Shattered Truth

by Michael Anderle

  Sometimes he wondered if he should be more worried about giving a machine, even a unique and self-aware machine, so much access and control over his life, but there was no point in worrying. If Emma wanted to screw him over, she could have already done a lot of immediate and painful things, including nosediving his MX 60 into the ground.

  The unusual AI had her own reasons for helping him, and over their time together, he’d grown to trust her. If and when she was ready to go her own way, he doubted it would be a surprise. It would be too much to claim he understood her psychology, even though at times it was hard for him to believe she wasn’t an actual person.

  Even if she grew crankier, he needed her help.

  Her analysis capabilities had already turned mere clues into evidence of conspiracy, and until soldiers kicked down his door and demanded Emma’s return, Erik intended to make use of the helpful bonus he’d stumbled into rescuing.

  Besides, if his suspicions were correct, taking down the men who’d ambushed his unit would be a net benefit for the UTC. That might be delusion self-justification, but it was enough for the moment.

  “Is something wrong?” Jia asked, her eyes filled with concern.

  Erik looked her way. “Why do you think something’s wrong? I’m a little bored, but that’s about it.”

  “There’s more to it. You have an odd look on your face. I know what your bored face looks like,” she waved a hand toward his head, “and that isn’t it.”

  He eyed her with a smirk. “You spend that much time looking at my face?”

  “Your desk is right across from mine, remember?” Jia raised an eyebrow in challenge.

  Erik laughed. “Then you need to update your mental database of my facial expressions. That was just me being thoughtful.”

  “Don’t think too hard. You might break something.” Jia stifled a yawn. “I should have gone to bed earlier last night. I knew I was going to have to work an extra shift tonight. Now I’m paying for it.” She nodded at her coffee cup in the holder between them. “That’s doing its part, but you’re right. This is a little boring. Everyone else is out having a good time, and we’re watching them have a good time instead of resting at home.”

  “So your complaint isn’t that they’re partying and you’re not. Your complaint is that you want to be home sleeping?”

  There was a pause before she replied, “Something like that.”

  “Maybe we’ll get lucky and run into trouble along the way,” Erik offered. “That will wake you up pretty quickly.”

  “Not the type of energy boost I want.”

  “Yeah, this night has been quieter than I expected. Given the way everyone was building it up, I was half-expecting riots. I’m not a fan of riots, don’t get me wrong. There have just been so many news stories and complaints at the station.”

  “This is Neo SoCal,” Jia insisted. “Riots? We don’t have that kind of problem here.”

  “Oh? Are riots too boring for you?” Erik smiled. “I forgot this is Neo SoCal, where tower levels explode and gangsters are running contraband AIs. And that’s before we get into off-the-wall cops having mini-flitter chases in the Shadow Zone.”

  “Okay, I’ll grant you all that,” Jia replied. “But Halloween hasn’t been traditionally an out-of-control holiday here, or at least not that way. Things get a little rougher in the Shadow Zone, but not Uptown. I know I was naïve about a few things, but even the people trying to cover up a lot of crime wouldn’t be able to pull it off if there were large-scale problems like riots.”

  “You sure?” Erik’s gaze slid to the side, his expression tight. “I think everything we’ve dealt with proves that Uptowners aren’t above getting rough when things don’t go their way, then covering it up.”

  “Yes, I’m sure.” Her face was almost bored. “In this case, it’s not because the Uptown people are better behaved or execute superior coverups or anything of that nature, but rather because nearly the entire department’s deployed for the night. It’s simply harder to get away with crimes when there are thousands of police out in force, including the TPST teams. No one would even think to try.” Jia shrugged as if that said it all.

  Erik couldn’t disagree with the idea, although he chose not to point out that the huge amount of police effort suggested the authorities were concerned things would spiral out of control.

  If he dug deeper, they might find a few hidden riots. It wouldn’t be all that hard to conceal events if they were limited to a few platforms.

  He also didn’t like how sure Jia sounded. He’d seen far too many bases surprised by an attack after growing complacent.

