Investigating Deceit

by Michael Anderle

  Jia winced but didn’t roll her eyes. “Please tell me you’re not going to jump in there.”

  Erik raised his eyebrows. “Why not? I’ve done stupider things.”

  “I’m not doubting that, but I’d rather my partner not die. Going in there is suicide. Even if someone did jump in there, they’re probably dead. If you want to get away from me, just quit like all my other partners.”

  Erik grinned and shouldered his TR-7 after flipping on the safety. “Okay. Emma, can you track him in the vent?”

  Bright lights flicked on and pushed back the darkness that had been smothering the storage bay.

  “I have control of the local systems,” Emma explained. “But that’s for this area. I’d need complete access to the building’s systems to even have a chance of tracking anyone in the vents, and it’s likely too late. There aren’t internal sensors in most cases. When they have problems beyond the self-repair system’s capabilities, they send drones in.”

  “Fine,” Erik replied. “He got away this time, but we’ve got two dead bodies filled to the brim with complicated systems that you and Digital Forensics can rip into. At least we know Tomlinson won’t be harassing Dr. Chen anymore, but that doesn’t mean he’s safe. I doubt those Tin Men were just a couple of guys he hired.”

  “That was what my instincts told me.” Jia holstered her weapon and looked over her shoulder. Tomlinson’s body looked small in the distance.

  Erik glanced that way. “Your instincts were right. I don’t know who our two dead buddies are, but this case is obviously about a lot more than one disgruntled security guard.”

  Jia sighed. “Sometimes I really hate being right.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  January 28, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Police Enforcement Zone 122 Station, Digital Forensics Division, Office of Malcolm Constantine

  The hot-pink parrot-covered Hawaiian shirt Malcolm wore brightened the room but didn’t make up for his deep scowl. It was never a good sign when an evidence tech looked like he was in pain.

  Erik eyed him anyway, despite the risk of burning pink parrots into his retinas.

  When the tech called them down, he’d hoped for better news. Emma’s initial attempts to access the Tin Men’s systems hadn’t gone well, but maybe Malcolm and his team could approach it from a different angle. Emma, in the end, was a powerful AI, but she relied on certain basic networking protocols to gain access to systems. She couldn’t physically crack open a system.

  “Just tell us already,” Erik suggested. “No point in dragging it out.”

  Jia nodded from beside him, her arms folded. “Emma couldn’t access their systems. She said there was no signal transmission or receipt going on, and we didn’t think it was a great idea to risk exposing her to shady cyborgs.”

  “Those filthy little trolls probably had a virus or worm ready,” muttered Emma. “Even if they’re dead, that might still be a risk.”

  Malcolm sighed. “The good news is there’s no risk of that, Detective.”

  “Really?” Erik clapped once. “Then we can set up a way to connect her, and she can blast right through their defenses. Then we can figure out who these guys work for and save you time.”

  Malcolm cleared his throat. “We’d still need to do it our way, or at least figure out a method to make it seem like that if you wanted what we found admissible in court, but that’s not really a problem. Like I said, that was the good news. The bad news is, there’s no danger because the Tin Man’s insides are completely fried.” Malcolm tapped his PNIU, and an image of a lumpy black pile appeared. “This is an example piece, or what’s left of it. This wasn’t just them EMPing themselves, Detective. The thing’s completely melted. They had a self-destruct system that was designed to obliterate the system, both thermally and using acid. They had reservoirs throughout their bodies.”

  Jia gagged. “They were walking around with acid inside their bodies?”

  Erik laughed. “Technically, every person with a stomach is.”

  Jia eyed him. “We don’t use it to melt our insides when we die,” she countered.

  Malcolm shrugged and gave them an apologetic look. “I could show you the rest of the insides, but it’s mostly melted and fried sludge. There’s nothing we can recover from those systems. Even their brains are a nasty soup.” He grimaced. “Let’s just say I’m glad I’m Digital Forensics and not the medical examiner. There’s not enough left of the cyborg components to pull anything useful. These guys were thorough. They did not want us learning anything about them.”

