Mercury Going Down

by Brambach, C. S.

  “You are the man Drew.”

  “That I am. As I am, could you get me in touch with your Uncle for a minute?”

  “Sure thing, but before that, I have some more info for you to lock down what Pete was all about.” He tapped the console again. Pointed to the screen again.

  “Here’s a count of the Robots allocated for the city and the mine. Total’s around 50,000, give or take a hundred.” He tapped the console again.

  “Here’s the official redacted amount, and, as you can see, it’s off by about 2,500.”

  “That’s like what, five percent?”

  “Exactly, but that’s five percent that isn’t there. The company is paying for 2,500 Robots that aren’t here.” I whistled softly.

  “That’s got to amount to a pretty good chunk of change.”

  “Yeah, and the money for roughly 2,000 of these non-existent Bots is being paid to a company that is owned outright by none other than our good friend and notorious sleazoid Pete Simms. What was it you said, follow the money, or the credits?” He tapped the console. Again.

  “See, here it is, the funneling action of credits into his accounts.”

  “Cool, wire me the info, to my implant, and I’ll take it to Fonagy when I leave here.”

  “Uh, all of it?”

  “Sure, especially the info on the origin of Fox’s virus, I’ll use the Chief to ferret out the real culprit, why?”

  “Well, about one percent, 500 or so of the Bots are owned and leased out by some one else...” He looked hesitant.

  “Uncle Winn perhaps?”

  “Well...” He shrugged.

  “Well, you can leave those out, I’m just interested in nailing Pete to the wall. Your Uncle has helped me and I don’t bite the hand that helps me.” Some one clapped. I turned to find Winn Lee entering the room.

  “Thank you Drew. Most kind of you.”

  “Don’t mention it Lee.”

  “What brings you to the docks today Drew?”

  “Just wanted to touch bases with Jake, get a little more updated info. I’ll be bringing it to Chief Fonagy and we should have Pete under arrest in the next couple hours.”

  “Excellent.”

  “Yes it is. Say, I was hoping you could help me with another favor, I’d be willing to pay whatever the rate is for it...”

  “No, no, your credits are no good here.”

  “Wait till you hear what it is.”

  I told him what I wanted.

  “It’s a gift for a friend.” I finished. He nodded his head.

  “You shall have it in six weeks.”

  “Small and not too fluffy would be fine.” He smiled.

  “Six weeks.” He said, bowed and exited. I looked at Jake.

  “Shit, how does he do that? Thought I was gonna rupture a heart valve!”

  “Leave it to the old people, they’ve the whole sneaky, skulking thing down.”

  “No shit Sherlock! Did he have Ninja training or somethin’?”

  “Maybe.” He shrugged. He tapped the console. Looked at me.

  “There, uploaded to your implant. Anything else?”

  “No, other than to find out how you are doing.” I looked at him. His color, what little of it there was, seemed to be coming back.

  “Eh, I’m okay. Kinda miss Fox though.” I looked at him, and then looked at Jazz.

  “Hey, if ya want, ya can borrow Jazz for a night. If it’ll help with your recovery that is. Long as you promise to return her undamaged, that is.” I could feel Jazz bristle behind me. But Jake took a pass.

  “No, but thanks man. I’ll be okay.” He had it for Fox, bad. Geez. Bots.

  “All right man. I’m outta here. Later.”

  “Laters.” Once we were out of the port I had to smooth things over with Jazz. She was a bit pissed.

  “Would you have really leant me out to Jake?” A very accusing tone.

  “Don’t sweat it babe, I may be a generous guy, but no way in the world would I have actually parted with you. I have it for you. I’m going to ask for formal ownership of you baby.” Her attitude changed from angry to ebullient.

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really.” I could feel the smile on her face with the back of my neck. Geez, that ‘real woman’ program was a little too good.

  I called Fonagy on the way in and told him to expect a transmit from my implant with the information needed to lock in the case against Pete. He asked if I was on my way and I told him we would be there in ten minutes. Eight minutes later we were in his office and he was unscrewing the cap on his personal stash.

