“Maybe other diplomats can offer their contingents to help?” Lindy urged.
“I won’t ask them that. With the murders, and now this? I can’t take the risk of asking them to loosen their own security for someone else. Spreading us thin may be the plan. Then they’ll hit where we aren’t.”
Lindy picked up Ankh and starting running toward the police vehicle. “Are we going?” Jay called after them. She followed.
Chapter Sixteen
Ankh, buddy, give me some green lights, Red begged.
Have the Magistrate send me your route.
“I heard,” Rivka said from the back seat. She hunched over her datapad and tapped the map, dragged a finger along the route, and hit Send.
Accessing now. You can accelerate. It’ll be green by the time you get there.
Red jammed the accelerator down, and the hover-van leapt forward. He took the highest travel lane. At that speed, he was able to skip over other vehicles, much to the passed drivers’ chagrin. Rivka held on, cringing and starting to flinch in anticipation of a collision. The light remained red.
“We’re going to die,” Rivka proclaimed.
The light changed, and Red hit the intersection at nearly full speed. He barely missed the last of the cross traffic, but the lane ahead was now clear. He took a lower lane, and the vehicle increased speed. It wasn’t long before he caught up with the traffic, and he started to swerve and dodge between the vehicles.
Rivka checked her datapad amid the bouncing and jerking. When she kept it even with her eyes, the map showed they were less than five minutes away. She wondered if it was taking into account Red’s egregious speed.
She had her answer three minutes later when the van slowed to a crawl to turn the corner onto the street where they would find the Crenellians. Their building, which bordered the diplomatic sector, was an icon of modern architecture, welcoming to locals and aliens alike.
Parked vehicles lined the roadway before it. According to Ankh, one of them contained a bomb. Judging by the destruction at the Forum, they wouldn’t be able to use the leased hover-van to block the explosion, but that was what they were going to do anyway.
“Put it right in front of the doorway, Red.”
“My thoughts exactly, Magistrate.” The hover-van rushed ahead, swerved off the main travel lane, and stopped in front of an ornate building with a simple entrance. Over the double door was a sign that said, Crenellations, Inc. Beneath that was a quote: Secure your planet. Secure your people.
Rivka jumped from the van and up the steps. She tried the door, but it was locked. She pounded on it with one hand, stabbing the buzzer with the other. Red climbed out of the hover-van on the side opposite the parked vehicles. He stood tall right behind the Magistrate, tightening his helmet and blocking as much space around her as his massive frame allowed.
“Come on, people!” Rivka shouted.
“What if Ankh already had them evacuate?”
“Dammit.” Rivka turned to her internal comm chip. Ankh, did you tell the Crenellians to evacuate? We’re here, and no one is answering.
She waited. She felt like her head would explode.
Ankh, buddy, are you there? “Ankh isn’t answering.”
Lindy, are you with Ankh? Red asked, talking to the whole team.
He’s jamming the activation signal like he did at the Forum. It’s taking all he’s got, it appears. I’ve never seen a vein throb in his forehead before. I don’t know if he warned his people, but you need to get out of there. He looks like he’s barely in control.
“Come on!” Rivka yelled, keeping her finger on the buzzer. A Crenellian face appeared on a small screen above the button.
“You can let go of the button now,” a voice said, sounding nearly identical to Ankh in the delivery.
“You’re in danger. Someone has planted a bomb, and you need to get out. How many of you are in there?”
“What if you’re the bomber?” the voice asked.
“Say what? I’m Magistrate Rivka Anoa. Ankh’Po’Turn is on my team, and he is afraid for your safety. Please, come with me.”
“We are safe inside, I assure you. Ankh. He told us he had arrived. He’s an outcast from gentle Crenellian society. He turned on us and is no longer welcome on Crenellia. You need to know who you’ve cast your lot with.”
“I really don’t care about any of that. There’s a bomb out here, and it’ll be best if we’re not out here with it.”