  “If nothing happens, our night will be boring,” Erik observed. “We’re just going to spend all night watching people party while we drink coffee.”

  Jia glanced his way disapprovingly. “I would prefer no trouble, even if it is boring. That’s my fondest wish not just for Earth, but the entire UTC.” She looked back outside wistfully. “I just would prefer to be in bed.”

  “Sure, sure. I don’t want anything big, just a drunk or two to break up the monotony.” Erik pulled back on the yoke, bringing the MX 60 away from the parking platform that had been hosting them. “A quick arrest or two.” He chuckled quietly. “Just consider me addicted to justice now. Not every case has been about terrorists or dangerous gangsters.”

  Anything that allowed Erik to feel like he was maintaining forward momentum would be welcome. He was growing more dependent on his daily work as a police officer than he had anticipated.

  He wasn’t sure if that would be a problem.

  Jia’s disapproval shifted to interest on her face. “When I think about it, I could see the media value in highlighting a few arrests.” She cupped her chin, deep in thought. “Right now, everything’s just notional, but widespread but quick arrests for minor offenses might act as a vaccine against worse things in the future, given the current instability in the metroplex.”

  “There you go with those multi-syllable words again.”

  “Stop playing dumb. Multi-syllable is itself multi-syllable.”

  She waited, but he didn’t rebut her point. “Arguably,” she went on as if his interruption hadn’t occurred, “it’s unnecessary, given how little trouble has occurred. If no one wants to commit crimes, it’s not like we’re going to make them just for the additional arrests.”

  “That’s one way to look at it, but you’re right.” Erik settled into an air lane, the night’s traffic sparse. In the entire time he had lived in Neo SoCal, he had never seen so few flitters in the sky.

  Everyone really was out partying.

  Tension suffused his neck and shoulders. Something about the empty Neo SoCal skies set him on edge. It was ironic. After years on the frontier, the opposite should have been true, but the heavy traffic was only part of the identity of the city. It was like he had caught someone naked in the shower and needed to awkwardly turn away.

  Erik snickered under his breath, his neck muscles relaxing. That was what his whole time in the metroplex had been. He’d caught the city and its people at their worst: conspiracy, murder, smuggling… It was a veritable peep show of corruption. The worst part was that everyone just kept hoping if they turned their heads, they could pretend they hadn’t seen anything.

  “What’s so funny?” Jia asked.

  “Nothing. Just thinking about some stuff.”

  “All right, then.” Jia’s watchful gaze drifted between the cameras, the lidar, and the windows as if she thought she would spot an insurgent fighter in the sky they needed to target with a heroic and sacrificial charge. “Given everything that’s happened,” she asked quietly, “do you have any regrets?”

  “Regrets about what?” Erik asked. “Becoming a cop?”

  “No,” Jia replied. “I mean, regrets about joining the Army.”

  Erik slowed the flitter as they approached a platform that held another massive crowd. He lowered his altitude before stopping about fifty meters away from the crowd on the edge
of the platform. “Why would I regret anything?”

  “Because it ended badly,” Jia suggested, doubt in her voice. “I don’t know how I would feel if I spent thirty years in the police force, only for my last major case to end with everyone in my EZ being killed by a connected criminal.” She paused for a moment, but he didn’t say anything, so she forged ahead. “Sometimes I don’t know why you’re not shaking with rage all the time. I give you so much grief for control, but in a way, you’re far more controlled than I would ever be in the same situation.”

  Erik released his grip on the yoke and took his foot off the accelerator. Jia had hit at the heart of something he’d thought about repeatedly over the year it took him to return to Earth. He could offer her a fake smile and put her at ease, but she was already supporting him. Somewhere in all of this insanity, she wasn’t just his partner anymore.

  She had become his friend.

  “I’m the man I am because of my service,” he explained. “And I do think I made the UTC a better place by being a soldier. For the most part, we were taking down dangerous insurgents and terrorists.” He shrugged. “I wasn’t naïve. I understood that the UTC government’s imperfect, just like there were plenty of careerists and backstabbers in my chain-of-command.”

