“The Walking Dead, since your nickname is Zombie and the lives of those who cross you are already forfeit. The walking dead.”
“I like it, but I think it sends the wrong message. Not all cases will be like this one.”
“From what I’ve seen, every case is like this one,” Red offered, looking quickly away and starting to whistle. The ride instantly smoothed and the droning stopped.
“Okay, there’s more violence and less law than I like, but what about Peacekeeper?”
“Because sometimes the dead can’t walk anywhere. Law and order help keep the peace,” Jay said slowly as she mulled it over. “I’ll always think of her as The Walking Dead, but Peacekeeper can be her public name.”
“Her?” Red raised one eyebrow.
“You’re outnumbered, big guy,” Rivka said.
“How so? Me, Chaz, Hamlet, Ankh, and Erasmus. That’s five to three. I think the Peacekeeper is a ‘him.’”
Lindy shook her head. “Let me get my stuff.” She took a step toward the berthing.
“Wait,” Red grumbled.
“Men are so easy,” Lindy murmured.
“As a professional, I’ve lived by the code to choose my battles wisely. No good can come from fighting this one. It would be what is called ‘a Pyrrhic victory.’ I concede to her.”
“I’ll look up Pyrrhic after you two are on the ground.” Lindy sat down next to Ankh. His eyes remained unfocused as he hugged the bundle that was Erasmus to his chest.
“The facility is located next to the interstellar communication array,” Ankh said softly. The ship banked toward its designated target.
“Planetary control is furious with our flight path and failure to respond to their calls,” Chaz reported calmly. “I shall continue to ignore them.”
“Good call, Chaz,” Rivka agreed. Red stood near the hatch, with the Magistrate behind him. They both wore their game faces. “Once more unto the breach, my friend. May we return to the Peacekeeper alive and well.”
“Or die trying,” Red added. “Amen, Magistrate.”
“You are such a lunkhead. Thanks for taking those rounds meant for me on S’Korr.”
“Let’s not do that again,” Red replied.
“We’ll do our best, but damn, Red! I can’t believe how badly things spiraled out of control.”
“If you didn’t do anything that mattered, the bad guys wouldn’t be trying to kill you. People who fight for others make enemies, and people who challenge the mighty… Well, that’s a whole different kind of enemy; ones who can hire armies. Time is not your friend, Magistrate.”
“Quick in-and-out.” Rivka looked at the ceiling. “Who am I meeting with, Chaz?”
“The facility manager, a Miss Lauton.”
“Does she have any authority? Or bodyguards?” Rivka shrugged at the look Red gave her.
“She is the manager of the facility,” Chaz replied evenly. Rivka rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“Zombie,” Red said.
“Yup, going to have to do it the up-close-and-personal way. Just in case, here—take a couple of these.” Rivka handed him two of Ankh’s coins. Red dug under his armor to put one in his jeans pocket, and the other he put in a vest pouch. “It’s going to be hard to convince them that we’re all about the peace.”
The ship touched down with a gentle bump. “The facility is directly before us,” Chaz reported. Red slapped the big red button that they had put on the pad to open and close the hatch. The top opened to reveal a murky orange sky. The steps rotated into position based on the angle and how far the door had to go to reach the ground.
Red hurried down before giving the signal to Rivka. She followed him down, and they turned left. A building was labeled in the local language, which was instantly translated by their chips into Galactic Standard. Astrocom Support.
Red walked quickly toward the main doors, checking the rooftop for any movement. “I like your plan where you don’t tell anyone you’re coming or who you’re going to meet. I like that a lot. Reduces the chances of getting ambushed. And with the Peacekeeper’s guns trained on everything nearby, I think maybe the name fits her quite nicely,” Red said over his shoulder while his eyes darted left to right and up to down in his never-ending search for threats.
“We can’t be caught watching the paint dry. What the hell do I do for a vacation, Red? Is becoming a Magistrate a life sentence?”
