Obsidian Detective

by Michael Anderle

  Captain Monahan leaned close to peer at the report. “Wait.” His eyes jerked down, then up again. “You’re right.” He moved his hand, looking at other areas on the paperwork. “This can’t be. You actually did have clearance.”

  “Exactly,” Jia snapped. “It’s not like we could get that ourselves. I…” She stopped and looked at Erik. “We just assumed you were giving us the codes but maybe trying to cover your tracks, but given the way you’re reacting…”

  Erik growled, “We were set up. Someone wanted us to go down there. Naric said it himself. Important people are helping him. Uptowners. They probably told him to take care of us if it didn’t look like we could be bribed.”

  Captain Monahan slumped in his chair, panic on his face “No, no, no. Are you suggesting…what, that he had police help?”

  “I don’t know, Captain.” Erik gestured to the window with the clearance report. “He had help from someone with enough clearance to get us into the Shadow Zone, which means someone with government connections, if not in the government or police. I don’t know what’s going on in the Shadow Zone, but either they’re taking bribes, or someone higher up is pulling their chains to keep them out of certain business.” He narrowed his eyes. “But just to be clear, I want you to look me in the eye and tell me it wasn’t you.”

  Jia shuddered. The way Erik said it, she half-suspected if the captain admitted involvement, Erik might shoot him right there.

  Captain Monahan lifted his head and locked eyes with the detective. “I know you think I’m a coward, but we’ve talked about this. Once someone’s in my enforcement zone, I protect them to the best of my ability. I would never sell out any of my officers.”

  He smashed his fist on his desk with a resounding thud. “I tried to protect you. That’s why I didn’t want you going down there. I was concerned about something exactly like this. The Shadow Zone is what it is. It’s normally out of the 1-2-2’s purview.”

  “But not our jurisdiction,” Erik related. “I paid a lot of attention to that when I was on my way back to Earth. We might not have code clearance normally, but every enforcement zone in the metroplex has jurisdiction anywhere.”

  Jia’s voice was softer but no less resolute for it. “We can’t let this go. They were ready and willing to kill two detectives, and they had enough help to keep the local police from interfering. They’re involved in fraud, hacking, and most likely smuggling.”

  “Yes, so I’ve read. There’s definitely smuggling going on. The locals might have been tardy, but they did finally act.” Captain Monahan looked down for a moment. “The official reports mention some sort of systems interference as an explanation for why they took so long. They’ve got their people down there looking into it, but we don’t have a way of independently verifying it right away. They’ve raided the warehouse. This whole situation is even worse than I thought. Much, much worse.”

  “This isn’t about some corp getting embarrassed.” Erik pursed his lips. “It probably has something to do with that AI we found. She’s way too advanced to be a random toy for gangsters. I’ve never seen technology like that before.”

  “Which is why you should be turning that machine over to evidence,” Captain Monahan insisted. “Instead of letting it sit in your car. I don’t know what you were thinking. That thing is probably some sort of unstable prototype.”

  “She told me she didn’t want to go yet.” Erik shrugged. “And I don’t want to piss off the woman who’s in control of my MX 60 and being stubborn. I might have a nice pension, but that payment still hurts.”

  “Then don’t take your car anywhere until we get this worked out,” Captain Monahan ordered. “I’m still waiting to hear back on a few inquiries. I’ve contacted the Criminal Investigations Directorate. They might have some insight into where that AI came from.”

  “Captain, it’s obvious the Gray Circle is trafficking in pretty high-end technology,” Jia observed. “And I doubt they made it there. They were probably using Windward as a convenient shield.

  “Agreed.”

  All three were quiet for a moment before Jia continued, “The only thing I don’t understand is why they would be so stupid as to draw attention to themselves, given they were already using the company to defraud the city. There’s more we’re missing.”

  Captain Monahan sighed. “Shadow Zone gangsters defrauding the city with a shipping company and smuggling high-end technology? I don’t know if I should congratulate you, Detective Lin, for being right, or curse you for dropping all of this into my lap. This will get worse before it gets better.”

