Grinsby sent his report on to Director Godwin. It was nearly midnight now, and that was all he was going to get tonight.
Digital Legwork
Imperial Police Sector Director Ralph Godwin read Senior Inspector Morton Grinsby’s report, then put in a message request to the address that had called him this afternoon. The Emperor’s address. It was going on one in the morning in Cologne, but just short of two in the afternoon in Imperial City.
His message request got a response with a meeting ID, under an Imperial header, and he accepted the meeting with some trepidation. He found himself standing in an office in front of an expensive but not ornate desk. The Emperor sat behind the desk, and the Empress sat in one of the side chairs.
“Your Majesty,” Godwin said, bowing to the Emperor, and then, “Milady Empress,” bowing to the Empress.
“Be seated, Director Godwin.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“You may proceed, Director Godwin.”
“Yes, Sire. I have the preliminary report on the death of Paul Bowdoin, the heir to the defunct throne of Phalia.”
“Push it to me, Director Godwin.”
“Yes, Sire.”
Godwin pushed the report to Ardmore, and Ardmore pushed it to Burke.
“Summarize, Director Godwin.”
“Yes, Sire. Paul Bowdoin was murdered by nanite attack. The autopsy was quite conclusive. Though he was wearing a personal VR suppressor, we believe it was placed on his person by the murderer after the fact. It still had a full charge at two in the afternoon.”
“So he wasn’t wearing it all day,” Burke said.
“Yes, Milady. Our suspect is Bowdoin’s aide, one Peter Hillier. He was shot trying to escape the grounds when he would not obey orders to stop. He died of that rifle wound. He was VR ID scanned, which returned four VR IDs.”
“Four, Director Godwin?” Ardmore asked.
“Yes, Sire. He had an Imperial Police VR nanites package and was at one time in the Imperial Police. We also found a transmitter secreted in his apartment in the palace.”
“So we have everything except motive,” Burke said.
“Yes, Milady.”
“With a lot of circumstantial evidence, including things like access to the body to place the VR suppressor, trying to escape the palace, and not stopping when confronted, and the transmitter in his apartment,” Ardmore said.
“Yes, Sire.”
“And he was using an alias,” Burke said.
“True,” Ardmore said.
Ardmore turned to Godwin.
“Excellent work, Director Godwin.”
“Yes, Sire, but I can’t take credit for it. The excellent work was done by Senior Inspector Grinsby. I assigned him to the scene, he ran the on-site investigation, and he did the follow-up analysis.”
Ardmore checked staff listings in a side channel.
“That would be Senior Inspector Morton Grinsby, Director Godwin?” Ardmore asked.
“Yes, Sire.”
“Very well, Director Godwin. Keep the autopsy results close for now. Do not make them public for the moment.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“That is all for now.”
Ardmore cut the channel.
Ardmore and Burke were back in Ardmore’s real office after the VR meeting with Godwin.
“So you think they had a falling out?” Burke asked.
“Well, somebody did. We didn’t kill Bowdoin.”
“So who is it?”
“Looking at the report, Hillier – or Geller, actually – is from the Mantua Sector,” Ardmore said. “That’s the old DP. So he’s unlikely to be associated with the old royal families of the former Alliance nations. Much more likely he was associated with the descendants of the plutocrats of the old DP.”
“Have you sent the report on to Lina Schneider and Olivia Darden so they can run his IDs against their maps?”
“Yes. So if Geller is associated with the old plutocratic families, and he’s killing Bowdoin, who’s the head of one of the old royal families, what does that tell us?”
“Likely that they were scheming against us together, and had a falling out,” Burke said.
“Exactly. Now, what would the falling out be over?”
“A major disagreement of some sort, clearly.”
“And what sort of disagreement might it be?” Ardmore asked. “There are only three areas: goals, strategy, and tactics.”
“Unlikely to be goals, I would think. At least not yet. That will come later. The common goal right now is to get rid of us.”
“Right. And so we’re left with strategy and tactics.”
“Unlikely to be tactics, too, I would think,” Burke said. “That’s normally left to the ‘commanders’, if that’s what you would call them in a conspiracy.”
“I think so, too. So they had a strategy difference. Maybe someone thought Bowdoin was going to go off and do something stupid, and risk all their chances. Because killing him, and doing so in a way we would be suspicious of, has to be a last resort sort of thing.”
Burke nodded.
“That was a good move this morning, by the way. Getting the Imperial Police out there so fast. It clearly worked out for us.”
“Thanks. We’ll see how much we get out of it. I expect to hear from Ms. Schneider and Ms. Darden yet this afternoon.”
Ardmore and Burke did meet with Schneider and Darden about four that afternoon. They met in the viewing room simulation where the investigative maps were displayed.
“Your Majesties, we have some preliminary results from checking the VR IDs you gave us,” Olivia Darden said. “I’ll go first with our results from the Zoo.”
“Proceed, Ms. Darden,” Ardmore said.
“Yes, Sire.”
The display space, previously empty, now showed a family tree.
