Edge World

by Michael Guinn

  “Missing persons, particularly adults, are really a low priority, unless or until there is evidence that a crime has been committed. Adults disappear all of the time for a variety of reasons. Tell me why you think that the missing Dr. Pierson had any connection to the Outlands,” asked Amanda, “and why you think a crime has been committed?”

  “I had better give you some background first. In the beginning I was to lead a research team back to the equatorial jungle area that we had a team explore about four years ago. I am a Professor of Biology at the University of San Paulo, on Terra. My main interest is the study of unusual plant life that we are finding on the different planets. While most of my time is spent at the University, I recently received a grant from Pharmetco, a drug manufacturing company. There was an interesting plant discovered by an earlier plant collector in your jungle region.”

  “How does this tie in with Dr. Pierson being missing,” asked Captain Santos?”

  “That is what I am trying to explain,” Dr. Blake snapped. “At the last minute Pharmetco insisted that not only we include him in the team, but that he would be in charge. No one is happy about this but me. As far as we can tell he has no field experience at all and that for the last ten years he has been in Administration for Pharmetco. This could be a great find. There is a very long-chain molecule in a certain plant that looks promising for several different uses.”

  I should have followed my instincts and booted her out the door, thought Captain Santos. I still don’t see the tie-in.

  “You still haven’t told me anything that would require OSI intervention.”

  “I think he went to the jungle; Dr. Pierson I mean.”

  “You think he went by himself? That doesn’t make any sense. He could never survive there by himself.”

  “Dr. Pierson had a meeting yesterday morning. He wouldn’t say who he was meeting but one of the staff saw two women in very primitive dress go into his rooms. She had been on-planet before and was sure that the women came from a jungle tribe.”

  “Still, it has only been a few days, not really long enough to start a criminal case. What leads you to believe that Dr. Pierson is in trouble” asked Captain Santos?

  Dr. Blake sat quiet for a few moments, either marshalling her thoughts or trying to decide how much to say to a Law Enforcement Captain. She was sitting in the same way she stood; as if she had a steel rod up her back. Captain Santos had interviewed hundreds if not thousands of individuals, some guilty of a crime, some not, but she thought here was someone who could talk all day and not really say anything informative at all.

  “Some of the research assistants that are with us this time have been here before with a different group. It was through them that Pharmetco learned the existence of some unusual characteristics in one of the plants found here. Originally Pharmetco gave me a grant to take a team here for further studies. As I said, at the last minute they attached Dr. Pierson to head up the research team.”

  “You said you were not unhappy at being replaced by Dr. Pierson?”

  “Well, it may be hard to believe but I actually don’t like being in charge of projects. Too much responsibility. So, I was really happy to see Dr. Pierson take over the project. He can do the administration work, documents, payroll, etc. and I can do the field work which is what I really enjoy.”

  Captain Santos thought about all that Dr. Blake had said. “What I am going to do is hand this back to the City Militia to handle. We normally don’t have authority to work problems inside the cities unless there is some tie-in to city outsiders.” This was sort of a lie but decided it really was a Militia case. “I will attach a note to the file to immediately inform OSI if there is found a connection to the tribes, as you believe. That is the best I can do for you right now Dr. Blake.”

  Dr. Blake did not seem enthusiastic about this action but asked no further questions but merely stood up to leave. After she had gone, Amanda thought, now that is strange, after all the fuss she had made, to give up so easily. Well, I have other work to do.

  The rest of the morning went smoothly and Amanda began to believe if the afternoon was as quiet, that she might actually make it home at a reasonable hour for a change, when the comm lit up with the face of Captain Miguel Carlos, the Head of the Atlanta City Militia.

  “What fair problem that the Militia can’t solve that you are going to try to foster on me Carlos?” Amanda asked in high spirit. She and Miguel had ragged on each other even before Amanda had move into the top spot at OSI.

  “It is more of a mystery than anything else at this point. We received your incident report on Dr. Pierson and your interview with Dr. Blake, and like you said, this is our problem right now, not yours. While missing persons, particularly an adult who has been missing only a few days is nothing to get excited about, I did send an officer over to the hotel to check it out. Nothing to tell us about Dr. Pierson, but the officer found several drops of blood on the carpet near the door. No way to do a DNA match since he is from off planet and records from Terra would take weeks. We would still send in a request if he doesn’t show up, but it is expensive and we still don’t know if a crime has been committed.”

  “Is there anything that points to Outlander involvement?”

  “As a matter of fact, there were two young ladies seen exiting the hotel two days ago, about the time Dr. Pierson disappeared. Nothing too unusual about that, but they were in jungle clothing and had various facial clan markings. The manager said he would have made them leave the hotel if they hadn’t already been on the way out.”

  “I had heard about the two women but no sign of this Professor Pierson,” Amanda asked?

  “None what so ever,” replied Captain Carlos. “I am going to send an officer to interview Dr. Blake. Do you want to send someone too?”

  “No, we have done all the interviewing of Dr. Blake that I want to do. Please send us a copy of your interview with her, however. If there are any real indications of Outlander involvement I will attach Sgt. Townsead to work with your officers. How is that?””

