by Richard Penn
Olive was back with more stew, and beers for the whole company.
Martin raised his glass. ‘Law and Order!’ he said, and they all gave it back. ‘Or peace and justice? Lisa, you OK to take justice, if I keep the peace? That seems to be the path they’ve laid out for us.’
‘I don’t have a great big plan, Martin. I’m going to do what’s put in front of me, and trust you to look out for our backs. Are you up for that?’ This time she looked pointedly at Gurit, who looked down for a moment.
‘Yes, we are up for that,’ said Gurit. ‘Now that we know where we stand.’
There was a short pause, and nobody knew quite where to look.
‘Ne fucking jebemo we “know where we stand”,’ shouted Stjepan, standing to face Sørensen and Gabai. ‘Last time I looked we were together, Gurit. You and me, and baby makes three. Remember our baby, staying over at Nana’s? Would you like to explain to him where we stand?’
The musicians decided that they should make things a little more vigorous, either to cover up the shouting or to choreograph the fight which seemed in the offing. They changed up to a dance tune, and a space appeared in the centre of the hall.
Gurit, Stjepan and Martin traded glares for a while. Lisa felt she ought to do something, make peace or something. She found though that she had no clue how she wanted it to come out. All present had stood up when the outburst occurred, Minah doing that bounce into the air which is so embarrassing in low gravity. Lisa found she had moved close to Stjepan, as if she were his second in a fight.
‘Stjepan, I tried, I really did,’ said Gurit, crying now. ‘But you only broke up with Lisa in your head, with all your “she’s a spacer and I’m a settler” drek. You may have her out of your head, but she’s still in your shmuck and she’s still... she’s still in your... heart.’ She sat down and hugged Minah again, leaving Martin and Stjepan squared off.
‘I have no argument with you,’ said Martin, as if he’d just discovered the fact.
‘No,’ mumbled Stjepan, ‘no argument.’ He stepped back, and Lisa had to back off quickly or it would have turned into an embrace. They all sat down, eyes darting back and forth between them. Sou moved closer to Minah, and Lisa realised that her own side was in contact with Stjepan’s now, the warmth shared.
Tommy piped up, as if he was reading from a textbook. ‘“In very small communities, females will maximise genetic diversity by choosing a different partner for —”,’ but he was forced to stop by an onslaught of thrown beer mats.
‘Oh yeah,’ said Sou, ‘because you’re sooo selective in that department, Thomas Hansen.’
The rest of the group moved over to the dance floor, Tommy picking a partner seemingly at random and the others staying in their pairs. Lisa told herself she was too tired, but really she knew if she danced with Chep tonight she’d be in bed with him within the hour, and she wasn’t... quite... ready for that.
They stayed talking for a couple of hours, as the bar emptied out, and one of Luke Bolton’s boys came to chivvy home the stragglers, her old job, a universe ago. They walked out of the bar to the end of the corridor for Stjepan’s flat near the medical centre.
He touched her hand lightly. ‘Chep,’ said Lisa, ‘we’ve had a few beers, and we really need to talk.’
‘You’re right,’ said Stjepan, touching her cheek, ‘as always.’
Lisa climbed the ladders to the tunnel and her own flat, not sure that being right was all it was cracked up to be. She remembered her mother’s saying ‘if it wasn’t right when you were sober, it isn’t right now.’ Yeah, right, Mum.
14 Planning Trips
When Lisa woke in the morning, she was a little confused. She remembered saying good night to Stjepan last night and returning home alone, so those other memories must be a dream. Mmm, nice dream. All the dashing about and arresting people though, which seemed so crazy, that wasn’t a dream. Right, lots of police work and no sex. She was clear now.
She took a shower and put on the lemon yellow jumpsuit, crossed the station to the office and made coffee. She discreetly woke up Luke, who was alone on the night shift. It would not do to officially notice. She found corporal’s stripes (filed under “s”), but she could not find the pip for her acting role. Have to get Nell to knit one.
