Maelstrom of Treason Read online

  Halil groaned. “You too, Erik? You have to have this conversation right in front of me?”

  “It’s easier when we all know where we stand. And, yes, you’re hiding something.” Jia stood slowly, her eyes narrowed. “You were right. You don’t want to make enemies of us.”

  “YOUR OFFICE!” he blurted, avoiding eye contact.

  “Huh? What about it?” Jia frowned. Had he planted something? There was no way he could pull it off without Emma noticing, not without advanced technology, but if he were a Talos pawn, it wouldn’t be impossible.

  “Your office is closest to the elevator.” Halil shrugged. “And it’s closer to the break room. Seconds add up. I read this article the other day about how if you save five minutes a day, that ends up being over a day by the end of the year. I’m losing a day of my life every year because of where my office is. It’s not fair.”

  Jia blinked. She’d expected a tale of dark conspiracies forcing him into something he didn’t want to do. “You just want our office?”

  “You’ll be gone. It’s not like you need it.” Halil nodded toward the door. “And I deserve it. I’ve put in my time.”

  “So, the beignet was a bribe?” Jia raised an eyebrow, but her smile undermined her suspicious look.

  “I was just thinking that if the Obsidian Detective and Lady Justice drop a word in the captain’s ear, maybe he’d consider it more seriously. I’m not the only one eyeing your office.”

  Jia burst out laughing. “Our legacy will be our office?”

  “Sure, and all those crimes you solved. But, yeah, mostly the office.”

  Erik’s expression softened, and he went back to his slow, careful exploration of the glories of fine pastry. He shrugged, not caring about the dispensation of his office after his departure.

  Jia laughed again, all the tension flowing out of her. So much for Talos.

  “I’ll mention it to the captain.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “We’re going to have to change our strategy,” Erik announced. “We’re getting nowhere, and Malcolm and his guys aren’t getting anywhere fast either.”

  He had finished going through a new batch of personnel files, clinging to the small hope he’d find something that stood out enough to point them at the killer. Just because he joined the department to hunt for the killers of the Knights Errant, it didn’t mean he wanted to let another killer walk free.

  Someone had brutally murdered a woman, and they needed to face punishment.

  Jia slowly tore herself away from the two feeds playing on her desk. She’d been working through the murder recording one second at a time, looking for clues that would help identify the killer. Erik wasn’t sure it was healthy to watch a murder over and over, but it came with being a cop.

  Once they took down the conspiracy, they could retire and do nothing but watch sphere ball.

  “I’m open to suggestions.” Jia stretched as she commented, “Whoever killed Victoria Dwazil went through a lot of trouble to cover their tracks, and they did a good job of it, too.”

  “We can’t have Emma dive into the company systems without trouble.” Erik frowned. “There would be no guarantees even if we could, but it’d at least be a start.”

  “Why can’t you have access?” Emma appeared, sitting on the edge of Erik’s desk. “Vice-President Deng seemed rather cooperative. If you told him your technicians needed full systems access, wouldn’t he be inclined to try to obtain that for you?”

  “He’s a VP, not the CEO. Being cooperative with an investigation isn’t the same thing as wanting random cops rooting around in your company’s systems.” Erik shook his head. “Even if they allowed it, the problem comes after. The court is going to need documentation of everything, and we can’t say, ‘Our experimental AI went through their system.’ There have been cases tossed out because of improper algorithmic use in the past.”

  Emma wrinkled her nose in displeasure. “I’m far more than an algorithm.”

  “Not disagreeing, but the problem is, we have no idea how the courts will handle you, and I’m not here to change legal history. I’m here to catch a murderer. When we nail someone, we need to make sure they don’t walk because we screwed a procedure up.”

  Emma folded her arms and huffed in irritation. “Then what’s your suggestion, Detective? I don’t need to, but I’ll remind you anyway that every minute you spend looking for clues is an additional minute the murderous gun goblin has to flee. He might already be on Venus for all you know, or burrowing his way into some sad little makeshift hovel in the Scar.”

