“You put all eight in one caravan?” Captain Santos asked.
“Yes. I didn’t see any sense spreading them out thru the caravans. Even eight might not be enough if we are talking about twenty or thirty attackers unless we arm them with weapons with more stopping power than stunners and hand lasers.”
“I gave that project to you, Sargent, so it is your call on how to handle it.”
Amanda knew what Lanos was suggesting. Only law enforcement officers could be issued heavier weapons than a hand laser, and generally only senior staff, investigators and up. Granted, there were probably a few on the black market. But very few. Anyone caught possessing a heavy weapon of any kind, much less using one, was subject to a minimum of twenty years repairing highways and bridges in the government prison system. No free rides; they worked if they wanted to be fed. They also had all property seized if the weapon was used, and in any case, they were banned from the planet at the end of their sentence.
“I know what you are suggesting, Sgt., but I am not going to issue heavy weapons unless we start having corpses. This may be nothing more than some kids blowing off steam. Granted, someone is going to pay for injuring one person, and possibly carrying off a boy. I want to know more about the kidnapping before I take serious action. Let me know immediately if there is another caravan attack or, with lots of luck, your men actually capture one or more of the raiders.”
“Certainly, Captain. You know we are having serious static problems on our emergency communication system. Both the commercial and our law enforcement systems have so much static that you can hardly hear anything. And it seems to be getting worse.”
“Do you suspect the interference is man-mad Sargent?” Captain Santos said. “You know how bad the sun’s flares can mess up communication.”
“I don’t see how, but I am starting to get the idea something ain’t right.”
Just what I wanted, Amanda thought, one more problem to deal with. But then that is what minions are for.
“As long as you are going to be in the office the rest of today, get someone started on this problem,” Captain Santos said. “Well, … I was going to take the afternoon off. I have been on the last seven days straight, but I will get someone started on this before I leave.”
“Thanks Sargent, I know you will get it done,” Captain Santos said.
After Sargent Lanos left the room, Amanda had trouble getting back to her paperwork. She still felt irritable and restless. Granted, she had not slept well the last two nights but she was sure that it had nothing to do with Liam. She decided that he wasn’t going to be of further use to the Department and that there was no need to see him again. Especially since she really didn’t know that much about him. Amanda’s head hurt. But she never got sick. The last time was on Terra when she was going to school. Terra was a filthy place and she seem to be sick all the time. But now? After another hour of attempting to do paperwork, Amanda finally gave up. She doubted she would hear from the caravan crew very quickly. Same for the Investigator she assigned to Captain Carlos in their hunt for Doctor Blake and her remaining team members. If she has been hidden this long, we aren’t going to find her until she is ready, she thought. I wish in hell that I knew what that whole mess was about. They are up to something, I just know it. Then there is Liam. He is so likeable but I just know he is hiding something. I haven’t been in law enforcement all these years for nothing.
It was in this foul mood that Amanda left headquarters for home. Upon entering the house she learned from Marilyn that the girls had gone over to Charlie’s to feed and water his sorties. Apparently there was also measurements and other recordings which the girls did for Charlie any time he was out of town for more than a day, or at least that’s what they said. The girls knew they were not to leave the house without leaving a note for their mother explaining where they were going and when they would be back, and definitely they were not to leave when they were supposed to be doing homework. Granted, the homework had been assigned by her as punishment for an earlier and more serious offense, but she still expected them to do it before anything else. Then again, she did say they could continue to help Charlie. What the hell Amanda said to herself.
By the time Tamara and Kristine arrived home, Amanda’s headache was so bad she was laying down in a darkened room and was in no mood to discipline the girls.
The two girls slipped quietly into the house when they came home. When they were younger, Amanda had fixed up separate rooms for each girl, but they insisted on spending all of their time together, even to the point of sleeping together on a not very wide bed. After a while their mother gave up and with a little imagination and construction they had one large bedroom with bunk beds in one corner of the room. Amanda knew it was not good for the twins to sleep in the same bed, particularly when they fought with each other, which they did very occasionally, so this was the best compromise.
As the girls climbed the stairs, Tamara whispered to Kristina. “Do we say anything about Charlie and what he is up to?”
“Absolutely not!!! “Kristina whispered back. “We are already in too much trouble. If we are get grounded then how are we going to feed and water his sorties while he is gone?”
“We just tell Mom that Charlie commed and he is all right but won’t be back for a couple more days and we promised him again to take care of the animals in his project. We definitely don’t tell Mom we haven’t heard from Charlie and he was to be back last night. If we do that she will may lock us down and we will have no chance to go help Charlie.”
“Oh, Great! Now we are going to start lying to Mom,” Kristina said with sarcasm. “You saw what happened the last time we tried that. I swear she can read our minds. At least tell when we are lying if not about what. I think it comes from interviewing all those crooks at work. Anyway, she is going to ground us till school starts. She might let us keep going to feed and water Charlie’s sorties, but only just that, and even then, she is going to want to know when he is coming back so that he can feed them himself. Maybe we could sneak over while Mom is at work if she says no.”
