Extinction by Jay Korza

they tended to share things with him that they shouldn’t.
Sometimes they even showed him things to get his opinion and his help on solving
problems.
    Today things were a little bit
different. Even the guys who trusted Seth and used his help before were pretty
tight-lipped about whatever was going on. He still got a few glimpses at some
of the work floating around; it seemed like it was referencing one of the
company’s fighters being involved in an accident that killed two marines, the
pilot and gunner. Hopefully, once he was a full member of the team, Seth would
be able to help prevent accidents like this.
    As Seth was setting down one of the
coffees, he caught a glimpse of some technical readouts from the flight
recorder. When the engineer saw Seth looking at the data, he quickly covered
the pad and thanked Seth for the coffee, obviously dismissing him.
    Even in that slight glimpse, something
struck Seth as wrong. His interest piqued now, he started looking at every
piece of information he could put an eye on. As each new piece of data was
absorbed, the puzzle was coming together and becoming clearer.
    At one point, Seth was alone in the room
with Jack, the lead project manager for the aircraft that had crashed. Jack was
mulling over some of the information and seemed to be unaware that Seth was
watching, waiting for the right moment to approach him and say something.
    Finally, Seth made his move. “Um, Jack.”
    “What?” Jack looked up and seemed mildly
annoyed at being disturbed.
    “I’m not trying to butt in here, but I
was thinking that maybe I could help. I’ve caught a few glimpses of the data
and I know that I could be useful.” Seth stepped back a half step when Jack
glared at him.
    “Just what data HAVE you been looking at,
Seth?”
    “Just bits and pieces as I’m bringing
the guys coffee and stuff. I haven’t picked up or read through anything
thoroughly. No one has given me anything, if that’s what you’re asking.” Seth
didn’t want anyone to get in trouble because of his curiosity.
    Jack’s features seemed to soften just a
little bit. “Look, Seth, I know that you’ll be an actual employee in just a
couple of weeks—I’m the guy who recommended you—but you’re not one now. And
even when you are employed and you have signed all of the non-disclosure
agreements, you still won’t have the secret clearance needed to deal with this
situation.”
    “I wouldn’t tell anyone that you let me
help out. I just thought maybe you’d like to know how the fighter went down.”
Seth was pushing now and he knew it.
    Jack sighed, and then touched a button
on the conference room table. The button sent a command to the room’s control
center and caused the doors to lock and the windows to become opaque so no one
could see in. The room also initiated the counter-electronics measures that
would keep anyone from spying on the room’s occupants with any of the known
intrusion methods that were out there.
    “If you speak even a word of this to
anyone, your career will end before it begins. And no one else in the Coalition
will ever hire you again.” Jack waved his hand to indicate the seat in front of
Seth.
    “Understood, sir.”
    “We already know how the fighter went
down. We knew within the first hour of receiving the flight data. What we’re
doing now is trying to figure out how to make sure no one else knows how it
went down.” Jack rubbed the bridge of his nose, obviously exhausted.
    “I don’t understand. Why are we trying
to cover this up? Two soldiers died in the crash. Don’t they deserve the truth?”
Seth was starting to wonder about the company he was soon to be employed by.
    “Look, I don’t like it either but
sometimes we have to look at the greater good. Those brave men are dead and
nothing we do will change that. It doesn’t matter if we say the crash was our
fault or theirs; their families will still get their death benefits and they
will still be buried as heroes.” Jack