Just a moment-” I did good enough, and yanked the door open.
“Taylor, I’m sorry to bother you, but bennet said you had some reports to fill out.” Steve said, looking shaken up.
“Come right in.” I shut the door behind him, as he let out a gasp.
“Don’t say a word.” He whispered, “Don’t say a single word- not to anyone.”
“Sure- Steve, what’s wrong?”
“You’ve got to swear- You won’t say a word.” He was shaking from his shoulders to his knees, sweat beading up on his brow and wetting the tight curls of his hair.
“Sure, I- Maybe you better calm down, sit.”
“They’re going to kill me!” He gripped my arm, nearly to tears.
“Calm down, sit on my bed here- That’s it, that’s it.” I wrapped my arm around the towering man, feeling his body quiver like a child.
“You know what I mean, I know you do. You’ve seen it- It happened to all of them, you were there every time. I didn’t believe it was you, and now I know it couldn’t have.”
I nearly let out a cry myself. Not Steve- Please not another one.
“They got too close- You can’t get too close. Hari found something, and I saw it. I didn’t want to, but it’s too late now.”
“I won’t let them get you- Just keep quiet. I know, Darrell knows. We’ve lived this far.”
“They think you won’t talk- They know you won’t talk, I don’t think they know why.”
“I’m a coward. That’s all there is to it- Except when other people are going to be hurt.”
“Why are they keeping it a secret- You know, petroleum on mars- It’s practically a godsend.”
“They can’t just drill into another planet. Even they know that it’ll take time, and they don’t want someone else capitalising on that. Besides, we managed to get the news about the life out, now they probably can’t without some tricky underhanded buisness.”
“But who are they?”
“I’m not sure, but more importantly- How do they know?”
“Probably watching us-”
“Don’t worry, Steve. Just don’t even think about it, and it’ll be gone.”
“For now.”
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