Empaths (Pyreans Book 1)

by S. H. Jucha

  “Nunez, we’re leaving,” Harbour said earnestly, and indicated Sasha with a tip of her head.

  Nunez swept Sasha into his arms, and she clung to him, her arms around his neck and her face buried against his throat. Harbour hurried right behind them. Their leaving caused a moment’s stir in the room, but Stamerson quickly returned to the questioning.

  But the audiences didn’t miss the threesome’s exit, and conjectures bloomed like new algae in an environment tank. A young, but strong, sensitive had to be removed from the room. Everyone assumed that she was disgusted by Giorgio’s lies and couldn’t control her emotions. It did much to convince the audience of Giorgio’s guilt, despite the lack of evidence.

  Finian leaned over to Sergeant Lindstrom and whispered, “Giorgio’s going to get off, if we don’t do something quick.”

  Cecilia racked her brain, reviewing the day they released the women from the governor’s house. As the Review Board’s questions continued, she walked through each step she had taken. Suddenly, she grabbed Finian’s arm and hissed, “We need a continuation, Major … a few hours at most.”

  “You sure you have something?” Finian asked.

  “I don’t have anything, sir, but I believe I know where we might find something,” Cecilia said. Her eyes implored Liam to trust her.

  “You have additional evidence to present, Major Finian?” asked Stamerson, having spotted Liam’s signal of a partially raised hand.

  “If it pleases the Review Board, Mr. Chairman, it’s come to my attention that we might have evidence that contradicts the testimony of Mr. Sestos. We’ll need a few hours to review our records.”

  “Might have evidence, Captain? That’s mighty thin. We’re in the middle of the trial.” Stamerson glanced left and right to the other four board members. Their expressions urged him to allow the interruption. None of them were convinced of Giorgio’s innocence, but, short of any proof, he was going to walk free and return downside.

  Stamerson tapped his meteorite gavel and announced an adjournment for three hours.

  Giorgio’s counsel looked concerned, but Giorgio wore a smug expression. He’d spent the days reviewing every aspect of his actions, during the kidnapping and at the house. He’d paid to have the crate that housed Helena delivered to the El car. In addition, there were no vid cameras on the third floor or the back stairs, nothing to prove he’d visited the women’s rooms. No matter how he viewed it, he couldn’t find a hole in his plan to simply deny any knowledge of the women’s predicament.

  Cecilia exited the room, as speedily, but as decorously, as was respectful, and Liam followed behind her.

  Emerson sought to catch his subordinates’ attentions, but they were moving too quickly to notice his hand signal. He wasn’t sure what he felt about the possible outcome of Giorgio’s trial. In a moment of honesty, he admitted that he had no opinion. It was a matter of what Lise Panoy wanted, but he chose not to contact her until the Review Board delivered its decisions for both men.

  “Where are we going, Sergeant?” Liam asked. When they’d hit the initial corridor, she’d taken off running, and he was forced to sprint to catch up to her. There was little pedestrian traffic to weave through. The station’s corridors were completely deserted, but people turned from their monitors to witness the security officers race past. The major and sergeant heard encouragements from the onlookers. As a group, stationers wanted to see Giorgio convicted.

  Cecilia ignored the major’s question. She was attempting to dial on her comm unit, while she ran. “Sergeant Rodriguez, where are you?” Cecilia asked, when she was finally successful.

  “Sitting at my desk, waiting for the major and you,” Miguel replied. He’d watched the trial on his desk monitor, frustrated by the turn in the proceedings. In his heart, he knew Giorgio was guilty, but it didn’t occur to him that there was the possibility of the charges being dismissed. A governor’s security chief would know every inch of the house and its grounds without fail, or he wasn’t worth the coin he was paid.

  “Tell me that we have my DAD records on file for that day,” Cecilia asked breathlessly.

  “Did you upload them?” Miguel asked.

  “I can’t recall. I usually do, but that day was a little disconcerting,” Cecilia replied.

