“I’m glad you’re on our team. Chaz, arrange a meeting with the Crenellians, too. We may need them to agree to give Ankh the title of ambassador.” Rivka signaled that it was time to leave. “Jay? You’ve been awfully quiet. We need your powers of perception. As a member of the crew, it’s time to earn your keep.”
“I’m so sore!” she blurted.
“What did you do?” Rivka demanded of Red and Lindy.
“Worked out, like she should have done since the Pod-doc finished with her. We have a lot of ground to make up,” Lindy explained.
“Okay,” Rivka replied pleasantly. “Put on your walking shoes, Jay. We’re going to town.”
Opulence greeted the crew when they left the ship. The vehicle took them to a welcome terminal where they were treated to a wide a variety of sights and smells, a representative sampling of the galaxy-wide treats brought to Collum Gate to make any traveler feel welcome. Red walked in front carrying his railgun, and at the back of the entourage, Lindy carried hers. She found that she could look over Rivka’s head, now that she’d been through two sessions in the Pod-doc.
Lindy liked her physical changes. The added four inches of height gave her a completely different perspective. And she could carry weight she had previously considered unfathomable. She told Rivka that if Red went down again, she could carry him. The Magistrate was good with that. Red promised them both for that to happen again, they’d be carrying his corpse.
Jay wanted to stop and browse a couple of the small shops in the massive corridor that welcomed new arrivals.
“We need to get to work, but it’ll be here when we leave. I hope that the people will have an upbeat attitude then because their world will be safe once more.” As they passed, Rivka smiled and nodded at the shopkeepers.
“These folks are anxious because it’s their livelihood that’s being threatened,” Jay replied. “There’s no threat to their lives, just their health and well-being.”
“I think that’s the same thing,” Rivka said.
Ankh walked along casually. The Magistrate had to slow down since he was already breathing heavily. Red slowed down without looking after Lindy informed him of the pace using the embedded comm chip. They maintained a running conversation while they evaluated threats and the ever-changing tactical situation. Red was in his element and being able to talk about what he did while doing it made him sharper.
And gave him an extra set of eyes, so he didn’t have to turn around to see where the Magistrate was. He was responsible for one-hundred eighty degrees, not three-sixty. What mattered most to him was doing his job, keeping the Magistrate safe so she could do hers.
Someone almost ran into him with a cart. He hadn’t seen it coming because he had let his mind wander.
Get your head out of your ass! he ordered himself, forcing his eyes back and forth to reestablish his situational awareness.
He held up his hand to stop the parade before the team exited. Rivka took the opportunity to look back at the decorations, which were bright without being gaudy. It was classy and well-manicured, a nice way to welcome dignitaries to Collum Gate.
Rivka snarled. And someone out there was ruining it for everyone.
She pulled Ankh close. Chaz had already notified authorities of the Crenellian ambassador’s arrival, so the bait had already been dangled. She was still wrestling with whether to meet with the Crenellians first as part of the ploy or start the investigation. The warrior in her won out. Law enforcement called to her.
Red waved the group forward once he made eye contact with their hover-van driver.
“Stay close,” he called over his shoulder. He led the way down broad steps, in the classic style of gleaming white marble.
Jay nodded appreciatively at the style and class. “I like the way they do things around here.”
“How could you not?” Rivka agreed.
Fury!
The emotion hit her as if the person were standing next to her, but there was no one nearby. Why the anger, and at whom? Rivka wondered, throwing a protective arm around the Crenellian. He tried to shrug it off, but she pulled him closer and spun him around to face her.
A bullet raced through the space where he’d just been and tore into the Magistrate’s abdomen. She doubled over and fell, rolling two steps before stopping and leaving a bloody smear behind.
“Get them in the van!” Red yelled. He leveled his railgun, but had no idea where the bullet had come from. The hiss of its passing left only the vaguest impression of its trajectory.
Lindy wanted to shoot something, but that wasn’t her role. She slung her railgun over her shoulder and scooped up the Magistrate in one arm and Ankh in the other as she zigzagged her way down the remaining steps. Red remained where he was watching for any indication of another shot. A second bullet shattered marble behind Lindy’s erratic path, and then she was in the van, pushing the others to the floor and lying on top of them.
Jay screamed and darted toward the van.
“Get in!” Red yelled at the driver as he ran. He still had no idea where either shot had come from, and that didn’t matter.
The Magistrate was down.
Red jumped into the front passenger seat, and the driver shot off into traffic with wide eyes as he watched the travel lanes. He was trying not to think about the bleeding dignitary in the back.
“How is she?” Red managed to say over his shoulder, watching the outskirts of Collum Gate shoot by as they headed toward the city center.
“Should I go to the hospital, sir?” the driver asked in a shaky voice.
“She’s coming around,” Lindy replied after she lifted herself off the Crenellian and the Magistrate.
“I hate getting shot,” she muttered. “Are we clear?”
“We’re out of the ambush area,” Red proclaimed. “We’re clear if he, she, or it was working alone.”
“Help me up.” Lindy boosted Rivka into the seat, picked Ankh off the floor and put him next to her. Lindy kneeled on the floor to examine both. The Crenellian looked uninjured, albeit ruffled.