  “Will do. It probably be first thing in the morning, but I will send you a copy of the interview after it is finished.”

  “That works for me too,” Amanda replied.

  With a somewhat cleared screen, Captain Santos decided it would be a good time to check in on her daughters.

  “Sgt. Manns, I am going to be on my comm for a while. I need to check on my girls. You can flag me if anything urgent breaks.”

  “You having problems with your kids?”

  “They aren’t really bad. Ever since they became teenagers I can’t get them to listen to anything I say. Probably no worse than other teenagers but they have gotten off on some mystic tangent the last few months and I really don’t know what to do with them. They have always known that their father was a tribesman from one of the jungle tribes, but lately they somehow found out that he also was a medicine man and believe that they have inherited all these mystic powers. I doubt that Weldon had much of anything except the ability to heal the sick and injured. But you know kids. I caught them trying to work a spell of some kind. I probably wouldn’t have noticed except they were burning incense in their room and I smelled it. So now they are on probation for two weeks which includes spring recess so all of their friends are out doing whatever teens do when school is not in session and they aren’t.

  Sgt. Manns left the office but Amanda sat and thought about the twin’s father.

  It was 16 year ago and Amanda had recently returned from four years training and education on Terra. Both of her parents were dead from an aircar accident and she was fortunate to get one of the few grants given out each year by the government. Specializing in administration and law enforce got Amanda a job with a Government Trade Commission that was visiting each of the jungle tribes in an effort reduce the raids on the trade caravans. Amanda’s job was mainly fetch and carry but she enjoyed the jungle and jungle tribes that she had never been in a position to visit prior to going to Earth.
After four months the Commission was visiting the last tribe, the Pawassa, and most everyone was anxious to go home. The Pawassa were probably the most civilized of the many jungle tribes. They controlled the river trade between Atlanta City and Southport, running riverboats between the top and bottom of the continent. Many of their young men spent two or three years working on these riverboats.

  After two months Amanda could understand the dialect of the jungle tribes better that anyone else on the committee, thrusting her into the position of interpreter. One of the junior negotiators for the Pawassa tribe was a young medicine man by the name of Weldon. Regardless of his powerful position, he was shunned by the other medico men because of his age. Most Medicine men inherited their position from their fathers, often in middle-age. Weldon’s father had died trying to rescue a fellow tribesman from fast flowing river.

  Because of his age being close to her own, they spent what free time they had together talking about the many plants the tribe harvested from the jungle, and life in general. As is usual when two young people from the opposite sex are thrown into close proximity, they fell in love with each other, or at least in lust. The affair was intense but brief; they knew that neither of them could live the other’s life style. Weldon tried, never the less, to get Amanda to stay with the tribe for a while, hoping that after time she would come to enjoy the lifestyle that he couldn’t give up. But she wouldn’t stay and after a tearful good bye, returned to Atlanta City.

  They promised to keep in touch, but only a week after she had last seen him it was reported to her that Weldon had been killed in a hunting accident. Amanda wanted to return and see for herself what had happen, berating herself for not staying with him as he wanted. Deep down she knew that she could never adapt to tribal life, but it is easy to fool yourself, particularly with a first love. Finely she pushed Weld out of her mind and concentrated on her new position with the City Militia as a Community Liaison Officer. That worked fine for a couple of months till she realized that she was pregnant. Amanda knew that she could raise the baby on her own, but it would be a constant remainder of Weldon so she decided to give the babies up for adoption when they were born. There were lots of couples looking to adopt: because the planet was still under-populated, the Government paid a substantial stipend for children until they were eighteen. But after the twin girls were born, there was no way that Amanda could give the girls up. Now some fifteen years later she couldn’t imagine why she thought about giving them up: as much as the headache they gave her, as all teenagers do, she loved them to pieces. Amanda wanted to go home and check on them but knew that they would say that she didn’t trust them to live up to the terms of their probation, and she did trust them to be honest with herself but it was hard to start letting go. Instead she worked on the ever-increasing documents that her assistant laid on her desk every morning. Electric communications were great but it seemed like everyone wanted a paper trail and even electronic messages were printed out to be passed around.

  Chapter 2

  Jody and his best friend Noches were out hunting, their usual occupation camp chores. Although the amount of game brought into camp by the children was small overall, every bit helped and as they aged their input would increase. Also, it was the adventure of exploring that drew the children as much as the hunting. On this particular day they were frolicking as much as hunting but saw a fox creeping over the edge of a coulee in the near distance. Fox skins were a valuable trade item and if the fox was sneaking up on a rabbit they might get a shot at both of them. Ground reining their horses, both boys walked in a crouch carefully up to the rim of the coulee, arrows nocked, moving as silently as possible. Suddenly a young deer, scarcely older than a fawn, jumped up from its bed, less than fifteen feet in front of them. Although neither had ever shot a deer previously, their hunting skills not sufficient to let them get within deadly range of their small bows, they both shot at the deer instinctively. At that close range Noches’ arrow stuck in the deer’s right leg while Jody’s slipped in behind its right shoulder. The deer fell but then bounded up and started across the coulee but moving so slowly that the running boys were able to keep up with it. As the deer reached the crest on the other side of the coulee it fell again and stayed down this time although it kept trying to struggle back to its feet.

