QUANTUM MORTIS: A Man Disrupted

by Steve Rzasa

  “You’re harboring a known criminal, a terrorist, and a murderer!” Kotant shouted at Tower. Heedless of the twin cannons pointing at him, the big man dropped his arms and took a step forward before he realized what he was doing. “No, wait! Mr. Tower, please, if you have to lock me up on illegal weapons charges, I accept that, but you must turn van de Boer over to my men at the Embassy! She is the key to this case!”

  “No, she isn’t,” Tower said. “Now calm down, Prime Captain. I have no intention of arresting you unless you force me to it by doing something stupid, all right? There isn’t one in ten embassies-in-exile on Rhysalan that isn’t in violation of their Sanctuary contract in one way or another. The whole reason the Duke’s lawyers put those stupid clauses in there in the first place is to give us the ability to crack down on you bastards any time we want. So, I’m not here to arrest you, I’m just here to keep you from making a stupid mistake and killing Miss van de Boer.”

  “Are you saying she’s not a traitor?”

  “No, she’s a Morcharder, all right. But she had nothing to do with Prince Arpad’s death.”

  “How can you be sure of that?”

  “That’s not your concern right now. Your only concern right now is answering my questions. Now, if you’ll just shut up and agree to follow me down to TPPD, I’ll forget about your unlicensed vehicular mods. I’m not the only one with a few questions for you. And if you cooperate fully and tell us everything we want to know, I’ll even sweeten the deal for you.”

  The big man’s lens-darkened eyes narrowed. “How so?”

  “I’ll give you the identities of the other two Morcharders who infiltrated your staff—”

  “What!” Kotant exploded. “There are two more?”

  “—as long as you personally guarantee, on your honor, that they will be sent back to Morchard unharmed,” Tower continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “MCID has no interest in your intraplanetary intrigues, Prime Captain. We have a murder to solve and we have no intention of letting you add to our case load.”

  The Morchardese officer took a deep breath and shook his head. “Two more. You’re certain of that?”

  “Primary source. As certain as we are of van de Boer.”

  “And they weren’t involved in either of the attacks on the princes?”

  “No, not in any capacity. In fact, I believe they were considerably more surprised than you were.”

  Kotant sighed. “Very well. You have my word. I will cooperate and answer your questions, and after you give me the names, the two traitors will be expelled from the Realm and returned to their masters unharmed.”

  Tower leaned down and scooped up the belt and the GHK. But before he could toss it to the Morchardese man, Kotant raised a finger and shook his head in a rueful manner. “I’m sorry, Mr. Tower, but I must insist that you arrest me.”

  “Why?”

  “It is a matter of honor. I cannot voluntarily accompany you and offer information to those who, strictly speaking, must be considered allies of our enemies. Your government recognizes the new regime as the lawful planetary government, after all. But if I am placed under arrest by a legitimate authority, honor permits me to involuntarily comply with my captor’s demands if I deem such cooperation to be in the crown’s interest.”

  Tower pursed his lips. Voluntary involuntary cooperation? This was exactly the reason he hated xenos so much. Well, one of the reasons, anyhow. None of them could ever just do the common sensible thing.

  “All right,” he said. He removed the 707 from its holster. He spun the dial up to 85 percent with his thumb, then aimed it and fired a single ruby-red bolt.

  Kotant grimaced as the left rear light on the luxurious Fraisier popped and blew outward, leaving behind a gaping hole of molten plastic and twisted metal. Tower slid the GHK back in the holster, tossed the belt over his left shoulder, and withdrew the autobinder from his tac-jacket. Then he made a twirling motion with his finger and approached Kotant after the man complied and put his hands behind his back.

  “Prime Captain Bram Kotant, you are under arrest for Transport Code violation…ah, Baby?”

  “Title 7A, Section 547.302.”

  “Yeah, that. As that puts you in violation of Sanctuary, you currently have no rights at all.”