“Mr. Geller’s grandmother was Emilia Sciacca. Mario Sciacca was one of the Democracy of Planets plutocrats executed by the Emperor Trajan for conspiracy to murder the Emperor and his family. Mr. Geller’s second cousin is Antonio Sciacca, the grandson of Emilia Sciacca’s brother, and is the current head of the Sciacca family.
“The Sciacca family has broad investment interests, primarily in Mantua Sector, but also more broadly in the former Democracy of Planets. The family is quite wealthy, though is not one of the top one thousand families in the Empire. Before the execution, however, they were. Much of the family’s wealth was lost to Otto Stauss in the Great Chaos that followed the executions.
“One other side note. Emilia Sciacca’s husband was Timo Geller. He was a descendant of Ulrich Geller, who was also executed by the Emperor Trajan in 10 GE. Timo Geller, though, was not in or close to the main line of inheritance in the family, there having been a falling out about six generations back. Timo Geller was also very well off, but not wealthy in the sense of the Stauss or Sciacca families.”
“Thank you, Ms. Darden. Ms. Schneider?”
“Yes, Sire.”
The display changed to a huge interlinked map of alias accounts and individuals, as the Investigations Office tried to comb the money flows within the opposition organization out of the mass of alias accounts in the Imperial Bank.
“We’ve added Mr. Geller and his three other aliases to our map at this node here. When Mr. Geller left the Imperial Police, he took a position as a security professional with Mantua Industrial Supply, a Sciacca-family-controlled interstellar.
“Security professional in this context likely means corporate espionage. Mr. Geller has moved around a lot under his various aliases. Financially, he was being paid a salary by Paul Bowdoin into his account as Peter Hillier. He was also still being paid a salary – a generous one – by Mantua Industrial Supply. In addition, he was being paid significant amounts into an alias account in the name of Freda Keller.
“We’ve tracked the money going into the Freda Keller account back to this alias account here, in the name of Barry Lincoln. Funds coming into the Barry Lincoln account have c
ome through a disbursal company, and we have no accessible records of where those funds came from prior to showing up in this account.
“The other interesting thing about the Barry Lincoln account is what other alias accounts it’s feeding. There are a total of a hundred and ten alias accounts who have received funds from the Barry Lincoln account. All those are aliases, and do not map into any real people, or into any aliases being used in public we can find.”
“So, like Dieter Geller receiving amounts as Freda Keller, even though he was using Peter Hillier as a public alias,” Ardmore said. “So we couldn’t link Freda Keller to Peter Hillier or Dieter Geller.”
“Correct, Sire. The Keller alias was used strictly to receive funds in this account. There are no other records in that name and VR ID anywhere in the Empire.”
“What a mess,” Burke said. “So we have his VR IDs, and his alias account, and we can see the payments, but we have no idea where the money is coming from besides another alias account. And we have no idea who the other people are this alias account is paying.”
“That is correct, Milady.”
Burke thought about it, then slapped her hand on the arm of the seat.
“Wait,” she said. “This doesn’t make any sense. Wouldn’t Bowdoin do a background check on Hillier and see he didn’t have a complete records history?”
“Oh, but he does, Milady. In Phalia Sector records, that is. The full Imperial records are not available to private citizens. It’s a privacy issue.”
“Which means Sector Governor Price is in on all this, too,” Burke said. “On the side of Geller and his bosses, to fake the records for Hillier.”
“And to provide access to them. Yes, Milady. I would suspect so. He was also funding Bowdoin’s little operation there as a tourist attraction.”
“And our imposing the tax caps would have made that harder for Sector Governor Price to maintain.”
“Yes, Milady.”
“All right, Ms. Schneider,” Ardmore said. “Keep working your maps. Both of you.”
“And one more thing,” Burke said. “Ms. Darden.”
“Yes, Milady?”
“Run everyone through Imperial Police records. Let’s see who else we might have in those family trees who was being taught or provided with special capabilities.”
“Yes, Milady.”
“Might as well check Imperial Navy and Imperial Marines as well,” Ardmore said. “And Imperial Palace staff, now I think about it.”
“Yes, Sire.”
Ardmore cut the connection.
When Ardmore and Burke dropped out of VR they were back in his office on the Imperial office floor.
“OK, so now we have the sector governors, the DP plutocrats, and the defunct royalty all tied together,” Burke said.
“Sure looks like it,” Ardmore said.
“Now what do we do?”
“I think we should call Mr. Becker and see what he thinks.”
“You mean about the second cousin thing?”
“About all of it, actually,” Ardmore said. “What are the odds Antonio Sciacca didn’t know what his cousin was up to? That’s the big question he could shine some light on.”
“It’s mid-morning there now.”
“No time like the present.”
Franz Becker received the meeting request in VR normally, as his nanites had been restored and come on-line the week before. It came in under an Imperial header he recognized. He took the meeting immediately, of course, and found himself in the office of the Emperor.
“Your Majesty,” Becker said, bowing his head.
