Lunar Escape - the end

An asteroid hurling towards Earth harbours a secret

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Lucas took a deep breath and stared at his interrogator. She now leaned forward, at the ready to record all his secrets. Her eyebrows pulled together creating a single wrinkle on her forehead—another flaw.

“Let me get this straight for the record. You’re telling me you remember nothing?”

“That’s right,” he said. Although he couldn’t see any recording devices, he was certain everything he said or did was now on permanent record.

She cocked her head to one side. “Even after drinking the formula I gave you?”

“I guess it didn’t work on me.” Lucas rubbed his left pinky—the one he would lose when he stopped cooperating or if he was deemed a failure. Emily’s words surfaced. Not telling his interrogator about the insurgent’s lunar facility or that Ash was alive and staying there were career limiting moves. Of course, now Emily was dead.

Stars... rocks... stars... rocks...

He closed his eyes feeling the now familiar nausea. He was back in the buggy as it tumbled down the lunar crater. Everything was in slow motion, every bounce amplified by the low gravity.

With a slight shake of his head, he told himself to get a grip. Opening his eyes, he made eye contact with his interrogator. She didn’t look so confident now.

“There are other procedures we can try to regain those memories.” She looked down at her tablet for a moment then back to him. Her expression told him that her tough veneer was begging to crack. “They are more invasive. You will need to consent.”

“I don’t consent.” He encased his left pinky with his right hand.

His interrogator nodded. “In that case, your contract with The Conglomerate will be terminated for your failures. Losing the Angler will be attributed to your incompetence as will your failure to recover the artifact.”

Lucas nodded, bothered that she made no mention of the deaths of Werner and Emily. Or even their presumed death of Ash. No—it was the loss of equipment that mattered most, followed by not bringing home a weird crystal.

“As a permanent record of your failures we will amputate your left pinky.”

He looked up at the portrait of the head of the Conglomerate. Nigel Maximillian West’s subtle smirk was getting on Lucas’ nerves. He rubbed his pinky and returned his gaze to his interrogator.

“Just get on with it, I want to get out of this blasted place. I have a life to live.” His thoughts went to Camila—and how he’d be back with her soon.

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Lucas, now missing pinky, and The Conglomerate reappear in Day 115 on an Alien World currently available for free on all the online book shops.

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