Edge World

by Michael Guinn

  “There was an explosion down at the port area a couple of hours ago. I don’t know all of the details other than there were several serious injuries and no one has said what caused the explosion, if they knew. As a matter of fact, that was very near where Ja’haal was found. We sent a number of officers to the scene to keep order, but when I get back to Militia headquarters I think I will suggest we send a forensic team in. I don’t like coincidences and this one is starting to smell.”

  At the hospital they checked the monitor to find Ja’haal room number but she wasn’t listed.

  “Curiouser and curiouser,” Yuri said to Tracy.

  Taking a guide to the seventh floor, they found the critical care unit, hoping it was the right place. After some searching they found a real live person to question.

  “Can you tell us which room is Olivia Ja’haal’s,” Sargent Yagoslav asked what appeared to be a nurse of some kind after they had shown their identification.

  The nurse gave Sargent Yagoslav a puzzled look.

  “Ja’haal?” The nurse repeated.

  “That is what I said. You can’t have too many patients with that kind of name.”

  Investigator Townsend thought to herself that Sargent Yugoslav’s name was just as unusual as Ja’haal’s.

  “Just one moment and I will get Dr. Benson to talk to you,” he said, turning and sitting behind a large collection of equipment. One of them apparently was a sound canceller; the officers could see his lips move but no sound reached then.

  Yugoslav became more and more irritated as the nurse turned to say that Dr. Benson would be there momentarily. The sound had returned but the nurse did not communicate anything else.

  A short, compact woman of indeterminate age with long fading blond hair and a satisfactory figure stepped into the hallway from what appeared to be an office with piles of papers. I guess lots of paperwork was the bane of every type of work, Yugoslav said to himself.

  “Good morning officers, or I think it is still morning. That warehouse fire resulted in a dozen injuries, three of them serious. There were also two fatalities. I am Dr. Lori Benson. I understand you have some questions that the nurse technician couldn’t answer.”

  “We just want to see Professor Ja’haal and find out what happened to her,” Yugoslav said. “We would have been here last night but apparently staff had ignored our ‘notify immediately when patient wakes’ instructions. This is a murder case and now we are half a day further behind that we should be,” he explained to Dr. Benson, trying to keep the irritation he felt out of his voice.

  “I was off my day shift yesterday but stayed late to try and catch up with paperwork and saw Ja’haal being brought up to the critical unit. A militia officer was pestering the emergency room doctor, the nurses or anyone else that stood still long enough for him to catch. Finally, Dr. Jimenese convinced the officer that Ja’haal was in a coma and was not going to wake up last night and he left for militia headquarters. Confidentially I expected that there would be a guard on the patient overnight.

  “Well, let us not lose any more time. What room is Ja’haal,” Yugoslav ask?

  “I don’t know,” returned Dr. Benson.

  “You don’t know?” It was all Yugoslav could do to keep from screaming at the Dr. “Why don’t you know?”

  “Because I do not know how the morgue is designed, which is where Ja’haal is right now,” Dr. Benson said with a little smile.

  “He is dead! How come he is dead? The hospital called Militia Headquarters not an hour ago and said Ja’haal had come out of her coma.”

  “As far as I know she was dead and hour ago. At least that is what the night critical care supervisor reported when I came on duty an hour ago. Dr. Simmons reported that Ja’haal was reported unresponsive at 2215 hours last night and her room was vacant when I came out to see you.”

  “Something is screwed up here. Can I see the Supervisor’s report,” asked Sargent Yagoslav?

  “Of course you can’t. Patient records are confidential. You should know that. But I will tell you what I will do. The hospital had a very busy night earlier this morning, but everything is quiet right now and hopefully will stay that way. So I will go and do checking for you. There is fresh coffee in the lounge, not that foul stuff you cops usually drink. Have a seat in there. If I am not called out on another emergency I will meet you there in half an hour.”

  “Thank you, Doctor, we appreciate your help in getting to the bottom of this,” Investigator Townsead put in quickly while the good Doctor was still in a helpful mood.

  The coffee was indeed good, a major surprise for institution coffee. Townsead sat and worked on some paperwork when it became evident that Yagoslav, who had not drunk any of the coffee and was pacing back and forth, was not in the mood for conversation. It was only a few minutes past the half hour when Dr. Benson returned to the lounge with a dark scow.

  “What did you find out,” Yugoslav was practically shouting at the Doctor.

  “What I found out was that there is going to be some heads roll over this. Now I had to piece together the reports that had been filed, or not filed, as the case may be. Apparently Ja’haal did come out of her coma last night, at least enough that she was asking the medical technician, Adrian Coastic to get a Militia Officer come and see her. Apparently the Technician, having not seeing the notice, so he says, thought Ja’haal was raving. The technician then left the room get some ‘supplies’, in violation of rules requiring four technicians or other medical staff in the critical care unit (CCU) at all times. I manage to catch one of the four technicians that had been working in the CCU. She didn’t want to talk but she did say that they often leave and they ask one of the others to cover. Even having two asks for cover at the same time was not that unusual. Also asked how long Coastic had been gone last night. She was a little vague, saying ‘it’s not my job keeping track of other technicians but I think she was gone about an hour.’ I asked her if a trip to get supplies normally took that long. Again, she went a little vague saying Coastic might have done something else. I let her leave, but she is going to answer a lot more questions, as will the other technicians pretty quick.”

