Erik managed to stand and ignored Jia’s disapproving frown. “Yeah. The price of fame.”
Jia reached up. “Careful here.” She delicately pulled off the remainder of his duster. “Good thing you buy these at the half-price store.”
“I do not,” Erik hissed as the new lack of weight relieved a sensitive area, “buy these at the half-price store.”
“Well, I’ve seen you buy this coat in multiples.” She shook her head. “Let’s wait for the hospital to get that off. It looks like it’s fused with your skin.”
“It was four. You get a discount,” Erik argued. “I like the style, ok?”
Antonio turned to his partner, raising an eyebrow.
His partner stared at the two detectives discussing clothes and just shrugged his shoulders.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
October 6, 2228, Central Florida Metroplex, en route to Reeves Transportation Center
Jia frowned at Erik from the passenger seat of the MX 60. “You should at least let Emma drive. You were only in the hospital for a day. Less than a day! You were almost blown up. I know you’re tough, but you’re not immortal.”
“I agree,” the AI offered. “Then again, I always think I should drive. Your human gut instinct only goes so far.”
“I’m fine, Jia.” Erik grinned at his partner. “My back will take a few days to heal, but I’ve got all those hospital-grade nanites doing their thing now. And I wasn’t almost blown up. I just got a little burnt, is all. Any double grenade explosion you walk away from is a good one.”
Jia rolled her eyes. “You’re incorrigible.” She sighed and rested her cheek in her hand as she stared out at the flitters surrounding them in the Moon-tinted darkness. “It’s all over, though. In the rush to leave the hospital, I forgot to tell you that the local digital forensics team went through the surviving PNIUs. That, combined with interrogations of the survivors, suggested the plan was a suicide bombing campaign. The foot soldiers aren’t sure why Caron was so obsessed with you. Apparently, the mission orders changed shortly before most of them arrived. I suppose we’ll never know now.”
Erik nodded, his playful smile fading. “I have that effect on certain people.”
Jia wanted him to take the situation more seriously, but she didn’t want to worry him. Even if he didn’t care about his injuries, she did. She had been prepared to yell at Captain Ragnar and request time off on Erik’s behalf, but the captain had ordered Erik to take a week off without being asked.
“They still need to dig through all the evidence, but the Evolved Six aren’t normally so well-equipped. I know that from the background files.” Jia pursed her lips. “From what they’ve been able to recover so far, we’ve learned the group had some sort of benefactor who supplied them with funds and additional equipment for this particular operation.”
“Any idea who?”
“No, none of the survivors know who their mysterious helper was. That knowledge died with Caron. Maybe CID and the CFMPD will get lucky and find some file that explains it, but I doubt it.”
“I agree.” Erik sighed. “You got copies of all that data, right, Emma?”
“Yes, Detective,” she replied cheerfully. “Although I’ve yet to find anything that clarifies who might have been aiding the Evolved Six. Cross-analysis continues.”
Jia turned back toward Erik. “At least they’re finished. CID says they might have a couple of cells left, but without their leader and with the bulk of their forces defeated, they’re done as a terrorist organization.”
“They were just the weapon. We need to find the arm.” Erik shook his head. “Someone threw a dagger and now doesn’t care to pick it up again.”
Jia tilted her head and furrowed her brow. “I don’t understand. They had a benefactor, but that’s not the same thing as that person controlling them.”
“You didn’t hear it,” he explained, “but Caron made it clear she was paid to assassinate me.”
Jia’s eyes narrowed. “You’re saying she wasn’t there for bombings?”
“Maybe that was an extra or the original plan, but the way she made it sound, it was mainly about killing me.” Erik’s hands tightened on the control yoke. “It’s not all that far off from what we both thought earlier.”
“Why?” Jia shook her head. “If they were getting major sponsorship from some outside entity to help kill you, why would anyone care so much about you?”
Erik glanced her way. “You’ve been pushing that the Evolved Six have been gunning for me for a while.”
“And I believe they were,” Jia replied softly. “But I thought it was just because they wanted a propaganda victory. It seems unlikely that some outside group would give them money to assassinate a single cop, even if he is admittedly impressive.”
Erik’s eyes flicked to her for a second before returning to the airways. He chuckled. “You think I’m impressive?
Jia coughed and turned her head to look out her window. “You’re more effective than the typical detective. I don’t think that’s all that controversial a comment.”
“Yeah. Anyway, I think this has to do with my past.”
Confusion crept over Jia’s face. She didn’t know every aspect of Erik’s past, but she thought she had a good handle on the broad strokes. “But I asked you about that, as did the captain. You said you couldn’t remember anyone or any group you had dealt with that might link you to Jeanne Caron.”
“The 108th Assault Platoon,” he intoned.
“You think the terrorists who killed your soldiers were the Evolved Six?” Jia shook her head. “I suppose it’s not impossible that they somehow flew back from there since the massacre, but you just saw how they fought.”
“Poorly.”
“Right, well, maybe they were decent, but they didn’t demonstrate the level of skill and equipment necessary to win against a Special Forces unit.”
