Maelstrom of Treason

by Michael Anderle

  Dozens of police flitters were parked around the modest Shadow Zone building, which was tucked away in a small, clean commercial district. The triads knew how to fake respectability. Uniformed officers kept the curious crowd away, while others streamed in and out of the building. Besides the lack of drawn weapons or concerned looks, there wasn’t a single bound suspect anywhere in the area. There was no way they’d raided the place and sent everyone off that quickly.

  “Who’s in charge here?” Erik demanded, squaring his shoulders and looming over the uniformed officer.

  “Over there, Detective.” She swallowed and pointed to a suited detective chatting with several other officers, gesturing energetically. Erik headed toward him, his angry gaze fixed on the man.

  The other detective looked up with a smile. “Ah, Blackwell. Nice of you to join us.” He extended his hand. “Detective Corzone.”

  “Why did this go down already?” Erik demanded, almost growling, and not accepting his hand. “I don’t normally get bent out of shape about people trying to steal my collar, but this was all us from the beginning, and it might be our final case.”

  “Whoa.” Detective Corzone raised his hands in front of him. “Calm down, Blackwell. You’ll be getting all the credit. I promise you that. I’m one of the people who thought you got screwed by the CID over that Ceres thing last year. I’m not about stealing other people’s glory.”

  Erik nodded, his heart pounding but his frown weakening. “Why the quick move?”

  Detective Corzone shrugged. “We had to make a move. Our drone surveillance showed they were running. I’m sorry you didn’t get the call until late, but we had to move fast to make sure we didn’t lose track of all the bastards. Those guys are smarter than the average thug. They took out several drones when they ran.”

  Jia looked around the area. “Please don’t tell me they all got away.”

  Detective Corzone clapped once. “No way in hell we’d let that happen.” He inclined his head toward the building. “That place is empty of guys, but we already nailed almost all the vehicles that fled from the area, even with them using false transponder signals. We’re coordinating with other EZs and the Militia to make sure we get the last few in case they try to run to the Scar. They left behind some equipment as well. They must have been in even more of a hurry than we expected. Be happy, Detectives. Once you pointed us at this place, that was all we needed. We’ve gutted this triad in Neo SoCal. They should call you ‘the syndicate killers.’”

  Erik took a deep breath and slowly let it out. His hands uncurled from the fists he hadn’t known he was making. “Let us know if anything comes up. We still don’t know what they were looking for in that plant.”

  “I’m sure we’ll get it out of them.” Detective Corzone offered a salute and a grin. “But will do, Detective. It’s going to take a while to go through all this evidence, and we’ll send copies of everything we have to you so you can check it, too. I’m sure when this is all over, there will be a lot of commendations to go around.”

  Erik walked back toward the MX 60, shaking his head, still frowning. Jia walked beside him with a distant look in her eyes.

  “They’re not the same,” Jia offered. “You need to keep that in mind.”

  Erik didn’t speak until they arrived at the flitter. He looked at her. “Who’s not the same?”

  She looked around. “When we first became partners, we got used to having to do everything on our own because we couldn’t trust anyone—the CID and the other EZs. Too much corruption, too much watching their backs, even from cops.” Jia gestured grandly toward the gathered police. “Many of the Shadow Zone cops might as well have been paid employees of the syndicates back then. But it’s not like that anymore, Erik. It’s a good department, filled with good cops.” She frowned and looked down at her PNIU, then slapped it and sighed.

  He looked down but couldn’t spy what was on her tablet. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s stupid.” Jia rolled her eyes. “So annoyingly stupid.”

  “Then be stupid with me.” Erik put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ve been running around so much lately, especially these last few days, it’s been hard to take a breather and relax, just the two of us.”

  “That’s kind of the problem,” Jia offered, averting her eyes.

  “Wait, you’re mad because we haven’t been able to go on a date?”

  “No.” Jia groaned. “It’s my mother. I told her I had work today and we might not be able to come, and so she keeps calling to check. It’s just a stupid party, but she’s obsessed with it.”