  “One moment, I’m checking,” Miguel replied.

  Liam wanted to ask, but he was running short of breath. For a short woman, Cecilia was keeping up a blistering pace. Twenty years makes a big difference, Liam admitted to himself.

  “Found them,” Miguel yelled.

  “Yes,” Cecilia shouted, skipping into the air, without slowing her pace.

  Maybe more than twenty years, Liam thought.

  When the pair reached security administration, Cecilia raced to Miguel’s desk, and he jumped out of his seat. He glanced with concern at his major, who was bent over with his hands on his knees and gasping for breath. Seconds later, Devon raced up to the desk.

  “You okay, Major?” asked Devon, mirroring Miguel’s worried face.

  “I will be, if someone, who doesn’t want to be demoted back to corporal, will explain themselves to me,” Liam said between ragged breaths.

  “Sorry, Major, if I had erased the contents of my sniffer instead of uploading them, there wasn’t going to be anything to say.”

  “Okay, you have your files, now what?” Liam asked, standing upright but still taking deep breaths.

  “It occurred to me that Giorgio’s defense is hinging on his word against those of the women, and there’s no vid evidence to contradict him. However, there might be DNA evidence.”

  “Explain,” Devon said.

  “I was running my DAD when I entered the house. I expected to pick up a match to Helena’s profile, which I’d loaded before we went downside.”

  “Smart,” Miguel allowed.

  “I checked it several times, but I never got a hit, while we were searching the floors. By the time, we discovered the secret passageway, I was paying attention to the governor’s directions and never checked the sniffer again,” Cecilia explained. “Ready. Miguel, I need a DAD.”

  Miguel unlocked a lower drawer in his desk and handed his device over to Cecilia. She hooked it to his system and reloaded the data records from the governor’s house. The sniffer stored the DNA profiles that were detected.

  “Now that we have the five profiles in our databases for the people involved in these trials, we can run a broader comparison,” Cecilia explained.

  “Five?” Devon queried.

  “She’s including Aurelia, aren’t you, Sergeant?” Liam replied.

  “Yes, sir,” Cecilia said, glancing up at Liam and grinning. She completed the upload of the five profiles, refreshing the one the DAD held on Helena, and then requested matches. The DAD output was nearly instantaneous. “And there you have it. Five matches,” Cecilia announced with deep satisfaction.

  “We need locations,” Liam said, coming around the desk to peer over Cecilia’s shoulder, Miguel making room for him.

  “Agreed,” Cecelia replied, with a little frustration. Every match the DAD recorded was related to its physical surroundings at the time. However, the security team was downside when the records were made, which meant the data couldn’t be compared to a known structure such as the JOS.

  “I have an idea,” Devon said.

  Cecilia jumped out of the chair, as Liam and Miguel made way for him at the desk.

  Devon stripped off the entire stream of data locators with the matching profiles from the sniffer. The device’s first matches were those of Markos and Giorgio at the entrance of the house. He gave those points to an architectural program, as the starting positions. Then he fed the remainder of the match positions into the program, which plotted each new point in relationship to the previous position.

  Within several minutes, the team was viewing a 3D, skeletal outline of the governor’s house, as Cecilia had searched through it. Clearly evident was Cecilia’s progression from the first floor to the t
hird floor, down to the first floor, out to the patio, up to the second floor, and finally to the third floor via the back stairway.

  Devon pointed to a location on his monitor and then slid his chair back from the desk to make room for the others. He was beaming.

  Liam, Miguel, and Cecilia crowded close to the monitor for a better look. On the third floor, in the area that corresponded to the private corridor, were five matches — Markos, Giorgio, Aurelia, Helena, and Sasha.

  “Our escapee,” Liam commented, pointing to a spot on the screen, and then added, “Look at the areas inside the suite.”

  “Five matches,” Miguel said quietly.