He glanced at her, then raised his eyebrows and inhaled before blowing out his breath. “Take over, Emma,” Erik muttered. He let go of the yoke and took another deep breath. “No, I don’t think the Evolved Six killed my soldiers. You’re right. We would have lit them up.”
He reached under his shirt and pulled out his bent dog tag. He ran this thumb along it. “That was a correct statement. If the Evolved Six had had the equipment I saw on Molino, they would have killed every cop in that building tonight, including the TPST.”
She eyed him, then the dog tag, and then looked back to his eyes. “I don’t understand. What are you explaining?”
“Caron made it clear that someone paid her, and it might have had to do with what happened on Molino.” Erik's hand curled into a fist around the dog tag. “There’s something I want to tell you. It’s about why I came back to Earth, why I became a detective, and the truth about Molino.”
Jia’s breath caught. She waited for a second to make sure he wasn’t going to take back his comment before she gave a slight nod.
“The whole terrorist explanation that is being given about what happened on that moon is a lie,” Erik spat, teeth clenched. “My unit was surprised by a group of highly trained combatants equipped with advanced gear, including military-grade exoskeletons that were in some cases more advanced than what we had.”
“I thought you were Special Forces?” she snapped, then a quick, “Sorry, go on.”
He nodded, not bothered by her confusion. Hell, he was still confused about their gear.
“They could mess with our communications, and knew enough about our procedures to ensure our air support didn’t arrive. At the time, we were investigating a missing UTC official and found some sealed doors in a mine that shouldn’t have been sealed.” He banged a hand on the dashboard.
“Hey!” Emma cut in. “Don’t mar the paint.”
Erik considered what he was doing. “Point, Emma.” He turned to Jia. “I served thirty years in the military. There’s no way a ragtag group of terrorists ended up on the farthest colony in the UTC with that kind of equipment
, training, and surprise without big help. Our unit was set up and slaughtered because someone powerful had something to hide, and that means either the government or a corporation is involved. Maybe both.”
Jia stared at him, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. Would she have believed any of this if she hadn’t lived and almost died with him for the last few months?
“I came to Neo SoCal because the governor of the colony found evidence there was hidden communications between the colony and Neo SoCal,” Erik explained. “I’m also still in contact with Colonel Adeyemi. His son died on Molino, and he agrees that there’s been a cover-up.”
He turned his eyes to her, this time there was an ever so slight crack of pleading seeping through, she thought. “How do you investigate a mass-murder light-years away from Earth when someone huge and powerful is responsible?”
All she could do was shrug in reply.
He turned to glance out the front of the flitter. “The governor of the colony told me about the Obsidian Detective Act and suggested that if I became a cop, I could investigate things more effectively.” He scoffed. “I’ve been following leads, like the Halcyon building incident.”
“Well, you have someone’s attention,” she offered.
“Yeah.” He reached up to scratch his chin. His hand strayed toward his shoulder, but he pulled it back. “I’ve obviously got someone’s attention. They’ll probably lay low for a while since we took out the Six, but this is additional proof that my soldiers weren’t killed by terrorists.”
“How can you be sure?” Jia asked, her face pale.
The corruption she’d helped uncover in Neo SoCal was one thing, but Erik was describing corruption so vast it was capable of reaching light-years across the UTC.
“If the massacre had been the work of terrorists, they wouldn’t need to hire other terrorists to finish me off, and they probably wouldn’t even care. It’s better propaganda for them to have a survivor walking around telling the story rather than trying to slaughter every last member of the 108th,” Erik growled. “This means I’m close, or at least closer. Whoever was responsible doesn’t want this grave disturbed, but I’m going to keep digging until I find the truth.” He turned his eyes toward her, his gaze burrowing past her guard.
Jia shivered. “Does that mean you never cared about being a detective?”
“No,” was his short answer. Fortunately, he continued, “I take my job as a cop seriously, but I’m never going to forget why I came back to Earth. I will find out why the Knights Errant were murdered and who did it. No matter what it takes, one day, the people responsible will pay.”
Erik took a deep breath and rested his head against the back of the seat as Emma slowed the flitter to join the burgeoning security line.
The next time he spoke, she could feel his weariness. “If you don’t want to be my partner, that’s fine. I’ll agree with whatever you want to tell the captain, but since you got caught up in my mess, you deserve to know.”
Jia stared ahead, her mind swimming and her heart thundering. She licked her lips as she ran through the options. “Why not go to CID? If there is some massive UTC-level conspiracy, isn’t this the kind of thing they should be handling?”
Erik let out a single sharp laugh. “The people responsible have power and money. They killed dozens of people, got away with it, and covered it up. They made a colonial governor quit and run. That’s not the kind of power and influence that gets disrupted just because a few government agents start sniffing around.”
“But you think that you, a single cop, will somehow be able to stop them?” Jia hated the doubt in her voice. She understood Erik’s pain, but he needed to know he sounded as fanatical as the Grayheads they had just taken down.
“A single cop? No.” He shook his head. “If it were just me, this would be pointless. But since I’m not doing this through official channels, it means I can gather allies with influence in different places and keep everything going with fewer leaks.”
