Edge World

by Michael Guinn

native plants on their longevity. He said sorties really differ as to how long

  they live. While the average sorties live eight weeks, some of them

  only live for six weeks while others will live for up to twelve weeks. Charlie’s

  project is to try and determine if what they eat affects how long they live.”

  “Aren’t sorties those little native animals that you see all over the place

  outside of towns and cities?”

  “Yes, mom, they are so fuzzy and cute and it seems horrible that they die so soon, but that makes them easier to study. Charlie says that the ones from the equatorial jungles seem to live the longest, but he doesn’t know if it is the environment or the plants they eat. That is what he is hoping to find out for his project.”

  “What do you girls do when you help Charlie?”

  “Mostly we clean cages, sometimes we help him run them in mazes, although we don’t know how that is important to his project,” answered Tamara before her sister could speak.

  “He won’t let us help in the feeding of the sorties; he says it is too important to get it right although he does let us record data as long as he is with us,” added Kristina. “The traders that brought his father specimens still do so for Charlie and they even refuse any type of payment. He doesn’t get quite the number that they brought to his father, but certainly plenty for what Charlie needs.”

  “Has he had any results yet?” their mother asked.

  “Charlie has found one category of plants that may be involved in the extension of their life but he says it will be three or four weeks before the current test group should start dying off. He isn’t worried by the time it is taking but rather that he is running out of the particular plant he needs for the experiment.”

  “Has he tried paying a trader a little something to get him his plant? If they are doing it for money he might have better results.”

  “I don’t think Charlie has very much money to spend on his project and that is why friends of his father have been supplying some plants for free. With his father dead, his mother gets only a few credits over and above what she makes as a research technician for the government,” said Kristina.

  “This project of Charlie’s certain qualifies as biology study and I see no reason you can’t satisfy your biology requirement if you write a paper of what you learned. You will have plenty of time to do that this next week before school starts up again.”

  “But mother,” they cried together, Charlie needs us right now or he won’t be able to finish his project on time!”

  “So, you want me to release you from some of the homework I assigned you as punishment for your last little incident?”

  “We would still do the homework only not as much just this week and Charlie really needs us and please can we?” came out in a rush from both girls.

  “At times you two act like six-year olds. I bet you have already forgotten what you did to earn your punishment in the first place.”

  Both girls gave sullen looks to their mother.

  “We already said we were sorry for that and besides we have already lost one week of our school break,” Kristina said, apparently for both of them.

  “I will tell you what, you can go help Charlie each afternoon this week as long as you get half of your studying done in the morning. You will go straight to Charlie’s and then straight home, nowhere else. If you stray you will be grounded until school starts again and there will be no sweet-talking mom out of it again.”

  “Oh great, mom, we won’t stray and will do our homework every morning. You can depend on us,” as they each gave their mother a big hug.

  Yeah, I can depend on them to come sweet-talking mom the next time they get into trouble, Amanda thought. I think I have been had again as usual.

  Chapter 4

  The next day was relatively quiet, much to the relief of Captain Santos, although she was expecting the other shoe to drop at any time. Sgt. Onn had not reported back from her trip to her father’s jungle tribe, although Captain Santos had told her to take an extra day or two to visit her family. The rest of the team sent out to investigate the caravan attacks would not be back for several days, at the least, and nothing new seemed to be happening on the Pierson murder. She had received a copy of the interview reports but the tech reports would be a couple of days and she still didn’t know if there was going to be any OSI involvement in the case. Oh, there were the usual dozens of petty crimes, robberies, assaults, and domestic violence, but nothing out of the ordinary. To top it all, her communication section had reported no progress on the problems with their comm network. The law enforcement network was separate from the world net, so she didn’t know if it was their equipment or, more likely, a problem with the communication satellites.

  Late in the afternoon Captain Santos received a some-what broken message that her Investigative Team were on their way back from Stanton. With a sigh Captain Santos began work on her often put-off reorganization plan that in a small part would include the next batch of graduates from the OSI Academy. She badly needed more officers but even worse she needed a supervisor to handle the new class. Deep in paperwork, she didn’t hear Lieutenant Baker, her Administrative Officer, come into her office until he knocked on the door frame.

  “Sorry to interrupt you Captain but Jamie has left for the day and there is a Professor Smithe who says he needs to speak with you. Do you want him to come back tomorrow seeing how late it is?”

  “No, it is all right, I will see him now. My housekeeper and my daughters would faint dead away if I came home on schedule two days in a row. Has Lieutenant Owens come in for the night shift?”

  “He came in a little while ago Captain. I believe he is going over the day’s log,” Lieutenant Baker answered.

  “Ok, tell him about our Professor Smithe if you would before you leave.”

  “Certainly. There are a couple of the day shift officers still here if you need anything.”

  Captain Santos had to hide a little smile at this. Although she had been the head of OSI for several months, her top officers still attempted to protect her at times. She stood behind her desk as Lt. Baker entered again with a tall, fair-headed man about her own age, in a dark brown one-piece business jump-suit. Except for a slightly crooked nose, obviously broken at some time, he could have stepped out of a men’s model video.