“I’m not the one to answer that. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you don’t die on my watch. Two months into this gig, and we’ve gotten close, what…twenty, thirty times?”
“You’re funny, Red. I think I’ll judge you last.”
“I like the new food dispenser. Who would have known it was the freaking programming that was making the food taste like shit?”
“But you were eating it!”
“I was hungry,” Red replied. He hurried to the door, looking through the glass before opening it. “I need X-ray eyeballs.”
“I’ll check with the Pod-doc and see if we can get you some of those.”
“Be sharp, Magistrate. This could be the lion’s den.” Red whipped the door open and rushed through, stopping two steps inside so Rivka could follow.
No one was there. An unadorned staircase led upward from the main doorway. One door-lined hallway went to the left, and one to the right.
“That was anti-climactic,” Rivka said. “Is that an office roster?”
Red looked where she pointed. “Looks like it.” He watched as she looked for the manager’s office.
“Lauton. She’s on the second floor.” Red went up the stairs first, climbing quickly. Rivka trailed behind. He reached the landing and looked left then right at a mirror of the first floor. He shook his head. Rivka went right, and after two rooms, determined that the office was on the other side. Two females entered the left hallway from an office, screamed at the sight of the Magistrate’s bodyguard, and ran back inside, slamming the door behind them.
“What’d you do?” Rivka snickered. “Next time, try smiling.”
“That’ll work. They won’t notice the hardware. Maybe it was the grenades that put them on edge.”
“I’m sure that was it. You better let me go first. I don’t think we want them to have heart failure when your big ass darkens their doorway.” Rivka brushed her hair from her face and opened the door to the office with the plate that unsurprisingly read, Miss Lauton, Facility Manager.
Rivka put on her biggest smile and strolled in, complete with ballistic vest and leggings, her Magistrate’s jacket open. “Miss Lauton?” she asked.
The female at the only desk in the room shook her head. “She was fired yesterday.”
Rivka’s smile turned into a deep frown. “Do you know why?”
“I’m sorry. Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell a stranger.”
“My apologies. I’m Magistrate Rivka Anoa, and I’m here on behalf of the Federation to examine some irregularities being broadcast through your computers.”
The female recoiled in shock; not from the question, but at Red when he leaned into the room. “I don’t have any money!” she cried out.
“I’ll need you to calm down.”
Rivka pulled out her datapad. A message was waiting.
Not yet.
“We need to see your systems,” Rivka informed her through a beaming smile.
“I’m going to have to verify this,” the female said.
“With whom?” Rivka wondered. “I suspect you’re the temporary facility manager?”
“Yes.” She tapped on her old-style keyboard. Rivka tapped on her screen.
How is this backward planet the lead in an intergalactic cybercrime?
The system we’re looking for is buried beneath the veneer of old technology. Find the main systems. Probably in the basement.
“We’d like to go to the basement now, and you’re going to escort us.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that,” the female said, suddenly growing a spine.
“Thanks for calling Security.” Rivka walked around the desk. “Where are the servers?”
She pulled the female to her feet, seeing the door to the basement in her mind. She also saw the warning flashing on the computer screen. “Illegal Planetary Landing. Security forces are on their way.”
“Red, Security is on their way. Go to the basement and give Ankh access. I’ll stay here to find where Miss Lauton lives. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“I can’t leave you alone.”
“I need access to those computers, and I need you back here before your presence is necessary. Now go! Take a left at the stairs. Basement door is the last on the left.” Rivka yelled. Red gritted his teeth for a moment before pounding down the hall.
“Give me Lauton’s address.”
“No,” the female refused firmly, risking a glance out the window to where the spaceship was filling the roadway. “What the heck?”
“Your boys are going to have a tough time getting past my ride.”
“Boys?”
“You know. Security.”
“There are no boys here. There are only females on this planet.”
“That’s interesting and something we’ll talk about later, but right now I need you to show me the records on the facility manager.”