  “Then we’ll have the CID extradite him or have the militia dig him up. This might be our last case. We need to do this by the numbers.” He eyed her. “We won’t leave a mess for the rest of the 1-2-2 to clean up.”

  Jia pushed off her desk until she was standing and gave them a slight smile. “We can’t use Emma to explore their systems, but there’s nothing that says we can’t use her as a data analysis tool. We just have to be careful about it.”

  The annoyance on Emma’s face faded, replaced by a smirk. “Indeed. That’s very perceptive of you, Detective Lin.”

  “I’m not following,” Erik admitted.

  Jia pointed to his data window. “The company has given us a lot of information, and we might be missing clues because we’re not looking at the right information since we have so much. I don’t know if the solution is to get more information or look through the information more efficiently.”

  “Now I’m following you.”

  “If Emma filters things for us, as long as we can pull or point to the information without some unusual programming technique, we’ll be able to send it to the prosecutor without trouble. We can just claim we stumbled upon it when searching. There’ll be nothing to explain.”

  Erik didn’t laugh, even if he wanted to. The old Jia had been so obsessed with regulations and procedures that she’d let her first captain use them to control her, and now she was willing to play fast and loose as long as it ended in justice. Erik had no problem with that.

  It was the way he’d always been.

  He gazed at Emma. “You know what we’re looking for. You think you can find something?”

  The AI scoffed. “Detective, if you had ten of me and fewer rules, there would be no crime on this planet within six months.”

  “I’ve found something useful,” Emma announced. She’d disappeared while performing her records search but now summoned her hologram in the center of the room, her smile one of smug triumph.

  “It’s only been an hour,” Erik noted, sounding impressed. The AI’s humanlike personality could easily lull him into forgetting that she wasn’t a snarky woman who liked to disappear, but rather the pinnacle of advanced information technology. All their police restrictions had limited their ability to use her to her maximum potential.

  Emma nodded. “In this case, the information was all there, as Detective Lin had anticipated. You simply needed someone more efficient to go through it. There wasn’t any clever coded phrasing or encrypted words. There were a series of personal memos documenting one of the victim’s internal investigations. I’m sure you would have stumbled upon them…eventually. Probably after the suspect escaped past the core worlds.” She lifted her hand to examine her nails, an absurd action considering she could make them look like anything.

  “What did you find?” Jia asked. “Besides a new reason to look down on fleshbags.”

  Emma smirked. “The victim was obsessed with two chemical precursors produced and shipped by the company in great numbers. Judging by her memos and records, her research into these chemicals occupied the vast majority of her time in recent weeks.”

  Three-dimensional molecular models of the two intricate compounds appeared and orbited around Emma. Erik didn’t know enough chemistry to interpret the structures, but he didn’t care. It was not like he needed to when he had Emma. Relying on his super-AI assistant might be making him lazy in some ways, but he was doing all
the heavy lifting involving firefights.

  “I’m having bad flashbacks to my o-chem final at the university.” Jia shuddered, rubbing her shoulders.”

  “You got an A- on the final?” Erik joked.

  “No, of course not. I got an A, just like I always did, but…” Jia waved a hand. “We don’t need to talk about my education. Let’s focus on the case.” She nodded at Emma. “Why would these compounds be important? You mentioned they are precursors. The question is, precursors to what?”

  “One of them is a precursor in the production of Archangel,” Emma explained. “The other seems to mostly be important in agricultural chemical production. I’m having trouble finding any reason worth killing over the latter, but there might be other uses that aren’t documented in sources available for my perusal.”

  “Archangel? Son of a bitch.” Erik grimaced. “We’ve got the how, and we’ve got the who. And now we have the why.”

  Every cop in the department had all read the departmental memos concerning the so-called “Dragon-Tear Killer” making its way around the UTC. Archangel was allegedly more addictive than Dragon Tear, and although the newer drug didn’t produce the same high as the other drug, it had fewer side effects, including a lower risk of sudden cardiac arrest.