  “Captain Santos, “he said, “my name is Liam Smithe. I am a Professor of cultural anthropology at the University of San Paulo on Terra. I have been studying the various tribes in the equatorial jungles of various planets for the last year or so.”

  “That’s fine, Professor, but as I am sure Lt. Baker told you, it is very late. What can I do for you?”

  “As I said, I have been studying jungle tribes and when I arrived here on Edge World a week ago I heard you were having some trouble with your tribes I decided to see if I could help. Is attacking the caravans out of character for your equatorial tribes or is there some unknown factor behind these attacks?”

  “May I ask how you learn of attacks on our caravans?” Captain Santos questioned?

  “I had come back to Atlanta City from visiting a small tribe a few days ago when I heard of it from what I gathered was two traders or men that had some connection with the traders. I don’t think either man knew the whole story as they had different takes on the attacks. I don’t know if they even knew how many attacks had taken place, but they were very upset.”

  “We haven’t released any information to the public, partly because we don’t have much information.” Captain Santos thought for a minute about just how much to tell this ‘Professor’ of which she knew nothing about.

  “You think you can help us?” she asked, just a little scornfully. “Just how would you do that, Professor?”

  “Actually, I would like you to call me Liam for a start. No one calls me professor except students when I am teaching a class.”

  “What do you get out of this Professor, unless you have investe
d in a caravan?” asked Captain Santos, ignoring the use of his first name.

  “As I said before, I have come to know jungle tribes during my travels. If trouble starts, I could end up in the middle of it when I am supposed to be studying them. As to what I can do, I don’t know yet but my teaching and experience might come in useful.”

  “Do you have any ideas about these attacks?” Captain Santos asked.

  “I don’t have any ideas yet, I will need more information before I can make suggestions.”

  Don’t we all, Amanda thought to herself, don’t we all.

  “Right now Professor I don’t have any information to give you but if you will leave how to get hold of you at the front desk, I will let you know if I can use your help. If there is nothing else it has been a long day. I will have Lt. Baker see you out.” I doubt that Professor Smithe will be of any help, Amanda thought to herself, but boy is he a good-looking man. She gave herself a shake. What am I thinking? I have enough bad guys to chase without spending time on the good ones. Amanda hadn’t slept with anyone for quite some time, but that didn’t mean she didn’t think of it once in a while when she met a good-looking man.

  Amanda started back on her reorganization paperwork when Sgt. Onn walked into the office.

  “If you have time, Captain, I can give you a short verbal report on the jungle tribe I visited,” announced Inspector Lan-Onn, “I just got back and haven’t finish writing the report yet.”

  “Yes, what did you find out, Sue?”

  Sue entered and sat down in from of Captain Santos’s desk.

  “My father had left two days earlier on what they said was a trip to monitor the trade line we operate from Atlanta City to Southport on the rivers. Most of the rest of my family were scattered on different errands. I finally pinned down my younger brother just as he was getting ready to go on a hunting trip. Even at that I didn’t get much out of him. It was like pulling teeth to get him to tell me anything. Finally, I used my police authority and told him I was going to haul his ass into jail and he could stay there until the next time I thought about him. Jamie knew I would do it, even to him, so I got some information out of him.”

  “Does it look like anyone from the tribe was involved in those caravan attacks? asked Captain Santos.

  “I really doubt it, Captain. They have that very profitable trade route on the rivers that keep our youths busy, and the crops have been good the last two years, but even if they weren’t, the profit from the trade line would support the whole tribe. Now that doesn’t mean some of the other small tribes aren’t getting into mischief.”

  “So, everything is on the up and up. Did they say why no one has been answering our comm?”

  “They say their comm system have been so full of static that they have pretty much given up using them until it gets better. I have to agree that the commercial comm system has gotten really bad lately. Even our law enforcement system is having serious static problems. But that is the not the only problem. Like I said, anyone of importance was gone, as if they knew I was coming. For the rest of them, they were definitely worried about something or someone. It is the first time I have gone home and felt like an outsider. I am sure there is something going on with the tribe but I couldn’t find out what, but I still do not believe it is connected to the caravan attacks. Sorry, Captain.”

  “That is alright, Sue. Just knowing that something is going on with your tribe is valuable. But you sound positive they had no connection to the caravan attacks?”

  “Yes, l do. I just don’t know what else they might be doing that they shouldn’t.”

  “Ok, go write your report. The teams I sent out with you to investigate the attacks should be back by tomorrow. Maybe then we will know a little more details”

  “Thanks, Captain.”

  After that, Captain Santos decided it was too late in the day to do any more work on the department re-organization plan, and placed a comm to Captain Carlos of the Atlanta City Militia.

  “Amanda here, Miguel, how is crime in the city?”

  “Hi Amanda. I haven’t heard from you much for the last couple of days. Crime getting you down?”

