by R S Penney
Again, who would attack a farm?
He strode up to the scanner next to the gate.
Pressing his thumb to its surface, he watched as a scan line ran up and down. There was a slight beep, and then a picture of Miles Tarso appeared on the screen along with the words “Access Granted.”
The gate slid open.
Brinton went inside, carrying the bomb with him.
Bright lights in the ceiling illuminated a train car where seats with green cushions were positioned on either side of an aisle. At the moment, most were empty with only a few passengers sitting quietly.
In the window, tall buildings streaked by under a starry sky with a purple crescent moon. They were leaving the downtown core, heading for the residential sections of the city. Melissa was amazed by how smooth the ride felt. Mag-lev trains were a wonderful form of transit, one that her own world should embrace with open arms.
Aiden was gorgeous, sitting across from her with his hands on his knees, smiling into his own lap. “So, your friend just…beamed Slade's memories into your mind?” he asked. “Every last scrap he pulled from that monster?”
Grinning with a burst of soft laughter, Melissa shut her eyes. “Something like that,” she said, nodding to him. “It was all fragmented, a bunch of images and sensations with no real coherence at first.”
“What was that like?”
She tossed her head back, rolling her eyes. “Not fun,” she admitted, slouching in her seat. “But I was able to piece it all together after a few days, and then I knew what Slade was planning.”
It was clear that her story was having some effect on Aiden. He had told her before that he had read up on the Keepers, studied the case files that were made available to the public. But reading about all the crazy things this life could throw at you was one thing; actually living it was quite another, and even by Justice Keepers standards, Melissa's life was complicated. Aiden was starting to figure that out.
He sat forward with his elbows on his thighs, his chin resting on laced fingers. “It's quite the story,” he murmured. “But I thought you were going to tell me about how you Bonded your symbiont.”
“I'm getting to that.”
“You mean the telepath thing was part of it?”
Covering her mouth with two fingers, Melissa trembled as she laughed. “Are you going to let me finish the story?” she teased. “Or do you want me to just give you all the spoilers up front?”
“Spoilers?”
“An Earth concept.”
He looked up at her with those smoldering dark eyes, and suddenly she was having a hard time putting her thoughts in order. “Tell the story,” he said. “I promise no further interruptions from this-”
He cut off when they both noticed a sudden flash in the window. Something that looked very much like a huge fireball rising into the sky. It was miles away – she could tell that much – but for her to see it, the explosion must have been very large. “I think,” Melissa said, “that I had better call Director Andalon.”
Chapter 3
A pair of double doors slid apart, revealing a train platform under the light of a few tall lamps, and Melissa bolted through. Even in the dark of night, she could see the plume of smoke rising up to the sky, dark clouds briefly obscuring the purple moon. The vertical farm had been thoroughly destroyed.
She turned.
Aiden exited the train behind her, stepping out into a cool spring night. “Bleakness take me,” he said, looking around. “Who would blow up a farm? There is nothing to be gained by that.”
Melissa smiled, bowing her head to him. “That's what we're here to find out,” she said, brushing a lock of hair off her cheek. “Come on. Director Andalon told us to meet him at the crime scene.”
She ran down the steps from the raised platform, taking them two by two. Very few people used this particular train station – for the most part, only people who worked on the farm's systems came this far out of the city – but there was certainly a lot of activity tonight. A whole lot of it.
A simple concrete walkway ran through a field of grass to a chain-link fence that surrounded the farm. Beyond that, she could see that what had once been a tall building was now a tower of rubble belching flames into the night and casting smoke into the air. The explosive force necessary to take out something that big…
Police officers in gray uniforms stood in a line with their backs turned, each one watching as the building burned. “That's where we start,” Melissa grumbled. “Come on. We should get a status report.”
She broke into a sprint.
One of the officers spun around to stand before her with his arms crossed, blocking her way. A tall man with broad shoulders and white skin, he looked her up and down and then snorted. “Go home, kid,” he said. “You're trespassing.”
Melissa lifted her forearm to expose her multi-tool, and the holographic projector displayed an image of her badge, complete with her picture and everything. “I'm with the Justice Keepers,” she said. “So is my friend.”
“You're a cadet,” the cop shot back.
“She's with me.”
At the sound of a firm, decisive voice, Melissa turned to find Jon Andalon coming up the walkway. The new head of their team – it still pained her to remember that Jena was gone – wore simple beige pants and a black sweater under an even darker jacket.
Jon had a handsome face with a firm jaw, skin even darker than her father's and hair that he kept short and neat. “Officer,” he said, nodding to the other man. “Cadet Carlson is part of my investigation.”
“If you say so.”
Melissa made a vexed noise and then hoped that nobody noticed. The cops didn't feel the need to make Jon display his badge. She might have chalked it up to the fact that he was a known quantity at this point, but the man had spent nearly a year working out on Belos Colony – this wasn't the first time he had taken over for Jena – and the cops here didn't know him from Adam. Or…Whoever the Leyrian equivalent of Adam was.