The screen went blank.
“You have got to be shitting me.” Rivka stabbed the buzzer button and held it down. She could hear the tone through the door until it stopped. She pressed the button a few times to confirm her suspicions.
The Crenellians had deactivated the button.
“Fuck those guys,” Red said. Rivka nodded, evaluated the situation, and came to a decision. “We can’t let their neighbors get blasted. We need to find that bomb.”
“No, you don’t!” Red declared, grabbing the Magistrate by the arm. “We need to go. Let the bomb techs find it and take care of it.”
Rivka shrugged free and pointed up and down the street. “What bomb techs? How long before Ankh loses control? We need to find it and either deactivate it or drag it out of here.”
“What do you know about disarming a bomb?” The whites of Red’s eyes shone with the passion of his plea.
“I have Chaz at my beck and call. Shall we?” Rivka asked calmly.
“You will be the death of me.” Red’s shoulders sagged in his surrender to the Magistrate’s will.
“But you won’t be the death of me.” She slapped Red on the shoulder and ran to the first vehicle opposite the door. “I’ll go this way, and you go that way.”
She peeked through both the front and back windows while trying to see under the skirts of the various hover configurations. She finally moved close, braced her legs, and lifted the vehicle with one arm to look beneath. Fans, wiring, directional controls—nothing untoward.
Red had his hands cupped around his face as he tried to see into the next vehicle. Once satisfied that it wasn’t packed with explosives or unidentified boxes, he followed Rivka’s lead in lifting up the vehicle to look underneath. Satisfied that there was nothing obvious, he moved to the next.
Just like Rivka.
And then they moved to the next and the next until they reached the end of the street.
We haven’t found anything in any of the vehicles lining the street, Rivka reported to her team. I hate to ask this, but is Ankh sure it’s a vehicle bomb?
The long delay suggested no one knew.
Anyone have an idea of what we do until Ankh is back with us?
Get Ankh to stop what he’s doing, but only after you’ve cleared out, Lindy replied.
Red and Rivka met back at the van. “What if this was an elaborate ruse?” Rivka asked.
“That guy is more than capable, judging by how hard Ankh has had to work to find the breadcrumbs,” Red answered. “I don’t know what to tell you, but what if he hid the bomb better than we were able to check?”
“And standing in the open like two morons is not the best way to deal with the lack of evidence?”
“I remain in awe of your eloquence, Magistrate.”
She flashed her middle finger at him.
The inaction stalemate was broken by the arrival of a delivery van. The hover-vehicle eased down the street to stop in front of Crenellations, Inc. Rivka waved and Red walked around the other side, his hand on his slung railgun, ready to pull it to the front.
The driver watched in alarm. “Can you move your van? I have a delivery for this address.”
Rivka smiled at the driver.
“I’m Magistrate Rivka Anoa, and I need to see that package.”
“No can do,” the man replied, pursing his lips in his belligerence. “On-Time Delivery guarantees that the packages in its care are secure at all times. We have a contract between the sender and the recipient that we hold dear. I’m sorry.” His ey
es turned to Red who leaned casually against his hover-van with his railgun balanced across both hands.
“You can threaten me, but I won’t budge. Fine. I’ll carry it around your vehicle.”
When Rivka reached through the window to stop the man, he floored it, and she grabbed him by the throat. The vehicle dove forward with Rivka flopping half in and half out of the driver’s window. The van jerked to a stop.
“I’m a Federation Magistrate executing a valid search warrant. Don’t move this vehicle while I register it with your company. She kept one hand on his throat but stopped squeezing when he clutched at the offending arm. Rivka removed her datapad and balanced it against the window frame. “Chaz, transmit a search warrant to On-Time Delivery that I need to see the package intended for delivery to Crenellations, Inc. Driver is...” She looked purposefully at the driver.
“Number 37. Belesta,” he stated.
“Got it?”
