Read The Human Division #9: The Observers for Free Online Page B

Meyer.
    “I didn’t do it!” Meyer yelled. “You are just as likely to have done it as I am, Thierry. You had the generator in your possession. You’re the one who convinced Cong to give up his berth for me. I didn’t ask him.”
    “You complained about claustrophia,” Bourkou said.
    “I joked about claustrophobia, you ass,” Meyer said.
    “And I wasn’t the one who suggested it to him,” Bourkou said. “It was Luiza. So don’t pin it on me.”
    A strange expression crossed Meyer’s face. Wilson caught it. So did Abumwe. “What is it?” she asked Meyer.
    Meyer looked around at the group, as if debating whether to say something, then sighed. “I’ve been sleeping with Luiza Carvalho for the last three months,” he said. “During the selection process for this mission and then since. It’s not a relationship, it’s more taking advantage of a mutual opportunity. I didn’t think it would matter since neither of us was in a position to select the other for the mission.”
    “All right,” Abumwe said. “So?”
    “So Luiza always complained about me sleeping badly,” Meyer said, and pointed at the white noise generator. “Two weeks ago, after we knew who was on the mission, she bought me that . Said it would help me sleep.”
    “Luiza was the one who suggested to Meyer that he let me borrow the generator,” Bourkou said. “To counteract Cong’s snoring.”
    “Where is Ms. Carvalho?” Stone asked.
    “She said she was going to her berth,” Abumwe said. “Lieutenant Wilson didn’t ask for her to be here, so I didn’t ask her to come.”
    “We should probably have someone get her,” Wilson said, but Coloma was already on her PDA, ordering someone to get her.
    Coloma’s PDA pinged almost immediately thereafter; it was Neva Balla. Coloma put her executive officer on the speaker so everyone in the room could hear. “We have a problem,” Balla said. “There’s someone in the portside maintenance airlock. It looks like one of the Earth people.”
    “Send me the image,” Coloma said. When she got it, she bounced it to the PDAs of everyone else in the room.
    It was Luiza Carvalho.
    “What is she doing?” Lowen asked.
    “Lock out the airlock,” Coloma said.
    “It’s too late,” Balla said. “She’s already started the purge cycle.”
    “She must have been listening in somehow,” Abumwe said.
    “How the hell did she get in there?” Coloma asked, angry.
    “The same way she got Meyer and Bourkou to help her kill Liu,” Wilson said.
    “But why did she do it?” Meyer said. “Who is she working with? Who is she working for?”
    “We’re not going to get an answer to that,” Wilson said.
    “Well, we know one thing, at least,” Lowen said.
    “What’s that?” Wilson asked.
    “Whoever’s been sabotaging you up here, it looks like they’re on the job down there on Earth,” Lowen said.
    “Almost got away with it, too,” Wilson said. “If we didn’t have that scanner, it would have looked like the Colonial Union killed him. By the time it was cleared up, it would have been too late to fix it.”
    No one said anything to that.
    In the video feed, Carvalho looked up to where the camera was, as if looking at the group in the medical bay.
    She waved.
    The air purged out of the airlock. Carvalho exhaled and kept exhaling long enough to stay conscious until the hull lock opened.
    She let herself out.
    “Dani,” Wilson said.
    “Yeah, Harry,” Lowen said.
    “You still have the Laphroaig?” Wilson asked.
    “I do,” Lowen said.
    “Good,” Wilson said. “Because right now, I think we all need a drink.”

Also by John Scalzi
    Old Man’s War
    The Ghost Brigades
    The Android’s Dream
    The Last Colony
    Zoe’s Tale
    Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded
    Fuzzy Nation
    Redshirts
    Edited by John Scalzi
    Metatropolis

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used