by S. H. Jucha
“I can’t confirm that,” Liam replied quietly.
Devon grunted in reply. He appreciated the sentiment. Liam was protecting him from his covert observation of the commandant. There was no doubt in Devon’s mind why Liam was doing it. Ever since the discovery of the illegal liaison between Lise Panoy, the downside governor, and Emerson, the pair of men were attempting to figure how they could introduce their improperly obtained evidence to expose the commandant.
“Here’s what I can’t figure, Liam. I looked up Lily’s online ads. She was an incredibly striking woman. How could the commandant afford sessions with her on a regular basis?”
“Who said he paid full price?” Liam asked.
“Her streak?” Devon guessed, and Liam nodded his head. “You think Emerson was facilitating Lily’s delivery?”
“We know how tough it is for a streak user to get a regular supply. Distributors keep popping up, and we keep shutting them down. Lily would have been mighty appreciative of Emerson if he could safely deliver her supply,” Liam proposed.
“We’re sure there are no manufacturing sources for streak on board?” Devon asked.
“There’s no evidence of that on either station, and I don’t see Harbour, as captain of the Belle, allowing it to be produced in the colony ship’s hydroponic gardens,” Liam replied. “As far as I know, the only source is still the nut of the plumerase tree.”
“Have to give it to Earth’s bioengineering efforts,” Devon said in disgust. “They take a simple fruit, the plum, and figure they can make it better by creating a version with more sugar. They’re successful in that, but it turns out the nut can be processed to produce a dangerous narcotic.”
Liam nodded in agreement and added, “What I can’t understand is why Earth chose to add the seeds to the Honora Belle’s inventory, and why the first dome settlers chose to plant the seeds.”
“I had a thought,” Devon suddenly said. “What if the target of the patches wasn’t Lily Tormelli but Emerson?”
“Only thing the DAD found on Lily and her comm unit was her DNA, and that includes the patches,” Liam said, sorting through the forensics report to make sure he was correct.
The two men eyed each other, their minds whirling to connect the disparate pieces of the investigation.
“Where do we go from here, Liam?” Devon asked.
“I find it too great a coincidence that Major Dorsey was investigating El cargo shipping at the time of the patch deaths,” Liam replied.
“Do tell?” Devon replied, sitting up in his chair, his interest piqued.
“Yes, and that makes me want to investigate the people who’ve gotten the vacated positions in El custom inspections since the deaths of the individuals.”
“But you don’t want to look at the other deaths?” Devon asked.
“They might have been obstacles to the distributors’ illegal shipping or they might have been innocent bystanders,” Liam replied.
“That latter option is cold, Liam. You think someone stole ten patches and used them to eliminate two cargo personnel. Then they killed six others to hide those deaths?”
“The two cargo personnel were numbers four and seven,” Liam replied. “They were nicely hidden among the group, don’t you think?”
“I’d love to ask Markos Andropov and Giorgio Sestos about this,” Devon remarked, with a nasty grin, referring to the former governor of Pyre and his head of security. “Unfortunately, I don’t see the pair wanting to extend their seventeen-year incarceration sentences just to please us by answering questions about their involvement in illegal narcotics trade.”
Liam matched Devon’s grin, as he added. “I’d love to make it life sentences for both of them.”
“We do have an alternative suspect,” Devon suggested. “The streak shipments are probably small, weekly or biweekly. The ex-governor and his security stooge have been locked up for a much longer time.”
“You’re insinuating the new governor, Lise Panoy, might have something to do with the streak shipments,” Liam replied. “I don’t see that. She wouldn’t risk her position. Although, she might be willing to cut off the shipments if she found out about them.”
“So where does this leave us?” Devon asked.
Liam carefully considered his options and then said, “First and foremost, we’ve a legitimate reason to investigate the source of Lily’s streak. Perhaps, by following this legal line of inquiry, we might find a way to put the commandant in jeopardy, if he was facilitating her shipments.”