Rivka made faces and groaned as she reached inside her jacket. She winced as she removed her hand, then smiled. “Ha! Missed my datapad.”
Red turned to the driver. “Take us to the law enforcement center. The cop shop. We need to have a word about the Magistrate’s security.”
“They weren’t shooting at me. I only got in the way. Congratulations, Ambassador Ankh’Po’Turn. You are the first to survive a Collum assassination attempt. Maybe you and Erasmus can track the digital footprints to see who might have received the notice of your arrival?”
Ankh stared straight ahead and quickly became lost within his mind as he and Erasmus interfaced with the systems they needed to help them in their search.
“Would you look at this shit?” Rivka exclaimed, sounding stronger with each new word. “I have holes in my jacket!”
“You have holes in your body, too,” Lindy said, unused to seeing wounded people. “I hope I never grow accustomed to this.”
“Just enough to not let it bother you. It’ll help you stay on the edge,” Rivka told her. “Did you see where the shots came from?”
“I got nothing,” she replied. “I never saw a puff of smoke, a distortion in the air, or a flash, and the sound seemed to come from multiple directions.”
“Like a railgun but not, or the Magistrate would have been blown in half instead of that baby-sized hole she has,” Red offered.
She pulled her shirt up to verify that the nanocytes had ejected the bullet and sealed the hole. “Baby-sized. Right.” Rivka thought it had felt like a cannonball tearing through her body. “Damn, that hurt,” she complained.
“We have to get lucky every time. They only have to get lucky once,” Red said, knowing that he could influence the Magistrate’s luck in most cases.
“Do you have any nanocytes, Ankh?”
The Crenellian didn’t answer since he was deep within the cyber world.
“I don’t
think so,” Rivka answered for him.
The driver kept glancing over his shoulder at the person they’d carried bleeding into his van. If there hadn’t been a puddle of blood on the floor, he wouldn’t have believed she’d been shot. Color had returned to her face, and she was talking as if nothing had happened.
“There’s a big difference between a single trip to the Pod-doc and multiple trips to boost the little buggers within,” she proclaimed. “You’ve had two?”
“Yes,” Lindy replied simply.
“Red?”
“Three,” he replied.
“Jay?”
The young woman was hunched over and spoke in a small voice. “One.”
“You know what you’re saying, don’t you?” Rivka cautioned. “If you got shot like this, it would hurt more and take longer to heal. As soon as we get back, into the Pod-doc for rounds two and three, understand?”
“Yes, Magistrate,” she replied as she continued to stare at the blood puddle on the van’s floor.
“This person has pissed me off, Red. I don’t like being pissed off. I feel compelled to do something about it.”
Red nodded. “I’m not sure how well I can protect you,” the big man said. “I thought we had it covered, and they still got a shot past me. How long did they have to set up the ambush? Minutes?”
“Every dignitary comes through that entry. Maybe Ankh was a target of opportunity, and the ambush had been set up for a long time. What better way to say you don’t want war than to attack those who supply the arms?”
“That makes more sense than them being able to set up something like that with no lead time. They had the perfect angle. I want this person as badly as you do, Magistrate. I can’t abide someone making me look bad. I take my job seriously. We have yet to complete a mission where someone doesn’t get hurt. You may have to fire me.” Red was grumbling.
“There will be no reward by firing. You’re going to suffer with the rest of us!” Rivka followed her statement with her best maniacal laugh.
“Does it take getting shot to put you in a good mood?” Lindy asked.
“It takes surviving to put me in a good mood. We’ll get this nut grabber, make no mistake. There will be a judgment, and there will be an execution. I’ll zombie every being in this city if I have to to find this person.”
Chapter Nine
The hover-van pulled up in front of the law enforcement station, but Rivka told the driver to continue around the corner. She directed him, as per Chaz’s instructions, into an enclosed area behind the building. When the driver finally parked, uniformed locals were waiting.
The driver seemed relieved to finally stop. He was the first one out and started walking in circles. Red ignored him, climbing out next to introduce himself to the officers. They looked at him and his railgun suspiciously until he slid the weapon around to his back and offered a hand.
He towered over the natives of Collum Gate. It was a slightly heavier gravity than Red was used to, which tended to make the locals shorter and squatter.
Lindy popped the side door and stepped out. She was covered in blood, as was Rivka. With her coat open, it looked like the bottom half of her shirt had been painted red. It still glistened with the freshness of undried blood.
With a determined stride, Rivka approached the group. The officers hurried to help the Magistrate, but she waved them off. Lindy watched from next to the van, her appearance one of guarded mirth. She gave Ankh a hand so he could get out. Jay stayed close to the Crenellian although he tried to edge away from her.
The driver staggered away from the hover-van, doubled over, and puked.
“What happened?” an older Collum officer asked.
“I’m Magistrate Rivka Anoa, and someone tried to kill my friend.” She nodded toward the Crenellian.
The officer blew out a long breath. “No one was killed? Who was injured?” The other locals spread out to form a cordon around Rivka and her group.
Rivka pointed to herself.
“Call an ambulance!” he shouted over his shoulder.