  The whisky soothed my amping nerves. Knowing we were so close to wrapping up the investigation had me wanting to crawl out of my skin. Finally...

  Seated at his desk he was working his console and surveying the data I had sent. As he studied it he gave a low whistle.

  “That’s quite a discrepancy in Robots.” He said.

  “Yeah, but with the lax oversight, who’s gonna notice a difference of four percent?”

  “Obviously no one, till now.”

  “Exactly. There’s big money in Robots. They aren’t cheap. Four percent may not seem like so much, but that has to mean several million credits a year. It’s like Gogol’s ‘Dead Souls’. He, or his hero, goes around buying serf’s that are dead, but they’re still on the official census as being alive. So he gets the dead souls for nothing or next to nothing. Think about it. You lease out something for big bucks that you are paying pennies for, basically the cents it costs to create a paper trail. Not to mention the money for the maintenance contracts.” The Chief whistled again before taking a sip of his whisky.

  “So who is in charge of the contracts?” He tapped his console and his eyes widened.

  “It was Jim Simpson.” The alarm bells started ringing in my head.

  “So now that job falls to Ashley.”

  “Correct.”

  “That would explain why Pete was so freaked out when she said she was going to stay.”

  “With Jim out of the way, that left Ashley in the way to find out his little scam.”

  “And bust him on it.” He shook his head.

  “Yup.”

  “You have Pete under surveillance, and Ashley under guard, right?”

  “Of course.” He tapped his console and one wall was taken up by pictures of Ashley working away at her desk and another wall showed Pete talking animatedly away to someone on line in his cubicle.

  “Who’s he talking to?” He tapped his console and spoke softly into his mic. Listened briefly.

  “He’s talking to a contact on Earth, something to do with having to bring about a thousand Robots on line and quick.” The Chief raised his eyebrows and looked at me.

  “Time to go get the fucker?” I asked, hopefully.

  “Yeah, let’s go pick him up.”

  “Oooh, do we get to go, or are you sending underlings?”

  “No, I want to see the look on his face personally, and since you’ve been such a big help to the investigation, and your life was threatened, you can come along.”

  Done deal. This is one with a straight, well identified trail, right back to the snake, er, the perpetrator. Being the common connector, Pete Simms. We picked up four agents and headed for Supply.

  We arrived at Pete’s cubicle to find Pete nowhere in sight. The Chief called headquarters on his implant and a scared look crossed his face. He pointed at Ashley’s office.

  “He’s in with Ashley.” The agents took up positions around the door with stun guns at the ready. I grabbed the Chiefs arm. I pointed at Jazz.

  “Send her in first to draw his attention, then your guys can zap him.” He though about it for a split second and nodding waved Jazz forward.

  She opened the door and faked a stumbling step through it saying,

  “Excuse me.”, as she went in. Then the four agents went in, followed by the Chief and then me in my chair. What a sight greeted us!

  Ashley had Pete by the neck and by
his right hand, which held a spanner, with a little blood on the end. He had her by the neck with his left hand and was puffing and gasping in a fierce manner as he struggled to bring the spanner down on her head. There was a trace of blood trickling down from her left temple. There was an unconscious security agent, her guard, lying on the floor between the door and her desk. The struggling pair was behind her desk.

  “Hold your fire!” Yelled the Chief

  I looked at the four frozen agents, stun guns poised to shoot. Looked at Fonagy.

  “Well?” He shrugged.

  “Too close, we might do her harm as well.” I looked at Jazz.

  “Well?” I asked her.

  “I can’t do harm to either one.” She said, with a hint of disgust in her voice.

  “Shit.” I said and rising from my chair, pulled my Porters tool and walked over to the desk. Leaning over the desk I popped Pete in the side of the head with the butt of the tool and he dropped like a bag of hammers. Ashley dropped to her knees gasping.

  “Thanks, aaaagh, Drew.” Her face changed from its bright reddish purple to a more normal color in quick time. Fonagy was already on the line to the Med Unit. He clapped me on the shoulder and said,

  “Good job. You’re pretty handy with that thing.” As his men clapped Pete into wrist restraints and attended to Ashley.