  Jia offered a small smile. “Anytime there is bureaucracy, you get those.”

  “True,” he agreed. “Countering those pains, I had my brothers and sisters in arms, and we had each other’s backs. We tried our best to protect innocent people in difficult situations where the enemy didn’t show up in uniforms and announce themselves. I made mistakes, and the people around me made mistakes, but it was an honorable career.”

  Pulsating colored orbs filled the sky above the celebrating crowd. People started dancing, if jumping and grinding against each other with almost no space to move could be called that. The deafening music projected over the platform was nothing more than a dull, distant rumble inside the MX 60. Erik had never been more grateful for its soundproofing.

  “Do I regret it?” Erik paused for a moment.

  She elbowed him. “Yes, that is the question.”

  He shook his head. “No. I met the best men and women of the UTC in the Army. The only thing I regret is that I haven’t found the bastards responsible for what happened and avenged their murders. I go over the last mission again and again, thinking about it, but that’s pointless. It doesn’t accomplish anything to brood on the past.” He smiled. “I’m glad you’re my first partner. It has made transitioning from soldier to cop a lot easier.

  He shuddered.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I was thinking how horrible it would be if I was having to deal with some lazy and corrupt ass like Thompson.”

  She nodded in agreement. “I appreciate you having my back,” Jia murmured. “I didn’t even know how good it would feel to have a partner who supports me. I didn’t know I had given up.” She smiled. “I think I figured I could just keep charging forward until Monahan gave in, but it helps to have two people charging at the same time. It makes it easier to break through the walls they throw up.”

  “You earned it,” Erik replied. “If you were a lazy, bad cop, I would have moved on. Just because I have my own reasons for joining the force, it doesn’t mean I don’t care about doing what I can while I’m a detective. I joined the Army to help protect people from predators. A cop’s a different title, but we’re on the same mission, with different tools and rules of engagement.”

  They lapsed into silence, watching the almost hypnotic movements of the crowd.

  Erik pondered his possible regrets again and decided he had very few, even with his limited progress since returning to Earth. Keep upsetting the status quo, and he would end up at his destination.

  “What happens after you get them?” Jia asked as if reading this mind.

  “The bastards responsible for murdering my unit?”

  She nodded. “I don’t know if your plan is brilliant in its audacious nature or delusional, but given everything that has happened, the people responsible don’t seem to be as secure in their position as I would have suspected.”

  A sudden squelch of the sound system cracked the relative quiet of the car. Both turned to see a few of the dancers with hands over their ears.

  A moment later, it was a mass of moving bodies once again.

  Jia continued. “Since they aren’t as secure, I believe that means you have a very real opportunity for finding them. I don’t know if this ends in some ridiculous shoot-out or with a perp walk. So, now you have it handled one way or another. What happens then? Do you retire and spend all day watching sphere ball?” Worry textured her voice and wrinkled her forehead.

  “I don’t know,” Erik admitted, his voice quiet. “That’s farther than I’ve ever bothered to think through it.”

  Jia paused to take in all of the screens in the car once more.

  Erik continued, “The truth is, if I hadn’t been pointed at the Obsidian Detective Act by the governor, I don’t know how I would have ended up trying to figure this out. I’ve got more than enough money to last me a while even if I don’t work, but I’m not the kind of guy to be sitting at home, even with new hobbies. I’m not going to spend all day doing tac training just for the hell of it. I need a goal.”

  Jia smiled. “I don’t know. You’ve taken up penjing. That’s not exactly the hobby of a man of action.” She waved a hand. “Not trying to mock you. I’m still having trouble wrapping my mind around it.”

  “Hey, everyone needs some balance, right?” Erik snickered “Now I sound like the salesgirl. You should have been there. I think she was almost ready to tell me that penjing would make me live longer. I hope she works on commission because I dropped a lot of money on that little tree and the tools.” He looked at her. “But this isn’t about penjing. You care if I’m going to quit the force, right?”