  Tower applied the binder and watched it spin its web around Kotant’s wrists. He gripped Kotant’s upper arm to turn him around and found his hand could barely close over the man’s huge biceps. Good lord! The guy’s muscles were hard like titanwire. As he guided the big man into the back seat of the var, he felt distinctly relieved that this arrest had been so much less exciting than the previous one. And this time he wouldn’t have to take the var to the industrial cleaners.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “When discords and quarrels and factions are carried openly and audaciously, it is a sign the reverence of government is lost.”

  —from “The Augury of Illam Terra”

  In the company of the irritatingly handsome Detector Vendersen, Tower escorted Prime Captain Kotant to an interrogation room. This time he was permitted to enter it, since Hildy was occupied with questioning Annalise van der Boer somewhere else in the giant complex.

  “Will this do for you, Tower?” Vendersen wasn’t exactly unfriendly, but he seemed to be trying to prove that he wasn’t afraid of either of the two bigger, more experienced men.

  Tower decided to throw the young officer a bone. “Sure, if you don’t have anything with a rack or an open fire handy. Do you want to sit in?”

  That threw him, Tower saw, as a momentary expression of surprise flashed across Vendersen’s face. “Hey, thanks, Tower, I’d really like to, but I’ve got to run down a suspect in another case this morning.”

  “No problem.” It couldn’t hurt to stay on the kid’s good side, and it was a lot easier to bear his pretty face now that Tower knew he didn’t have a shot with Hildy. “Take it easy, Vendersen.”

  The door closed automatically behind the young detector. Kotant snorted.

  “Kids these days. When did all the police turn into children?”

  “My augment tells me you are a man of blood,” Tower said, rolling his eyes at Baby’s theatrical turn of phrase. “Think you can manage to avoid trying to kill me if I take those binders off you?”

  Kotant turned around and held up his arms. Tower pressed his left little finger against the connector and it opened and fell into his palm. He tucked it back into his tac-jacket, then indicated the chair on the other side of the table before slipping off his jacket and sitting down himself.

  “Have a seat. And tell me, what were your plans for Miss van de Boer? Were you really just going to kill her outright?”

  “She is a spy for the rebel regime.” Kotant folded his massive arms. “She was a traitor to the crown. Her death is merited.”

  “You’re not on Morchard anymore, Prime Captain. The Duke makes the rules here, not your king. But you’re right, she was a spy and a traitor. I’m curious to hear how you discovered that.”

  “After the second attempt, the unsuccessful one on Prince Janos, I spent the evening going over every outgoing encrypted message. I wasn’t able to break the encryption yet, but I learned that someone had been sending regular messages to a female resident of Trans Paradis.”

  “Name of Tanabera?”

  “Yes.”

  “Of course. And what did you do with that information. Did you kill the girl?”

  “No,” Kotant said. His eyes, orange again now that they were out of the sun, met Tower’s without showing either guile or guilt. “I did not know Miss Tanabera was dead until now. I swear it, by your Christ.”

  “By my what?”

  Kotant indicated the small cross that was exposed by Tower’s open shirt. “Are you not a Christer?”

  “Oh, this? No.” Tower fingered the jewelry and shook his head. “Just a…just a gift. You truly didn’t know she was dead?”

  “No, was she an agent too?”

  T
ower ignored the question. “Who else did you tell about this breach of security?”

  “The crown prince, of course. I believe the queen was present. And I briefed my two senior lieutenants last night as well.”

  “Last night. But you didn’t figure out who was sending the messages until this morning?”

  The big man shook his head. “I worked out that it was van de Boer last night; the duty rosters matched up with the timestamp on the messages. I thought I would wait and arrest her in the morning when she came in for work. But when she did not come in, I became concerned that she’d put a flag on her messages and went looking for her.”

  “Arrest?” Tower raised a skeptical eyebrow.

  “We have that right inside the Realm as per the Sanctuary contract. I wasn’t going to kill her out of hand. She must have valuable information we would find useful. Some accommodation might have been reached. But you have to understand, Mr. Tower, she betrayed the crown and her life was without question forfeit!”