She sent Luke home and sat outside the office, thinking about the day ahead. The crime team would need a place to meet, not to be in the way of the Sheriff.
‘Phone locate vacant office, fronting main hall, minimum twenty square metres,’ she tried. The phone projected a plan on the back wall of the sheriff office.
Tommy had arrived, and they looked at the plan together. There were three available, two behind the bar and one beside the medic bay.
‘I know about number two,’ said Tommy, ‘It’s supposed to be empty, but Nemecj brews beer in there. You’d have to open it to vacuum to get the smell out, and pissing off our favourite barkeep might not be smart. Number one is a bit hidden away, but the one by the sickbay is very prominent.’
Right next to Chep’s flat, too, Lisa thought. Not relevant. ‘I think we need to make ourselves known. Phone accept office three. Rent for... twelve weeks, official business.’ It was unwise to use months when talking to computers, because of the confusion between 30-day Earth months and 55-sol Mars months. The minor differences between days and sols were less of an issue.
‘Please identify authorising officer, Belt Federation Police,’ replied the phone.
‘Inspector Dalila Njenga,’
‘Rental accepted pending authorization. Door will open to your phone in one two zero minutes.’
‘Request earlier opening, personal guarantee.’
‘Accepted. Door will open to your phone at any time. Possible fine one zero dollars if authorisation refused. Transaction complete.’
Sou and Minah had arrived, and Sørensen had set up shop inside the office. They walked over to the family restaurant side, and took trays back to the table, passing the sheriff office and the green-striped sickbay entrance, to their new office. It had a basic table and chairs, and Lisa called the store to order a coffee maker and a pop fridge, also on Njenga’s tab. Spending government money was fun. Have to get a sign painted, too. She could hear the sounds and feel the tremors of the morning traffic to the hold, no doubt keen to get back to work.
‘Tommy,’ said Lisa, ‘I saw you dancing with Emma Doherty, last night…’
‘I didn’t sleep with her, if that’s what you’re thinking,’ said Tommy.
‘I’m glad to hear it,’ said Lisa. ‘She’s a prime suspect. I just wondered if she’d said anything to you.’
‘No,’ said Tommy, ‘even I can figure out that’s not the best place for an interrogation.’
‘Good. I guess there’s hope for you yet.’
The others arrived, and they moved opposite the back wall, calling up the presentation from Phobos. The Mars clock had gained half an hour from the previous day, but Lisa had made an earlier start, so it evened out. Njenga and her morning latte filled the screen, and she was just taking off her flying suit. ‘Good morning, corporal Johansen. I’m assuming your team is there also, and that you are ready for work. We have been analysing the transcript of the hearings there. It is disappointing that we were unable to lock up our main suspects. We are keeping an open mind on all the hold suspects, but our strongest is Emma Doherty; she didn’t talk in the interviews, and she has been as cold as ice through this whole thing.
‘Here is the overall plan I have for you,’ the inspector continued. ‘Over the next few days, you are to split your team in two. Johansen, you go to the surface colony. We have heard very little from them, and with only fifty people in total we have to assume that there is no insider there we can trust. Take one of your team with you, to watch your back. Go armed.
‘The remaining two are to remain on station and re-interview all the blue team’s suspects. We need to construct a detailed picture of movements around each of the poker games. Bring in a Chinese i
nterpreter for Guo and Dai. Interview them and Doherty, in the cells. You will need to apply some pressure, within the bounds, of course. I know these people are not in custody, but you can bring them in for interview on police warrants. Don’t detain them otherwise, but do keep them under surveillance. Do the interviews in 45-minute sessions, and append your own perceptions to the record after each one. Take a break at that point and wait for our instructions, use up the light-speed delay. We may get enough to re-arrest the silent ones, or to free some of the other four. We may find additional suspects within the colony. I remain convinced that someone high up in the administration there is corrupt.’
Lisa was only paying half-attention to this. The surface? The ground? How was she supposed to be any use on a planet? She’d never been down before, despite orbiting the place since she was ten. But the inspector was moving on.
