Obsidian Detective

by Michael Anderle

  Erik looked at his visitor. “Give me a break.”

  Halil blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “I don’t know all that’s going on here in this enforcement zone, but I don’t care.” Erik pointed to his shoulder holster. “Jia says I’ve been out on the frontier for too long. That I’ve forgotten what it means to on a civilized planet.” He offered a feral grin to Halil. “And I think she’s right.”

  Halil frowned. “What the hell is that supposed to mean, Erik?”

  “When I served, I knew that every man and women in my unit had my back,” Erik replied, his voice almost a snarl. “And I had theirs. It didn’t matter if we didn’t agree on politics or they came from some colony where people had crap taste in music and food. We put on the uniform, and we did the job. Do you know what we didn’t do?”

  “What?” Halil’s nostrils flared.

  “We didn’t stab each other in the back over how we got there,” Erik replied. He squashed the snarl in his voice and adopted a playful grin.

  Halil laughed and shrugged. “I can’t believe this. I’m trying to help you. You want to work with the Black Widow? You want to waste your time with some corp princess pretending to be a police officer?” He stood, his glare fixed on Erik. “That’s your choice. I was just trying to offer you a little advice.”

  “I’ll take it under consideration,” Erik replied. “And, Halil, I want to make one thing clear.”

  “What’s that?” the detective responded, his voice hard.

  “Everything I said applies to you as well.” Erik stood and loomed over the other man. He slapped his badge, which hung from his belt. “While I’m wearing this, you’re my brother. You might be an annoying brother, but you’re still my brother. Just like Jia’s my annoying little sister. You want to squabble? Fine, but that’s as far as I take it, and when we’re outside of this building, I will always have your back, as I expect you to have mine. I don’t care about office politics or corp princesses or who wants to retire with a pension. Am I clear?”

  “Yes, crystal.” Halil nodded slowly as he eyed Erik appraisingly. “And I can work with that, Erik. I know you think I’m a snake, but you’ll understand soon enough, and you’ll be grateful for me pointing it out.” He headed toward the door. “Just don’t let her you drag you down in the meantime.”

  Erik sank back into his seat and shook his head.

  He took another swig of coffee. “If this is how perfect Earth is, no wonder someone screwed over my people.” He swallowed, making a face. “This stuff is just one degree toward wrong.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  June 24, 2228, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Police Enforcement Zone 122 Station, Office of Detectives Jia Lin and Erik Blackwell

  Jia strolled through the bullpen, annoyance lingering, tension knotting the muscles throughout her entire body.

  Despite having a new partner, the captain insisted she finish her inspection of the group of traffic files she had been reviewing.

  She had wasted several hours on something she shouldn’t have been doing in the first place. She entered her office, frowning.

  Erik sat at his desk, leaning back, his eyes darting from side to side. He was reading something projected directly onto his smart lenses.

  He stopped and looked her way. “Welcome back. I was about to open a missing person case on you.” His eyes flitted to the door and back to her. “Although given the way things work around here, it probably would have been immediately flagged as a cold case.”

  “Very funny.” Jia walked around and took a seat at her desk. “When the captain gives me orders, I have to follow them. It’s simple as that. You might suggest the occasional bending of regulations, and I might even allow that nonsense to influence me, but I don’t want to engage in blatant insubordination. Part of being a police officer is upholding order,” she eyed him, “not undermining it.”

  Erik didn’t feel like she had much supporting her conviction behind that comment.

  “Not complaining too much.” Erik shrugged. “Halil stopped by this morning to chat with me, and about an hour ago, the captain introduced me to most of the squad. So I had things to keep me busy, but I have a feeling they expect me to sit around and memorize the layout of this building for a few weeks. I asked around about some of the cases, and everyone is either working on something very minor or finding excuses to pass things along.”

  Jia nodded. “That’s fairly standard procedure here, unfortunately. I’m frustrated but not distraught, only because of how safe the metroplex is. It’s not that I don’t understand some of the captain’s concerns, but I do wish we were a little more proactive.”

