Obsidian Detective Read online

  “Wife?” she squeaked.

  “You set me up,” Jia accused as she stomped back and forth in her apartment.

  She’d decided to wait until returning home to call her sister. She wanted to give herself a chance to settle her thoughts and clear the wine fog from her brain. She had also tried to burn off some energy by yelling at the onboard computer in her flitter.

  It wasn’t even close to satisfying.

  The full-color hologram of Mei transmitted by Jia’s PNIU stood there with her arms crossed and her lips pursed. While Jia normally preferred audio-only calls, a good rant needed accompanying body language for the full effect.

  And family deserved only her best.

  “I didn’t set you up,” Mei challenged, shaking her head while putting up a finger. “I asked you to go on one date with Warren.”

  She turned the upthrust finger in Jia’s direction. “Was it not a date? Didn’t he take you out to one of the best seafood restaurants in the metroplex? They serve actual fish. Try to afford that on your policewoman’s salary, little sister.” She huffed. “I think you get spoiled at times, dining with either me or Mother and Father.”

  Jia threw up her hands. “He was talking about marrying me. I just met the man. I didn’t know anything about him since you said everything would flow better and it would give me things to discuss if I didn’t, but now I realize you were setting me up for a matrimonial ambush.”

  “Oh, don’t be so melodramatic.” Mei rolled her eyes. “He’s a busy man, Jia. He doesn’t have time for a lot of unnecessary dating, and I was trying to give you something to talk about.”

  “I understand putting his career first, but I think talking about marriage on the first date is a bit much. Even Mother and Father had an actual romance that led to their marriage.” Jia groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. “And I’m not saying I have someone else in mind. I’m not even interested in any dating right now because I’m busy with my career, remember?”

  “Ah, yes.” Mei looked pained. “The police career that frustrates you to no end.” She threw both hands up. “I can’t possibly expect you to put that fling on hold to live a more fulfilling life of much higher social status that would both bring you more joy right now and please your older sister and your parents to no end, now could I?” She shook her head. “The mere thought must be complete insanity on my part.”

  Jia eyed her through the camera. “That’s not fair, and you know it.”

  “Tell me one thing that’s wrong with Warren.” Mei pointed at Jia. “Just one thing.”

  “It’s not that there’s anything particularly wrong with him,” Jia replied. “Well, there is one thing. He won’t support me in my career, and even ignoring that, I’m not ready to get married yet, let alone to someone I barely know.”

  “It’s not like he was going to marry you tomorrow, Jia.” Mei slapped a hand to her forehead and sucked in a breath. “You are very, very frustrating, little sister.” She blew out her breath. “I have a suggestion. A perfectly acceptable alternative.”

  “What’s that?” Jia asked.

  “You could join us at the company.”

  “You wasted his time too, you know,” Jia insisted, ignoring Mei’s suggestion. “I had to make it very clear to him that I’m not getting married anytime soon.”

  Mei chuckled. “Because you’re obsessed with your police career and some abstract notion of justice that is, to be frank, outdated.”

  “Serving the public is never outdated,” Jia countered. “And I don’t appreciate you misleading me.”

  Mei sighed and lowered her arm. “I’m sorry, little sister. I’ll admit that was a calculated risk on my part, but you’re right, I shouldn’t have done it. In the future, I’ll be clearer about my intentions. Although I only care about your future, and I want you to be happy.” She eyed Jia. “And your job isn’t making you happy.”

  “Only because I can’t do it properly.” Jia took a deep breath. “But if I hold out, something will change the status quo, and I’ll be able to do my best to uphold the law.” She nodded firmly. “Everything will be different soon. I can feel it.”

  Mei shook her head slightly and lifted a hand to her mouth to cover her yawn before she answered. “I hope you’re right, little sister. I hope you’re right for all our sakes.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Jia sighed as she skimmed through the glowing columns of numbers and text hovering in front of her.

  She could have had her PNIU route the data to her smart lenses, but enforcement zone regulations stated data inspection should be conducted in such a way that a third party could observe the data at all times. Pushing against the regulations was the last thing she wanted to do.

  It wasn’t like she had a partner to annoy with a desk full of numbers either.

  Fortunately, no one was close enough to hear her mumbling, “Either I’m a detective, or I’m not. I’m certainly not an auditor.” She thought about the situation for a moment. “Maybe I should find and work with another detective pair.”

  She swiped a finger to summon a new page of data.

  The information populated in front of her: names, dates, fines, and exact traffic law violated. This was hardly a record of dangerous anarchy threatening to overwhelm the metroplex, and although she understood the law required some manual checking of the data, that didn’t mean she liked doing it. Poring through data and evidence to solve a crime was an exciting challenge.

  “This is just punishment.” She spoke aloud.

  She stabbed to move to the next page.

  “It’s not my fault they quit.”

  Her eyes flashed through the data and she stabbed a key once more.

  “All they had to do was their jobs, not assume I’m a naïve Corp doll.”

  The clack of the key was a bit louder as the data moved again.