Kristina gave her sister a shove. “Yea, and if she checks up on us when we are supposedly grounded? We had better hope Charlie gets back really soon.”
“Now look who is fantasizing! Charlie should have sent us a comm by now if he was going to be late. I think he is in trouble”
“Oh, go to sleep,” Kristina told Tamara, “maybe something will come up by morning.”
Indeed, whether because they were identical twins, or that their father was a medicine man from one of the tribes, the two girls often woke in the morning both having the same solution to the night be fore’s problem.
*****
Investigator Townsead came into headquarters the next day to review the Professor Ja’haal/Dr. Pierson case file. She had done so even though it really wasn’t an OSI problem, yet, but the Captain had assigned her to help out the Militia if she had the time. Tracy wanted to be sure she was up to date on the case. She didn’t mind being assign to work with Yuri, all things considering.
I really can’t see any leads for me to work, Tracy thought. One member of a research team had been murdered in Atlantic City and another seriously injured. The other four team members, suspected of being involved, had all disappeared, presumably in Atlanta City. That was it. Captain Carlos of the City Militia was turning the City upside down looking for them while asking OSI for help. Captain Santos asked me to help in case there was an Outland connection. Tracy sighed, and if it wasn’t for the good looks of the Militia liaison, she would file it where it belonged –in the trash can. I wonder if the Militia have anything new. After all, Atlanta City had a population of less than two million. Two million and four researchers that could not be found. Maybe Sgt. Yugoslav had some ideas.
As Tracy reached for her comm, it lit up with Investigator Yagoslav on the screen.
“Hi Yuri,” Sargent Townsead said as she lit her comm. “What have you got for me?”
; “Oh, hi Tracy, glad I caught you. Wasn’t sure you would be in Headquarters this early.”
“You know us at OSI. Never a moment to ourselves, just work, work, work.”
Investigator Yagoslav laughed at this. He had known Tracy for several years, but it was just lately that they had begun to see each other outside of work. While it was true that they both worked long hours and varying hours, that didn’t completely stop them from seeing each other. He fondly recalled a recent weekend – it was a weekend even if it was in the middle of the week – that ended in a very pleasant night on his house boat on the Columbia River. He shook his head. There was work to be done.
“Thought you might want to come to the Atlanta Hospital while I interview Professor Ja’haal.”
“Great, she is awake to interview now? I certainly would like to be there when you interview her,” Tracy asked with the excitement of a case breaking open.
“I am not real sure of Dr. Ja’haal shape right now. Someone from the hospital commed headquarters and said that Dr. Ja’haal was awake and could be interviewed. As the comm was not marked urgent or anything it didn’t reach me until this morning. I am very unhappy about that right now. Plus, she was moved from Mercy to Atlanta Hospital. This happened sometime yesterday but it was several hours before we were notified. I sent an officer to check up on him yesterday, before he was moved, and he found her unresponsive and still in a coma.”
“What a mess. Captain Santos told me to spend all my available time with you on this case until we finish it.”
“All your available time,” Yuri asked with a leer.
“You know what she meant. Straighten up or there will be no available time for you,” Tracy said with a smile.
“Yes Sir. Right away Sir.”
“Business Yuri, to business.”
“Alright, let’s get to the hospital now.”
“Should I meet you at the Militia Headquarters or go on to the hospital?”
“Why don’t you come here? I got hit with this as soon as I walked in the door and I could use a few minutes.”
“I’ll be there in ten,” Tracy said.
*****
“Vera, one of our spies learned that some kid from Atlanta City had hired a guide to take him to the area where the plants grow but he got separated from the guide and walked into the forbidden area on all his own.”
“What in the world was he doing that for?”
“Apparently he has some kind of school project where he is feeding the plants to some dumb sorties.”
“Shit. How did he find the plants in the first place?”
“Apparently one of the Pawassa tribesman has been selling it to him as a sweet little sideline, but that tribesman had gone to Southport so the boy tried to find the plants on his own. Your two partners were there and fortunately knowing enough to stop and hold him. After finding where the plants grow we couldn’t let him talk.”
“Ok. Did you tell the raiders to up the ante and do they have all they need?”
“All taken care of, Boss.”
“Good, we are in so deep now I don’t want any mishaps.”
*****
Amanda Santos woke up early the next morning, wondering why she was so hungry until she realized that she had slept right through dinner the previous night. Once out of bed she saw, and could smell, a coffee warmer with fresh coffee alongside two of Marilyn’s breakfast rolls. She knew that it was her girls trying to get on her good side before she punished them. Marilyn would never have entered her bedroom except to clean. As Amanda drank her coffee, her thoughts did not remain on her daughters but on Liam and the dinner they had
together. She still didn’t trust him but got a tingle in her neither region whenever she thought about him and found herself rubbing her hand between her legs. Amanda had not been celebrate since her short affair with the twin’s father, but the times she had slept with a man were few and far between. Amanda tried to remember the last quickly she had had but came up empty. It could have been John, a merchant that travelled regularly between Atlanta and Southport. She preferred that kind of traveling man and had sleep with John a couple of times over the years. Amanda didn’t know if he was married and didn’t really care. None of them had Amanda in quite a turmoil as Liam did.