  “You mean you wish they would actually let you do your job?” Erik raised an eyebrow.

  “That’s one way to look at it,” Jia commented. “What instructions has the captain given you?”

  Erik shrugged. “He told me to familiarize myself with the station and the rest of the squad and await case assignment. Why?”

  “Did he tell you there are any particular cases you shouldn’t work?” Jia inquired.

  “Nope. He said you could show me around and get me up to speed.”

  She eyed him for a moment, then Jia sighed, reaching up with her hands. “I…no, it’s stupid, I can’t do it.” She rubbed her temples. “I’m twisting myself up with stupid ideas.”

  Erik raised an eyebrow. “What are we talking about?”

  “There’s a case the captain didn’t want me to work. A fraud case.” Jia looked at him. “I was about to suggest pursuing it with you as lead, but he’s been rather explicit, and I’m not going to use you as a shield. That’s not fair to you, and it violates the spirit of the captain’s orders.”

  Erik leaned back in his chair. He linked his fingers and rested the back of his head against his hands. “You want to work a case?”

  Jia waved a hand in the air. “I want to do something more useful than double-checking on traffic fines. It doesn’t matter. The case has already been passed along. I thought there might be something, but it’s probably too late.”

  Erik tapped his PNIU and gestured a few times. A form appeared in front of him, and he pointed to it. “Is it this case?”

  Jia frowned, then got up and walked over to his desk. She leaned over to read the form. “No, this is new. It’s fraud, yes, but it’s not the case I was interested in. I don’t recognize the person filing the complaint, this,” she moved to get a closer view, “Todd Smythe.”

  Erik tapped a few text boxes. His PNIU auto-filled the information.

  “Wait.” Jia gestured to the form as she straightened. “You’re taking the case? You can’t do that. It needs to be assigned to you.”

  Erik shook his head. “According to departmental procedures, at least the ones I read on the way here, this isn’t a formal investigation form. This,” he pointed to the air, “is just a complaint form.”

  Jia eyed him. “Yes, but only patrol officers are supposed to follow up on complaints. Detectives aren’t supposed to work them unless explicitly assigned.”

  “The regs don’t say that.” Erik smiled. “They say that standard procedure is for detectives to wait until a complaint is assigned as a formal case to work it, but there’s no regulation forbidding it.”

  “Because you normally wouldn’t… I don’t think…” Jia’s breath caught, and her eyes narrowed in thought. “You’re saying it’s actually not against regulations?”

  Erik nodded. “There are also multiple regs about all police officers, regardless of rank and position, being required to investigate possible crimes to the best of their ability as they become aware of them.” He swiped through the form, and it disappeared. “There’s a saying in the military we were always fond of. ‘It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.’ You might be less frustrated if you started operating that way.”

  “But I don’t want to violate regulations,” Jia pointed out. “I don’t want to become what I’m fighting.”

 
Erik stood and reached for his coat. “And you won’t be violating any regulations.” He settled the coat on his shoulders. “Didn’t I make that clear? Everything we’re doing is well within regs, and unless you’re doing something more productive, we should investigate the case before it gets passed along.”

  Jia stared at the gray-haired man, unsure of what to say. She was half-convinced it was a trick, perhaps some sort of trap set by the captain.

  She had spent a year being mostly deflected from doing her job, and a partner eager to work a case seemed too good to be true.

  “I need to set some ground rules before we go anywhere.” She cleared her throat. “What are the details of the case? I saw that it was fraud and the victim is Todd Smythe, but nothing else.”

  “This Smythe claims one of his accounts was billed fraudulently,” Erik explained as he headed around her toward the door. “Nothing big. They didn’t clean him out or anything.”

  “That’s not the scope of case the 1-2-2 is supposed to handle.” Jia sighed as she turned to follow him. “The captain’s just going to send it along.”

