'It opened just after we stopped. The chief steward thinks it was one of the engineers, opening the door to get out and check the brakes without informing the system he was unlocking the door/
'It wasn't forced?'
'It was opened from inside. With a key/ The effects of my will were ebbing and his jocular tone returned. We've got personnel out lineside now, sir, checking the brakes/
'Including this engineer who supposedly opened the door in his eagerness to find the fault?'
'I'm sure, sir/
'Find out/ I said, using the will more forcefully.
He ran back to the monitor panel, and his colleagues stood back, puzzled, as he operated the device.
Who has access to door keys?'
Who the hell are you?' one of the others asked.
'A concerned member of the public/ I said, blanketing them all with will power. Who has keys?'
'Only engineers of level two and higher, class one stewards and the guards/ said another, stammering in his desperation to tell me.
'How many people is that?'
Twenty-three/
'Are they all accounted for?'
'I don't know/ said Inex.
'Stand aside/ I ordered, and used my ring on the monitor. The train had a staff and crew of eighty-four. Each one had a sub-dermal tracker implant so that the train master could account for the location of his people at all times. The display showed a graphic map of the train, but the screen was so small I had to scroll along it, looking at the schematic bit by bit. Master personnel were shown in red, engineers in amber, stewards in green and guards in blue. Ancilliary staff like chefs, waiters, porters and cleaners were pink.
Red and amber dots clustered in the locomotive section, and blue and green ones were speckled throughout the wagons. The upper deck of car nine, the crew quarters, was full of pink lights. I saw a cluster of green and blue cursors that represented the men grouped around me at the back of car eight's lower deck, near door 34. A sub-menu listed the amber and blue lights that had left the train to inspect the running gear.
There was one green light amongst the pink ones in car nine. I called up more information. The green light belonged to Steward Class One Rebert Awins. He was in his quarters.
The express had made an emergency stop and all the staff apart from the ancilliaries were moving to secure the train. Except Awins.
Awins is class one. He'd have keys.'
'Yes, sir/ said Inex.
'Why isn't he assisting?'
They all looked at each other.
'When did you last see him?'
'He was on the morning shift today,' said one of them.
'I saw him in the rec room at shift change having his lunch,' added another.