Melissa was suddenly hit with a wave of emotion that wasn't her own. Too many thoughts of Jena made her symbiont ache. She forced those feelings out of her mind. It would not do to lose her composure in front of these men.
“Follow me,” Jon said.
He pushed through the crowd of cops without so much as an apology and made his way to the open gate in the fence. The officer who had greeted her gave her a dirty look that would make any high school queen bee proud.
Craning her neck, Melissa squinted at him. “Something I can do for you?” she asked, shaking her head. “Or would you prefer to get out of my way and actually let me do my damn job?”
He snorted but moved aside.
Melissa ran to catch up with Jon.
In her mind's eye, Aiden was a silhouette only two steps behind her, looking back over his shoulder at the cops as if he couldn't believe they had tolerated Melissa's sass. Maybe he couldn't believe that she had mouthed off like that – to be honest, Melissa did not really believe it either; some of Jena must be rubbing off on her – but then Aiden had not grown up on Earth.
Cops back home were often sexist jerks who refused to believe that a woman could do this job. On top of that, there were…other issues. She was half white, but her colouring was dark enough that most people just assumed she was black. And even in Canada, cops often failed to treat black people with respect.
She ran.
Jon was down on one knee, scanning the gate with his multi-tool. “No signs of any forced entry,” he said when she got within a few feet of him. “It looks as if our perp used a valid ID to get in.”
Crossing her arms, Melissa looked down at him. “Okay,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Wouldn't that narrow the pool of suspects to people who work on the farm's systems?”
“Possibly.”
Aiden stepped forward with hands in his jacket pockets, shaking his head. “It's just as possible that somebody hacked the systems,” he said, and Melissa felt a brief moment
of chagrin.
Jon looked over his shoulder with a sour expression, then nodded to the young man. “Exactly,” he said. “I want you both to inspect the fence for any other possible signs of a breach, then report back to me.”
It felt like a dismissal, but what else could she do? Even among the Keepers, there was a certain amount of “start at the bottom and work your way up.” Maybe if she hadn't made such a dumb comment.
Her Nassai seemed to disagree, and if anyone knew better, it would be the symbiont who had spent over twenty years with Jena Morane. It was hard to tell from the emotions alone, but she was fairly certain that the symbiont did not consider her observation to be dumb. A flare of happy emotions told her she was correct.
Scanning the fence with her multi-tool took some time – there were no visible signs of a break in, and she picked up nothing out of the ordinary – but after ten minutes or so, she made her way back to the gate.
Jon had gone through and now stood in the road that led up to the building's front entrance, watching the wreckage with fists on his hips. “Cadets,” he said without looking. “Have you found anything?”
Closing her eyes, Melissa shook her head in dismay. “No signs of a break in,” she answered. “So, we're back to our original assessment. Either someone who worked here did this, or the system was hacked.”
As she stepped up beside Jon, she saw a cluster of men in women in bright orange Hazmat gear just a short ways ahead. No one wanted to get close to the burning building, not when there was a chance that rubble might fall.
Fire-suppression bots floated around the building like a swarm of bees, spraying the upper levels with water, but the flames were still going strong in some places. “So, what's our next move,” Melissa asked.
Director Andalon sucked on his lip as he watched the building, his face bathed in the orange glow of firelight. “For now, there's not much we can do,” he said. “Once we know it's safe, a CSI team will investigate the wreckage and determine what caused the explosion. We'll go forward from there.”
“Is there any chance this was an accident?”
“The probability is extremely low.”
“So, a bomb then,” Melissa said. “Well, that's just lovely.”
Aiden came up on her other side, craning his neck to stare at the building. The look on his face…It was clear that he was still wondering what could possess someone to do a thing like this.
Maybe growing up on Earth had twisted her perspective, but Melissa had no trouble believing that someone would do something like this. People were always finding reasons to do something violent and stupid. “Orders, sir?” Melissa asked.
“Well, for now, you're coming with me.”
“Where, sir?”
The man shot a glance over his shoulder, his lips curling into a thin smile. “Where do you think, Cadet?” he asked. “We have to make a preliminary report on what we have discovered here. We're going to see Larani Tal.”
A large desk with a surface of SmartGlass sat in the middle of an office with blue walls and potted plants in every corner. The paintings of forests and gardens hung up in places that drew the eye gave one a sense of ease and contentment. This wasn't at all like the drab, gray office Melissa remembered from Station One; that was just a room Larani used as a workspace when she visited Earth. This was her real home.
The head of the Justice Keepers stood with her back turned, hands clasped behind herself as she stared out the window at tall buildings with lights in their windows. “Did you learn anything?” she asked without turning.
Jon frowned, then bowed his head to her. “I'm afraid not, ma'am,” he said in tones that made his frustration evident. “The farm has been destroyed; fire suppression teams are still working to put out the flames.”
Melissa wanted to say something about the fact that they had discovered no sign of forced entry, but she was a cadet. This meeting was for professionals, and she was lucky to even be standing here. Best to keep her mouth shut and let the adults do the talking. At least for now.
The doors opened behind her to allow Jack to come striding into the room in jeans and a polo shirt. “Bloody hell,” he grumbled, shaking his head. “Just when I thought that maybe things would start to quiet down.”