  “We’ve already claimed it, and he hasn’t told us not to investigate, so we’re not going against his orders.” Erik grinned and stopped at the door, facing her. “Are traffic fines what you’re supposed to handle? Class IV fraud is more important than traffic fines.”

  “It’s probably just some kid playing around with his dad’s accounts.” Jia furrowed her brow. “But if we let it slide...” She nodded as much as for herself as Erik. “We should do this.” She shook her finger at him as she headed toward her desk to get her purse. “But no TR-7. Understood?” She grabbed her purse, sticking a protein bar inside.

  You could never be sure a case wouldn’t take too long, and you might go hungry.

  “Sure, as long as it’s not necessary.” Erik opened the door, calling over his shoulder. “But we’re taking my flitter.”

  Jia was dressed in a conservative suit, the opposite of Erik’s carefully put together ensemble of…rugged off-the-rack?

  She stood beside Erik in the living room of the victim, Todd Smythe.

  The cavernous room was filled with holographic facsimiles of statues from all over the world, each scaled to fit in the area, including copies of Christ the Redeemer, David, and the Big Buddha of Taiwan. There was no flicker or ethereal glow around the images. The holographic emitters must have been hideously expensive.

  The one touch lacking in the room was any paintings on the walls.

  Smythe sat on his bright white couch, rubbing his wrist as his gaze cut between the two detectives. “I didn’t expect actual detectives to come for this. I can’t say that I’m displeased, but I am surprised.”

  Jia offered him a soft smile. “I can assure you the NSCPD doesn’t take crime lightly, Mr. Smythe. Your complaint in the system was missing a few details, and we thought a personal visit would be best to ensure that the appropriate information was collected.”

  He nodded quickly with a frown. “The intake system was confusing. It wasn’t clear where I should add more.”

  Erik poked the David statue. His finger disappeared into the holographic statue’s chest, a halo forming around the point of contact. Smythe frowned but didn’t say anything.

  Jia kept her face passive, carefully not rolling her eyes.

  “I’m going to record this for our,” she looked at Erik before turning back to Smythe, “my report later.” Jia tapped her PNIU to initiate recording. “Can you walk us through what happened?”

  Smythe leaned back into his couch, his eyes unfocused. “It might seem petty to be concerned about a few missing credits here and there.” He looked earnestly at them. “But I pride myself on not letting others take what’s mine, and this company has done just that.”

  Jia nodded. “I see, and what has happened exactly?”

  “My personal assistant asked about some shipping fees from earlier this month. He hadn’t authorized them, and he wondered if I had.” Smythe shook his head. “But I hadn’t shipped anything. I was unfamiliar with the company, Windward.”

  Jia’s heart rate kicked up, but she kept her face calm. “Windward?”

  “Yes. I thought perhaps it was a mistake.” Smythe shrugged. “My assistant called them initially, and they denied any knowledge of it, but then I called them, and they read off relevant ID and account numbers I don’t share. I tried to argue it was a mistake, but they said their hands were tied unless I could produce proof of fraud. The representative actually had the gall to accuse me of trying to defraud them. As if.” He scoffed, then shrugged and continued. “They kept giving me the runaround, so I filed my complaint.”

  “Are you sure your assistant didn’t do it?” Jia asked.

  “He didn’t know the relevant account numbers, and I’m dubious he would steal from me and then turn around to inform me.” Smythe paused for a moment. “To be frank, if he wanted to rob me, he has far easier ways to do it than routing minor amounts of money through a shipping company.”

  Jia nodded. “True enough. We just need to consider all possible angles.”

  Erik pointed to the couch. “How much did that cost?”

  “Excuse me?” Smythe blinked.

  “How much did that cost?” Erik repeated, this time slower, as if he were speaking to a child.

  Jia frowned at him.

  Smythe shrugged. “That piece cost me about fifty thousand credits.”

  Erik pursed his lips. “You spent fifty thousand credits on a couch?”