“No.” The female crossed her arms. Rivka pushed the female back into the chair, holding onto her wrist as she did so.
“What’s your password?”
“What?”
Rivka typed it in with one finger.
“How did you do that?”
“I pushed down on the keys and it showed on the screen,” Rivka replied flippantly. The female attempted to reach the keyboard, but Rivka threw her back so hard that the chair flipped over. “You’re starting to piss me off.”
“They said you were coming. An impostor trying to get into our systems. I won’t let you!”
“And Miss Lauton would have, I suspect. That was why she had to go. She wasn’t complicit in all this. There’s hope for your planet, whatever your name is. The easy answer for me is to kill you, or you could sit there quietly and wait for me to finish.”
Rivka flipped through the various systems. The going was slow since she didn’t know the Zaxxon logic. “I need your help,” she conceded, grabbing the female’s wrist again. “Where are the files?”
Two clicks later the personnel data appeared. Lauton’s address was there. Rivka made sure the datapad recorded it, then kicked the monitor to crack the screen and tossed the computer out the window. “I can’t leave you here to tell tales, so you’re coming with me.
A sharp retort told her that the Peacekeeper was engaging someone. “Sounds like Security has arrived. I doubt they brought an army, but now would be a good time for us to leave. Come on.”
The thud of a heavy stride and jingle of weaponry announced Red’s return. Rivka stepped into the hall, dragging the recalcitrant female with her.
“You’re going to have to kill her,” Red stated matter-of-factly and leveled his railgun. She fainted dead away. “Will she stay out for as long as we need?”
“I hope so, because I’m tired of dragging her dumb ass and it’s only been ten meters.”
Red turned on his heel and ran back down the hall. “Get into your office!” he yelled at someone Rivka couldn’t see. They descended the steps three at a time, hit the bottom at a dead run, banged the door open, and sprinted to the ship. In the distance, lights flashed from emergency vehicles.
Once inside, Red slammed the door button with the palm of his big hand. “Chaz, take us to the address I gave you. Next stop, Miss Lauton’s home.”
Chapter Fifteen
“We will be there in thirty seconds,” Chaz announced. Rivka was in the short hall to the bridge, but turned around and headed back to where Red waited by the hatch.
“Ankh, tell me you got in.”
Jay answered. “They got in. Ankh said something about taking a victory lap before he disappeared back into his crazy communion with his AI.”
“Has Ankh ever run a step in his life? He doesn’t strike me as the physical sort,” Red muttered.
“He got in.” Rivka smiled. “And he found what we needed him to find. I hope we don’t have to hit those other five planets. I’m tired of the running and gunning. I’m a lawyer, for Pete’s sake. I know people are usually pissed at us, but generally, it’s not on a global scale.”
“We have a nice spaceship,” Red offered.
“There is that,” Rivka replied.
The spaceship touched down. There was a metallic crunch from underneath. “Straight out the hatch, Magistrate,” Chaz directed.
Red mashed the button and hit the steps at a dead run because speed was his friend. Rivka raced after him. There was one house in a small wooded area, squarish and desert tan. Red peeled off and let Rivka continue to the door. He faced the spaceship and watched the open areas on either side of it.
Rivka studied the door before pounding on it. There was a button next to the door with a screen above. She pushed it.
After receiving no response, she pushed it again. Rivka raised her hand to pound on the door when a face appeared on the small screen.
“Go away!”
Rivka looked at the harried female in the image and instantly felt sorry for her. “I am Magistrate Rivka Anoa, here on behalf of the Federation. I think you might have information that can help me in an ongoing investigation into the companies that have been doing business with your old employer. I believe your firing was to impede my efforts.”
The door opened. Lauton looked even more frazzled in person.
“We know about the fake money going through your systems. We also know that you didn’t direct it,” Rivka stated, watching for the body language to tell her if she had hit the mark. Lauton fell forward into Rivka’s arms.