“Oh, I like the way you think,” Devon replied, his grin splitting his face wide.
-2-
Accusations
Lise Panoy, the domes’ governor, and the construction supervisor of the impending fifth agri-dome stepped out of their e-trans.
The interconnecting tunnel to the new agri-dome was recently completed and the pair stood at the far gates, examining the work beyond. Encased in vac suits against Pyre’s harsh air, caused by repeated volcanic-like surface activity, the workers controlled small, automated digging vehicles to carve out the dome’s outer ring.
Unlike the residential domes, the agri-domes were constructed by sinking the support girders and interlinking panels deep into the surface to prevent unwanted gases from seeping into the airspace occupied by the dome. The construction would allow a small amount of porosity, but that was necessary to facilitate water drainage and ground oxygenation for roots.
“The well strikes have been successful?” Lise asked.
“Yes, Governor. We hit a lake bed, deep underground. The pumps will produce enough water to take care of this agri-dome and another, if we wish,” the supervisor replied.
“Excellent, and the anticipated completion time for the dome girders and panels?” Lise asked.
“We estimate about seven and a half months, Governor. The YIPS expects to deliver the first set of girders to the JOS within weeks. We’ll be ready for them.”
“Has the YIPS obtained priority for the shipments downside?” Lise asked.
The Yellen-Inglehart Processing Station would ship its products to the JOS terminal arms. To reach the domes, the material was transferred through the arms to the lower levels of the El car, the freight level. Girders were constructed to precise specifications that allowed them to neatly fit within the El’s cargo space.
However, the size of the girder and panel shipments required that no other freight be transferred at the same time. Traditionally, the freighting was done during the hours of midnight to four in the morning, and exclusive access to the El’s cargo space required the commandant’s prior approval.
The supervisor cleared his throat and ducked his head. “I’ve sent requests, Governor.”
“And?” Lise pressed.
“No response from the commandant’s office,” the supervisor replied. He watched the storm gather in the governor’s eyes, and he wished to be anywhere else but standing in front of her. When her comm unit chimed, he could have kissed the caller.
Lise glanced at the caller’s ID and signaled the supervisor away with an imperial wave of her fingers. He happily made himself scarce.
“Commandant Strattleford,” Lise replied evenly, “I was just speaking about you. My agri-dome supervisor informs me that the YIPS hasn’t received your approval for priority freight access to the El for our newest dome’s girders and panels.”
“Your agri-dome shipments might have to wait, Governor,” Emerson replied.
“I presume my recent transfer was to your liking, Emerson,” Lise replied, keeping a rein on her temper.
Emerson had demanded an increase in the payments to him after the debacle created by the previous domes’ governor, Markos Andropov. The governor’s ugly secret of imprisoning a family of empaths was exposed when the eldest daughter, Aurelia Garmenti, escaped the domes, made her way to the JOS, and boarded a mining ship. As events unfolded, Lise failed to keep Emerson apprised of the fine details, which put him in a precarious position with his security
staff and many others.
“It’s adequate … for now,” Emerson replied tartly. “But you and I have another matter to discuss. A friend of mine committed suicide with two patches.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Commandant, but I don’t see how that pertains to our business,” Lise replied, confused by the subject change.
“She left a message for me, which indicated the patches were meant for me but she couldn’t do it,” Emerson replied. His voice threatened to rise to a screech, as it was wont to do, and he worked to prevent that from happening. He was angry, but his overriding emotion was fear, driven by the thought that he’d escaped a near brush with death.
“Commandant, we don’t have the capability to manufacture patches. They couldn’t have come from downside,” Lise argued. Her mind was working overtime, attempting to figure who might have been trying to take out the commandant. Although she hated the little man, she needed him.
“The woman was hooked on streak, Governor. You do make that, don’t you?” Emerson replied with heat.
“There are elements downside who profit from that. You know that, as well as I do, Commandant. Who was this woman?”
“Her name was Lily Tormelli, Governor. In her message to me, she said she couldn’t live without her streak.”