  Tower yawned. “Prime Captain, do you have any idea how many petty planetary disputes we find ourselves policing here? This is nothing new. We see this sort of thing all the time! Don’t get me wrong, we’re proud of the tradition of Sanctuary and—”

  “And Rhysalan does quite well by it.”

  “It may not come cheap, but you know better than anyone that Sanctuary is cheap at the cost. And we don’t care if you want to dream your dreams of a triumphant return and plot your plots about reclaiming your planets, but the one rule is that while you’re here, while you’re claiming Sanctuary, you will keep your bloody nose clean. I know this whole exile thing is new to you, and I’m sure it’s very difficult and all, but you Morchardese really don’t seem to get it! You want to kill someone, fine! You want to kill all the corporatists, you have my blessing. But you don’t do it here!”

  The two men stared at each other, taking each other’s measure. Even if Kotant wasn’t bio-enhanced, Tower was pretty sure the bigger man could take him in less than two decaseconds. But he wasn’t the first to blink. Finally, Kotant looked away. Satisfied with that small victory, Tower broke the silence.

  “How about cloaking devices. Do you have any in the embassy?”

  “None, at least, not to my knowledge. And I approve all weapons and weapons-related purchases. We have no need for anything like that; we don’t even have a dark ops team set up.” The big man grinned. “Not that I wouldn’t like one, but we wouldn’t have much use for one here on Rhysalan. On Morchard, yeah, sure. But other than a few spies and our network of loyalists, we don’t have much going there.”

  “It doesn’t sound as if there are any plans in place to invade Morchard.”

  Kotant laughed bitterly. “There are always plans, Mr. Tower. But, as you said, they are more aptly described as dreams. We don’t have the men, the ships, or the weapons.”

  “I hear you have the money. That’s a sore spot with the corporatists.”

  “It would be enough if we were only dealing with the rebels. But given the likelihood of naval support from the Unity, the crown doesn’t have nearly enough resources to hand. And we have little of interest to offer any potential allies.”

  “What is the Unity interest in Morchard? Why did they back the rebels?”

  “No one knows. They haven’t settled any colonies there or made any substantial claims beyond the shares in government they were granted by the rebels. But if I had to guess, it was to detach another planet from the Interstellar League. It cost them nothing more than a short-term fleet deployment and it weakened the League.”

  Tower nodded. In the nine years that had passed since he was evacuated from Basattria, the Unity had ignored the planet. All that violence, all that bloodshed, all that lingering pain, and it was nothing more than a petty political move on the part of the Unity lords. He still didn’t understand what they were about, in fact, he doubted the Duke himself did, but it was clear that whatever game the Unity was playing, it was a long and ruthless one.

  “Could they be behind the assassinations? Or rather, do you think it likely?”

  Kotant shrugged. “They could be, but I don’t see why. You’d know better than I would if they’re active here. There was no history of enmity between them and the royal house, which was why the appearance of their fleet took us completely by surprise.”

  That was the problem. As far as Tower had seen, the Unity wasn’t active on Rhysalan, at least not in the sense that Kotant meant. God knew he’d love to have an excuse, any excuse, to zero zero tango as many of the hiveminders Major Zeuthen would sign off on, but they’d never given him one.

  “I don’t expect you to tell me who the others were yet, but I’d like to know what those messages were, the messages she was sending to the dead woman you mentioned.”

  “I got news for you, Kotant: It wasn’t scintillating. Baby, can you give us a sample of some of the visuals and stills from the Emerald Enclave?”

  “Affirmative, Tower.”

  An image of Prince Arpad flirting with Mara Tanabera appeared. Multiple still images cascaded in the blue glow of the hologram emitter. “That’s what was happening. Miss van de Boer was setting up clandestine communication for the crown prince and his girl, Kotant. You got the right woman, but for the wrong reason. It was just an affair.”

  Kotant stared at the holographic images. All the color drained from his face. He shook his head.

  “You didn’t know about this, did you?”