Exhaustion from not sleeping, dehydration from not drinking, weak from lack of food. She’d been under pressure since the beginning of Rivka’s investigation. In her mind flashed angry conversations when she had discovered that the vast majority of transactions were fabricated by computers she never knew existed that were tied into their main system. Her demise had been imminent once she’d refused to play.
“I suspect your life is in jeopardy. You need to come with me if you want to live.”
“We got company, Magistrate!” Red shouted. The Peacekeeper’s weapons started to fire, creating a barrier through which the security mob couldn’t pass. “Time to go!”
Rivka hoisted the female onto her shoulder. “You’ll thank me later.” She started to run with Red at her side as they raced for the steps into the ship. A head appeared where one shouldn’t have been, and Red fired his railgun. The hypersonic dart tore into the ground, spraying a cloud of dirt into the prying eyes.
“I love my gun!” Red declared.
“Why are we always running?” Rivka asked between breaths as she bounded up the steps, the female over her shoulder not slowing her down. “I hate running.”
Once inside, Red mashed the button, retracting the stairs and securing the hatch. “Get us out of here!” Rivka ordered. She plopped Lauton into a seat.
The ship lifted off and angled sharply upward as it headed for the stars. “Gravitic shields are up,” Chaz reported.
“Are they going to try and stop us from leaving?” Rivka asked.
“Sensors show some movement from ships in orbit around the planet, but nothing suggesting an attempt to interfere with our departure.”
“Then why the shields?”
“Because we don’t trust anyone,” the evolving EI replied.
“I like the way you think, Chaz. The farther we get into this Mandolin cesspool, the worst things stink. I stopped looking for predicate crimes a long time ago. We have the thread and are pulling it. The racket is starting to unravel.”
“This seems more like a war than a legal action, Magistrate. Excuse me for being forward.” Red sounded contrite. “Don’t get me w
rong, I like blowing shit up as much as the next guy, and this railgun is the cat’s ass—no disrespect, Hamlet—but I can’t protect you if all we’re doing is fighting. I’m supposed to be the guy in the background, invisible because all eyes are on what you’re doing. But they aren’t. We’re side by side, fighting our way through a determined enemy who seems to have unlimited resources. We have Peacekeeper and us. That’s it.”
Red waved his arm to take in the group packed into the recreation room—a Crenellian with his AI, a Zaxxon, four humans, and a cat.
Rivka sat forward with her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. “It’s not supposed to be like this. The vast majority of Federation citizens are law abiding. They want to live their lives free from interference, doing the daily grind for their families. I believe that. If we toppled Mandolin tomorrow, most people on these planets wouldn’t know the difference. Bad Company would step back in and start filling orders. Bulk freighters would arrive, possibly from the same places as before, carrying the same supplies but showing a different flag.”
Jay offered Lauton a glass of water and a spaghetti and meatballs bar, the crew’s new favorite meal.
Lindy helped Red remove his gear. “No new holes?”
He laughed and shook his head. “Only the ones I was born with.”
She groaned, and Jay feigned gagging.
“I’m looking into Mandolin Partnership and their interference with business affairs. Zaxxon Major is one of more than twenty planets who have become slaves to Mandolin,” Rivka started to explain.
Lauton shrugged. “I’ve never heard of Mandolin. We deal with Gargeath for our interstellar shipments of goods, and Lameeris for the digital billing, which is the most lucrative enterprise on Zaxxon Major!” Lauton spoke proudly, but the looks on the others’ faces dampened her enthusiasm. “That was last week, before I knew all of it was a sham.”
The wind gone from her sails; she once again looked sick and frail. Lauton was human in appearance, except for her lack of ears, which were covered by a shock of bright red hair. Her eyes were a vivid blue. Lauton leaned back in the chair and studied the faces that looked at her.
“What now?” she asked, barely above a whisper. “Zaxxon Major is my home.”
Judge, Jury, & Executioner Boxed Set Page 33