“Obviously, someone threatened to cut off her supply of the narcotic, Commandant. I’ll investigate this immediately from this side. This type of stupidity is bad for business.”
“You do that, Governor. When you have something useful to tell me, I’ll take the time to review the YIPS and your supervisor’s shipping requests.” Emerson cut the comm, tapped off the monitor’s display of Lily’s death report, and leaned back in his chair. He didn’t know the name of the downsider, who was shipping Lily’s streak to the JOS, which meant he had no idea if that individual was the one who had targeted him. Furthermore, he couldn’t be certain that Lise Panoy wasn’t behind the attempt on his life.
The agri-dome construction supervisor turned from regarding the ongoing work to see if the governor had finished her call. He caught sight of her climbing into what had been their shared e-trans on the far side of the interlock. He let out a deep, long sigh of relief and called for a new vehicle.
Lise arrived at her home and hurried upstairs to her office. Idrian Tuttle and Rufus Stewart were waiting for her, as she requested. Lise stalked across the room to stand in front of them, where she could observe their reactions.
“Which one of you two idiots, or was it both of you, tried to kill the commandant?” she demanded hotly. The reactions she got told her that they weren’t complicit. She held up her hands to cut off their protestations. “Enough,” she declared. “Sit down.”
“What happened, Lise?” Idrian asked.
“Who’s a stationer by the name of Lily Tormelli?” Lise asked instead.
“Uh-oh,” Rufus said softly. “Lily Tormelli has been the commandant’s exclusive coin-kitty for nearly a year.”
“She was his coin-kitty,” Lise replied, pacing around the room. “A got a call from the little man himself. He’s holding up our priority El shipments until we find out who got her killed.”
“Lise, you have to back up. What happened?” Idrian pleaded.
Lise sat behind her desk and faced the men on the other side. “According to the commandant, his coin-kitty was addicted to streak. He also said she left him a message that implied someone threatened to cut off her supply unless she patched the commandant. Apparently, the woman liked the little man too much. She patched herself instead, and the commandant is angrier than I’ve ever heard him.”
“Over a coin-kitty?” Rufus asked.
“It is what it is,” Lise said. She drummed her well-manicured fingernails on her desktop, while she thought. “The commandant isn’t going to help us with our dome shipments until we provide him a guilty party.”
“Lise, the individual who engineered this doesn’t have to be a supplier,” Rufus argued. “It could have been the distributor on station. And let’s not begin to count the number of people who the commandant has angered.”
“That might be true, but we’ve got to offer the commandant someone,” Lise replied.
“Could it be anyone?” Idrian suggested.
“That occurred to me too, Idrian,” Lise replied. “But Emerson has some smart people working for him, Major Finian, for one. If we give him an innocent, he’ll see through it. No, it’s time to uncover some of the streak suppliers, who are operating downside.”
“You’re probably aware, Lise, that we have a good number of streak manufacturers,” Rufus said. “It’s a simple process to extract the drug, and a lot of people have access to the nuts. The plumerase fruit is enormously popular downside and topside. We grow the trees in a section of every agri-dome.”
“Not to mention, nearly every significant family, who has a garden, has planted one or more plumerase trees,” Idrian added. “They can enjoy the fruit and make some coin by selling the nuts on the side.”
“I don’t expect to disrupt our economic base nor our families, Sirs,” Lise replied, her eyes narrowing, as her thoughts evolved. “Our suppliers will have to give up many of their distributors on station, and we can offer that bunch to the commandant. He can sort it out up there. In the meantime, we’ll have a handle on who is producing the drug and making coin, without sharing.”
Idrian shared an avaricious grin with Lise. It was the kind of plan he enjoyed. Solve a problem for the topsiders and make some coin at the same time.
* * * *
“You’re in danger of a trip outside the domes without a vac suit,” Idrian said, as the two men rode an e-trans away from Lise’s house.
