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  “I haven’t violated a single regulation.” Erik shrugged. “If you can point me to one I have, I’ll apologize. And are you really going to get pissed because we investigated a crime?”

  The captain shrugged. “This should have been sent along. It’s not our business.”

  “Sir, with all due respect, I disagree.” Jia pointed to the notes he must have been reading. “It’s Windward again, just like it was in the last case we sent along. One time can be ignored. Twice is a coincidence, but three times? It’s like they’re firing off a flare and telling us to investigate.”

  Captain Monahan aimed his stare at her. “You’re really saying the police should get involved in billing disputes involving a few hundred credits?”

  She didn’t flinch. “The fraud I found earlier was far more extensive than a hundred credits.”

  “But no one has independently verified that yet,” the captain sniffed, “so let’s focus on the current case. How is that a good use of your time? It’ll cost the taxpayers more to investigate it than it involves,” he added.

  “If we ignore minor crimes, they’ll grow into bigger ones,” Jia countered. “I know you are tired of hearing me argue the point, but that’s the whole principle of preventative policing.”

  Erik watched silently as the two debated.

  The captain growled, “Then we should send it along for review at a lower level, Lin. Maybe algorithmic back-checking later, and eventually a patrol officer. Not,” the captain glanced at them, “two detectives.” Captain Monahan frowned. “Is this why you joined the department, Erik? To investigate one-hundred-credit fraud cases?”

  “I joined to investigate crimes,” Erik answered. “It’s not like I care about a rich guy losing what has to be a rounding error in his money, but if I’m going to be useful at all, I have to care.”

  Erik was more than familiar with the idea of superiors wanting people to stay in their lane and not create headaches. He also understood Earth’s paradise was maintained by exporting or ignoring many of the troubles, but that didn’t mean some truths didn’t make their way out.

  The journey to the truth of Mu Arae would begin with Todd Smythe and his hundred credits, whether this was the case that got him there or not.

  “But,” Erik added, “I still can’t believe that idiot spent fifty thousand credits on a couch.”

  “Give me one good reason we should even bother with this?” Captain Monahan stabbed a finger on his desk. “Just one.”

  “It’s a crime,” Jia observed. “And it’s our duty to investigate crimes. That’s two.”

  Erik put up two fingers. “It’s going to cost the taxpayers the same amount of money if we’re sitting in our office scratching our bellies versus investigating. That’s a total of three.”

  Captain Monahan’s mouth twitched as he glanced at the two of them. “Two days. You have two days on this. After that, if it’s nothing more than a billing dispute, we’re kicking it along, and I’ll have you both back in here to apologize for wasting time and department resources.”

  A huge smile appeared on Jia’s face. “Thank you, sir. I won’t let you down.”

  “Dismissed,” he replied.

  Jia immediately turned and headed out of the office, but Erik lingered, locking eyes with the glaring captain.

  Captain Monahan spoke first. “I didn’t expect this from you. I have a hard time believing you wanted to follow up thirty years of distinguished service by investigating petty crimes. The more you encourage Detective Lin this way, the less chance you’ll have of doing anything important.”

  “It’s the smallest detail that saves your unit,” Erik replied. “A stray flash of light, a sound you’re not expecting, even a smell.” He turned toward the door. “Besides, you don’t keep in practice without firing your weapon.”

  “Meaning what?” the captain snapped.

  Erik stopped and looked outside before turning to look over his shoulder. “I’m not Lin, Captain. I don’t believe in the myth of Earth’s perfection, and I don’t believe in looking the other way to help with that myth, even if that is inconvenient.”

  Captain Monahan’s face reddened and he stood slowly, his palms on his desk. “What are you accusing me of?”

