"Are you out of your mind?" the Captain said. "Food delivery? What would be the point of that? To keep him holed up even longer?"

"To get eyes on him, to see what he's doing. I knock on the door, pretend that I'm the delivery person and get a quick lay of the land."

"Not happening, Staxx," the Captain said, his voice louder. "If anything, we want to starve the man, so he comes out, not give him another reason to stay put."

Denton sighed and looked for support to Leah, who just slightly shook her head. She agreed with the Captain?

"I told you he wouldn't like it," Tanner whispered, even though Denton was the only one that could hear him.

"Why not?" Denton pressed and locked eyes with the Captain. "At least we'd be doing something. Why wait for him to make a move?"

The Captain squinted his eyes and sighed. "Because they don't deliver to that hab, Staxx. That's why. Showing up as a delivery person would be out of character and suspicious. Now, can we move on to a different topic?"

Denton ran the fingers of his hand through his hair and sighed. He hadn't thought of the possibility that delivery services could be limited. The Captain was right. His idea would have the opposite effect. But wait. Why had Carter picked a lower end apartment to stay in?

"Isn't that odd though, Captain? Carter Forsythe, the heir to one of the richest men in the known universe, settles down in an apartment that's not upscale enough to qualify for food delivery? That makes no sense."

"What difference does it make? Maybe he just doesn't want any deliveries?"

"I don't buy it. He's got the resources. Why hide?"

Tanner's voice returned, this time with urgency. "Denton, it may not matter. There's someone at his door right now."

"What? Who?" Denton said as he took a few steps away from Leah and the Captain, a finger in the air, pointing to his ear with his other hand.

"I can't tell. It looks like some sort of delivery."

Denton's eyes darted to the Captain. "There's a delivery at Carter's door?" he said loudly enough for the Captain to hear. "It's not food, is it?"

"It doesn't look like it. Wait, the door is opening. Hang on."

Denton stepped back over to the Captain to explain what was happening. The Captain immediately patched into Tanner's feed.

"What do you see, Tanner?" the Captain asked.

"He just went inside. The delivery driver is inside."

Denton glared at the Captain but kept his mouth shut.

"Should we send our teams in?" Denton asked.

The Captain thought quietly for a few moments and then shook his head. "No, let's follow the delivery guy when he comes back out. I'd like to know where he came from. Then, we pick him up and find out what he was doing."

"Tanner, did you hear that?" Denton said. "Get one of the teams into position to follow the delivery driver back. Position team members throughout the expected return route, ready to take over from the previous person. Avoid detection at all cost."

"Denton, I do know how to run a surveillance operation. I've got it handled."

Denton shook his head and grinned. Tanner was definitely his usual self. "Keep the other team on standby, just in case Carter decides to take a walk."

"Roger that."

"I'm heading down there, Captain. Something is wrong, I can smell it."

"Good idea. Take Leah with you."

Denton and Leah left the Captain arguing with one of the doctor's about Denton's medical status. As before, they wanted to keep him for observation for a few more days. Denton was surprised to find that the Captain seemed to side with him for once. They rode the elevator down to the hospital lobby in silence. Denton gave Leah a sideways glance, but she stared straight ahead, her mind preoccupied with something.

They exited the elevator and made their way through the hospital lobby and out into a large open plaza. Stores and restaurants lined the edges of the plaza, and the inhabitants of the orbital habs were coming and going in a steady stream.

"Come on, this way," urged Denton and started jogging across the plaza. "The shuttles are this way," he shouted over his shoulder. They followed the signs down an escalator, squeezing between people while uttering countless apologies.

"Tanner, do you have a shuttle ready?" he said between breaths after they reached the bottom.

"You didn't ask for one," Tanner replied after a moment's hesitation.

"How am I supposed to get to Carter's apartment without transportation?" Denton said, rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in the air.

"I figured you'd use a department vehicle."

"You know as well as I do..."

"I know," Tanner interrupted, "Taking advantage of the private shuttles superior speed is beneficial. However, the department has a new orbital shuttle that's at your disposal. It's docked in the secure area of the shuttle terminal. Because it's at our disposal, acquiring private transport for our purposes is not in our best interest."

Denton shook his head in disbelief. "You could have told me right away. When did we get that? Wait. Don't answer that. More importantly, how do I get to it?" he asked as he looked around for a sign that could point him in the right direction.

"There's a door next to the escalators in the shuttle lobby. The one that says 'Personnel Only' on it. That'll take you to its hangar."

"I see it. How do I get access to it? I assume it's a secure area."

"Just pull the handle. It has biometric sensors built in that will detect if the person trying to open the door is authorized or not."

Denton motioned for Leah to follow him as he opened the door and held it open for her. She smiled in return as she stepped inside and the continued down the plain, dimly lit hallway that stretched out to the left. Matching pairs of doors across from each other lined the hallway, their contents hidden behind red double-digit numbers painted on each door.

"What's behind these doors?" Leah asked and pointed to one of the doors as they walked past it.

Denton shrugged. "I really don't know. I have spent very little time in this particular hub. In fact, I didn't even know we had a secure shuttle area here, much less a new shuttle."

"You don't have your own transportation? I mean, for your department? On Earth, law enforcement often travels in their own, assigned vehicle with their partner. Or, at least they used to, you know, back in the day."

"Down on the surface, sure," Denton said as he picked up the pace. "In space, it's a bit more complicated. Everything is connected through the orbital tracks. All travel between the hubs is tied to the tracks. Personal shuttles would congest the system too much. It's bad as it is already. Oh, wait, this must be it." He pointed to a door with the words 'Secure Area' painted in red on it. He pushed it open.