  The NSCPD had received many reports from the CID about the drug spreading throughout the core worlds in the last six months, but they hadn’t arrested anyone in the metro for dealing yet.

  It’d always been a question of when, not if, though.

  Jia gestured to the now-glowing chemical diagram. “But just like agriculture might not be the only use for the second chemical, this one isn’t only used as an Archangel precursor, correct?”

  “No, it has a number of legitimate industrial and biomedical uses,” Emma explained. “Luminous River has been producing it for some time. Its production, in and of itself, is unlikely to have caused her concern.”

  “Then why was Victoria Dwazil so concerned with it?”

  “Because she found discrepancies between the delivery reports for the chemical and the client payments,” Emma explained. “In addition, the production levels were above what was being requested by sales. The same is true of the other chemical, but as I noted, I’m having a harder time linking it to the potential murder. I’ll also note the second chemical’s production dropped in recent weeks, and there’s a memo suggesting a database error was responsible for the overproduction of that one.”

  “But that’s not true for the Archangel?” Erik asked. “That was how you whittled it down.”

  “It’s not Archangel.” Emma wagged a finger. “It’s merely a precursor. Please note it requires several other chemicals and processes for the final production of the drug.”

  Erik grunted in frustration. “Give me a C- for my grade and move on already.”

  Emma gave him an overly satisfied smile. “To answer your question, there’s no evidence the overproduction of the chemical in question was the result of a database error. Production was increased in recent weeks, according to direct numbers the victim pulled from the primary production plant system. Those were not passed along to either QA or Sales, nor, for that matter, higher-ups in Operations.”

  “It’s always the numbers that trip these guys up.” Jia’s eager grin and tone betrayed her excitement about the new lead. Their cooling case had turned red-hot.

  “Sounds like we need to go check out the plant.” Erik frowned. “Or get someone to do it for us. We won’t have jurisdiction if it’s outside Neo SoCal.”

  “It’s convenient in this case that the plant isn’t outside Neo SoCal.” Emma smiled. “Although Luminous River has multiple plants and the victim has responsibilities for several, the one in question is in the Shadow Zone. I checked into it. The plant’s been open for a few years, and it is allegedly part of the Council’s attempt to revitalize the Zone.”

  Jia thought a moment. “Now that you mention it. I remember seeing something on the news a few years back about economic development efforts in the Zone.” She snorted. “They keep people from freely traveling between the Zone and Uptown, but they stick a major chemical production plant there? Knowing what I know now, it sounds more like they just wanted something dangerous in a neighborhood they don’t have to care about.”

  “Probably a little bit of both,” Erik agreed. “We’re Shadow Zone Task Force members until November. We’ve still got jurisdiction.”

  “But we don’t have a warrant. You’re the one who said we need to follow proper procedure.”

  “You don’t need a warrant if you’ve got cooperation.” Erik lowered his hand to his PNIU with a grin. “I think our greatest fan will be happy to get us permission.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  October 1, 2229, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Shadow Zone, Luminous River Production Plant

  The sprawling chemical plant came into view as the MX 60 descended.

  Jia had flown over factories and plants like this one more than once in the Zone, but she’d never paid attention. They were just landmarks on her way to something else. She might not be much better than the Council. It was too easy to forget the millions of people living at the base of the mighty towers of Neo SoCal.

  People couldn’t solve problems they refused to admit existed.

  Huge circular tanks stood clustered together in the corners of the fenced-off complex. A maze of mostly windowless buildings connected by opaque skybridges spread from the center of the area. Puffs of dark vapor flowed from different buildings all over the plant.

  The omnipresent haze in the Zone might not have been the fault of plants like this one, but it wasn’t like the air quality in the area was the result of people sneezing too much. Every time they came to Shadow Zone, the dark air made it seem later in the day than it was. Jia chuckled darkly at the thought.