“Yes, Magistrate. The warrant has been transmitted.”
“Now park this vehicle right here and get out. I think you’re carrying a bomb, so you need to put as much distance between this van and you as you can. I’ll let you go as soon as you park it. Do not shut the vehicle off.
The driver tapped it into Park, but kept his hand over the button to re-engage the drive.
“If you do that, I’ll have my bodyguard kill you and destroy your vehicle. How does that sound?”
“It sounds like bullshit. Who are you people?”
The driver’s communication screen lit up with an order from his company to cooperate with Federation authorities.
“It’s all you, Magistrate.” He released his seatbelt and signed that he was going to get out.
She let go and stepped back for the man to get out. When he opened the door, Red looked disappointed that he didn’t get to fire his railgun.
The man started walking, glancing over his shoulder as he went. When the Magistrate carefully opened the back door, he started to run. Rivka dove to the ground. Red ducked behind his hover-van and covered his ears.
Nothing happened.
“I thought he might have been an accomplice,” Rivka said. She stood up to find a single package in the back of the delivery vehicle. Red aimed his railgun at the man’s back. Rivka waved him off. “Let him go.”
“As you wish,” Red slung his weapon and joined Rivka in looking at the outside of the package.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“If you’re going to get blown up, it wouldn’t do my resume any good to survive the ordeal.”
“Fair enough. For the record, I have no intention of getting blown up.”
“For the record, I have absolutely no control over whether you get yourself blown up or not. The least I can do is have my atoms scattered with yours.”
“That’s so romantic. Do you talk to Lindy that way?”
“She hasn’t tried to get me blown up.”
Rivka put her hands on her hips and glared at her bodyguard. He pointed at the package with his eyes. “Are you going to open it?”
“I don’t think so. What do you say we move the van to the open field, and you light it up with Blazer?”
“Now you’re talking my language.” He got in, started it, lifted off, and moved the van slowly toward the field. He parked it in the middle and walked a safe distance to a shallow ravine. Rivka joined him, and they dropped behind the hill. With a clean field of fire and nothing behind the van for kilometers. Red smiled, Rivka covered her ears, and he fired.
With precision, he walked the hypervelocity projectiles back and forth through the cargo area of the delivery van.
“You think it should have blown up by now?” Red asked.
Lindy, get Ankh to lift his block. We’re clear.
Wait! Red jumped in. “Did you check our van? It was parked outside the Collum Daily while he was there.”
“Dammit! Could we have put it any closer to the building?”
“I don’t think so.” Red jumped up and started to run. He twisted his arm behind him to point at Rivka, who had popped up behind him. “Stay there!”
Don’t lift the block! Just a few more minutes, Rivka encouraged.
Hurry, Lindy replied.
It took Red four seconds to find the device. Where could someone put a bomb where they wouldn’t attract attention? Behind a panel above the skirt in the rear engine compartment. When Red saw it, he quickly shut the panel and ran to the driver’s seat. He fired the vehicle up and headed toward the field, skimming over the ground until he could park it next to the delivery van.
He shut it down and ran. Right before he reached the ravine, he gave Rivka the thumbs-up.
Tell Ankh to lift his block.
The explosion was spectacular, reducing their hover-van to a cloud of flying debris and the bottom frame and turning the delivery van into a smoking husk.
“I wonder what was in the package to the Crenellians?” Rivka stood when the debris stopped falling.
“I bet they’ll know when something they ordered never arrives. We could say there was a bomb in the package,” Red suggested.
“We could. We’ll leave it as an open issue. They can make a claim if they so wish, but I don’t think they will.” Rivka chewed the inside of her lip. “They could have gotten their package, but they were jerks and left us by ourselves to guess what it was.”
“Now what?”
“The next breadcrumb. Our perp is on the run in a city with a hundred thousand humans and ten thousand aliens. I’m sure he has a lot of places to hide, so we have to either root him out or draw him out.” Rivka nodded definitively. “I think a challenge to his manhood is in order.”