They were greeted by an orchestra of mechanical noises coming at them from all directions. The sound of the hissing of steam from pipes above their heads. Somewhere, someone was banging a hammer against pure metal, its sound echoing through the open space. Machinery for various part of the hub, grinding away, all around them. A man at a workbench inside a small shop area looked up as they came through the door and gave Denton a nod. His eyes lingered on Leah a bit longer than Denton thought prudent before he returned his attention to his work.

Denton saw no signs that pointed to where the shuttle was docked, so he walked over to the man and flashed his badge. The man looked up and gave his badge a quick glance. "Whadda'ya want?" he grunted and wiped his hands on his dirty coveralls.

"I'm looking for the new shuttle."

The man's eyes lit up. "Oh! Yea, that's an exciting one. Nice and shiny, all brand new. Fastest thing I've got."

"Excellent. Can you show us where it is?" Denton said while his eyes found the man's nametag. "Cato?"

"Oh sure," Cato said and flashed a grin. He stepped over to a sink next to his workstation and quickly washed his hands. "She's a beauty. We just got her in, after the trial runs and all that."

Denton nodded and tapped his feet, noting the time displayed on his retina. Idle chit-chat wasn't particularly helpful. "Yeah, so, I hate to be pushy, but we've got a bit of an emergency. Can you show us where she's docked?"

"Of course, pardon me. Just excited about this thing you know," Cato said and wiped his clean hands on a dirty towel that he tossed back onto the workbench. "Follow me."

Cato took the lead and headed straight towards a door Denton somehow had missed when they first entered the area. It had the word 'Hangar' written on it in bold red letters. The background noise from the shop area was immediately muffled as the door closed behind them. They passed through an office area where a dozen men and women stared at holo-projections of a variety of objects, oblivious to the trio walking through their office space.

"What are they doing?" Leah asked, her eyes large as one of the women closest to them spun a projection of Proxima b in the air in front of her while she drew lines between dots directly onto the holo-projection.

"They're intelligence specialists," Denton responded. "We have these in my office too. They analyze and process data from the field and then make recommendations to those in the field. Tanner kind of does the same thing."

"Tanner's just a data analyst?"

"Pretty much. He certainly has the brains for it," Denton said as they followed Cato through a door that had a large white '01' painted on it.

"I heard that," Tanner grunted in response. "I think you're oversimplifying my role."

"Ok, ok, he does more than that, I admit. Without him, I doubt we'd be this far in this case.

The door closed behind them with a click and lights flickered to life above them, revealing the hangar. "Here it is," Cato said, his hand outstretched towards a craft in the center of the room. "I call it The Panther."

"The Panther? Why? What's a panther? "

Cato turned and looked at Denton with a grin and a sparkle in his eyes. "It's an animal that used to exist back on Earth," Cato said. "It was fast and agile, and of course, colored black. It's the perfect name for a machine with the same characteristics."

"Great," Denton said and nodded towards The Panther. "How do we get in?"

The Panther resembled other orbital crafts Denton had used throughout his years of service. It had a long, rectangular body, with rounded edges, the cockpit visible at the very front. The engines were mounted between four wings mounted at forty-five-degree angles at the rear end of the fuselage. Smaller, delta-shaped wings extended from the front of the body. The whole ship was painted black with red accents.

"It doesn't look fast," Leah blurted out and immediately put her hand on her mouth.

"Compared to what?" Cato said, his eyebrows raised and his arms crossed. "You don't like her?"

"Well, I can't help but think of the fighter jets."

"The what?" Denton said.

"Personal military aircraft. They're built for speed and agility. They're very sleek and aerodynamic. Unlike this one."

"You seem to know an awful lot about aircraft," Cato said and relaxed, now with a grin on his face. "In space, aerodynamics means very little."

"I've seen them first hand at home, on Earth," Leah said.

Cato looked like he was going to explode with excitement. "No kidding? You're from Earth? Well, I'll be..."

"You'll be fired if we're not on board this ship in a minute," Denton snapped. "Cato, there are lives at risk."

Cato looked down and put both hands up. "Uh, of course. My apologies, come right this way. I'm sorry, I just get so carried away. It's rare that I run into others that appreciate our flying machines," Cato said while he pointed a device he fished out of his pocket towards the craft. A door on the side of the hull opened up as he gestured towards the opening and bowed. "There you are."

Denton immediately climbed the few steps to the door and stepped into the passenger area. The seating arrangement was simple. A row on each side, by the window, stretching five deep, just in front of the open cargo space. To his immediate right was the entrance to the cockpit.

Inside, he found four seats, a bank of screens and various controls. He strapped himself into one of the seats and scanned the controls and while Leah sat down in the seat next to him. The view out the front windows gave them a 180-degree viewing angle. Cato poked his head through the door to the cockpit.

"All set?" he said.

Denton glanced over his shoulder and then nodded towards the controls. "Just one question."

"Go for it."

"Can you fly this thing?"

Cato's eyebrows went up. "What do you mean, can I fly it? Of course, I can."

"Good," Denton said as he unstrapped his seatbelt, got up and slid into the seat behind the pilot's seat. "I've never flown one of these, and I don't have the time for a lesson."

Cato laughed. "Sorry, bud, no can do. I know how to fly it, but I'm not allowed to take it out except for maintenance runs. No exceptions."

Denton drummed his fingers on the back of the pilot's seat and took a deep breath. "Cato, this is a matter of national security. I need your help."

Cato shrugged. "I'd love to, but sorry, no can do. I can't risk my job for something that's not my business."

"You're putting lives at risk," Denton said.

"Not my problem, pal. Good luck," Cato said and disappeared back out into the hangar.

~~~

On the hunt for Carter, will Denton and Leah get to him before it's too late? Or, will the unwilling mechanic derail Denton's plan?