  “This was happening,” Erik noted. “Ignoring it wouldn’t have made it go away. The real question is, what are you going to do now? Are you going to try to run away, punt it off to someone else, or are you going to stand by your detectives?”

  Jia nodded. “I’ve almost been killed twice investigating this. I won’t walk away. You owe this investigation to me, Captain.”

  “We’re not walking away,” Captain Monahan declared, clenching his fist. “I’ve been trying to keep the balance and do the right thing for everyone, but someone else out there is not doing what they were supposed to be doing, and they’ve crossed the line, including setting up my officers.” He looked at both detectives. “We’re following this case to the end. We’ll get Digi-Forensics on this, and for now, we’ll let Naric rot in the cell. He hasn’t even called for a lawyer. He seems pretty confident that someone’s going to get him out of this, and I don’t like the cocky look on his face.”

  Jia couldn’t stop it; a smile grew on her face. “Thank you, sir, for believing in me.”

  He eyed her. “It’s not you I believe in, Detective Lin. It’s all the evidence you crammed down my throat.” Captain Monahan shook his head. “The entire enforcement zone’s at risk now. Someone’s out of control, and we need to find out who before this blows up even worse.”

  Erik nodded. “This isn’t just rattling cages. This is going to cause an earthquake that’ll shake the metroplex.” He eyed Monahan. “You ready for that? There’s no returning to the status quo.”

  The look in the captain’s eyes was pained, but not defeated. “The earthquake’s already begun, Erik. We just need to make sure too many buildings don’t fall down.” Captain Monahan pinched the bridge of his nose. “I want both of you to stay at the station tonight. If this is as bad as I suspect, we can’t risk someone coming after you at home. I’m confident you’ll be safe here.”

  “I’ve slept on a lot worse than cots in my time,” Erik agreed. “Fine by me.”

  “Fine by me, too.” Jia nodded. “The only way to protect Neo SoCal is to flush out all the antisocials in hiding, whether above or below.”

  Captain Monahan stared at her. “You might regret saying that when this is all over.”

  “I’ve had to face a lot lately, but it’s made me a better person.” Jia shook her head. “I won’t regret pursuing justice.”

  * * *

  July 1, 2228, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Police Enforcement Zone 122 Station, Digital Forensics Division, Office of Malcolm Constantine

  “You two doing anything for America Day?” Malcolm asked, not looking away from the displays projected above his desk. “I know it’s kind of old-fashioned to celebrate anymore, but I always loved it as a kid.” He wore a red, white, and blue Hawaiian shirt covered with images of mid-twenty-first century hovertanks.

  Jia had been born in California to Chinese parents originally from the Beijing Metroplex. She’d always been proud of her Chinese heritage, but also eager to contribute to the prosperity of her new home.

  It was ironic that even though the US and China were the cornerstones of the UTC, both countries, along with many others, had downplayed their nationalist holidays and reduced them to mere cultural festivals.

  In an age where the UTC military faced off against insurrectionists, excessive nationalism would raise difficult questions a lot of people didn’t want to answer.

 
“I’ll celebrate any holiday,” Erik offered with a shrug. “Just give me a good drink and something interesting to look at, and I’m fine. There are a lot of interesting holidays and festivals out on the frontier worlds. It’s like the less built up a world is, the more interesting their holidays are as an excuse to drink.”

  “At the rate this case is going, I think we’re going to be too busy to worry about holidays.” Jia covered a yawn behind her hand. “I never knew how hard it was for me to sleep somewhere other than my apartment. What do you have for us, Malcolm?”

  He whistled. “Ok, so this gets complicated, and here’s the first part. You know all those fraudulent charges you found, Detective Lin? I’m talking even before the Smythe stuff.”

  She nodded. “What about them?”