Chapter Seventeen
When the law enforcement van showed up, Ankh was sound asleep, head cradled in Jay’s lap.
“Sorry it took so long to find the bomb,” Rivka said softly.
“But we won, right?” Jay replied.
“We stopped him this time, thanks to a little luck. Look what Ankh had to go through to keep us safe. If he hadn’t done that, we would have been smears on the facade of Crenellations, Inc.”
Red found Lindy and pulled her to him, kissing her deeply. Rivka watched in growing discomfort. “Excuse me. Bomber on the loose.”
“I’d say I was sorry, but I’m not,” Red started.
“Should we wake him so he can see his fellow Crenellians?” Jay asked.
“No.” Rivka slowly shook her head. “They said he was a traitor to his people.”
Jay put a hand over the small ear on the side of Ankh’s oversized head. “I need to go kick their asses,” she declared.
Rivka stopped her with a hand and a smile. “No need. He found his people on the War Axe, and then he found us. Can you imagine living in a place where there’s no sense of humor?”
Silence filled the van. Jay softly stroked Ankh’s head, picking at the night vision goggles that remained propped on his forehead.
“Isn’t that the steampunk look?” Red ventured.
“I like it. It’s much better than smoking a pipe to look distinguished.” Jay smiled at the sleeping alien.
“Where’s Harpeth?” Rivka asked.
“Still at the Forum.”
“Did they find anything?”
Lindy shook her head. “Not a damn thing.”
“I suspect the bombs are self-sanitizing. They blow up in a way that vaporizes the mechanics of the device. For how small they are, they pack a hell of a wallop.” Rivka pointed at the front seat, and Red climbed in. “Back to the Forum, my good man!” Rivka called to the driver.
“Yes, Magistrate.” The specialist secured the door, lifted off, and headed out.
The pace of the search had slowed by the time the Magistrate returned to the Forum. The last time she had seen it, the dust cloud still hung heavy in the air, and the explosion was ringing in her ears. Supra Harpeth waved for her to follow him to the forensics van.
To Rivka, it looked new, but the supra said
it was ten years old but little-used. They didn’t often have events of that magnitude. “There was only one other, but that was a building collapse from shoddy workmanship. Otherwise, the lab deploys during the annual exercises. That’s it.”
Inside, they found it nearly immaculate, with a single aisle and narrow tables with shelves lining both sides and shelves checkerboarding the walls. The technology was arrayed across the front wall. Various devices to scan, sample, and report were stacked for ease of access and use.
A single technician worked while instrumental music played softly in the background. He was examining varied bits and pieces using a magnifying lens attached to eyeglasses. No one wore eyeglasses on Collum Gate. That was old tech. These were specific to the job and probably standard kit for the van. When the technician looked up at the impatiently waiting duo, his bug eyes shot wide.
He removed the glasses and blinked the lights clear. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“What’s the word?” the supra asked, focusing on the technician and not the myriad of bits and pieces scattered across the tables and shelves.
“I have some interesting bits of wiring, but it could be from anything. That was a big building.”
“Nothing, then?” Harpeth sounded dejected.
The technician shook his head. “I’ll keep looking. There’s a lot more to sort through.”
Rivka thanked him before leaving the van.
Twilight was settling over the city. “We could start fresh in the morning,” Harpeth offered.
“Or we could keep him running until he messes up. I expect your people are raiding every address known for our Mister Shnobhauer.”
“Once this area was isolated and no casualties were confirmed, we sent out three teams. They’ve found nothing. He cleared out earlier today from his main residence.”
“What did he take with him?” Rivka leaned close.
“I don’t know,” Harpeth admitted.
“Take us there right now, please.”
Harpeth pinched his eyes shut, and his face turned pale. “This could be the longest day I’ve ever had.”
Judge, Jury, & Executioner Boxed Set Page 54