  “The true terror, Lan Lin.” Erik chuckled. “I hope this doesn’t end with her killing me.” He rolled his shoulders and surveyed the area. “I don’t think there’s much we can add here for now, but I’ve got an idea. I want to check something, and it’ll require Emma’s help.”

  “Of course it will,” the AI interjected. “Like I said, Detective. Six months.”

  Erik released the yoke of the MX 60. “Take control, Emma.” He tapped his PNIU to initiate a call to Malachi Lunt but routed the audio through his flitter.

  The plant manager answered with a weary sigh. “I’m very, very busy, Detective. It’s going to take several weeks to repair the damage, and days before we can get production up and running again. At this point, we’re still assessing the damage and the impact on the plant.”

  “If it makes you feel any better, the local cops just nailed almost all the rest of the triad involved in the raid,” Erik replied. “The Eternal Dragons won’t be coming after you again.”

  “That’s very nice for you and the future, but it doesn’t fix my plant right now.” Malachi moaned. “This is why we shouldn’t do business in crap holes like this. I should have known it’d involve ridiculous gangster nonsense at some point. The Council must all be insane.”

  Jia’s brow lifted. “So much for uplifting opportunities in economically disadvantaged areas.”

  “Having rockets showered on my plant changed my mind. All my bonuses. My promotion file! Those ignorant little thugs have harmed my future with the company.”

  “They also murdered a woman,” Erik pointed out.

  There was the barest of pauses. “Yes, that too.”

  “Those criminals wanted something in your plant,” Jia explained to him. “Something most likely to do with Archangel. Even though we’ve taken them down, we want to make sure there’s nothing left over to come back and haunt us.”

  “What are you talking about?” Malachi sounded genuinely confused. “Angels? What do angels have to do with chemical plants and criminals?”

  “It’s a street drug,” Erik explained. “Worse than Dragon Tear. One of those chemicals that Victoria Dwazil was harassing you about, one that was being produced at higher levels than expected or wanted? It turns out it’s an Archangel ingredient.”

  “W-what?” Malachi gasped. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. It also explains why the Eternal Dragons were so interested in this plant.” Erik looked at Jia. She shrugged. Malachi might be selfish, but he also sounded surprised.

  It also wouldn’t make sense for him to risk getting shot or blown up to help the triads get into the plant. As the plant manager, he could have easily given them access without the need for a dramatic raid.

  “I had no idea,” Malachi insisted. “I swear to you. I would never be involved in something like that. You have to believe me. Oh, no. You’re going to ship me off to some horrible prison where they feed you to yaoguai, aren’t you?” He sniffled. “Please. I know I don’t have a family, but I deserve something better.”

  Erik cleared his throat. “Unless you actively knew about the Archangel production, no, Mr. Lunt, we’re not going to do that. You haven’t committed a crime, to our knowledge. But we do need your cooperation.”

  “My…cooperation?” Malachi asked hesitantly.

  “There’s a little thing we want to do. We have some special sensors, and we want to inspect your plant
to see if we can find anything unusual. If we find anything from our aerial inspection, we’ll want to bring in Forensics and have them do a fine-grained sweep.”

  Erik held his breath. If the plant manager agreed, they could pull the whole thing off without the delay of a warrant. Given Harry Hui’s assault on the plant, there could be something time-sensitive they needed to recover. Erik’s life might be easier when he was hunting down conspiracies and not having to worry as much about careful procedures and paperwork to hand over to prosecutors and judges.

  “Please, do it right away!” Malachi nearly shouted into the phone. “I want it known that I’m fully cooperating with you. This is even a good time to do it. We’re not even starting repairs today, and a lot of the employees were told to take the next few days yet. Oh, but…no, it couldn’t be.”

  “What is it, Mr. Lunt?” Jia pressed.