  She continued speaking to no one. “Seriously, you don’t keep a beautiful garden looking that way by ignoring aphids just because they’re small. They’ll chew up your flowers all the same.”

  Jia scanned the traffic fine data, taking slow, steady breaths to calm down.

  People said numbers didn’t lie, but that was absurd. Numbers might exist in some abstract sense outside of a mind, but humans were the ones who recorded them in the end.

  The miracle of Earth civilization had been achieved not by pretending people were perfect, but by accepting that they were flawed and putting societal measures in place to account for those flaws, including education and law enforcement.

  If I performed a low-level analysis of some of this traffic data, could I find any unusual patterns? There could be something there waiting to be found, but we’re so dependent on algorithms, we don’t even know what we might be missing.

  She sighed as she leaned back in her chair and rubbed the sides of her head.

  Who am I kidding? It’s not like there’s some insurrectionist cell hiding out in Neo SoCal. They wouldn’t dare. They don’t have influence here. No, some crime lingers, but that happens wherever humanity lives. She chewed the inside of her cheek, thinking about the lack of large problems on Earth. But it’s not going to be dangerous conspiracies and bribes hidden in encoded data.

  She stared at a virtual image of the city, watching the flitters go to and fro in their flight lanes, which crisscrossed in front and back of the buildings that grew up through the clouds.

  I understand why the captain thinks I’m pushing too hard, but if he would accept there were actual cases worth following up on, we would get along a lot better.

  Jia chewed her lip and tapped her PNIU to bring up another display—her file on the fraud case. The captain hadn’t formally transferred it away from her division yet and she was curious about a few other details, such as some money transfers that weren’t fully accounted for.

  Why is he bouncing this case away? There’s got to be something there. Maybe a seed of corruption that, left to fester, might hatch into something dangerous.

 
She eyed the file data.

  Another quick selection by Jia opened more floating windows of data from the fraud case. She had been focused on the potential misappropriation of funds, but the company involved wasn’t only dealing with the city.

  Jia narrowed her eyes.

  A note had been added to a file the day before, but it hadn’t been added by a police officer. The police intake system auto-collation algorithms had appended the information because the same local company, Windward, was involved.

  Although it was a common practice, it wasn’t always that useful since the algorithms often added superfluous information of little relevance, but it didn’t hurt to check.

  CLASSIFICATION: LOCAL CITIZEN COMPLAINT

  NATURE OF VIOLATION: Possible Class III Financial Fraud and Identity Theft

  “Now that’s interesting,” she murmured.

  She tapped her lips, thinking. Fantasies of insurrectionist cells siphoning resources off Earth filled her head.

  “That’s unlikely but exciting.” She sighed.

  The realities of the limits of interstellar travel meant that there could be no grand conspiracies of rebels reaching across the stars. It made no sense to smuggle resources off a core world that might take months to arrive instead of stealing them from somewhere more local.

  The only reason insurrectionists had any sort of small chance was that those same distances meant the full might of the UTC couldn’t easily be brought to bear on frontier colonies with any timeliness, and spreading the military throughout UTC space meant the size of any given detachment of troops was modest by necessity.

  Jia pushed the thoughts of a future broken UTC aside and reached out to the note window.

  All it would take was a simple tap to bring up more information. With that, she could at least evaluate for herself if there was anything more worth pursuing in the case. It wasn’t such a terrible idea. All she wanted to do was make sure criminals weren’t getting away with anything.

  Her PNIU chimed, the distinctive tone indicating it was Captain Monahan. She tapped her device to answer.

  “What is it, sir?” Jia asked.

  “My office,” the captain ordered, his voice low and full of menace. “Now, Detective Lin.”

  Jia closed down her open windows and stood. The captain sounded angry, but that wasn’t new.

  “On my way, sir,” Jia replied. “I’ll be right there.” She ended the call and headed to her door, trying to think positively. Maybe the captain had reconsidered his position?

  “It’s not like he can chew me out because of my partner.” She pulled the door open.

  She couldn’t work a real case without a partner due to regulations, but there had to be some option that would allow her to do something better than review traffic fines.

  She had thought about transferring to another division, or even a totally new enforcement zone, but without a positive recommendation from her current supervisor, that would be impossible. The captain knew that, too.

  Jia made her way down the hall, through the bullpen, and to Captain Monahan’s office. His door was already open and he sat behind his desk, multiple projected text windows floating in front of him, his brow furrowed in concentration.

  “Close the door behind you,” Captain Monahan barked as she entered the office.

  Jia complied and sat in front of his desk. “What did you need, sir?”

  Captain Monahan gestured to a small text window off to his side. It was the citizen complaint summary note she had just been reviewing.

  Her heart kicked up. The captain might finally be willing to take the case seriously if he’d been looking at the same thing. It was a thin strand to hang her hopes on, but it was real.

  “You know what this is,” Captain Monahan related. His tone clearly indicated it was a statement and not a question.

  “Yes, sir.” Jia squared her shoulders. “I was just looking at the case notes. The fact that there is additional evidence only underscores my thoughts we should look more closely into it.” She pointed to the information. “There’s a case here to be solved. It’s not just a misunderstanding.”