  Jody and Nachos both were whooping and yelling at the top of their lungs even as out of breath as they both were. Neither had ever shot anything approaching the size of the deer and they were delirious with joy.

  “Look at that, look at that,” crowed Jody. “I really did it.”

  “You mean We did it,” corrected Nachos. “That’s my arrow in it too.”

  “Yeah, but it was my arrow that really killed it,” retorted Jody.

  “Both of our arrows killed it,” insisted Nachos, not to be done out of any of the glory.

  “Anyway, isn’t it great? Maybe they will give us bigger bows now, what do you think?’

  “Nachos, what are you looking at now?” asked Jody

  Nachos was staring open-mouthed over Jody’s shoulder.

  “What’s going on? We have to…”

  As Jody turned to see what Nachos was so intent upon, he stopped in mid-sentence. Not three hundred yards away across the rolling grassland, and riding hard towards them, were a dozen of the painted jungle savages, all carrying bows or lances or both, and looking very mean. Both boys knew that a few of the young men and women from the jungle villages sometimes would sneak around the caravans, usually at night and steal small items that were generally left unguarded by the Master Trader as a sort of tax. But neither boy had seen this many at one time and there were no doubts in their minds about what to do. All thoughts of their deer forgotten, they ran pell mell down and then up out of the coulee for their horses. Jody, being the faster runner, would have reached the horses first except a small hole under the grass tripped him. As he scrambled up he realized his ankle was sprained and he could only hobble the last few feet to his horse, afraid to look behind him. Nachos was already astride and riding as if the devil was behind him, a real possibility, as Jody settled with relief into his saddle. Just as he kicked his mount into flight, he felt a searing pain in his back. He leaned over the neck of his horse, desperately trying to hold on but his eyes were going dark and he felt his fingers slipping. He last thought was no one would ever know about the deer that he had killed.

  *****

  When Captain Santos entered the office the next day she was greeted with almost an empty incident screen. Perhaps Lt. Owens is starting to handle the night shift. Only a drunken fight between a tribesman and a City man outside one of the taverns frequented by some of the lower class as well as many of the tribesmen and a report of some problems with a Nomad tribe. There also was a report of problems with two caravans but no details.

  “I will probably get a call from Jacob Ericson of the Trader’s Association if it is serious, “Captain Santos thought.

  “Way too quiet even this early in the week “I don’t like it this quiet, though this will give me a chance to finish those personnel adjustments I have been putting off till ‘later.” The truth be known, Captain Santos didn’t really like the administrative part of her job. While some OSI Department Chiefs seldom if ever left their office, preferring to direct their officers remotely, Santos used every excuse possible to get out into the field. She grew up in a Trader family and was never totally comfortable with city life. It was almost a reprieve when the comm screen lit up. As Captain Santos guessed, it was Jacob Ericson from the Traders Association.

  “Good morning Jacob. How can I help you today?”

  “Good morning Amanda. I am calling in regards to those caravan attacks over the weekend” replied Jacob. “I think you should have received the reports already.”

  “Yes, I received the initial reports although they didn’t really tell me enough to take any action. What do you know about the whole thing?”

  I talked to the Master Traders from each of the two c
aravans by comm but haven’t gotten a written report yet. Comms have been terrible with all the static we have been getting lately. What I have gotten is not very clear. It has been years since we have had any trouble with the tribes. In fact, you were with the Commission that set up the agreements allowing their youth to make little sneak raids for gimcrack goods as long as no one got hurt.”

  “I gather this was a lot more serious. What happened? Do you know which tribe and how many tribesmen were involved?”

  I tell you, Amanda, it really doesn’t make any sense. The Masters reported that a bunch of raiders from the Pawassa tribe made daylight attacks on two caravans. There were several injured, including an eight-year-old boy, but no deaths. The Pawassa don’t even live close to the caravans that were attacked. I could believe it if they were Lotties. They live the closest to the caravans that were attacked, although they have a pretty small tribe, just a few hundred total including women and children. You know how people exaggerate when excited. I have sent out special warnings to all of the other caravans to be on the look-out. I don’t think we would have had so many injuries if we had been expecting trouble”.

  “There is more to this than appears, Jacob, and I promise you we will get to the bottom of this. Which village is their home base/ turn-a-round point and when will they reach them?”

  Our ‘D’ caravan will reach Little Falls some time tomorrow night. ‘F’ caravan will be at Junction on Fifthday. Both caravans will lay over a couple of days while we get additional crew out to them. The more serious of the wounded were flown to New Naples. They have the closest hospital facilities and some say they are as good as the hospitals in Atlanta City. The rest will be treated at their home base. Which ones do you will want to interview first”?

  Captain Santos thought about the problem, reviewing who she had readily available.

  “Jacob, please advise those two Trader Masters that an Investigation team will be arriving at Little Fall tomorrow night. They will want to talk to the Trading Masters as well as the injured individuals. They will then go to New Naples.”