Shattered Truth

by Michael Anderle

  Jia’s cheeks burned. She didn’t mind the praise, but she hadn’t been thinking in those terms during the incident. She had been more concerned about saving people’s lives.

  “I’m glad you feel that way.” She took a deep breath before adding, “And I want to make it clear I feel the same way about you. I think Monahan would have found a way to force me out if you hadn’t come. I also know he wanted you out too, using me as his weapon. Too bad for him his plan backfired.”

  “Sometimes, the Lady can be a bitch, and sometimes, she cuts us a break.” Erik leaned forward, his brows furrowed in irritation. “I hope Caron takes the bait. If we work this right, we can grab the local TPST to back us up and finish her and her group of insane wannabe alien slaves off.”

  Jia nodded quickly, happy they were moving away from the earlier awkward conversation. “That reminds me. There’s something I’ve wanted to ask you, but it never seemed like the right time.”

  Erik shrugged. “I’ve got nothing better to do. Might as well ask me now.”

  “I was just curious why you chose to be a detective, and why you continue to do so,” Jia related. “I understand there are certain limitations in the Obsidian Detective Act, but you were assault infantry for thirty years. If you wanted to join the NSCPD TPST, there’s no way they would have turned you down. I doubt they have a cop on their team who has your level of practical experience.”

  Erik offered her a mischievous grin. She hated that grin. She could never tell if he was serious when she saw it. Every time she thought she had a handle on her partner, he switched between being serious and facetious, letting the truth slip away with his previous mood.

  “Why would I want to be TPST?” he asked.

  “It seems more suited to your background and talents,” Jia replied. “I’m not saying you’re a bad detective. Your gut instincts and dedication make you a good one. You’ve had some good insights on our cases, but it would have been an easier transition to go from being assault infantry to TPST. It’s just strange switching the entire focus of your career after thirty years.”

  Erik’s grin dimmed for a brief moment. She might have offended him.

  “I’m not going to tell you I always wanted to be a cop since that would be a lie,” he offered, his tone somber. “But being a cop means I might be able to find something I need. Not just being a cop, but only if I’m a cop who can investigate things. Being able to take down a criminal or two who gets unruly is always handy, but I don’t think Neo SoCal is short of cops who can shoot people.”

  Something tugged at Jia’s mind, something about the tone of his response. There was more there; plenty left unsaid.

  She’d get to it eventually.

  Perhaps she would need to give him that electric enema she had threatened him with so long ago.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Erik stretched and let out a loud yawn from behind his desk. “I don’t know how long I can take sitting around in a police station doing nothing.” The red-orange of the setting sun reflected off the lake in rippling waves of beauty. “They’ve got everybody and their cousin on this case, so it’s not like we’re bringing anything useful to the investigation.”

  “You’re useful as bait,” Jia reminded him, her gaze focused on a data window filled with text. “And bait needs a good partner, so he doesn’t end up dead.”

  “I keep thinking back over my Army career, trying to figure out if I have some connection to this woman on any level, but I can’t figure it out.”

  Emma chimed in with, “I’ve been trying to perform analysis as well, as much as I can with publicly accessible records, and I’ve seen no patterns. From what I can find, at least, your exposure to terrorist groups motivated by Cosmic Universalist ideals has been minimal.”

  Erik was silent for a moment, his thoughts in the past, then he answered, “Won’t matter if we find her and take down the rest of her people. They had their chance for a big scene at the hotel, and they blew it. They’ve got to be licking their wounds now.”

  “Perhaps,” mused Emma.

  “How much do you know about the Scar?” Jia asked, looking up from a data window.

  Erik stared at the beautiful scene outside, which contrasted with his knowledge of the place his partner had just mentioned. “The Scar? What about it? I’ve read about it. It’s a part of old Los Angeles that was underwater for a long time, right? I know they sealed off some of it for a while. When Second Spring took out the city, they added a few radiological bombs for good measure. A lot of the radioactive material didn’t spread beyond one area, but what they managed to screw up makes the place nasty.”