  He eyed her, one eyebrow raised. “I think you’re laboring under a mistaken impression, Detective Lin.” Captain Monahan frowned. “You’re not supposed to be working that case at all. You’re supposed to be helping the traffic enforcement division with their manual data inspection.”

  “I understand that, sir, and I have been. I just took a few minutes to…” Her stomach tightened. Well, crap. This isn’t about him being ready to throw the case open and have me work it.

  “Took a few minutes to review a case you can’t work because of regulations,” the captain finished for her. He shook his head. “A case I explicitly have told you not to work. I thought I was very clear about that.” His voice became sweet, too sweet. “I don’t know how I could have been possibly clearer about that, Detective.” He leaned back, his chair making that annoying squeak as he smiled. “No, please.” He waved toward Jia. “Tell me how I failed to explain myself.”

  If he expected her to wilt, that wouldn’t happen. “I haven’t done anything. I was checking the notes. I understand and respect regulations, but the relevant regulations clearly stem from internal investigatory integrity and safety concerns.” Jia shrugged. “If I’m not adding to the file, interviewing witnesses, collecting evidence, or even out on the field, those kinds of things don’t apply, but I do want to point out an additional complaint that might be relevant was added to the file. I didn’t do that. That was the system itself. It’s not much, but it’s something to consider.”

  Well, as far as Jia was concerned, it was.

  Captain Monahan let out a long, annoyed grunt and scrubbed a hand down his face. “This isn’t about regulations, Detective Lin. This is about orders, specifically my orders. I flagged the file in the system so that I would be immediately informed if you accessed it. That’s why I called you here.”

  Jia frowned. “You did?”

  “It’s well within my purview as captain.” He leaned forward and tapped the highlighted note. A larger window with additional information appeared in front of it. The other windows floating in front of his desk disappeared. His jaw tightened as he read through the information.

  At least he’s reading it.

  The captain snorted, his eyes focusing on her. “Have you read this complaint?”

  Jia shook her head. “You called me in here before I could get to it.”

  The captain swiped his hand through the window and it vanished. “You’ve got some big scenario in your head where you’ve stumbled upon a huge crime, but that report was just some glorified services complaint. An angry citizen bellowing about being charged for someone else’s delivery.” He smirked. “This doesn’t even rise to the level of criminal activity, Detective Lin. This is barely worth a civil suit, let alone the department’s time. If we investigate every time someone is angry about the services they have received, we’d need about one hundred times the personnel.” He snorted. “The police exist to solve crimes, not to make sure people’s bills are correct.”

  “I agree that, in isolation, that’s not worth looking into,” Jia told him with a shrug. “But that isn’t in isolation, and my…instincts tell me there’s something more.” She pursed her lips. “Maybe a lot more.”

  Captain Monahan sighed and leaned back in his chair, which made that infernal squeak again. If this kept up, she would need to remember to either tell maintenance or bring a bottle of oil herself to fix it.

  His voice sounded a bit strangled. “Your instincts? When you first came here, I thought you might be a good fit for the department. You seemed to understand the scope of what we do here and didn’t have trouble at first. Those first few cases you were doing well, but then you suddenly developed this obsession with, I don’t know,” he waved his hand as if shooing off an insect, “looking for trouble even when there isn’t any.”

  Jia eyed him. “It’s not that I’m looking for
trouble, sir. It’s just we keep passing along cases, and we have for some time. For most of the time I’ve been here. When I’ve followed up on those cases, a lot of times, nothing has even been done about them. I didn’t become a detective to not help people.” She took a moment to remove some lint from her shoulder, using the time to control her breathing. “I haven’t worked a single major case during my entire time here, and I’ve barely been allowed to work any cases in the last nine months, even minor ones.”

  “We need to save police resources for cases worth your time,” Captain Monahan countered.

  “Manual inspection of traffic fines is worth my time?” Jia scoffed. “With all due respect, even if this order dispute turns out to be nothing, it’d be a better use of my time because I’d at least be demonstrating to a citizen that the police care about his concerns. The traffic fine inspection algorithms are almost never wrong. I’m not providing a useful service, even if it’s a required one.”

  Captain Monahan’s face twitched with irritation and his nostrils flared. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out, visibly calming with the exhalation. “I want you to think about it a different way, Lin. I think I get where you’re coming from.” He waved a finger at Jia, then at himself, then back again. “We both know the kind of background you come from, and a woman with your intelligence and education could go far. You want to help people, right?”

  Jia nodded slowly, not liking the faint condescension she heard in his voice. She would flat-out refuse to quit if that was where he was going with this.

  He wouldn’t force her out for wanting to do her job.

  He smiled, his wrinkles growing prominent. “I understand, Lin. You’re passionate, and you want to help keep Earth the safe and low-crime environment we’ve managed to achieve after so much hard work.” He gestured around his office. “Even the fact that we’re here now is an example of that. This entire metroplex was built on top of the ruins of tens of millions of murdered people. Our very home is a shrine to the dangers of criminality and extremism.”