  “What’s so funny?” Erik asked, his hands loose on the control yoke. “You that happy we’ve made progress?”

  “It’s been a busy few days, and it’s only late afternoon today. At the rate we’re going, we’ll have enough time left over to solve a whole other crime or rescue a bus filled with children or something.”

  “It’s not always a bad thing to be busy.” Erik’s gaze darted to the lidar and cameras. “When you’re busy, it keeps you more alert. When I was in the Army, I always worried about guys back from a long leave. It softened them up.”

  Jia nodded. “No, it’s not a bad thing, but I just hope we won’t be working this much until November. Your Lady’s trying too hard to entertain herself.”

  It was Erik’s turn to laugh. “What? You’re turning into a lazy cop like your first two partners?”

  “Maybe they rubbed off on me, but it took a while.” Jia grinned. “But if this keeps up, think of all the reports we’ll have to work on. It’s not all fun and shooting cyborgs.”

  “Uhhhh, damn. You’re right.” Erik grimaced. He continued guiding the flitter toward a parking lot past the fence. Drones flew over the area, patrolling it, and there were towers with armed guards, including a few with conspicuously long rifles, easily visible even at a distance in the camera.

  The MX 60’s transponder signal would stop them from coming under fire, but such open displays of security would be considered gauche Uptown. Security guards armed with rifles patrolled the perimeter.

  Jia scoffed. “Isn’t that a lot of firepower for a chemical plant?”

  “Not when you’re worried about troublemakers.” Erik shrugged. “Until recently, they had a lot more gangster scum to worry about, and this isn’t a candy factory. Smart criminals understand things like precursor chemicals.”

  “True, but why not use bots, then?” Jia looked around, seeking external security bots, but she didn’t see anything other than the surveillance drones.

  “Because the government’s not going to let them run bots with lethals down here, and that’s what they probably need to be safe.” Erik slowed the descent of the flitter. They passed over a fence wit
h two drones hovering nearby before floating gently toward an open parking spot surrounded by far less luxurious vehicles. A huge, broad-shouldered man in an impeccably tailored suit stood there waving with a smile on his face. Unless he was a terrorist or an ID ghost using a disguise, he was Malachi Lunt, the plant manager.

  “Is everyone in this company happy to help the police?” Jia mused.

  Erik snickered. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  “I’m used to people stonewalling. I want to say it’s a nice change of pace, but all this cooperation is making me nervous.” Jia rubbed her palm with her thumb. “And Victoria Dwazil was killed by someone who was probably being paid a lot of money to siphon off chemicals for Archangel. People who send Tin Men to impale people aren’t subtle about most things.”

  “Killing a cop isn’t a good way to avoid attention.”

  The MX 60 set down, the faint background hum of the grav field growing quiet. Malachi folded his hands in front of him and waited patiently, a pleasant smile fixed on his face in a corporate mask. Jia let out a sigh of relief. An obvious fake front satisfied her paranoia.

  “Don’t get out the grenades just yet,” Erik joked before opening his door. “We don’t know if he’s got any hardware.”

  “Very funny, but it’s an open question as to which of the two of us is more paranoid.”

  “Stay paranoid, and you won’t end up dead.”

  “Good advice.” Jia stepped out. She waited for Erik before both detectives walked toward the waiting Malachi. He stood near the entrance to a covered walkway that led toward a squat building marked A22. The man kept up his smile, even his blinks coming off as calculated as they approached. If he was a deadly cyborg assassin or had hired one, he was doing a good job of hiding it.

  He thrust his hand out. “Detectives Blackwell and Lin, welcome to the plant. The honor is all mine, although I wish we could have met under better circumstances.” He chuckled.

  Jia and Erik both exchanged handshakes before the former spoke. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with us on such short notice. We know it can be inconvenient to come all the way up to the station and how that can look, so we thought this would be a better way to handle things.”