“Be seated, Mr. Becker.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Mr. Becker, I have a pair of recordings I want you to watch, and a police report to read, then give it some thought. Milady Empress and I want to ask you for any illumination you can provide. Today, if you can. This evening Imperial City time is fine.”
“Of course, Your Majesty.”
“These are confidential Imperial records, and you should destroy them after viewing them, Mr. Becker. You should probably read the police report first.”
“Yes, Sire.”
Back in his office, Becker read the police report. So nanite murders were a thing. Bowdoin must have thought he was immune, so he was probably in the conspiracy against Their Majesties himself.
The interview with Imperial Police Sector Director Ralph Godwin didn’t add much to the report, though his giving full credit to the inspector on the case was interesting. Then again, Godwin was already sector director. He probably already had a drawerful of commendations from his own career.
The analysis by staff was much more informative. First, about just how much horsepower the Imperial Palace had, and how freely the Emperor and Empress were prepared to use it. Those family-tree and bank-account maps must be about a city block in size, with billions of records in each. They had isolated and blown up just a tiny portion of each. The staff and computer effort that implied was staggering. For all his money, it was an analysis Becker would never have even contemplated.
Second, it did not pay to underestimate Their Majesties’ ability to play off each other, integrating data and making inferences.
Third, they now had linked at least one branch of the plutocrats of the old DP to one of the sector governors to one of the royalty of the old Alliance. Becker knew the links within those groups likely meant this was the tip of the iceberg, though.
So what could Their Majesties want to know? One question would take off from what they had asked him before. Did Antonio Sciacca know what Dieter Geller was up to?
The other likely question would be how to disrupt the conspiracy.
Franz Becker swiveled his chair around, put his feet up on the corner of his desk, and stared out the floor-to-ceiling glass wall looking out over downtown Heidelberg.
It was after lunch when Franz Becker put in a VR meeting request to His Majesty. Now that both of Their Majesties were back on VR, they met in the simulation of the Emperor’s office, what in the Palace was simply known as channel 22.
Becker bowed first to the Emperor behind his desk, then to the Empress, in the other guest chair.
“Your Majesties.”
“Be seated, Mr. Becker.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“You’ve had a chance to look at the materials and give them some thought, Mr. Becker?”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Your thoughts, Mr. Becker?”
“Yes, Sire. First, you’ve now established a linkage between the old DP plutocratic families in the person of Mr. Geller and the sector governors in the person of Governor Price. You’ve also established a linkage between the old DP plutocratic families and the defunct royalty of the old Alliance, in the person of Mr. Bowdoin. And we also have a linkage between Governor Price and Mr. Bowdoin in terms of Price’s funding of Bowdoin as a tourist attraction.
“Now we already knew the sector governors talk to each other, and I can tell you the wealthiest families have a lot of interaction as well, in putting together business deals and the like. We can presume, I think, the defunct royalty also stays in touch with each other. That’s a pretty exclusive club.
“So we have three groups of people, all of whom have interests antagonistic to the Throne, and you have now established these three groups are in touch with each other.”
Becker paused there.
“Go on, Mr. Becker.”
“Yes, Sire. Given our earlier conversation, you probably want to know if Antonio Sciacca was cognizant of what his second cousin was up to. Now, if it was our family, I can tell you I know what any family that close are up to. They may even be carrying out an assignment from me. They at least talk to me to make sure whatever they’re contemplating wouldn’t be against family interests.
“I don’t think Mr. Geller would cross Antonio Sciacca in that way. Mr. Geller’s attachment to Mr. Bowdoin – and his dispatching of Mr. Bowdoin, for that matter – was most likely an assignment, eit
her directly from Mr. Sciacca or from whichever of Mr. Sciacca’s business allies Mr. Geller was assigned to at the time.”
“But we have no proof, Mr. Becker.”
“No, Milady. We have no proof.”
Ardmore nodded.
“Another question, Mr. Becker. How can we disrupt this conspiracy against the Throne?”
“Set them against each other, Sire. Sow discord between groups that probably don’t trust each other much in the first place. Mr. Geller’s involvement in the death of Mr. Bowdoin points to where the nanite-murder technology comes from. It’s the old DP plutocrats who have this technology. The defunct royalty and the sector governors may not even have known about it. Probably didn’t, in fact.
“So tell the defunct royalty and the sector governors – That’s what? Perhaps a hundred people? – that Mr. Bowdoin was murdered by his nanites, and the killer who sent the transmission was associated with the old DP plutocratic families. Tell them how to find the potential killer in their midst, with the multiple VR IDs thing. The transmitter. The thin backstory.
“Now, if they find these people spying on them, with other loyalties, and with a nanite murder-box in their possession, they probably clean those people out. They go missing and no body. Huh. Imagine that.
“And if they kill the plutocratic family members deployed against them, that won’t engender pleasant feelings among the families, either. Whenever anything goes wrong for them, it’s the other guy’s fault. They’ve always been that way. So the loss of those family members is your fault, but also the fault of their allies. They will not be happy about it.”
“Brilliant, Mr. Becker,” Burke said.
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