  “Thanks, just gifted I guess.” Shortly two ambulance units arrived and Pete was bundled up with the four agents in one and Ashley, the Chief and the unconscious guard were put in the other one. I said that Jazz and I would be along.

  On the way I asked Jazz,

  “Okay, what’s your problem?” I twisted around to look at her as she pushed my chair.

  “Problem? All systems are operating at peak efficiency, I detect no problems.” She looked like she was trying to evade my question though. The truth program. Honesty over all. Sweet. A being that couldn’t lie. Which could be both startling, revealing and annoying, all at the same time.

  “Look, you broke that guy who was just threatening me, yeah, ya broke his finger and you knocked out that guy who was trying to hurt me the other night in the corridor, so what gives?” She looked down at her sneaks before looking up to make sure she was going in the right direction.

  “I am programmed to not harm humans. But I am also programmed to protect my patient from harm. The finger was a mistake, a miscalculation. The man I knocked out was the product of a calculated risk assessment, I did what I did to stop him from harming you, while doing the least harm to him that I could. I really couldn’t help myself.” She almost whimpered at the end there.

  “Wait, are you trying to tell me that...?” I craned my neck to look at her, she looked me in the eyes and blurted it out.

  “Yes. I love you. I know I’m not supposed to feel that deeply for you or for anyone, but I do. Like butterfly’s in my stomach whenever I’m around you, like...”

  “All right, all right, I get it, I get it. Enough. We’ll talk about this more, later. After Pete and that whole issue is dealt with. Okay?” Butterflys?

  She smiled and nodded her approval. Cripes, Robotic puppy love. Jazzes first crush.

  As long as it didn’t crush me I felt I could live with it.

  On arrival at the Med Unit, I had Jazz wheel me to the admittance desk and I asked for Ashley’s location and we were ushered to her room by a Med Bot. Dr. Wali was there just finishing putting in a laser stitch in her scalp. He looked up as we entered.

  “Ah, Mr. Dunn, we need to schedule a follow up exam for you sometime in the next couple of days.” Jazz wheeled me up to the side of Ashley’s bed. I took her hand.

  “Call Jazz to set that up Doc.” I looked at her red rimmed eyes. Living eyes though were better than dead eyes. Any day.

  “You okay sweetheart?” I asked her with real concern. She nodded her head and winced at the pain in her scalp and sniffled. Jazz handed her a tissue. I looked at the Doctor who was handing her a pill and a small cup of water.

  “What are the damages Doc?” He shrugged.

  “Minimal. The spanner just grazed her skull. She needed maybe four stitches which should heal in a week with the ointment I’ll give her. That pill should put a stop to any head ache you might have. I’ll put a script in the system for a couple days of follow up pain killers. You should come in and see me in a week, okay?” She nodded her ascent.

  “Very good, now I’ll go check on Pete. Nasty lump you gave him Drew.” He shook a finger at me.

  “Well, that’s what he gets for trying to hurt my friend.” Ashley smiled at that.

  “We don’t need your help creating business for us here.” He was very disapproving.

  “Don’t let me keep you from your job Doc. I know the Chief wants to talk to Pete in the worst way. Oh, how’s the agent we brought in that was knocked out?”

  “He is conscious and alert, he will be fine.” Grumbling slightly he left. I looked at Ashley.

  “Great bedside manner.” She chuckled at that.

  “It seems the better the Doctor, the worse the manner.” She said.

  “Yeah, he is a pretty damn good Doc.” I looked around. No Med Bots were in evidence.

  “So they gonna keep you overnight for observation?”

  “Yes, they were going to put me in the tank, but the Doctor re-assessed my injury and saw I just needed a few stitches and some salve and that I would be all right in a few days, and I think the tanks are in use, some accident in the mine yesterday, several repair workers were injured when a bore machine they were working on went haywire.” News to me. Which would also explain why there was a shortage of Med Bots.

  “So what was Pete’s deal anyway, what was that all about?” She shrugged and winced.