  “This self-destruct explains why they were twitching like that toward the end.” Erik frowned. “Is that something the local Tin Men are into? I haven’t seen anything about any syndicates or other gangs requiring that kind of commitment.”

  Despite the greater instability on the frontier, Tin Men were less common. Very few frontier insurrectionists or terrorist groups used them. The farther someone traveled from the core worlds, the more they risked not having appropriate support for cybernetics. Depending on where they traveled, Purist beliefs might be stronger as well. He’d run into more than a few people who’d decided his cybernetic arm was enough to justify an attack.

  Jia shook her head. “I’ve never heard of a Tin Man with a self-destruct system like this. I mean, who puts in a self-destruct in their own body?” She paused before continuing her rant. “Then again, I’ve never run into a full conversion before. I wouldn’t have thought even an antisocial criminal would go that far, and the maintenance expense would be incredible.” Her voice dripped disdain. “I doubt the Tin Men are affiliated with a normal criminal syndicate.”

  “It gets better.” Malcolm offered them a smile. “And by that, I mean it gets way more annoying.” He swiped with his hand, and another text window appeared. “Take a look at this.”

  Erik leaned forward to read the window. “No DNA matches?” He focused on Malcolm through the hologram. “They couldn’t find DNA anywhere in their bodies?”

  Malcolm shook his head with a solemn look. “The skin on the face was artificial. There wasn’t a huge amount of actual, you know, human stuff left inside. Even then, and ignoring the liquified brain, the few organs they had left were almost completely destroyed by the self-destruct. They did manage to recover a small viable DNA sample from one of the bodies, but it didn’t match anyone in a DNA database.”

  “They could be from off-world,” Erik suggested. “If we wait long enough, we’ll get a match, maybe from another core planet. We can’t wait around forever, though.”

  “The records from other worlds are polled often enough that if they were in there, we’d know,” Jia observed. “It’s not as if they can grow a Tin Man assassin in a few days. Besides…” She shook her head. “There’s no way anyone’s going to sneak two full-conversion Tin Men onto an interstellar transport without being noticed, and while getting a few modifications here and there might not be illegal, those two men were well past that. The resources involved are…” She thought before lifting her hands in frustration. “Staggering.”

  Erik’s expression darkened. “You’d be surprised what people can sneak onto transports and move around the UTC. I wouldn’t put it past them, but I see your point.”

  It wasn’t Tin Men who had killed his unit, but the massacre proved that at least one group out there could move significant military forces from planet to planet. The conspiracy wouldn’t leave something like traceable DNA behind. That didn’t prove the Tin Men belonged to the Molino conspiracy, but the evidence at least proved dangerous people could pull off impressive schemes with enough money and planning.

  “And I see yours,” Jia commented.

  Malcolm sighed. “Sorry I couldn’t be of more help, Detectives. I was pretty hyped when I heard there were two full-conversions coming in, but there you go.”

  “Thanks, Malcolm,” Erik offered. “You did your best. Don’t worry. We don’t know who or what went down that vent, which means this isn’t over yet. T
he guy was spooked enough to run, which means there’s an increased chance of him screwing up. When he does, we’ll nail him.”

  Jia gave a firm nod of agreement. “We have plenty of Tomlinson’s records to go through. They likely won’t lead us anywhere, but it’s still a lead. Now that we know that he was the one sending the threats, it lets us focus. This isn’t a cold case, and we’re far from done with it.”

  Erik’s and Jia’s PNIUs chimed with a message from Captain Ragnar.

  Come to my office immediately. This is related to the case.

  Erik nodded to Malcolm. “If you find out anything else, let us know.”

  The tech gave him a thumbs-up and smiled weakly. “I’ll try, Detective. No matter what you guys bring in…” He eyed his information, having already dismissed them in his mind, “it’s never boring.”