“Sorry to get you out of bed, Agent Hunter,” Jon said.
“Oh, that's fine. I was just cuddling up with my insomnia.”
“Well, you-” Melissa began.
She cut off when Larani Tal spun around to face them with an expression so hard it could smash diamonds. “Can we focus on the topic at hand, please?” she asked in a cool, crisp voice.
Crossing his arms, Jack lifted his chin to study her. “So, what's the damage?” he asked, eyebrows rising. “How severe will the food shortage be now that one of the farms is out of commission?”
Breathing through her open mouth, Larani shook her head. “No shortage at all,” she said. “The Food Distribution Network was designed to have redundancies. We could lose one-third of the farms and still operate at normal output levels.”
“Even if Denabria's food systems were severely damaged,” Jon added, “we could still import food from other cities.”
“Then this is likely a political statement.”
A statement? Melissa wondered. A statement meant to say what, exactly? If this was some idiot's idea of terrorism, then whoever had planted that bomb was doing a piss-poor job of it. She was young, but she could see that much. The city would go on as if nothing had changed.
She was half ready to give voice to her thoughts when Larani essentially said the same thing. That irked her, but the other woman was head of the Justice Keepers. It was hardly fair to complain when your leader took the lead.
Jon stepped forward so that she was forced to stare at the back of his head. “At the moment,” he began. “I'm half tempted to leave this in the hands of local police. It could be nothing more than some angry malcontent committing arson.”
Turning her face up to the ceiling, Larani narrowed her eyes. “No, I don't think so,” she said, shaking her head. “Perhaps recent events have made me paranoid, but I cannot help but wonder why anyone would target a farm.”
Jack nodded to that.
A heavy sigh exploded from Larani as she dropped into her chair, setting one elbow on the armrest and leaning her cheek against the palm of her hand. “The Justice Keepers will handle this case,” she said firmly. “Anybody who attacks a population's food supply has a motive. We're going to figure out what that is.”
Melissa found herself in agreement, even knowing that Larani might be making a mountain out of a molehill. Jurisdiction on Leyria was somewhat prickly; she had learned as much from her studies. Theoretically, the Keepers could reserve the right to investigate any case that fell under the purview of any other branch of law-enforcement.
However, once the Keepers took something under their jurisdiction, it was theirs to deal with, no matter how small the case turned out to be. Other cops weren't exactly fond of the idea of having a case dumped in their laps again if it was deemed to no longer be a threat to planetary security.
Jon turned his back on the desk, frowning down at the floor. “Very well then,” he said, taking a few steps across the length of the office. “I'm quite happy to rededicate my team's efforts; we've had little luck in the search for Slade's minions.”
“That's not necessary,” Larani said. “There are many people to whom I could assign this case; I want you to continue your search for Slade.”
Jon looked up, and his eyes flicked open, focusing on Melissa like a pair of lasers. “We can't do much as it stands right now,” he said. “All leads have gone cold. And this would give Ms. Carlson a chance to get some field experience.”
“If you insist,” Larani said. “But I am reassigning this case should one of Slade's former lieutenants surface.”
A scowl twisted Jack's face, and he shook his head. “You can't go at this alone,” he said, stepping forward. “Anna's still on le
ave, and you'll need more than one experienced Keeper in the mix. I volun-”
“No!” Larani's voice cracked like a whip.
She leaned back in her chair with arms folded, frowning at him. “You have duties of your own, Agent Hunter,” she said. “I'm quite certain that Director Andalon will find whatever support he needs.”
Melissa shut her eyes, trembling as she worked up the nerve to speak. “We could ask my father,” she suggested, marching over to the desk. “Jena always trusted him. And there's Ben Loranai.”
Larani looked up to study her for a moment, then nodded her approval. “I suppose that would work.” She stood up with a sigh. “Very well. The matter is settled. You're all dismissed.”
They filed out of the room, and Melissa felt the tension in her chest drain away to be replaced with a sense of pride. She had contributed. She had overcome her self-doubt enough to be a part of the meeting, to speak to the others as an equal. And the head of the Keepers had treated her as an equal. It was a big step forward!
Now all she had to do was solve a case of arson.
Lifting a small, rectangular device about the size of his thumb, Brinton pressed a button, and nanobots extended from it. They emerged from a tiny slot, linking together to form a key that he slid into the lock of his own front door. It wasn't just the shape of the key that mattered.
These nanobots would send an electrical signal that would be read by the house's main computer, a signal that changed with each use. It was a safeguard against a multi-tool's ability to fabricate almost any shape – including that of keys – with nanobots. Only he could get into his own house.
When he pushed the door open, lights came on, revealing a narrow front hallway with a white tiled floor. A hallway that opened into a kitchen at the other end. He'd more than half expected to find police waiting for him here after having planted the explosives in the vertical farm. But he was alone.
Brinton forced out a deep breath, then reached up to run fingers through his hair. “You had to do it,” he whispered. “Decadence, sin, vice…Someone has to take a stand!”