‘Finally,’ said Njenga, ‘I come to the most difficult part of this plan. After taking a few days to prepare, we will need to send out a mission into the Local Group, to find the dark colony and deal with whatever you find there.
‘We have tried a number of scenarios for this mission, ranging from drone searches to mass invasions, and so far we have not reached agreement. From the minimal evidence we have, we know that the dark colony is within reach of Terpsichore and no other station. We know that there are children there, and Daisy has been able to tell us there are women and girls kept in slavery. The majority view is that a frontal attack with large numbers would be countered by threats to kill these slaves. A drone could tell us where they are, perhaps get a message to them, but could do nothing to help the women and children. The best we can come up with is to assemble a small mission, four to six people.’
The inspector pointedly leaned into the camera. ‘I can not order any of you to undertake such a mission, and you are all completely at liberty to leave it to others. I must tell you that there are a number of senior people here who feel it is unethical to send you and your colleagues, due to your age and minimal training. In any case I will need advice on the make-up of the mission. It must include at least one woman, to gain the trust of the prisoners. It must include a skilled engineer, to devise ways to release them. It must include a doctor or a paramedic. The orbital dynamics allows a range of durations from 10 to 20 weeks, depending on where they are hiding. Both the team and the prisoners will need medical treatment.
‘We are not deciding today the makeup of that team. If you wish to volunteer for the mission, I require separately-recorded formal statements from each of you. Please think carefully, there is a significant risk of death or permanent injury. Despite your youth, you are not immortal and people would miss you.
‘For now, please discuss the split in the present team, and divide into your two groups. I will have separate briefings for the interview team and the down team available in thirty minutes. Out.’
Lisa and the others sat back and looked at each other, in awe. Sou and Minah drew together, as if daring Lisa to split them up, but she had no such idea. ‘Tommy, you’re with me on the dirt mission,’ she said. He was less use in an interview room in any case. ‘Let’s keep the longer mission to ourselves for now. No discussion outside this room. The inspector will choose who else to involve.’
‘But it has to be us four, surely!’ said Sou. ‘Plus Stjepan of course. They can’t send any of the kids out, and the older people have jobs and children, all that.’ There was an odd gap in the demographics of the colony, because of the times they had been in transit, when pregnancy was too dangerous. Most of the teenagers in the colony were in this room.
‘It’s not up to us to decide,’ said Lisa. ‘Sou, don’t put words into the mouth of Tommy and Minah. They have an absolute right to refuse this, you heard the inspector. They may not want us all, anyway.’
‘I’m in. Sou goes, I go. No discussion,’ said Minah.
‘I’m in,’ said Tommy. ‘You think I’d let you lot go without me? No way. If Stjepan’s going I’ll be a bit of a spare wheel, but I guess I can deal.’
Lisa was panicked by the thought of including Chep. They would need to decide on those... other issues, before that. Keeping apart for months in a small boat was not on the cards.
‘Let’s not jump to conclusions. You heard what she said, we need to deal with this later. There are a couple of things I want to cover before we get the next briefing. Tommy, talk to Nemecj about a boat to the surface, and call the corporal down there, too. Earliest departure without anyone busting a gut. Sou, talk to Sørensen about making up interview warrants for the three, and get them into cells. Minah, with me.’
She steered them across the hall to the family restaurant, where the crèche and the school were setting up their fences for the day. As they passed the washroom, though, Lisa winked at Minah on the side away from her camera, and gestured towards the toilets. Knowing Lisa had not suddenly turned gay, Minah went along with it. She knew their phones would automatically go into privacy mode in a toilet.
They took a cubicle each, just in case. ‘Right then young lady,’ said Lisa. ‘I have a secret mission for you, as if you didn’t have enough to do already. You up for that?’
‘OK,’ said Minah. ‘I think I can guess. David, right?’
‘David, indeed.’ Lisa once more marvelled at how much Minah picked up in her quiet way. ‘The feds are going to be handling that investigation themselves, with Birk Eriksen as their local agent. Birk is not dim, but he’s not as committed to Angèle and David as we are, and he’s working double shifts. Without stepping over the line and interfering with their operation, I want you to work with Angèle on a solid defence for David. The instant you have it, get the judge to set him free. He’s going to be one of our strongest partners, if we can do that. OK?’
