one air scooter. Unlicensed non-operational. Two other passengers had the same. Lines 26, 93, and 117 also had three each. Line 882 only had one. All unlicensed non-op."

"Something tells me there are no rusty hover scooters in their cases," Victoria said.

"May I join you two?" Murphy sat across from Jordan and the holographic Emma. "How is the trip going?"

"Emma is really smart," Jordan said. She lifted her shoulders and hunched her neck down.

"Smart is my favorite type of person." Murphy looked at Jordan but her eyes were pointed down at her tablet. "If you could go anywhere with Emma, where would it be?"

"Anywhere?" Jordan lifted her face and stared at the green hologram. "We'd go on an orbital flight. I bet she knows all the names of the stars."

"She probably knows how to spell all their names, too." Murphy grinned at the hologram, who cast him a curious stare with a hint of confusion. "Did you have any plans to go somewhere special with your family?"

"Uh." Jordan looked downward for a moment and her hunched posture returned for a few seconds. She regained her composure and looked at Emma. "Will you take me to the stars?"

"Flying to the stars sounds fun." Murphy glanced at the tablet, which had a homework assignment about seabirds featuring the photo of an albatross. "I'd rather be having fun flying than be in a scary place like this train. If I had a scooter, I'd fly away right now."

Jordan spun her head to stare at Murphy. She gulped but forced a grin.

"Do you have a scooter we could fly away with?" Murphy smiled at the girl. "Maybe Emma could join us, and we could fly to a orbital launch port to meet her. We could count the stars and name them for days and days and forget about bad places."

"Daddy said we would fly away from this train." Jordan blinked but tears poured down her face. "Please don't get hurt like Daddy did. You two are too nice."

"Victoria and I are headed to the cargo hold," Cooper said through the headset. "Good hunch, Murphy."

"I've got nothing better to do. I'm up for a flight to space." Murphy grabbed the tablet and swiped at the screen until it showed a constellation map. "My favorite star is Betelgeuse because it sounds like Beetle Juice. Maybe they serve bug smoothies on the orbital starliners." He chuckled and pretended to gag, which encouraged Jordan to chuckle along with him.

"That sounds gross." Jordan smiled at the bald man and the hologram. "My favorite star is Polaris because it helps you find home."

"You won't believe this," Emma said as text to the team. "I found this archive image from a history document from the Australia-China War."