“Like who?”
“The governor helped me. Colonel Adeyemi’s helping me. Hell, Malcolm in Digital Forensics is helping me, even if he doesn’t know the full scope of what’s going on. I’ll keep investigating and getting evidence and passing it on to people I can trust until we have what we need to take them down.”
Emma kept her mouth shut. The silence in the flitter stretched as they inched ahead. Erik kept his breathing to a minimum, not wanting to interrupt her consideration.
It was finished in seconds, and yet years.
“I believe you.” Jia swallowed. “And I think I understand.” She looked at him. “I wouldn’t have understood when you first met me, but I couldn’t even investigate normal crimes because of local corruption.”
Erik jerked his head to the side, a faint look of relief on his face.
Why was his relief so gratifying? she wondered.
She continued her thoughts. “If there’s something deeper than what we have encountered, I can see where you are right. Taking this to CID would end in it getting filed away somewhere and forgotten.”
“It is big.” He nodded.
“If everything you suspect is true, this could rock the UTC to its core,” she pointed out. “So much for a perfect planet, or even a perfect governmental system.”
He blew out a breath. If he were honest with himself, it was one he had been holding onto for a long time.
“Who do you think it is?” she asked softly. “You must have some evidence by now if they’re trying to assassinate you.”
Erik let out a bitter chuckle. “A lot of the evidence is pointing to Ceres Galactic, but it’s all indirect. They might just be errand boys for someone else.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it were them, but I’ll grant the who isn’t even the most important question.”
“Yeah, it’s the why.” Erik nodded. “They were hiding something, and that something was important enough to murder dozens of people. That’s the thing I have no idea about. I only know the possible Zitark invasion spooked them, and they moved whatever it was they were hiding. I don’t know what or where it is now.”
Jia stared into her lap for a moment. “Something important enough to murder soldiers and lie about it? It could be anything.” She sighed. “I always believed the frontier was a lawless and barbaric place, but I blamed insurrectionists. Now I don’t know.” She looked out her window, her eyes losing focus as she thought about something beyond the local traffic. “Maybe the UTC is a lie. A shattered dream.”
“I don’t know about that, but there’s still more to find, and I intend to keep looking until I either get to the truth or I’m dead. This crap with Caron is proof this won’t always be safe. It’s not your fight, Jia. Those people in my unit weren’t your people. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted off the ride.”
“No. I’m a detective.” Jia hardened her expression as she turned to him. “I’m supposed to protect people and investigate crimes. The mass murder of brave and loyal soldiers was a crime. I’m not a high-ranking military officer or colonial governor, but I am your partner, and I’ll have your back as long as you need me.”
Erik offered a weak grin. “You’ll probably regret that sooner rather than later.”
“Perhaps.” Jia pondered the situation for a moment before asking, “Have you ever read Water Margin?”
His eyes narrowed in confusion. “No, why?”
“It seems relevant, given that, reduced to its essence, it’s a story about men becoming outlaws because of governmental corruption. I liked it a lot. Mei, not so much. She has always hated it.” Jia let out a soft laugh. “There’s a line that stuck with me.” She rattled it off in Mandarin before switching back to English. “The culprit must pay for his wrong, the debtor for his debt.”
Erik smiled, some of the weight on his shoulders lifting. “I like that.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
October 17, 2228, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Commerce Tower 32
Wanderi
ng through the dense crowd of people thronging a retail floor in a tower always reminded Erik that Jia might be naïve, but his pessimism didn’t always reflect reality.
Human nature might be fixed, but if the species was as self-destructive and corrupt as he fell into thinking at times, they would have never advanced.
New technologies brought about new threats, but they also allowed humans to spread out to the stars and to live like the gods they had worshipped in primitive times.
Had the Summer of Sorrow changed something fundamental about humanity?
War and struggle continued, but almost a century later, despite advances in technology and the spread of terrorism and insurgency, there had never been a single incident that came even close to matching the loss of life.
It was as if all of humanity had stared into the abyss and realized what waited for them. Terrorists like the Evolved Six might remain, but now a semi-unified species at least attempted to use their pooled resources to accomplish something useful.
The proof that things were better might lie in the thousands of people wandering from store to store around Erik, all kept safe by advanced engineering in a tower stretching into the sky. Terrorist actions like those that had taken place weeks prior in the Central Florida Metroplex were rare.
If they weren’t, people wouldn’t feel safe enough to shop, unconcerned. Jia’s problem hadn’t been in believing in the relative safety of Earth; her issue had been denying there was any problem at all.
Darkness festered at the center of the UTC. About that, Erik had no doubts or illusions, but a faint self-serving hope lingered in the back of his mind. When he delivered his vengeance and punished those responsible for killing the Knights Errant, the UTC would be a better place.
A small but dense patch of darkness would be obliterated.
Erik shook his head, trying to force the morbid thoughts out. A false projection of the Milky Way decorated the vaulted ceiling and the main concourse lights were dim as if the designers thought they could trick the crowd into believing they were shopping outdoors under a clear night sky.
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