  “I’m not accusing anyone of anything, but two junior managers who work in the department are responsible for overseeing the compound in question.” Malachi’s short, ragged breaths broadcast his fear over the line. “Neither have come in to work the last few days. I’ve tried contacting them, but they didn’t respond. I thought…”

  “You thought what?”

  “They’d requested time off a while ago, and I was annoyed when they didn’t come back to work on time.” Malachi laughed nervously. “The rumor was they were seeing each other, so I thought they also might have decided to run off to the moon, but they were good subordinates, so I told them I’d have to write them up but they could come back. I was going to contact them again before the incident distracted us. It honestly never occurred to me that they might have anything to do with Dwazil’s murder, and I thought I was shielding them from being harassed by corporate.”

  “Give us their names,” Jia ordered.

  “Cameron Stavos and Jeri Aaron.”

  “Okay, we’ll send someone to check on them,” Erik responded. “We’ll let you know if we need to bring in that Forensics team.”

  “Anything you need,” Malachi assured. “I’m more than happy to help. In fact, I insist on it.”

  “We’ll talk to you soon. Bye.” Erik ended the call. “Emma, send a request to the captain to have someone go pick up those two for questioning.”

  “Very well, Detective.”

  Erik looked out the window at the plant below. From the air, the destroyed towers were the only evidence of the attack. The fence had already been repaired, and the triad flitters and bodies had been collected by the police. He could barely make out the hole in the one building from their height.

  Jia pointed that way. “If we’re going to do this, it probably would be around there. Hui entered the complex at that building for a reason. We’ve got to focus this search, or this might take days, if not weeks. As good as Emma’s sensors are, this is a huge facility with a lot of unusual equipment.”

  “That’s an accurate assessment,” Emma agreed.

  “Sounds like a good plan to me,” Erik admitted. “Emma, keep us near buildings B32 and B33. Look for anything out of the ordinary. I don’t know what that might be. It’s not like I ever worked in a chemical plant.”

  The MX 60 floated gently toward the first building, dropping altitude and circling. At the lower altitude, the gaping hole was obvious, as were scorch marks from Jia’s plasma grenade. Erik and Jia had discussed it and decided to leave the use of that little toy out of their report, and none of the other cops or Luminous River security had seemed keen to press them on it.

  A couple of minutes passed, Erik, Jia, and Emma remaining silent.

  “Interesting,” Emma declared.

  Erik looked at his camera displays. Emma shifted one display to be a multispectral overlay of building B32. The display showed not only the exterior but also the extensive internal machinery and pipe network, different features presented in different colors. Erik had no idea what everything meant, but he did notice a long, rectangular patch of darkness standing out among the colors. It mostly filled the conference room where he’d fought Hui.

  He pointed toward the darkness. “What’s wrong here?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. It’s just interesting.” Emma summoned a three-dimensional holographic representation of the map and rotated it, revealing that the patch of darkness lay beneath the room.

  Jia stared at the hologram. “I don’t understand. Is that some sort of hollow cavity?”

  “Something like that, potentially,” Emma explained. “It’s a dead zone. I’m only aware it’s there because I can check using a variety of sensors, but, for example, if you were only using thermal scanning, you would have passed it over since it would have blended in with the background.”

  Erik nodded slowly, his grin building with each nod. “We got you, Hui. Time to call in Forensics.”

  Erik stared into the gaping hole in the storage room floor. Forensics drones hovered near the ceiling. All had independently confirmed there was something unusual under the floor.

  Digging followed, and at one meter, the team encountered an unexpected hard layer. At first, they thought they might have found a coffin, but the rigid box didn’t contain a body, and the internal electronics and power source was further proof it wasn’t for holding a corpse. After carving into the container with power tools, they discovered racks filled with small vials containing a dark liquid.

  A forensics tech held a vial in his gloved hands, a thin silver probe inserted. He whistled as text appeared on the data window in front of him. “It’s tested positive for Archangel, Detective.”

