4 VEILED THREATS

4 VEILED THREATS Lunar day 188 Midmorning Even though the moon base isn't big, there are still a lot of places I'm not allowed inside. Many areas are restricted for security or maintenance reasons, while others are merely off-limits to kids. I'm not even supposed to enter the science pod or the greenhouse without an adult (although I do, on occasion, because that's a stupid rule). And, of course, I'd never been to the solar arrays or the lunar rover garage, because you have to go outside

to get there, and for a kid, that's simply out of the question. Nina's quarters were another place I'd never been, even though she lives right next door to me. My route there took me right back through the air lock staging area, then up the metal stairs to the catwalk. Nina answered the door the moment I knocked on it. She ushered me inside, locked the door, then glanced at her smartwatch. "I thought I told you to get here quickly." It had been maybe two minutes since I'd talked to her. "I came as fast as I could. I had to log out of the ComLink." Nina gave an annoyed sigh, then pointed to an InflatiCube for me to sit on. It might as well have been an order, so I sat. As usual, the cube made a loud, embarrassing sound beneath my bottom. "What was so urgent that you had to disobey my order about using the Link?" Nina demanded. "Roddy's dad asked me to check on him. But Roddy was already jacked in and wouldn't log off, so I had to log in myself." Nina rolled her eyes at this, but moved on. She had bigger fish to fry. "From now on, when I give an order, you follow it. No exceptions. Understand?"

I nodded, then took in the room. To my surprise, Nina's quarters were significantly larger than my family's, even though she had the place to herself. However, hers also had to serve as an office. On earth she probably would have had a massive, imposing desk and several couches. Here, due to the difficulty of getting any sort of furniture to the moon, she had the same InflatiCubes as everyone else and a spindly desk she'd probably had to assemble herself. Still, it was the only desk at MBA, which made it impressive enough. There was also an actual window. It faced south, the same way my window would have—if I'd had one. I'd never had the chance to look this direction. While much of MBA is surrounded by ugly man- made things like solar arrays and evaporators, there was nothing but moon outside Nina's window. The dust close to the base was tracked up, but beyond that I could see parts of the lunar surface still in their pristine, prehuman condition. A small crater sat on the horizon, gleaming in the sun. Since there's no atmosphere on the moon to diffuse the sun's light, the sky was dark and filled with stars. It was the most beautiful thing I'd seen in months. "Why don't you think Dr. Holtz's death was an

accident?" Nina asked me. I swung back to face her, startled by the question and how abruptly she'd asked it. "How'd you know that?" "I'm the base commander, Dashiell. It's my job to know what's going on here." I knew from her stone-cold expression that I wasn't going to get any more out of her than that. I wasn't upset about it, though. In fact, I was relieved that someone was asking questions about the death. So I opened up and told the whole story of my late- night run to the bathroom and how I'd overheard Dr. Holtz there. Nina kept her eyes locked on me the whole time. She didn't show a trace of surprise or shock—or any other emotion, for that matter. She was in full Nina the Machina mode. When I finished, she asked, "Did anyone else besides you hear this conversation?" "I don't think so," I said. "I was the only other person in the bathroom. Why?" "I'd just like some confirmation." "Why?" I repeated. "Don't you believe me?" "Look, I'm sure you think you heard Dr. Holtz say those things."

"I know I heard them." "It was late," Nina went on. "You were tired. You were embarrassed about breaking the toilet." "I didn't break it! It just broke." "Whatever the case, you were nervous and exhausted. You were hiding in the stall, so maybe you couldn't hear the conversation as well as you thought." "Could you check the security cameras?" I asked. There are cameras in all public spaces at MBA. We'd been told they were there for our safety—to monitor our health and the integrity of the base—although Roddy always claimed the real reason for them was to spy on us. "They must have recorded Dr. Holtz's conversation. You can hear it for yourself." Nina shook her head. "I can't. There aren't any camera feeds in the bathrooms. For privacy. And besides, the cameras we have don't record sound." "Oh." Normally, the news that I wasn't being filmed during my most private moments would have been pleasing. But now it meant there was no way to back up what I'd witnessed. "Would the phone call have been recorded somewhere? Because if you tracked that down..." "I'm not going to do that, Dashiell."

I blinked in surprise. "But it would prove that I'm telling the truth." "I have enough going on here right now," Nina said coldly. "I'm not about to start digging through the call logs—" "Well, I'm sure you could ask someone else to do it. I could even help out." Nina rubbed her temples, as though she had a bad headache. "You don't understand. What I mean is, I'm not about to start conducting an investigation. Dr. Holtz wasn't murdered. And I need you to stop saying that he was." I sat back on my InflatiCube, stunned. The plastic squeaked loudly under me, sounding like a hippopotamus passing gas. "Do you have proof he wasn't murdered?" "Yes. I have video of him walking out the air lock by himself." "That doesn't mean no one forced him to do it." "How?" Nina demanded. "I don't know," I admitted. "But this just doesn't make sense." "Accidental deaths never do. But they happen all the time. I don't know why Dr. Holtz went out the air lock solo. I truly wish he hadn't. I know you