  “I’m not accusing you of anything. I’d say it to your face, Captain. I’m just saying something about me.” Erik turned fully around to face him. “If you want me out of here, go ahead and try to push me out. But then you’ll have to explain why, and as you just got done pointing out, I’m a man with thirty distinguished years in the UTC Expeditionary Corps and a mountain of medals. I wonder how that would play out, especially if I made a lot of noise about it.” He walked back over to the desk. “I’ve seen countless men and women die. I’ve killed more than my fair share. I’ve seen blood spilled for lifeless lumps of mud and dirt, lives expended as a resource line on some jacked-up game tactician’s board just for short-term gain, and you know why I did all that?” He finished with an eyebrow raised.

  The captain shrugged, lips tight.

  “Because it was my duty,” Erik explained, his voice low and gravelly. “And right now, my duty is to investigate crime, including some rich idiot’s missing hundred credits. The worst thing that happens is nothing. Like I said, I’m not Jia, and whatever you think you can do to intimidate me would have to be worse than the things I’ve already been through to even have a chance of working. Can you come up with something like that? Can you even imagine the kinds of things I’ve seen out there?”

  Captain Monahan sat down and ran his hands through his hair. “You’ve got the wrong idea about me, Erik. I’m not what you think. I’m just trying to do my duty my own way,” he finished.

  “Maybe.” Erik shrugged. “But I do know you’re a guy who thought he could use me to scare off Jia.”

  “You’re right,” Captain Monahan looked up. “You’re not like her. You do understand more, and I hope you understand that we need to keep things in balance here. That’s part of the big picture, especially in a place like Neo SoCal.”

  “And a Class IV fraud is going to throw things out of balance?” Erik snickered. “You’re so wrapped up in covering your own ass, it’s probably all reflex at this point. I’m not even sure you know what you’re doing.”

  “What I’m doing? I’m trying to do right by every man and woman in this enforcement zone,” the captain shot back. “This isn’t the military, and this isn’t the frontier. There are more political considerations involved than there are in what happens out on the frontier.”

  Erik scoffed and headed toward the door. “You’re just as naïve as Jia.”

  “What?” Captain Monahan frowned. “How can you say that?” he asked. Erik heard a real question, not just a soft rebuttal.

  “Every battle I fought in was based on political considerations.” Erik stepped through the door, his answer staying in the office. “Politics has been killing my brothers and sisters in arms my entire life.”

  Jia glanced at Erik as he poked a holographic ficus on his side of the chairs.

  “Seriously?” Jia whispered with a tiny shake of her head.

  The fake plant sat in the corner of the lobby of the Windward branch office responsible for the suspicious charges.

  The detectives had explained to the overly cheerful receptionist, Svetlana, why they were there, and she had told them they would have to wait until a manager was available since she wasn’t authorized to speak on behalf of the company in such matters.

  Jia leaned closer to Erik. “Why are you poking everything?” Jia asked, her tone low as she pointed to the hologram. “Is it some sort of compulsion?” She paused, looking around before whispering, “Don’t get me wrong, I can handle this better than you needing to kick in the door.”

  Erik glanced her way with a glint of humor in his eyes.

  She eyed him. He’s smarter than I thought. A lot smarter. Why do I get the feeling he’s putting up a false face?

  “It’s just funny,” he an
swered. “Out in the colonies, it’s much rarer to see so many full holograms. People prefer actual paintings, plants, and statues rather than fakes made out of light. You would figure on the homeworld that they would prefer the same thing. It’s ironic.”

  Jia looked from the hologram to Erik. “It’s more convenient to have holograms for decorations. You don’t have to maintain them.”

  “A fake luxury you can’t touch.” Erik grinned, looking around the room. “That’s too perfect.” He shook his head as he turned back to look at the ficus.

  “Too perfect for what?” she asked.

  “As a metaphor.” Erik cut through the hologram with his hand. “Everything’s nice and shiny on the surface here, but there’s no substance beneath it. It’s all an illusion, just like Neo SoCal and Earth.”

  Jia eyed him. “Just because you ran across a minor fraud case during your first few days doesn’t mean Earth is a cesspool of corruption.” She waved a hand toward the buildings outside. “It’s not as if insurrectionists are bombing the residential towers.”