“Stop!” Rivka ordered in her best Magistrate voice.
“No need,” Red added. “Just a flesh wound, and it’s been taken care of.”
“The reception was unexpected only in how quickly it happened. I feel the pain of your investigation.” Rivka looked at her shirt before turning toward Lindy. Her darker clothes made the blood stains less obvious. “I could use a new shirt, and then we need to talk about some things. Most importantly, our next steps.”
“Let’s go inside,” the officer replied. “I’m Supra Harpeth, in charge of the investigation into the ambassadors’ murders.”
“I think that’s why they were taking potshots. He’s the Crenellian ambassador,” Rivka told him, pointing with her thumb over her shoulder.
“We didn’t know. So the attack was another on an ambassador? I better send my investigators to the scene of the attack based on this revelation. That was you, then.”
“Yes. Coming down the front steps. I have to say that the welcome hall of the spaceport is second to none. I am impressed.”
“Besides the shooting,” Jay suggested.
Rivka shrugged noncommittally. “Besides the shooting, that is,” she parroted. “We need to put a stop to whoever is doing this. I wouldn’t be surprised to see all traffic through your arrivals terminal grind to a halt.”
Supra Harpeth nodded to Rivka and bowed to Ankh. “Welcome to Collum Gate. I hope the unfortunate coincidence of a shooting at the spaceport doesn’t prevent you from enjoying our lovely city.”
“Coincidence?” Rivka wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. “I thought you were certain these were linked.”
“We have no evidence that they are linked. They are each so different. One who shoots or bombs has a different mentality than one who is willing to look a victim in the face as they stab them.”
The group started walking. The supra looked troubled. Rivka had told herself she was willing to use all her tools to solve this crime. No one was outside the Magistrate’s purview. She gently touched the supra’s arm.
“I understand how disconcerting this could be. The entirety of Collum Gate’s future is on your shoulders. You’re the scapegoat, but know that we’re here to solve this crime, stop the perp cold, and restore the security of those who live here. We’ll get there,” she said in a calm and even voice, all the while listening to the turmoil boiling within him.
He considered himself a failure because he’d had to call for help, but he had no leads and no suspects.
“We may have a lead,” she offered. Hope sprang to his mind before she let go of his arm. “We’ll need your conference room and a little time. We didn’t want to start anything without you.”
Red watched the exchange, relaxing while they walked through the station.
They had started their investigation the second they’d published the notification that Ankh was the ambassador. They’d gone fishing and had gotten a big bite. Red hoped Ankh would be able to trace the perps through cyberspace. He’d seen Ankh in action and was confident that if it could be done, the Crenellian and the AI who shared his head would be able to do it.
Jay tried to take Ankh’s hand as if she were walking with a child, but he wouldn’t let her, finally angling away until Lindy was between them.
“What’s up, little man?” Jay asked.
“He’s afraid of you,” Lindy suggested without looking at Jayita.
“How so?”
“You’re the serial hugger,” Lindy chided.
“A title that I’m proud to carry, I’ll have you know.” Jay leaned around Lindy and waved her fingers at the Crenellian. He stiffened and kept looking forward.
“We have a great deal to talk about. Ankh? Do you have anything yet on how the information regarding the Crenellian Ambassador went astray?”
“I believe so,” Ankh said less confidently than Rivka had hoped.
The screen shimmered to life as the supra
stood there, waiting patiently for the media to drive the presentation. An image appeared on the screen, and a voice started talking using the system’s speakers.
“Who’s doing that?” Supra Harpeth asked.
The presentation froze. Rivka pointed to Ankh.
“How?” the supra continued.
“He’s really smart,” Rivka answered, leaving it at that. She twirled her finger in the air, and the presentation continued.
“The secret announcement regarding the arrival of the Crenellian was made at this point in time. The communication traveled within a fixed channel until here, when the signal was separated three ways. Two were official, and the third was an official-looking channel. Once the signal traveled into the secure systems, it was controlled. We are only interested in this third channel. It funneled the signal through a decoding system and then broadcast it. Once broadcast, we could not track the recipients.”
“That isn’t much of a lead, but it’s more than we have,” the supra admitted.
“It’s not as much as we’ll have once we tap the server. You’ll need to visit the server farm, where I suspect you will find our next clue. I’m counting on it,” Erasmus confirmed.
“Who was that?”
“Erasmus. One of Plato’s stepchildren. An Artificial Intelligence.”
“Where is it?”
“Erasmus? He’s in Ankh’s head,” Rivka explained, growing perturbed at questions that wouldn’t help them find a killer.
“The little guy is an AI?”
“No. Ankh is a Crenellian. The AI lives in his head with him, and he’s sitting right here.”
“That’s really weird.”
“You know what’s weird? Us sitting around, talking about things that don’t matter, when there’s a server farm out there we need to raid.” Rivka turned to Ankh. “Thank you, Ankh and Erasmus. If you’ll give us the address, we’ll get on our way.”
“I’ll get the armed response unit ready to go,” Supra Harpeth stated. “And while they’re getting ready, we’ll contact the judge to get an access permit.”
Judge, Jury, & Executioner Boxed Set Page 47