Free Double Cross by Sigmund Brouwer Page A

said, plunging ahead and playing her role perfectly. “Tyce wrote that once the digital video scan had been made, someone here at the dome triggered devices to destroy all the alien artifacts. Because if anyone examined the aliens or the antigravity device, everybody would know they were fakes. But if video was all that remained, no one could dispute it.”
    â€œSomeone at the dome?” he asked, worry in his voice.
    Someone, I thought, who at first insisted on reports every six hours but then kept contacting us every hour. Someone who had been speaking to Rawling on the radio while Dad and I were down at the black boxes, showing Rawling the aliens on the monitor. Someone who had heard all about it from Rawling as it happened. Someone who waited until the video feed had been beamed back to the dome by satellite and then …
    â€œYes,” Ashley told Director Steven. Her face was concerned. “Someone who then triggered a bomb to destroy the platform buggy. That explosion wasn’t an accident. It was on purpose. Someone here at the dome wanted to kill the only witnesses to the fake aliens. With them dead, only the video would remain. People on Earth would fund the dome for another hundred years, hoping to find the secrets behind antigravity or perpetual motion. Secrets that don’t exist.”
    Director Steven ran his hands wildly through his hair. He glanced in all directions, then gave Ashley his attention. “And you have all this on e-mail? From Tyce? He sent it before the explosion?”
    â€œIt’s on my computer,” Ashley said, ignoring the question about the explosion.
    â€œHas anyone else seen it?”
    â€œNo,” she said. “I thought I should let you be the first to know.”
    â€œNo one else has seen it.”
    â€œI just told you that.”
    â€œI needed to be sure,” Director Steven said. “Thank you.”
    â€œYou’re welcome. Are you going to find out who triggered the devices? Are you going to tell people the aliens were fakes, planted by an Earth mission?”
    â€œLet’s go for a walk,” Director Steven answered.
    â€œWalk?”
    With a sudden movement, he grabbed Ashley’s wrist and pulled her to her feet. Then he tightened his arm around her waist and clamped a hand over her mouth so she couldn’t scream.
    â€œA long walk,” he said in a menacing tone. “Out on the surface of the planet.”

CHAPTER 23
    I’d been waiting for this moment.
    In the robot body, I rolled out from behind the plants that had kept me hidden from Director Steven. With his back to me and one arm wrapped around Ashley’s waist, he didn’t see me coming. So I reached out and grabbed his wrist with titanium fingers. I locked my grip.
    â€œLet her go,” I demanded.
    Director Steven found himself looking straight into my front video lens. His eyes bulged with surprise. Not at my appearance, though that would have surprised most people. No, Director Steven knew what the robot body looked like. That’s not what surprised him.
    â€œImpossible,” he said. He had to know as soon as he saw the robot body that we hadn’t been blown up.
    â€œNot impossible,” I said through the robot’s voice box. “Dad and Rawling are in the platform buggy about five miles from here, where they are letting me control this robot body. Now let her go.”
    I tightened my grip. The titanium fingers of the robot body were capable of bending bars of steel. He screamed in pain. I lessened the grip slightly but did not release his arm. “Let her go.”
    Reluctantly, he did.
    â€œIt was you,” I said. “Someone high up in the Science Agency on Earth is in on it too, right? So you were placed back as director?”
    â€œThis is insane,” he protested.
    Ashley backed away from Director Steven. Her face was not afraid but angry. “Jerk!” she said to him. She kicked him in the shins,