  A moment of silence was followed by an explosion of celebration, before Liam cut it short. “Devon, you’re in charge of putting the data together in a meaningful way for the Board. Remember, this is the first time they would have seen this form of evidence. Miguel, you’re responsible for getting the equipment we will need to present the evidence. Cecilia, you’re with me. We have to organize your statement for the Board to validate how and why you collected the data. Let’s move, everyone. We have a guilty man to bring to justice.”

  The Board reconvened promptly three hours after Stamerson’s dismissal. “I presume you’re ready to present your evidence, Major,” Stamerson said. There was an element of hope in the chairman’s voice.

  “We are, Mr. Chairman,” Liam replied. He carefully walked the Review Board through the presentation. They were familiar with DADs and how they managed their DNA profile comparisons, although using a stream of data to describe an officer’s movement in an unmapped location was new to them.

  Liam fielded a series of questions from the Board, which sought to ensure they understood what they were viewing. It was the fact that a DAD was built to keep the DNA data and matches secure that gave them confidence in the evidence.

  Giorgio’s counsel tried his best to punch holes in the evidence’s validity, but the major’s presentation had been thorough.

  After the presentation’s conclusion and the end of questions, Stamerson asked, “What have you to say, Mr. Sestos, in response to this new information?”

  Giorgio Sestos lifted his hands in surrender and smiled at Stamerson.

  “I take it that you have no response to the evidence, Mr. Sestos,” Stamerson replied. “Are there other comments or evidence that you or your counsel wish to present in your defense?” he asked. When there was none, he adjourned the trial for the Board to deliberate.

  Two days later, in quick succession, the Review Board reconvened and announced the conviction of both men. Each was given a seventeen-year sentence, a year of incarceration for each year that Helena Garmenti had been held prisoner.

  “It is the decree of this Board that these sentences aren’t to be reduced under any circumstances and that includes a commandant’s pardon,” Stamerson announced, eyeing Emerson.

  The raucous celebration of thousands of the audience near the meeting room penetrated its walls, and Stamerson paused to let it subside.

  “Furthermore, it is the opinion of this Board, although not its purview, that a review of security procedures to enable downsiders to report crimes and security to conduct criminal investigations be undertaken by the commandant. It’s been proven to the satisfaction of the members of this Board that the domes are incapable of self-policing their people. Whether it is willful or merely uncaring on the part of the families to ensure that every Pyrean is protected is unknown. The result is the same.”

  * * *

  A series of critical exchanges between individuals took place immediately after the sentencing of Markos and Giorgio, who were led out of the Review Board chambers by security.

  Emerson left the meeting room in a hurry to return to his office. He needed privacy for his downside call.

  “I presume you watched the trials,” Emerson said to Lise. He’d reached her immediately. Obviously, she’d been waiting for his call.

  “Every moment of it,” Lise replied.

  “Now that the way is clear for you to take over the governorship, we have things to discuss, you and I,” Emerson pronounced. He was feeling a renewed sense of confidence, now that he’d dodged an investigation into his own affairs and Lise had more need of him now than ever.

  “I presume I can inform the other family heads that I have your support, Emerson. That would ensure that I receive the governorship.”

  “You’ll have it, Lise, although there are conditions.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Your monthly payments have been paltry, compared to the enormity of recent events. Now that you’re about to become governor, I think you can do better … much better.”

  “I’ll see that you’re adequately compensated, Commandant,” Lise replied. “Is there anything else?”

  “You heard the Board’s statements concerning the undertaking of a review by my office of the domes’ security procedures.”

  “Yes, and you and I know it’s not binding.”

  “It isn’t, but I feel it’s in the interest of all concerned to initiate such a review and implement the findings.”

  “You’re overreaching, Emerson. Be careful.”

  “On the contrary, Lise; you and the other family heads are the ones who have exceeded your authority. Sentiment is running very high on the station against downsiders. If I fail to take action to ensure the likes of what happened to Helena Garmenti and her daughters can’t be repeated, I will be out of a job. Then it’s likely that the next person who sits at this desk might not be so amenable to your charms.”