  He scratched his ear. “Without a lot of reclamation work, it’s useless. Everyone was fixated on the big tidal wave killing people, so the fact that some portions of the old city were contaminated barely registered, and now no one lives there.” He looked at her. “That’s the official story, anyway. I assume that’s only half-true.”

  “There are some slight inaccuracies in your understanding,” Emma noted. “Even based on publicly available records.”

  Jia sighed. “She’s right.” Discomfort colored her face. “But you’re also right about one thing. It’s nasty. My understanding is the UTC could clean it up if they wanted to, although it’d be very expensive. They’ve got the poison contained.” She frowned. “I didn’t realize until just now that one of the express reasons they haven’t cleaned it up is that it’s a sort of monument to the evils of terrorism. I always heard that they didn’t think it would be worth the cost, and when they started building Neo SoCal, they were able to reclaim most of the land anyway and build up instead of out, so it was less of a consideration. It wasn’t as important what was on the ground in that area.”

  He blinked a few times. “What brought on this interest in such a cheery subject?” Erik asked. “I get that you were looking for something to work on, but why the Scar? None of our cases have taken us remotely near there.

  “With everything going on and us not having much to do, I decided to look into some things out of curiosity. I was mistaken about the Shadow Zone, so I worried that I might be mistaken about the Scar, and I want to be more proactive when it comes to protecting Neo SoCal. We’re also dealing with terrorists here, so I wanted to follow up on the terrorism that birthed my home.” Jia shrugged. “The Scar is not completely uninhabited. The contamination keeps all but the most desperate out, and it’s not like there’s much advantage to taking over a badly contaminated and flooded area. They do have drones and satellites monitoring the area, just to keep an eye on things. Apparently, there are lots of subterranean facilities. There’s a whole group of dedicated sensors and drones focused on assuring nothing contaminated from the Scar ever passes into main Neo SoCal, or even into the Shadow Zone.” She looked at her data window and laughed.

  Erik didn’t find the dark laughter compelling, coming from his partner.

  “Think about that,” she went on. “There are people living in a contaminated wasteland close to Neo SoCal, and I didn’t know about it.”

  Erik pursed his lips. “In this case, I didn’t know about it either. I might not be surprised, but I’m also not going to pretend I knew. It’s easy to look away from that kind of horror, although it’s funny how the UTC is simultaneously ignoring it and keeping a close eye on it. I’m not going to add it to my list of tourists spots to visit anytime soon. The Shadow Zone reminds me of a rough colony, but the Scar sounds like a destroyed battlefield. It kind of is.”

  “There are all sorts of rumors on the OmniNet about it,” Emma explained. “They have a saying, too. Idiots in space try to breathe, and those on the ground try to visit the Scar.”

  Erik now had a curiosity in his eyes that caused Jia to sit up straighter. “Huh. When you say it that way, it kind of makes me want to go. I’m sure it’s mostly just empty, irradiated garbage heaps, but I am curious. The MX 60 has some extreme environmental safety modifications, including an anti-terrorism package. I wonder if it
could handle radiological stuff?”

  Emma snorted. “Listen to yourself. If you’re curious, yes, it probably could, but you would have to decontaminate the body afterward at considerable expense.”

  “Maybe someone could split the difference. Find a place to land that isn’t contaminated and explore using suits.” Erik rubbed his chin. “Reminds me of more than a few missions back in the day. Decon’s never fun, even with all the fancy nanites.”

  “I doubt we’ll ever have an occasion to go there, and it certainly wasn’t my intent to imply that we should.” Jia stared at her partner, wide-eyed. “Anyone who goes there is effectively giving up the right to be supported by law enforcement. NSCPD has no jurisdiction there since it doesn’t technically exist as an inhabited zone. UTC Militia units patrol the perimeter in case there’s quick response needed because of someone bringing out contaminated material. It isn’t like the Shadow Zone. There’s no hope there. If you’re traveling to the Scar, it’s because you’ve given up on being part of humanity.”