  “We’ll see.” Erik turned to her, twitched his eyebrows, and gave her a smile. “This is just the first step.”

  “Right, the first step toward stopping anything that might lead to something serious,” she answered. “You aren’t going to goad me. This is the most civilized planet in the UTC, and your time on the frontier isn’t going to color the reality.”

  “Your reality.” He pointed to her, then himself. “Not mine. Believe it or not, you have to see what is real on the frontier, not what is shown you. Just because a person is on the frontier doesn’t immediately make them slow or stupid, and when someone is trying to kill you, they come up with some uncannily intelligent ways to present a false reality.” Erik glanced behind Jia.

  The click-clack of footsteps interrupted their discussion. She turned her head to see who Erik was watching.

  A man in a dark suit that probably cost more than one of Smythe’s chairs approached, his angular face pinched in irritation. “Detectives, I’m Oscar Ramirez. It’s my understanding that you’re here about a billing dispute?” His tone suggested he didn’t believe it.

  “No.” Jia stood and smoothed her suit jacket with her hands. She could hear Erik stand behind her. “We’re here to investigate a possible fraud case.”

  Ramirez sighed and rolled his eyes. “Slander applies to the authorities as well as private citizens, Detective.”

  Jia scoffed. “Don’t threaten me, Mr. Ramirez, and conduct of our duty is an affirmative defense.”

  Erik stepped up to the man, towering over him, although the intimidation might have been undercut by the slight grin on his face. Or perhaps that made it worse.

  Jia wasn’t sure.

  “We just need to see a few of your records,” Erik explained. “It’ll take a few minutes, and then we can be out of your way.”

  Ramirez took a step back. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” Erik kept his smile, but the tone carried an implicit threat.

  Jia frowned as she glanced over to her partner.

  Ramirez squared his shoulders. “Our receptionist didn’t mention anything about a warrant.” He gestured to the PNIU on his belt. “I’m prepared to receive any warrants you wish to transmit, Detective. Otherwise, I’m not interested in sharing anything with you. We won’t be harassed because of a few disgruntled clients, and whatever you think is going on here doesn’t matter. We were paid, and we made deliveries. It’s what we do.”

  Jia brought up a copy of the complaint form. “Todd Smythe didn’t hire you.”

  “Then we’re victims as well.” Ramirez adopted an oily smile. “And I don’t see why risking client privacy over some minor billing dispute is worth it. Even if it was some sort of fraud, it’s a pittance. I’m surprised anyone would even be willing to go to the police over such a small amount.” He picked off something from the shoulder of his jacket. “It’s pathetic if you ask me.”

  “A crime is a crime,” Jia pushed.

  “Then go get a warrant, Detective.” Ramirez waved a hand toward the front doors. “I’m not trying to be intransigent, but if we open our records every time someone has a billing dispute with us, our company will implode with frivolous requests and our overhead will skyrocket.” He crossed his arms. “Our liability in such matters is limited.”

  Erik laughed. “For a shipping company, you don’t know the relevant laws well.”

  “Excuse me, Detective?” Ramirez frowned.

  “AISA,” Erik offered.

  Jia glanced at Erik, her eyes wide with shock.

  “I don’t understand,” Ramirez replied.

  “The Anti-Insurrection Supply Act.” Jia turned back to the man, her face now composed. “Your company could be held potentially liable for the transport of contraband even if you weren’t aware that it was contraband when it was accepted.” She smiled. “The law’s very clear.”

  “Insurrectionist supply?” Ramirez’s voice raised. “That’s absurd.”

  “It doesn’t only apply to insurrectionists,” Jia clarified. “It also includes any UTC-prohibited contraband.”

  Ramirez threw up a hand in disgust. “This is a feeble attempt to intimidate me. I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous. We don’t deal,” his voice almost cracked, “in contraband.”