  A dark-suited man and woman stepped out of Captain Ragnar’s office as Erik and Jia approached. Their gazes lingered on the detectives for a few seconds before they continued on their way. In comparison to the bland man, the tall woman stood out, both for her beauty and her long, striking cyan hair.

  One of the things Erik had noticed in his travels throughout the UTC was the differences in hair-dyeing conventions. As a non-permanent cosmetic change, Purists didn’t care about it. On some planets, almost everybody dyed their hair, whereas on others, no one did. Earth was a mixture, just as it had been when he’d left. He wasn’t going to dye his hair, even if was still mostly gray despite the de-aging.

  The woman had a smug smile on her face, and she winked at him.

  Erik frowned but ignored her and entered the captain’s office. Something about her bothered him even before the wink.

  Captain Ragnar stood behind his chair, his face red and his mouth twitching. The huge man reminded Erik of a bear about to charge. Another bad sign.

  Jia’s eyebrows lifted, but she didn’t say anything.

  Erik closed the door behind him. “You looked pissed, Captain, and you almost never looked pissed, let alone this pissed.”

  “You’re off the case,” Captain Ragnar announced, exasperation in his voice.

  “You’re kidding me,” Erik shot back.

  Captain Ragnar’s jaw tightened. “I wish I was, Detective Blackwell, but no, you and Detective Lin are off the case.”

  Jia pointed at the door. “I knew I didn’t like them. 46 Helix lawyers? Council lackeys? Are we getting too close to something they don’t want us to know about?”

  Captain Ragnar took a deep breath and dropped into his chair. He managed a slight smile. “If that was all it was, I would have politely asked them to toss themselves off a tower. I told you when I took this job that I would handle the politics, and I have, and will continue to do so, including fighting the CID if they show up and demand jurisdiction without doing the legwork.”

  “Those were CID agents?” Erik scoffed. “Yeah, if they wanted the collar, they should have shown up for the part involving all the earlier investigation, shooting, and Tin Men. They don’t get to stroll in after the hard part and take all the credit like they did with Esposito.” He pointed a thumb at his chest. “I don’t care about interagency politics or PR.”

  “I know, and if it were that simple, I’d be able to do something.”

  “What is it, then?” Erik asked.

  Captain Ragnar nodded at the door. “Those two were from UTC Intelligence. They’ve shown up with orders from way above either of our paygrades to push you off this case, and they’ve made it clear that ID agents will be handling this. Apparently, one of them is a regional agent, and the other is some sort of specialist who was sent in from on high. According to them, this case involves a matter of interplanetary UTC security, and we don’t have the clearance to handle this sort of thing. It involves an active UTC ID investigation they don’t want locals interfering with.”

  “Intelligence Directorate agents?” Erik gritted his teeth. “We’ve taken down terrorists. If this is about terrorists, they could use our help. We’ve got the local knowledge and resources.”

  “They don’t want our help, and they can and have pushed us off the case. It doesn’t matter what favors I call in. I can’t move something at this level without a good reason.” Captain Ragnar shrugged, a playful smile breaking out on his face. “But if you can find other evidence that might give us a reason to think this is more a local threat, there are a few things I can do. That’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.”

  Jia nodded. “We’ll figure something out. The ID has their own things they care about. They don’t care about local crime, but we can’t ignore that. For all we know, they’ll let Dr. Chen be killed.”

  “You were righter than you knew, Jia.” Erik grinned at her. “Your instincts are on fire this time.”

  Alina rested in the driver’s seat of her flitter as the autodrive flew the vehicle toward her destination. She occupied herself by watching a recording of Erik’s and Jia’s raid on the storage bay. She stopped the feed several times to bring up different angles and crosscheck other data ripped from the system.

  She clapped as Erik and Jia finished off the two Tin Men. “Not too bad,” she murmured. “He is a vet, but he’s used to having a whole unit with him, and she’s just a rookie cop. I don’t think half the agents I’ve worked with could have pulled that off.”