  “I don’t think they had anything to do with what the Gray Circle was doing.” Malcolm gestured at a floating window containing columns of numbers. “I think the local Windward branch was trying to take advantage of the city themselves. I’ve been going through some of the recovered records from the warehouse systems, and from what I can tell, the criminals were hacking into the Windward systems, but that was independent of what was already going on at that branch. I don’t even think the company knew.”

  Jia blinked. “Just how twisted is Neo SoCal that criminals happened to stumble into other criminals while committing completely different crimes?”

  Erik glanced at her. “Expect the worst from people, and you’ll never be surprised. But what about Smythe? It can’t be a coincidence since the recovered record sent us to that warehouse.”

  “No, that record was clearly the criminals altering things,” Malcolm explained. “Uh, the organized criminals, not the company criminals. I guess they were kind of organized too, but you get what I mean.”

  Erik nodded.

  Jia shook her head. “If Windward hadn’t been trying to defraud the city, the captain might not have let us push forward with the case. I don’t know how to feel about that.”

  “Sometimes Lady Luck has a weird way of helping someone,” Erik suggested. “But she also likes to play games. It doesn’t matter now. What about the Shadow Zone clearance? If it didn’t come from the captain, who did it come from?”

  Malcolm sucked air through his teeth. “I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I don’t know. At least, not yet, but I am also not sure if I’ll be able to figure it out. I’ve been trying to trace the clearance since the captain’s really hot and bothered about it, but none of the city records reflect the request anymore.” He looked at Lin. “That shouldn’t be possible. There’s supposed to be a clear link between those kinds of codes and the people giving them out.”

  Erik scratched his cheek. “What’s that mean?”

  “I don’t know if that was a hack.” Malcolm shrugged, discomfort on his face as he eyed Erik. “This is someone with potentially serious high-level systems access. I don’t think that was the Gray Circle. Whoever did this was way more careful than the Circle was.”

  “Naric did say he had friends,” Jia muttered.

  “All the more reason to push forward.” Erik narrowed his eyes. “Whoever did this thinks they’re safe. They think they can sit in their little castle in the sky and do whatever they want like they’re a god. They don’t care who they kill to cover their secrets.”

  Jia stared at him, confused. She’d seen him angry before, but even after getting shot at the last few times, he hadn’t seemed to take those situations as personally as he was now.

  “I’m with you, Detective,” Malcolm offered. “But I don’t know where to go from here. We’ll need a lot more time to go through all those records, even with AI filtering, but the kind of person who can hide their link to the access codes like I see here is probably not the kind of person who left a, ‘Hey, here I am’ note in some mobster’s records. They’re too smart for that.”

  “No, they aren’t.” Erik’s frown disappeared, replaced by an eager grin. “Granted, he isn’t a record, but Naric has some clue about who is calling the shots. He’s just an errand boy in the end, and we have him. We just need to make him crack.”

  “Do you really think he’ll give up his contact?” Jia asked.

  Erik nodded. “If we let him rot for enough time, yeah. Whoever it is, isn’t going to risk themselves by directly ordering him released, and I think he’ll realize that soon enough.”

  Jia frowned. “You think it’s someone who could do that?”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  Both their PNIUs chimed.

  “I need you in Conference Room B right away,” Captain Monahan’s voice ordered. “We’ve got…trouble.”

  “Trouble, sir?” Jia asked.

  “You two have a guest from the UTC Defense Directorate,” he explained. “You’ve found a bigger mess than we ever suspected.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Erik stepped into the conference room, his gaze focusing on a dark-skinned man sitting at the head of the conference table wearing a green and brown UTC Army dress uniform.

  His rank insignia indicated he was a colonel, placing him above Erik’s past rank, but more interesting was his nametag: Adeyemi.

  The fresh transfer to the 108th had talked a little bit about his father during his short time on Mu Arae, but Erik mostly knew of the man through his distinguished service record.

  Erik resisted the urge to snap to attention. He wasn’t in the military anymore. Instead, he took a seat, forcing a mask of disinterest onto his face.