  Jia motioned to the hole. “That’s a lot of drugs, and that means it’s a lot of money.”

  Erik crouched at the edge. “Yeah.” He looked down into the hole. “It’s worth more than enough to kill someone over. The only thing I don’t get is why they stored it here.”

  The forensics tech held up the vial. “It’s part of the production process, Detective. It’s not very stable initially. You have to precisely control the temperature, pressure, that kind of thing.”

  “So, they were making it here and storing it here.” Erik scoffed. “Ballsy sons of bitches.”

  “That’s one of the reasons they could make so much so quickly,” Jia suggested. “Dwazil might have been focused on that one chemical, but they were obviously siphoning off more than just that one. The harder she pressed, the more she would have figured out.”

  The tech nudged a piece of the lid they’d cut into. “Yeah, just think of this as their angel incubator.” He waggled his eyebrows.

  Erik grimaced. “That sounds like a joke Malcolm might make.”

  Chapter Twenty

  October 3, 2229, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Police Enforcement Zone 122 Station, Office of Detectives Jia Lin and Erik Blackwell

  “Thank you for letting us know.” Jia blew out a frustrated breath and ended her call.

  “Problem?” Erik asked.

  “That was Halil. He was running down Stavos and Aaron for us on the captain’s orders. He didn’t have great news.”

  Erik shrugged. “If they’re involved in this, they’re going to lie low for a while, but they aren’t career criminals. They’ll turn up sooner rather than later.”

  Jia shook her head. “Two heavily mangled bodies washed up on San Clemente Island today. I’ll give you one guess as to what the DNA tests showed.”

  It was Erik’s turn to sigh. “That explains who was siphoning off the chemicals. Hui must have panicked that Victoria was getting close, and that’s why he killed her. They must have told him about her investigation.” Erik frowned. “But why so sloppy? The raid makes sense. They must have figured out the police would find the Archangel, and it was too valuable to risk, but we wouldn’t have been involved without the murder.”

  “The only one who can tell us that is Hui, but he’s not cooperating.” Jia’s breath caught. “I’ve got an idea, but it’s slightly underhanded.”

  “So?”

  “It involves something I read in
the report the HKPD sent us on the Eternal Dragons.”

  “What do you mean by ‘underhanded?’” Erik snickered. “It’s not like you’re going to kidnap his mother and threaten to kill her.” He stopped a second, eyes narrowing. “You’re not, right?”

  “I’m not that far gone.” Jia shrugged. “I’m just planning to blatantly lie to him.”

  He waved a hand at her. “A few lies to a criminal never hurt.” Erik grinned. “And it sounds like good practice for our new job. We’ll be telling a lot of lies going forward.”

  Harry Hui sat in his chair, chained with the inhibitors as before, but he was far more relaxed and had an almost jolly smile on his face. It was the look of a man who believed he had won. Jia was going to enjoy wiping that smile off.

  “You sure you don’t want your lawyer, Hui?” Jia asked, settling behind the interrogation room table. “We have no problems waiting. We’ve got all day, and if the prisons fill up, they’ll just build a new one.”

  Hui’s face went from smiling to disgusted. “You should have been a comedian, not a cop,” he muttered.

  “Maybe. But what about your lawyer?” She pressed.

  The gangster scoffed. “I don’t need a lawyer. What’s the point? Yeah, I know, I’m going to prison. What can you offer to get me to talk? Maybe you can get me on the circumstantial on Flagpole Lady, but I don’t have to admit to crap. You can’t make me, and we both know you don’t have what it takes to try anything real.”

  “Torture is for barbarians who aren’t very bright,” Jia replied.

  “Oh? What’s your plan, then? Bore me into confessing?”

  “We have friends in the system,” Jia explained. “Lots of friends. We can whisper in the right ears to recommend that people get transferred to particular prisons. If you end up at the wrong prison, it might be trouble.” She shrugged. “Imagine being an Eternal Dragon who ends up at a prison containing a bunch of Iron Emperors.”