  A third Tin Man crouched in the back of the bay, distant from the battle. He ran toward the closed garbage vent. A few seconds later, it opened, and he leapt inside.

  “Sneaky, sneaky.” Alina brought up another data window with a frown. Based on what they’d retrieved, the hacks to the systems were external, and although Blackwell’s pet rogue AI had taken over the system eventually, she hadn’t completed her efforts when the vent opened. The access logs made that clear.

  The agent smiled. That was enough. It was always good when she didn’t have to kill someone she liked. She initiated a call and waited.

  “Report, Agent Koval,” barked her superior over the line.

  “Per your orders, the locals have been pulled off the case,” she told him. “The captain seemed understanding, but I wouldn’t put it past them to keep sniffing around.”

  “We’ll deal with that when it arises. What about Blackwell and Lin?”

  “Everything I’ve read about them suggests they will keep sniffing around as well, even if they’ve been told not to.”

  He scoffed. “I don’t care about that. Are they associated with the targets or not?”

  “There’s little evidence they’re connected to the organization,” Alina replied. “They also took on two advanced battle cyborgs without a scratch. I expected that from Blackwell, but Lin was equally impressive. She’s got a good head on her shoulders for someone so young.”

  Alina might look close to Jia’s age, but that was only because of a particularly effective de-aging treatment.

  Her superior let out a satisfied grunt. “Good. If they aren’t with them, that makes this less complicated.”

  Alina smiled brightly. “I don’t know, sir. Maybe we should make it complicated. Sometimes complicated can be good.”

  “What are you talking about, Koval?”

  Alina paused the video feed and magnified the image of Erik and Jia. “Based on the background information you sent along, we were suspicious of Blackwell because of what happened on Molino, but what about Lin?”

  He scoffed. “Lin and Blackwell keep ending up in unusual situations, and Blackwell survived something a lot of other people don’t. We don’t know what happened on Molino, but even if he’s not associated with the targets, it’s not impossible he’s connected to some of the people we’re hunting, and Blackwell was purposefully left alive.”

  “He was shot, sir.” She laughed. “That’s not what someone does to their agents.”

  “Maybe they knew just where to shoot him to make sure he would survive. We’ve done it ourselves.”

  Alina wasn’t about to say he was paranoid. In their line of work, the
re was no such thing as too much paranoia. If most people understood the deep, dark tentacles of corruption that stretched throughout the UTC, they wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. ID agents worked in the shadows to make sure they didn’t need to worry.

  “Let’s just say I disagree, sir.”

  Her superior grunted. “Is there a point to this, Agent Koval?”

  “I’m just saying they might be useful resources. We should at least consider it. I think they have good instincts and can handle themselves.”

  “Two cops can’t do what a trained ID agent can,” he countered.

  “I don’t know, sir. So far, they seem to. Just something to think about. There are ways we could use them that don’t involve them becoming full agents.”

  “I’ll take that under consideration,” he grumbled. “For now, keep an eye on the case. If this is who we think this is, more trouble is coming. If you get your pet cops mixed up in this, they might end up dead.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll report back as necessary.”

  “Good.” He ended the call.

  Alina smiled as she looked at Erik and Jia. “He doesn’t understand, but I do. Your talents are probably wasted as local cops, but I’ve been wrong before. Let’s see how you handle things going forward. Because I’m guessing that if I get you involved…” She tapped her lips in thought.

  “You won’t be the ones dying,” she finished.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The rage built inside Jia until she slammed her fist on her desk. “We can’t sit around and let them take this from us. I don’t care if they are from the ID. This is our case.” She sighed in frustration. “Was our case.”

  The situation was as bad as when she had first started.

  Before, her old captain would tear cases out of her hands against her will without even being asked. She didn’t blame Captain Ragnar for not being able to go up against that level of government, but she had put in her time and risked her life, and she didn’t like the idea of someone finishing what she had started.