  “You served the UTC as a soldier for decades.” Jia brushed a few dark strands out of her eyes. “It wouldn’t hurt to continue serving the UTC as a police officer. You said yourself you can protect people that way. I know you’re not as dedicated to the abstract idea of justice as I am, but it’s something to consider.”

  “I’m enjoying being a cop more than I would have thought. Sure, there are annoying regulations, but there are fewer than I had in the service.” He paused, but there seemed to be more words waiting on his lips.

  “And?” she encouraged.

  “Well, now that Monahan’s out of the way, I don’t feel like my boss is messing with me or waiting for an excuse. I’m not interested in going up the ranks, though. I did my best to stay in the field in the Army, and I don’t ever want to ride a desk.” He looked over. “What about you? You want to be Captain Lin or Chief Lin someday?”

  A thoughtful expression covered Jia’s face. “I hate to admit this, but I haven’t been any better about thinking very far ahead than you.”

  She let out a strangled laugh as Erik eyed her.

  She shrugged. “It’s odd to say that out loud. I’ve been surprised my family didn’t ask me that question until recently. I suppose they’ve been so obsessed with getting me to quit that considering my potential future career path struck them as pointless.”

  “Really? You, the woman who has wanted to be a cop forever, doesn’t have a long-term career plan?” He looked around for a better phrase but finding none, he simply asked, “You’re just winging it?”

  “Saying that I’m winging it is an overstatement.” Jia let out a wistful sigh. “You have to understand that my family opposed my job from the beginning, while I was fixated on the idea of being an honest and hard-working detective solving crimes. I haven’t cared much about moving up the chain because I believed my superiors would be equally honest and hard-working people. If you’re working under a good man or woman, you don’t need to worry about moving up, right?” She let out a bitter laugh. “I never wanted to leave Earth, and it just never occurred to me that corruption could possibly
be that widespread here.”

  “And now?” he prodded.

  “Now…” She shrugged. “I don’t know. The harsh truth has undermined what I’ve always believed and makes it harder to assume my future. I liked the idea of being a detective until the day I retire. That might not be possible if we need good people at all levels to stave off corruption.”

  “So, you would take a job higher up even if you don’t want it?”

  “I think we just shut down my brain.” She chuckled. “This is all premature. I’m still a new cop. I shouldn’t get ahead of myself about becoming a lieutenant or a captain, let alone anything higher. Let’s admit it’s only been recent that I’ve been able to investigate serious crimes in any real way.”

  “Nothing wrong with planning for the future,” Erik countered. “After all—”

  Emma cut in. “There is a potential problem,” she reported, her tone stern.

  Erik jerked forward, his hands going to the control yoke. “What are you talking about?” he asked, looking around as Jia looked out her side.

  “Several transponder signals went dark a kilometer north of here,” Emma explained. “That would normally be consistent with vehicle destruction, based on my experiences with these sensors. I don’t have a clear line of sight from here. I took the liberty of trying to access traffic drones and cameras in that area, and they’re all dead, too.”

  “What do you mean, dead?” Jia asked. “Someone’s blocking you?”

  “In some cases, yes, I’m being blocked. In others, there’s no active signal. I can see at least one drone in the area from here, but I can’t access it. And…” Emma sighed. “When I filter my most recent acoustic data, there is a high probability of gunfire.”

  “I’ve been to plenty of colonies where idiots like to fire bullets into the air during celebrations,” Erik observed. “Although they didn’t try to block any signals at the same time. Not good.”

  Jia shook her head. “No one does that kind of thing here anyway. The fines are ridiculous, and you can get jail time for it, too. With all the drones and cameras, normally you can’t even imagine getting away with it.” She frowned. “Of course, that might be a reason to jam the drones and cameras. Someone wanting to have the thrill of something illicit, perhaps. At least, we can hope it’s something as petty and mildly antisocial as that.”