‘Great. Sou and I will do as much as we can.’ Minah knew that Lisa would include Sou in this.
15 Hall and Farewell
They finished their business, and carried on across to the school. Daisy was in a little group of Chinese girls, with Nell looking on, and one of Mrs. Robinson’s dogs, earning its keep doing psych support. The girl looked up and spotted Minah, and immediately jumped up and hugged her rescuer, the first face she had seen outside the dark colony.
Lisa explained about the pip, and Nell was happy to oblige there and then, casting on from a ball in the knitting bag she always carried. Olive broke off from her class and brought them all tea; she seemed to have become a compulsive waiter.
Nell gave them a summary. ‘Daisy is a fairly healthy eight-year old, though she has been undernourished and looks about six. That is going to be helpful because she is behind in her schooling, and will be comfortable in a younger peer-group for now. She has been subjected to casual violence, witnessed sexual violence, and tends to hide whenever she sees a man. She has lived in a small place, too. She finds the hall intimidating. No serious injuries, and no sign of sexual abuse. Reading between the lines, we think her brother knew that she had reached the age where abuse would start, and got her out. At the cost, as you know, of his own life.’
Nell paused to collect herself for a second, wiping away tears. ‘She’s vague on numbers, but there seem to be about six women and a ten children there, plus a few men who are also kept as slaves. The ruling group she only knows as a shadowy threat, men who come in and take women and girls away. The ruling class can’t be large. One or two women are kept with them, not in the slave quarters. We’ll try to get more details over the next few days, but it is awful to see how she changes when we ask her to remember the place.
‘I know they are thinking of sending you out there, and I think it’s a damn shame. It seems like the dark colony speaks mostly Chinese though, you’ll have to bear that in mind.’
‘That sounds terrible,’ said Lisa ‘I had no idea such places existed outside the films. I have been told I can refuse to go, but I think you know how that went. But yes. If you can find a Chinese-speaker who is willing to join us, that would be... wonderful. It will ne
ed to be a woman, I’m afraid.’
Nell sighed, ‘I will. What’s this I hear about you going dirtside? Talk about a fish out of water!’
Marvelling as ever at Nell’s casual knowledge of everyone’s secrets, Lisa replied. ‘Yes, that’s right. Maybe I’ll learn something, who knows? Can I ask you to keep an eye out for Sou and Minah for me? I’ve asked them to do something that might require a bit of... help.’
‘Certainly, dear. We all know where we stand,’ said Nell, gnomically.
‘That’s good… I think.’ said Lisa, hoping they were reading between the same lines.
Dragging Minah away from a hand-dancing game with the whole group of little girls, Lisa continued, ‘One more thing to ask, big favour.’
‘Anything I can, dear,’ replied Nell.
‘I want you to make a recording. Start with Daisy playing happily, alone and then with other children. Then introduce Minah. The video must make clear that Daisy is not under any coercion, and that she trusts Minah. I want her to say something to the effect that she is in a good place and people are being kind to her. Do you see what I’m getting at?’
Nell was slow to reply. ‘I think so, yes. You intend to take Minah to that terrible place, and have her help get Daisy’s people out. But it would be so dangerous!’ Nell sighed. ‘Of course, we’ll do it,’ she said sadly, as Daisy watched them, a little concerned by the emotions.
Lisa and Minah returned to their new office. Lisa’s mother was already painting a sign on the front, and they exchanged hugs, her mother straightening Lisa’s hair. It looked as if it was going to be ‘Belt Federation Police, Criminal Branch,’ which was not strictly accurate and larger than she’d wanted, but too late now.
Finding a quiet corner, she recorded her formal volunteer statement for the dark colony mission, and saw that the others had done the same. Lisa let Sou and Minah play back the blue-team briefing file in the office, while she and Tommy sat outside for theirs.