  “I presume that you can undertake your review at your leisure, Commandant,” Lise said, adopting a more considerate tone.

  “Reviews of this sort take time, Lise. There are so many steps to the process before we achieve an implementation stage.”

  “Then we understand each other, Emerson,” Lise said sweetly, and ended the call. “Not fit to be called discharge,” she muttered, and called for her personal assistant. She had an important meeting to arrange.

  * * *

  Devon finished listening to the recording of Emerson and Lise. The captain hadn’t ordered him to cease monitoring the commandant’s private comm calls, and he saw no reason to stop. Devon reasoned that the recordings could be potential evidence for future prosecutions, even though they were illegally obtained. The thought occurred to him to release the recordings to the Review Board and take the hit for the unauthorized monitoring. What stopped that line of reasoning was that it occurred to him the Board would probably be forced to dismiss them because of their unwarranted procurement. Instead, Devon sent a link to Liam with a message that said, “Listen to this one.”

  Liam had no sooner reviewed the recording than he looked up to find Harbour standing in his doorway. He was thankful for his habit of listening to audio portions of his monitor or comm station via his earpiece.

  When Harbour saw Liam crane his neck to look behind her, she said, “Sasha is with her mother, Major. You’re safe for now.” Without invitation, Harbour stepped in and closed the door. “You still recording the commandant? After the Review Board’s pronouncements, I’d be interested if Emerson reached out to Lise.”

  “Harbour, we’ve done some good work, recovering Helena Garmenti and her daughter. The perpetrators have been arrested, tried, and convicted.”

  “Interesting that you answer my query with an events summary, Major, and, if I were to extend your misguided attempt at deflection, I would ask you: What about Aurelia?”

  “What about her? She’s still a fugitive and still wanted for the murder of Dimitri Belosov. When she’s caught, she’ll stand trial before the Review Board.”

  “Even though we know her to have been a prisoner for her entire life, who was merely fighting back against a tormentor.”

  “That’s for the Review Board to decide, Harbour, and you know that.”

  Harbour kept a rein on her power. Liam’s displeasure at what he was saying was distinct, but she felt
that she’d lost an ally in the fight against the commandant and the families. Something had changed, and she wasn’t sure what it was. “What about the next time there’s a transgression against a sensitive?”

  “That’s for us to handle when it happens. At this moment, it’s time to stand down.”

  “That path might be your choice, Major, but some of us don’t give up that easily.”

  “I caution you, Harbour —” Liam started to say, but he halted when he felt a quick spike of anger.

  “Don’t be presumptuous, Major,” Harbour said, glowering at Liam. “I’m not one of your subordinates, and I don’t wish to be an adversary of station security, unless you choose to make me one.”

  Liam never got the opportunity to respond. Harbour was gone before he drew breath. He picked up a water bottle and took a deep drink, reminding himself that it was a foolish man who irritated a powerful empath.

  Harbour stalked through the offices of security administration, intent on clearing the area as quickly as possible. Halfway to the exit, Sergeant Miguel Rodriguez asked for a moment of her time. Her first thought was to ignore him, but she cautioned herself not to let rancor get the best of her.

  “What can I do for you, Sergeant?” Harbour stated tersely. She felt Miguel’s small spike of fear, and she regretted her harsh tone. “Forgive me, Sergeant, I’ve had an unsettling conversation.”

  “A lot of those happening around here lately,” Miguel acknowledged. “I wanted to give you a heads-up, Harbour. It’s been reported to me that Corporal McKenzie, in his downtime, has been reviewing vids of Cinders’ crew and the man himself when they’re on station.”

  “Still after Aurelia, is he?”

  “It’s an obsession with him. What I wanted you to know is that I’ve reviewed the logs of the segments he’s already viewed. In those cams covering Cinders, Corporal McKenzie has seen you. So, you’ve become a person of interest to him.”

  “I’m surprised such a base individual is still employed by security.”