  “That’s one way to look at it.” Erik didn’t add what else he was thinking. His curiosity wasn’t worth spinning up his tense partner.

  There was a knock on the door. A second later, a blond officer, his blue eyes twinkling, opened the door and stuck his head in. “Coffee?”

  “Uhhh.” Erik looked at his half-filled mug. “Why not? I figure I work off coffee, chaos, and cursing.” The officer stepped in and accepted the mug from Erik. “Detective?” He looked at Jia.

  She shook her head. “I like caffeine, but I have enough in me to stay awake for now, thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Be back in a few minutes. I am walking around getting mugs and orders.” A moment later, the door clicked shut as he left.

  She sighed. “We’ve been lucky, haven’t we?”

  Erik turned from looking at the door. “Who? You and me? I’d say not getting blown up by a missile is on the lucky side of the scale, but you could argue getting missiles fired at us to begin with was massively unlucky. I figure I’ll keep rolling with it.”

  Jia shook her head. “I wasn’t talking about us. I was talking about Earth. The Summer of Sorrow was the worst terrorist incident in history. You could argue in a sick way that it was a good thing because it led to the formation of the UTC, but I keep wondering if we’re just one crazy person away from a repeat. Except now, there are much larger targets.”

  “Might still be easy to kill people here and there, but getting serious WMDs is pretty damned hard these days.” Erik grunted. “Trust me. I’ve fought enough terrorists and insurgents who would have loved it if the opposite was true. But you’re right. There’s no guarantee something like that won’t happen again. If not on Earth, then on a colony.”

  The two of them sat in companionable silence for a moment.

  Erik broke it first. “The Second Spring weren’t any different than modern Grayheads. In a way, all the terrorist groups kind of boil down to the same thing. There are always bastards out there ready to kill a bunch of innocent people to bring on paradise, and it’s up to people like us to stop them. Just make sure you don’t make the same mistake they do.”

  Jia raised an eyebrow. “What’s that, become arrogant?”

  “No, a little arrogance can help from time to time.” Erik managed a weak smile. “Their kind will never achieve what they want because they think they can fix human nature. The Second Spring were right that the only way to do that is to fundamentally change what it means to be human, but people have made it clear they aren’t going to do that.”

  “What are you saying? Yes, human nature’s a thing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t improve—"

  Erik raised a hand to cut her off. “I’m not saying we can’t make things better, Jia. I’m just saying, people are what they are. Maybe that bothers you, but I’m fine with it because the alternative is something like the Summer of Sorrow but ten times worse.”

  Jia stared at her desk, lost in deep thought for a long moment before she lifted her head. “I don’t know if I agree with all that, but I don’t think it makes a difference. In the short term, we both have the same view about how to handle things: take out criminals who hurt others.”

  Erik drummed his hands on his desk and nodded. “Sounds like a good plan. We’ll worry about step two when we run out of criminals.”

  His PNIU chimed with a call. He tapped to see the caller ID.

  Miguel Torres.

  Erik narrowed his eyes in irritation. “Miguel? I hope whatever Prospector roaches are scurrying around didn’t decide to pull something while I was out of town.” He tapped to receive the call. “Hello?”

  “Good evening, Detective Blackwell.” Unless Miguel had turned into a French-accented woman, he wasn’t on the other end of the phone.

  “Jeanne Caron?” Erik rumbled. “Unless you’re about to board a transport for the Moon, you’re being stupid.”

  Jia’s eyes widened. She tapped on her own PNIU and began whispering something under her breath.

  Erik smiled. His partner was smart. She knew what she needed to do to help track down the terrorist, but he needed to do his part and keep Jeanne talking and off-balance.

