Rabbit Hole on Mars - Day 10 (Nov 10) 384 words

Chapter 10

“Shut the Bluetooth transmission off,” Brian said.
Before Scott could hit the off button, a notification bell rang. A music track was sent over. It was a song called 'Things Fall Apart' by Takenobu. A small text note included read, “Embrace the end of your future.”
Without concern for malware, Scott began to play the song. The melody was very peaceful. Very comfortable to die to if they had any intention of dying.
“Anyone want to hear my thoughts?” Scott said as he rolled back to a safe spot for the night. The forecast for Mars called for a dust storm in the area. He always preferred to be parked on a slight incline so most of the dust would roll right off.
“Let's all get coffee,” Brian said as he turned up the volume of the song.
“I don't drink coffee,” Donna replied, slightly offended that no one else knew that already.
“You love coffee. Come on, I'm buying!”
“Nope, you've got the wrong person.”
“You're fired, Donna.”
Donna stood still, in shock.
“Grab your purse and get the hell out of the room! You can come back for the rest of your shit later.”
Donna couldn't believe what was taking place. She did her job. Better than all who had come before her. Fired.
Outside the control room and next to the coffee kiosk, the rover crew congregated. Donna stood with them for a bit until Brian arrived. Then she planned to leave.
“Donna, I need various images of the labyrinth so we can figure out if this is an original or a copy of something famous,” Brian said.
“You just fired me,” Donna replied, “You can go to hell!”
“I didn't fire you, I shut you up so I could get us all out here in the lobby. Just Joe, what's the plan.”
“He's either bugged the room or he's hacked into something in the control room. All the warrants requested went through and we're getting closer to figuring out who exactly this is. Scott, can you go back in there and rescan all the programs and sound clips?”

“Sure thing,” Scott said, “I've got some ideas what he might have done to spy on us.”

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