Idrian sat behind the console. He’d entered an override code so that the little electric vehicle wouldn’t stop for other passengers, as it was programmed to do.
“Tell me about it,” Rufus replied, with a snarl. “And I don’t want to hear that you warned me.”
“Do you still have just the one supplier?” Idrian asked.
“No, I have three now. Demand kept increasing, and the stuff is so profitable,” Rufus replied. He rubbed his hands over his face.
“You could suggest to Lise that you run the investigation,” Idrian offered.
“Not a chance,” Rufus replied. “As far as I know, Lise is already aware that I’m facilitating some suppliers. It’s one thing to make a little coin on the side with an illegal process. She doesn’t mind that sort of the thing, as long as it doesn’t disrupt the broader scheme of things. But, if I offer to manage the investigation, she’ll see that as overreaching. I don’t want to end up like Markos or worse.”
After the men left Lise’s office, she called her security head, Jordie MacKiernan, to attend her.
“Jordie, what do we know about streak operations by Idrian and Rufus?” Lise asked when the security chief made himself comfortable on a couch next to Lise’s armchair.
“I’ve nothing on Idrian, and that’s not for a lack of trying. Word is that he likes to keep his business dealings legal. The man appears averse to placing himself, his family, or businesses in jeopardy.”
“Sounds like Idrian,” Lise commented. “He’s the dependable sort until he’s sure the advantages are wholly in his favor.”
“The information on Rufus is mixed,” Jordie continued. “He got into the trade about three years ago with a small plumerase harvester. Since then, he’s acquired another source and started a small manufacturing lab. My sources say that the lab is producing more streak than the two sources can provide in nuts.”
“So, he has more sources than you can identify?” Lise asked, her eyes piercing Jordie’s.
“That’s the status, at this time,” Jordie replied. His tone wasn’t apologetic. Lise didn’t appreciate weakness, and he wasn’t the type of man to exhibit any.
“We have a problem, Jordie,” Lise said. She laid out the recent topside events to him, leaving little out. When she finished, she said, “I intend to giv
e the commandant a list of station distributors to mollify him.”
“All of them?” Jordie asked.
“Probably not,” Lise replied. “I’ll need to know who supports them. That will help me decide. Certainly, we want to turn over Rufus’ distributors. He’ll get the message from that without me having to confront him.”
“Do we make an example of anyone?” Jordie asked.
“Yes, I’m afraid so, Jordie. Streak is bad for dome business. A little drug distribution on station can create leverage opportunities, but too much means security will be descending on us. They’ve had a taste of what they can achieve when they came here, arrested Markos and Giorgio, and obtained convictions. Topsider moods are running against dome independence, and that has to be cooled.”
“How will you choose, Lise, and how many?”
“That depends on the details of the suppliers, lab owners, and distributors that you bring me. We’re going to trim shipments by about two-thirds, eliminating as few people as possible.”
“Disappearances or accidents?” Jordie asked.
“Probably a combination, Jordie. Most important, this is your priority, and you’re authorized to spend whatever coin you need. Emerson is sitting on our agri-dome priority shipment approval until he has the information on station streak distributors from us.”
“Understood, Lise,” Jordie said, and swiftly exited the office.
Two years ago, Jordie believed he was missing out on an opportunity to earn some extra coin. His sources told him of the increased traffic in streak. The problem was that he had no legitimate access to the easy sources, namely the agri-domes. However, Jordie was, if nothing else, a resourceful man. He did have hundreds of informants in the homes of important families and businesspeople. And, each of these families had one or two of the popular plumerase trees in their gardens. It was easy enough to disseminate the word through an intermediary that the kitchen help could make some extra coin by collecting the nuts of the fruit.
The question Jordie was now asking himself was whether Lise knew of his profitable little side operation. Being a man who erred on the side of caution, he chose to believe that she did know. Whether Lise did or didn’t know really didn’t matter. She’d laid out her position on the matter. The streak trade was bad for dome business, and anything that was bad for dome business was subject to punishment.