  “I came into my office and found him at my computer playing with the Robot Request Requisitions and I told him to get out of there. He got up and in passing whipped out a tool and hit my guard, knocking him out, then he took a swing at me, just grazing me and then I got my hands on him and that’s pretty much where you guys came in.” She had a lost puppy dog look in her eyes. One that I had seen before.

  “Just glad we came when we did.”

  “Me too. I owe you. Big time.”

  “All right! Next time we hang out, drinks are on you!” I said, happy. For once.

  “Anything you wish.” She said, eyelids fluttering slightly.

  “Well, I’m gonna go check on the Chief and Pete. I’ll leave Jazz here to keep an eye on you till your own Med Bot shows up, okay?” Jazz handed her another tissue while giving me a thumbs up look.

  “Okay.” Weakly.

  “I’ll check up on you later. Try to get some rest.” I kissed her lightly on the cheek. She was starting to doze practically before I was out of the door. I left the wheelchair behind...

  The Med Bot at the nurses station gave me directions to the detention cell. I made my way there and entered the door to find myself in a small office like area with a door in the side wall next to a one way window with a speaker set up in the wall next to it. There was a pot of coffee in a machine on the desk so I poured a cup. Through the window I could see the Chief interrogating Pete. Pete was strapped down to a cushioned, adjustable bed. Slightly reclined. There were a couple of agents hovering around. I turned up the volume on the speaker and watched the Chief work.

  “Okay, let’s go over it again.”

  “I didn’t kill anybody.” Said Pete.

  “No, you didn’t kill anybody, that we know of. However, you were caught in the act of assault and battery. We have more than enough evidence to convict you on several counts of larceny, money laundering, fraud and grand theft. Not to mention... Hold on.”

  The Chief cocked his head as he listened to his implant. The door opened to my right and Lynette came in. She walked over and wrapped her arms around me.

  “I stopped in and checked on Ashley as soon as I heard what happened.”

  “In your professional view, how is she doing?” She kissed me. Leaned back.r />
  “She will be fine. She is very lucky to have you for a friend.” I shrugged and kissed her back.

  “Luck of the draw. What brings you here?” She tilted her head toward the window.

  “The Chief asked me here to help interrogate Pete. I will, if necessary, induce a hypnotic state in the subject and see if we can pry the truth from him.”

  Inside the Chief said,

  “That was my office, after reviewing the monitor tapes of you at your computer console, we can now definitely point to you as a suspect in the murders of Dave Roose, the Reverend...” He was interrupted by Pete, who was screaming.

  “NOOOOOO!” He started banging his head on the head cushion of the bed.

  “I had better get in there.” Said Lynette, letting me go reluctantly. She answered her implant then.

  “Dr. Barber?” Asked the Chief.

  “I’m right outside Chief.” She answered and pushed through the door to join him.

  Lynette and the Chief conferred briefly, quietly in the corner. Oh, Pete, you are in for a grilling. The Doc was going to infiltrate your mind and pull out the facts. Just the facts man.

  “I’m telling you I didn’t kill anyone! Believe me! Talk to Karen Dunn! I saw her using my computer late a couple different nights! I don’t know why she would want to kill all those people, but you should check her out. She did it! I didn’t kill anyone!”

  The Chief was shaking his head, a look of contempt on his face.

  “Sorry Pete, we’ve connected the dots, we know now that you sent the assailants, both times to stop Drew Dunn from investigating the case, and the last monitor tapes of Jim Simpson alive show him in your company, entering the farm area.” The door to my right opened again and a Med Bot entered carrying a small black plastic box. She entered the cell and placed the box on the small table in front of Lynette and left.

  The Doctor stepped forward and opening the box, produced an injection gun and a vial, and, after checking its contents, loads it with the vial from inside the box. Waves it at Pete.

  His eyes went from bugging out of his head to thin slits.

  “Pete, this is a hypnotic, I am going to induce a hypnotic state and question you as to the veracity of your answers.” She stepped forward and injected him in the arm. She then proceeded to wire his head up with a harness that was plugged into the wall.