  Smythe rolled his eyes as he ran his hand over the couch back. “It’s not just a couch, detective. It’s a Venusian export. It was handcrafted by artisans from Parvarti.” He gestured at the matching chairs on either side. “Before you ask, those were ten thousand apiece.” He smiled. “They really are quite lovely.”

  “And how much were the shipping fees Windward charged to your account?” Erik asked.

  Smythe looked up for a second. “Well, in total, about one hundred credits.” He lifted his chin. “If you’re about to tell me that I’m wasting your time because it’s a small amount, I’ll have you know it’s the principle of the thing. I can only afford fifty-thousand-credit couches because I don’t let thieves take even a single credit from me.”

  Erik shrugged. “I was just curious. I’m not telling you that you were wrong to file a complaint. Do you have any enemies?”

  “Enemies?” Smythe cocked his head to the side. “Not as such. I don’t know anyone who would want to do me harm, and if they did, they wouldn’t try to do it by charging a small number of credits falsely to my name. I don’t know how Windward got my account information, but perhaps it’s some sort of scam. I’ll leave that,” he waved a finger at Jia and Erik, “to you experts to figure out.”

  Jia nodded. “And we will look into it. We’re going to need you to send us the invoices and any copies of relevant exchanges you’ve had with them.”

  “Ah, I would be happy to.” He lifted a personal tablet. “Let me send a request.” He looked at Jia. “Keep in mind, I don’t even care if I get my money back. As I noted to your partner, it is the principle of the thing.”

  Jia smiled. “Thank you, Mr. Smythe. I assure you we take this matter quite seriously.”

  “Trust me.” Erik smiled. “Just receiving a visit from two detectives will give Windward a hundred credits’ worth of stomachache.”

  Thirty minutes later, Jia and Erik had finished taking Smythe’s statement and received copies of the relevant files. They sat in the MX 60 as they headed back to the station.

  “Why did you ask him about the couch?” Jia asked. “Do you think this is a waste of time?”

  “No.” Erik shook his head. “I know on this glorious paradise, you probably think fraud’s relatively rare, but a lot of deployed soldiers get targeted by account and identity fraud. If you’re forward-deployed to the frontier, you’re not exactly paying a lot of attention to your accounts, and the comm lag leaves a lot of opportunities for
scummy people to take advantage of that, even if you’re not that many light-years out. The first step is always—”

  “An account probe,” Jia offered. She narrowed her eyes. “But you can’t make it too extreme, because the algorithms or the owner will notice.”

  Erik grinned. “Exactly.”

  “This isn’t the first fraud complaint that has been leveled against Windward,” Jia explained, excitement speeding her words up. “The captain passed another case along already, but maybe someone thought they could skim a few credits from a few wealthier people who wouldn’t notice.” Jia snorted. “Greedy.”

  “Greed on paradise Earth?” Erik asked with mock innocence, then changed the vector of their flight to join another stream of traffic. “Shocking!”

  “There’s always a serpent in paradise tempting someone,” Jia countered. “It’s why it’s so important for us to find the serpent before it can spread the corruption.” She shook her head. “It’s unfortunate that a small company is getting greedy, or someone is using them, but I’d like to point out it’s not nearly as bad as insurrectionists or terrorists. We’ll take care of this matter quickly, and that’s why we will continue to have a safe metroplex and an orderly planet.”

  Erik chuckled. “Whatever you say, Jia.”

  Both of their PNIUs chimed with a message at the same time.

  Jia brought it up. It was from Captain Monahan.

  I want both of you in my office the second you get back.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Erik managed not to grin as Captain Monahan glared at him and then Jia in turn.

  “What are you two doing?” the captain barked, aiming a finger at a few holographic files hanging above his desk. “I just checked the case notes. You’re investigating a Class IV fraud?” He turned to Jia. “You would probably do the metroplex more good reviewing traffic fines.” He pointed at Erik. “And you’re not supposed to accept cases. You’re supposed to be assigned cases. I know you’re new here, but that’s no excuse.”