Time to stop woolgathering, Amanda thought, and the girls were first on the agenda. When she walked downstairs she found them both hard at homework on their comm units.
“Hi Mom,” they both called out to her.”
“Good morning girls. Have you had breakfast yet?”
“Yes, Mother,” they chimed together.
“I will ‘yes Mother’ you,” Amanda returned. Do you two have anything to say for yourselves?”
“Yes Mom. We are really sorry and know we should have
commed you. But Charlie is still out of town and we did promised him that we would feed and water his sorties. He doesn’t have anyone else.” Tamara explained. “And we did tell Marilyn where we were going and you did say we could help out.”
“We had forgotten and then when we thought of it we were in such a rush that we didn’t think to call and get permission,” Kristina continued.
“And it is right that you ground us till school starts up again if only you will let us leave for a few minutes each day to let us feed and water Charlie’s animals.”
“You wouldn’t make us break our promise to Charlie, would you?”
“You wouldn’t let those sorties die.”
“All right, all right, the two of you have me so confused I don’t know which girl I am talking to,” Amanda said, figuratively throwing up her hands. Yes, you are grounded until school starts again a week from Onesday. How long is Charlie going to be gone and how long each day will it take to water and feed his critters?”
“Charlie didn’t tell us how long he will be gone, exactly,” Tanya said. “With both of us it will take about an hour to feed and water them and, depending on the day, a few minutes to write notes. Plus the time to get to Charlies house and back.”
“Ok. On foot it will take you twenty minutes each way. You can have an hour and forty minutes. Not one second longer. You will let Marilyn know when you leave and when you get back. If she is gone for any reason you can call my dispatch and leave a message. Mess up this time and Charlie’s animals will have to fend for themselves for you two will be grounded for all of the next school term. Got that?”
“Mom, they both wailed, what if it is raining or something slows us up just a few minutes?”
“Tough cookies. Run if you have to or feed faster. You are still to do the homework I assigned you, too. You have heard my decision.”
The twins got back to work on their homework units, but without any of the good cheer and enthusiasm they had shown when trying to snow their mother. Amanda decided she would grab something quick downtown rather than try to eat under the glare of her daughters.
When Amanda first got to her office she found a reply from Spaceport Control regarding Professor Smithe. He had only been on-planet two weeks, not the half-dozen weeks Amanda expected, although in truth Liam had never said ‘exactly’ how long he had been on Edge World. Other than that, he had come from Aquarius, length of time and job purpose unknown. Not much there to go on, Amanda thought. Maybe she should see him again and try to get him to answer some of the questions he has been avoiding. Right, girl, you just want to see him again. At that Amanda had to laugh at herself. Just admit it, you don’t care what he has been doing, you are just falling for him, and hard.
Amanda called the comm unit Liam had given her, but she was just asked to leave a message.
“Liam, this is Amanda. Would you comm me when you can? I want to talk to you again regarding our problems with the jungle tribes, the Pawassa tribe in particular.”
With that taken care of, Amanda plunged into her never-ending paperwork.
*****
Investigator Tracy Townsead set her aircar down on the public landing side of Militia Headquar
ters. She had no more stepped out of the aircar when Investigator Yuri Yagoslav was there to greet her.
“Hi there Yuri, looks like we might get a lead on these research team shenanigans, doesn’t it,” Tracy said.
“The hospital just said that Ja’haal had come out of her coma; nothing was said if she could talk. But yes, this may be our first real lead. It seems impossible that five people, well four now, who are new to the City could hide so long with all the officers, and tipsters we have looking, Tracy.”
During the ride to the hospital, Sargent Yagoslav asked about Captain Santos.
“Has she really cleaned up the department as we have heard? It seems you get so high and then politics takes over these days.”
“She is a lot better than Captain Reed ever was. I don’t think they ever proved he was on the take, but every officer on the force for sure knew it. Reed was probably a good cop and administrator, at least from what I could see. It was just a year ago I made Sargent, as an officer I seldom saw Captain Reed. Even though he was on the take a lot of officers liked him. And he really stood behind his men.”
“I know Captain Santos and Captain Carlos seem to work together without a lot of territorial disputes,” Yagaslov said. “Were very many upset when Captain Santos was promoted over their heads?”
“There certainly were at first, but those that had worked under her when she was a Detective Inspector supported her and by now even the Lieutenants are starting to respect her.”
The hospital landing pad was crowded with several air ambulances and Yagoslav had to circle for several minutes.
“Yuri, do you know why all the ambulances?” Sargent Townsead asked.
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