  Captain Monahan nodded at Colonel Adeyemi. “Just let me know if you change your mind.” He turned to Jia. “Detective Lin, I’d like you to come with me for a moment.”

  She frowned. “Why?”

  “I think this will work better, one military man to another,” the captain explained. He looked at the colonel, who nodded.

  Jia offered Erik a questioning look.

  He shrugged. “Your choice.”

  Jia considered for a moment before nodding. “You’ll tell me about anything relevant to the case?”

  “Of course,” Erik replied.

  “Then I’m fine.” Jia headed toward the door and followed Captain Monahan out. She cast a slight frown at Colonel Adeyemi before departing.

  “I never thought I would meet you in this capacity, Major Blackwell,” Colonel Adeyemi explained after the door closed, his voice quiet.

  There was no anger or hatred in the colonel’s eyes. In the end, the officer in command bore the responsibility for the soldiers beneath him.

  Erik wouldn’t have criticized the colonel if he had blamed Erik for the death of his son. A near-total unit wipe with only the commander surviving was easy to misinterpret, and there had been far too many officers throughout history more concerned with their own survival than that of their men.

  “I’m just Detective Blackwell now,” Erik replied. “What’s this about, Colonel?”

  “The Enhanced Memory Mapping Analytics system you recovered from the criminals,” the other man explained. He gestured to his PNIU as if it were remotely equivalent to the snarky AI. “That’s not exactly an everyday find in a criminal investigation.”

  Erik thought for a second. “Emma’s a military AI? That explains a few things, but it opens up a lot of other questions.”

  “That system represents billions in investment and decades of research,” the colonel explained. “In a sense, it’s the single-most advanced AI anywhere in the UTC. It went missing recently, and as you can imagine, the Defense Directorate has been putting a lot of effort into trying to recover it. It remains unclear how it was even lost. I can’t say that anyone expected it to turn up in the Neo SoCal Shadow Zone.”

  He shook his head. “Your captain’s already explained that you have a man in custody who might have been involved in smuggling it. For now, we feel it’s best to let your investigation proceed, but we’ll be making sure our influence is felt. Even if this Tessan thinks he can beat local charges, we’ll be making sure higher-level authorities st
ep in. He will never see the outside of a cell again if we have our way.”

  Erik nodded. “That’s helpful. I can tell him that. It might make him spill who is involved, because now that I know what Emma is, I’m assured there’s no way a punk like him could have gotten his hands on that kind of tech without inside help. I also suspect he’s just a middle-man, maybe a convenient fall guy.”

  The colonel frowned. “Agreed. Internal investigations are still proceeding on our end, but it’s like you said: a number of questions remained unanswered. The value of such a system is obvious. There are far too many people who might want it among the corporations and the insurrectionists.”

  Erik nodded at the door. “I’m sure Captain Monahan would be more than happy to let you know about the progress of our investigation, Colonel, and since you’re not going to sweep in and try to take over the investigation, I’m not going to fight you.”

  “Good, good.” The colonel sighed. “Now, there’s the question of the system. The military isn’t usually comfortable leaving classified hardware sitting around with the local police.”

  Erik chuckled. “I can’t say I wouldn’t find a use or two for an AI like that, but I get that you want your expensive toy back. She’s been useful. I’m not sure if we would have been able to get out of that warehouse unscathed without her help.”

  “We do want the system back,” Colonel Adeyemi replied, irritation flashing in his eyes. “But I don’t think we’re getting it back anytime soon.”

  “What?” Erik tried to hide his confusion, but it came out as a half-frown. “Why’s that?”

  “We approached your captain first, and then we went to your vehicle for retrieval.” Colonel Adeyemi shook his head. “The system threatened self-destruction if we removed it. The system claimed it didn’t want to go with us and threatened to run me down with your flitter.”

  Erik tried not to laugh, but a hint of a smile escaped. “Could she really do that? Sorry, I don’t mean the running you down part, I mean the self-destruction.”