  “Not more than usual. Tell me, what has happened with the Pierson case?”

  “A big, fat nothing. The rest of his research team has disappeared, the medics haven’t figured out what killed him, and we can’t find any witnesses that saw anything. Other than that, ever thing is just great.”

  “Glad that you are handling it and not us.”

  “Ha, as soon as I have definite proof that those two women from a jungle tribe were involved I am going to give half of it to you.”

  “Sure, the crime was committed in the city so it is your baby no matter where his assassins came from.”

  “Yes, Amanda, and how are we going to find them if they came from one of the jungle tribes, would you please tell me?”

  “Alright Miguel, if you determine positively that they came from the tribes we will find them for you. Anything else hot right now?”

  “Nothing big on the crime front but I had to make a presentation to the Government Council yesterday.”

  “What kind of trouble are you in now?”

  “They were asking why I keep requesting funding for additional officers when they have said there are no more funds available. I told them I keep asking because I need more officers if they want the city to be peaceful, and I can’t do it without more men. One Councilor, Councilor Dickens, represents the Traders association when he isn’t filling his pockets with bribes, suggested that OSI had five times the men that the Militia does and that the Counsel should consider moving a quarter of the OSI officers to the City since so many of the problems in Atlanta City are caused by outsiders.”

  “Now that is just stupid. Outside of miners, none of the rural populations cause trouble in the City. Most of them don’t go to the City at all. You certainly won’t find any Nomads in the City, nor many of the jungle tribes. Only the traders now and then. We don’t have enough officers ourselves to adequately handle the whole continent, even with the new batch of forty officers due to graduate in two weeks. We are just fortunate that the majority of the people living in the rural parts are very peaceful.”

  “The Councilors all live in Atlanta City or Southport so that is all they are concerned with. I was going to comm you on this today but it has been so hectic. Oh, well I think Councilor Dickens is going to try and get that graduating class sent to the Militia instead of OSI.”

  “WHAT! They can’t do that. Besides the fact that they are specially trained for outland work, not city patrol work, OSI paid for that training, I badly need those officers. We don’t have enough officers down near Southport and along the north/south river trade route and all of the little villages along there. I know Southport has its own militia but it is not well trained or very large. I need to shift twenty men down there. Not, of course, newly trained officers, but the recruits can fill in the gaps that will be opened when I send experienced men down to Southport. Well, what did the Senate do?”

  “Not much, as usual. They assigned a committee to look into it.”

  Amanda laughed. “that is sure to bury the issue although I’m sorry you probably won’t get any more men any time soon.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Councilor Dickens is the head of the committee and it is a small committee, the most dangerous kind.”

  “Thanks for tell me Miguel. I will assign someone to start sitting in on Council meetings if I can spare someone, but if you would give me a comm when you see something snarky I would appreciate it.”

  “Sure, Amanda and I will keep a better eye on them than I have been. It was just coincidence that I was at that meeting hoping for a chance to plea for my budget.”

  “I had better get back to my paperwork now. Talk to you later, Miguel.”

  “Thanks for calling, Amanda.”

  Amanda sat and thought a few minutes about Miguel’s information about the Council. There wasn’t much she cou
ld do about it now, but she would fight tooth and nail if the Council tried to take her new officers away. She really didn’t think the Council would do it, but why would Senator Dickens try to take officers away from the OSI as they were the ones who protected his precious traders. It didn’t make sense. Oh, well, back to the reorganization plans.

  *****

  Everything was starting to fall into place. But so slow. She knew she couldn’t rush things. Anyway ‘He’ said that. They knew that someone was behind Professor Pierson. Probably that Professor Blake. She was a partner but she might also be using Professor Pierson in some way. In any case he has been taken out of the equation. But so slow. She wished she could speed everything and everyone up. Oh, well, it will come.

  *****

  It was two days later when Captain Santos’s team investigating the caravan attacks arrived back at headquarters. She had not heard from Jacob Ericson so presumably there had not been any more attacks. Officer Daniels, the team co-leader, came into Captain Santos’s office to give a verbal synopsis of the report the team would be filing later. This was Captain Santos’ method of running the department.

  “Lots more information, Captain, but I don’t know what all it means. The two attacks were quite similar except the first attack involved a preteen boy whom the attackers surprised when the boy and a companion were out hunting. Apparently the attackers took the boy with them though there was no indication of blood or other injury so why they took the boy is unknown. The attackers in both cases were dressed in leather and feathers, lots of both. In the second attack one of the traders received an arrow through the upper right arm more or less by accident. The attackers were shooting mostly up in the air and when one hit a trader they immediately called off the attack.”

  “Any indications at all of who they might be?” asked Captain Santos.

  “Nothing useful at all. Every one that saw the attackers had widely varying descriptions. Ten attackers up to thirty attackers, all on horseback except the ones that weren’t. Several traders said the attackers were all men, others said men and women, and one said it was all women. All kinds and colors of feathers, bits of leather and you name it. Nothing that did any good for identification.”