  Kotant shook his head again. Poor guy had nothing to say. Tower almost felt sorry for him. “You think you know a guy, right?”

  “A commoner,” Kotant exhaled. His face was still pale, but his orange eyes betrayed his anger. “A filthy commoner and not even a proper Morchardese woman. No wonder he concealed it from us.”

  “So it would be frowned on, the prince involving himself with this woman?”

  “Without question.” Kotant slouched in the chair. “All these years—did you know I saved his life twice? I would have saved him from this ignominy too, had I known. He was young and he loved women. That is to be expected. But this?”

  The big man waved a hand in disgust and looked away from the holoscreen.

  Tower glanced at the holo. Mara was laughing at something and brushing a hand along his cheek. “I imagine he was probably afraid you’d forbid him to see her. Or arranged to render her inaccessible in one way or another. Am I right?”

  Kotant nodded. “Certainly. But we would not have harmed her. This is not the first time a prince has fallen. Such women are easily bought off. Given her occupation, we probably would have arranged to see her offered employment as an interstellar cruise hostess. Out of sight long enough, out of mind.”

  As much as Tower hated to admit it, he believed the guy. Or was starting to believe him, anyway. “Who did you think Miss van de Boer was passing information to?”

  Kotant snorted. “The Valatestans. They have the wealth to potentially turn any of our people against us, hence my need for extreme vigilance. But if she was with the new regime, it is obvious that I was wrong.”

  “Tower, be advised that there are six individuals now approaching the interrogation room. I believe that this interrogation is about to be indefinitely interrupted, as one of them is the Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters and another is a man named Gerd de Fosters—”

  “Lead attorney for the royal house.” A white light blinked on Kotant’s belt. “I mean no disrespect, Mr. Tower, because I am entirely willing to keep our arrangement. But, for now, you are finished with me.”

  The door slid open. Hildy walked in first, looking angry. Her face was flushed, as if she’d been recently chastised. She was followed by a big overweight man with a dyspeptic expression who Tower guessed was the legal officer. But he was taken aback when Queen Beatrice swept into the room next, followed by two bodyguards in full armor and a tall, thin man in an impeccable suit.

  Great. Just great. Tower decided offense was the best defense and r
ose to his feet. “What’s going on here? I’ve got an interview concerning an active murder investigation with a possible suspect in progress!”

  “No, Mr. Tower, you most certainly do not.” The Assistant Deputy Commissioner, whose name, Baby silently informed him, was Harold Swirsky, a long-time associate of Police Commissioner Terry Coleman, wagged a sausage-like finger at him. “You soldier-cops can play trigger-happy on the streets, but this isn’t your case and MCID has no authority in this building. This interview is over!”

  “Trigger-happy?” Tower feigned bewilderment. “Just providing all due assistance to TPPD, as directed per, ah, Part Four, Chapter 10, Section 10-4 of FM 3-19.42.”

  “Illegal assistance!” The Morchardese lawyer interjected. He had a pair of implanted interfaces attached to his shoulders, little arc-antennae that protruded through a suit tailored to accommodate them. “Her Majesty the Queen has informed me she did not give consent for this interview, as is required for Royal Chief of Security as per the Sanctuary Contract. The contract requires notification of the Crown of Morchard any time persons specified on the list provided in Appendix H are arrested, and furthermore, requires royal permission for the interrogation of all persons specified on the list provided in Appendix G. As the Prime Captain is specified by name on both appendices, this questioning is a violation of Sanctuary and must be terminated immediately!”

  “It appears the arresting officer failed to notify the Morchardese Embassy of Mr. Kotant’s arrest.”

  Well, sure because I knew you’d let him go as soon as you found out. Tower put on his best innocent expression, confident that Baby would have already retrofitted the digital record. “I’m sure it was just a glitch in the comms. If you examine my outgoing messages, I’m certain you’ll find both the arrest notice and the interview request. Since I didn’t hear back, I assumed permission was granted.”

  “Do you seriously expect anyone to buy that?” the deputy commissioner said, incredulous.