He went through his morning routine just like any other day. After rehydrating and consuming his breakfast, Lee logged into a work terminal and briefly skimmed through the day's tasks and project updates. Words flew by on the screen in front of him, but there was only one task he was interested in.
[Inspection and Maintenance of Sample Return Craft] rolled up the screen. He had scheduled the last minute inspection himself, but still felt his heart rate jump at seeing it.
"There's my ride up." he whispered to himself. The SRC was little more than a metal cylinder and wave drive booster tethered to a high altitude balloon. When it reached the upper atmosphere the booster kicked in and took the cylinder the rest of the way up to the geosync platform to be collected by the supply drop craft. But it was never intended for human transport. It lacked any life support systems, and when it reached its destination there was still the task of getting out of the cylinder and into the platform in the vacuum of space.
With a flick of his finger Lee sent the task up to the top of the list. He took a deep breath and started gathering tools for the job. Everything had to look normal. Nobody would be suspicious of a quick inspection before the scheduled launch that afternoon, but Lee's heart was still pounding. He hefted the tool chest in one hand and set off for the vehicle lot, stopping by his room to quickly stuff the suit into the bottom compartment of the chest.
When he arrived at the hangar where his unsuspecting escape vehicle awaited its voyage, nobody was there. Everything had been loaded and prepped on the previous cycle, and since the launch was almost entirely automated only one person would need to be present for the event. Lee had arranged to be the launch overseer that day, which meant there was little chance anyone else would be coming. But that small chance was critical. If someone did come it could put an end to everything. He didn't know what the company would do to him if he were caught, but again the message from Jim came back to mind.
"... There's something really strange going on here, but everyone's ignoring it. Everyone I ask just tells me to drop it. What's the company trying to hide? Tomorrow I'm taking this data to the Hab manager."
That was the last message he or anyone else got from Jim. His company profile now read "Temporary offworld assignment", but everyone knew that wasn't true.
Lee walked up to the dull grey cylinder, just slightly larger than himself, and set his hand on the cool metal.
"Don't kill me, now." he said in a calm voice.