  “Yes, Detective.” Jeanne sighed. “How does it feel to be a traitor to your own kind? I’m always curious about that since I run into so many as part of my glorious crusade.”

  “Traitor to my own kind?” Erik punctuated his answer with a harsh, mocking laugh. “You’re the one who wants to sell our species out to aliens, and you’re calling me a traitor to my own kind? I’m impressed that you can say that kind of thing without laughing at how stupid it is.”

  “I’m many things,” Jeanne muttered, “but I’m not a coward. Unlike you. You’re a coward who is fleeing because you’re afraid to die. Or have you already left? Enjoy scurrying back to Neo SoCal, thinking yourself triumphant because you murdered my brothers in arms.” Her tone grew more strident. “Don’t think you’re safe. When I’m finished, I’ll come there for you to get my revenge. Oh, think of all I can accomplish. Your precious metroplex is nothing more than a grave marking humanity’s folly. It’s a disgusting reminder of how fallen we are as a species.”

  Erik managed not to laugh. The first part of their plan had worked. They’d smoked her out of hiding. Her latest rant confirmed that her interest in him wasn’t incidental, but he needed to keep her on for longer, which meant he needed to play to her biases.

  “Your brothers launched a missile attack on a hotel and threatened to gun down innocent people,” Erik noted. “All I did was protect the innocent. If you think humanity sucks so much, why don’t you start by killing yourself and cutting out the middleman? The only thing you freaks have ever accomplished is getting yourself killed or arrested. You think you’re going to inspire humanity to surrender to aliens? Those aliens must be giving you great drugs for you to believe that. Tell me, what does a Leem take to get high?”

  “Shut up, you insolent maggot,” she spat.

  “’Insolent maggot?’” Erik let the laugh out this time. “No one’s called me that since Basic. Now I’m all nostalgic. Thanks for that.”

  “You dare to take me so lightly?” Jeanne hissed.

  “I don’t know. Yeah, I guess I do. Your guys weren’t that hard to kill.” Erik let an edge creep into his voice. “That’s the problem with wannabes. I spent my entire life defending people with a gun for good reasons, unlike your little gang of psychotic, deluded murderers. You think I’m afraid of you? Your cowardly brothers took a bunch of hostages because they couldn’t win a standup fight against two cops. One of them, and hint, it isn’t me, is probably smarter than the aggregate of your group’s intelligence. And now they’re all dead or squealing to the CFMPD and CID.”

  Jeanne rattled off a few profanities in French. “You’re an enemy of progress. A diseased, rabid dog serving those who conspire to keep humanity under their boot heels. You’ve sold your loyalty to those who deny us enlightenment. I’ve read all about y
ou, Detective. After everything you encountered on your return to Earth, can you truly tell me this society is worth saving?” She paused for a moment, and Erik wondered if she was done. Nope. She went on. “Neo SoCal is supposed to be a living testament to the glories of the UTC and humanity, but it’s nothing more than fetid swamp that should be nuked again.”

  “I can’t say one way or another about society, but I do know I’m not going to take advice from a woman whose solution for corruption is mass murder.”

  “How many foolish men do you follow throughout history? How many decades of shadow and twilight must we endure because of the arrogance of men like you and those you serve?” Her breathing was becoming labored.

  Erik snorted. “You keep insisting that it’ll be better for us to be controlled by aliens, but your logic is based on assumptions and bluster. Convince me otherwise. How do you know anything about aliens you haven’t even met?”

  Jeanne’s laugh bordered on the hysterical. “Listen to your own arrogance. Convergent lines of evidence prove the righteousness of my cause, you myopic, addled-brained fool.”

  Erik smiled. “I like that insult. It’s classy. I’ll have to remember it. You get points for that one. They never called me that in Basic.”

  “I suppose a coward like you will never understand,” she snarled. “I hope when I complete my glorious mission that you feel the weight of your failure. The weight of your fear over fleeing.”