  Erik stepped forward, this time looming over the man with a dark scowl without the grin. “How would you know? You’re so sloppy by your own admission that people might be using stolen information and accounts to ship products through you. For all you know, you’re helping all sorts of bad people, and you’re here stonewalling us because of that.” He jerked a thumb toward Jia. “Last night, someone tried to kill my partner in the course of her normal duties, not all that long after she was looking into a case involving this company.”

  Ramirez’s eyes widened as he looked at Jia and back at Erik. “So? That has nothing to do with us. I-I-I… You can’t claim we had anything to do with something like that. That’s preposterous.”

  “I don’t know,” Erik explained. “I’ll have to go talk to the guy and ask him a few new questions. Luckily for us, he survived after I shot up his car with a TR-7 Quad. Ever seen one?” Erik smiled. It didn’t reach his eyes. “All good civilized people would call it absurd or barbaric. Possibly even my partner.”

  Very likely his partner, Jia thought.

  “Four barrels, shoots a lot of bullets when you need it to. It slices up a flitter like nothing.” He snapped his fingers. “It’s not something I would like to use, but if a raid was necessary, I’d need to bring it along for personal defense. You never know if some insurrectionists are hiding in a room somewhere.”

  Ramirez swallowed. “I…” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “If I get you the relevant records, you’ll consider us in full compliance, yes? I mean, we couldn’t know.” He looked at Jia. “There has to be some special consideration.”

  Erik returned his focus and nodded. “If you cooperate fully, obviously you’re not helping whoever shipped through you. AISA makes allowances for that, as will we.”

  Ramirez spun. “I’ve got to check a few things. Just give me a few minutes to coordinate the relevant records transfer.” He rushed over to Svetlana and began furtively whispering to her, occasionally gesturing in the detectives’ direction.

  Jia frowned and cleared her throat. She nodded toward the ficus. “Detective Blackwell, a word.”

  Erik followed her over to the plant.

  She leaned forward to whisper. “What was all that about your gun?”

  Erik looked at the two employees. “He needed a little extra motivation to push him over the top. It’s no big deal.”

  “No big deal?” she hissed, eyes aflame. “You were basically threatening to kick in his door and fire a heavy weapon. You can’t do that.”

  “No. I stated that if a raid was required, I might bring it along.” Erik eyed her. “You didn’t seem to care when I men
tioned AISA.”

  “That’s potentially relevant,” she snapped.

  Erik stared at her with a knowing look in his eyes. “Do you really think they are shipping contraband?”

  Jia sighed and averted her eyes. “No, but we do need the information. If what he’s saying is true, and they aren’t responsible, then this is a more complicated web of crimes, even if it is a set of minor ones.”

  Erik nodded in agreement. “I didn’t lie to him at any point, Jia. I only stated facts, and I let him decide what those meant. It’s not my problem if he let his imagination run away with him.’

  “But you didn’t clarify the truth,” Jia criticized.

  “The truth is a hard thing to pin down,” Erik explained. “I know that’s difficult for someone from Earth to believe.”

  Jia harrumphed. “Spare me your sanctimony.”

  “We could leave.” Erik looked up and around. “Maybe he’s right, and it’s nothing more than a billing dispute.”

  “If that were the case, why are there multiple incidents involving this company?” Jia took a second to glance at the manager and the receptionist. “Including serious fraud. No, all the evidence points to something going on here. I know the captain thinks it’s not important, but sometimes I…” She stopped.

  “What?” Erik prodded when she didn’t continue.

  “Sometimes, I think the captain’s more concerned about keeping things calm than solving crimes.”

  “If you are having such impure thoughts,” Erik grinned, “then there’s hope for you yet.”

  “Detectives,” Ramirez called, catching their attention. “We’re ready to transfer the relevant records to you.”

  Jia nodded to Erik, and they headed to the reception desk.

  Concern lingered in Jia’s mind, but for now, she had a case to solve.