  “Do you know when Ja’haal’s body went to the morgue,” Sargent Yugoslav asked?

  “Well, if the records are correct, she was transferred to the morgue at 0203 hours this morning,” replied Dr. Benson.

  “You don’t trust your records,” inquired Sargent Townsead?

  “Right now I don’t trust anything here. I am the supervising doctor for the CCU and I should be aware of what has been going on. I can only plea that I have been heavily involved in a committee that is re-organizing the structure of the hospital. We have been looking at the big picture and ignoring what’s going on here and now. As I said earlier, some heads are going to roll, possible even mine. When I solve the puzzle with Ja’haal I will send the information to you.”

  “I thank you for what you have done and are doing and I apologize for my earlier behavior. We aren’t getting anywhere with this case and I am getting frustrated with the lack of leads.” “I can see that we at the hospital have been wasting your time, but as I said, anything I find out I will pass it on to you. “

  “Come along, Tracy, let’s see if we can catch up to Ja’haal’s body at the morgue before it disappears too.”

  Chapter 8

  “Feeling pleasurably full after a large and leisurely breakfast Amanda entered her office with the feeling that some of the current cases were going to be solved today. As she opened her incoming message file, she saw that Liam had replied to her requesting that they have lunch or dinner today, his treat. Amanda replied to Liam that it was her turn to treat and lunch sounds fine. The message from him had only come in ten minutes before she arrived at headquarters. She awaited a quick replied. After only a few minutes Liam answered her. Amanda lit her comm, at the same time realizing she had been humming a sweet song under her breath. You better stop that she thought to herself.

  “
Good morning Amanda. I will be glad to let you take me to lunch. Where are you taking me?”

  “I thought we could go to the ‘Rose and Thorn’. If we go a little early not only will we be able to find a table, all of their specialties will be available.”

  “What, they run out of food,” asked Liam a little surprise?”

  “Actually, they do. They have the best seafood in Atlanta City, and possibly everywhere. That is the ‘Rose’. They don’t take reservations and when they run out of a dish, that’s it, no more for the day. There have been days they run out of so many dishes that they close the restaurant for the day. That is the ‘Thorn’. Actually, they seldom run out of a dish until early evening, but on a really busy Seventhday night I have actually seen them close by 2100 hrs.”

  “Amanda realized that she had better stop nattering and get to her work, no matter how pleasant it was to talk with Liam.

  “I had better get to work or I won’t have time for lunch. Come to my office about 1130hrs and we will go from here.”

  “Thanks Amanda, I will see you then.”

  *****

  “The raid is set up Vera. We had to make sure we don’t attack the caravan that is carrying those OSI thugs. Good thing for your contacts.”

  “Just make sure that those Pawassa articles are left behind. Don’t forget you are to kill or serious wound some of the caravan idiots. Better still if you can make it women or children.”

  “Oh, I am doubtful even your most loyal people will go along with that.”

  “All right, just the men then. Oh, by the way, don’t get to dependent on my contacts. When the dust settles there may be fewer, if any left to contact.”

  *****

  Amanda was standing outside the OSI Headquarters when Liam flew up and landed in the visitors parking pad. Amanda spoke to him as soon as he had stepped out of the aircar.

  “Let’s take your aircar, Liam. I can use my OSI assigned vehicle and I do use it back and forth to work, but I don’t think it looks for me to just be tooling around in it running errands or going to eat and my personal vehicle is at home,” Amanda told Liam.

  “That is fine with me, just give me directions.”

  Amanda leaned over and punched coordinates into Liam’s navigation system, noting that it, as well as the whole car was near the top of the line. “Whomever you are working for must pay you a great salary.”

  “Don’t I wish,” replied Liam. “I am just a low-paid government lackey. Fortunately, they do give me an excellent expense account so I take advantage of it. I could tell you how much this thing cost each week but if I did you probably would insist I pay for our lunch, and after all you did promise.”

  “No, I was the one to say I would pay for our lunch and I will. I must admit I have a pretty good expense account too and since I am going to ask you some work-related questions I can get away with charging out lunches to it.”

  “Oh boy, am I a suspect now? I must say your interview room is a lot nicer than some I’ve seen.”

  “How many interview rooms have you seen, Liam, in your travels?”

  They had reached the restaurant landing pad and had used the excuse of landing to not answer Amanda’s question. The restaurant was in a neat little building partially built over the Columbia River. It was on the smallish side, but the inside was bigger than it looked from the outside. As early as they had come, over half of the tables were already filled, particularly the ones hanging out over the river. Contrary to what Amanda had said to him about no reservations, they were taken to a small table over-looking the river. Liam thought that either the staff had recognized Amanda as the head of OSI or she had called someone.

  “Even though this restaurant is noted for its fish and seafood specialties, it is all farmed, none of it comes from the rivers, streams, and ocean on Edge World. The ones that we could catch are entirely uneatable, as the earliest settlers found out to their dismay. All of the fish species release an oil when it dies that is truly horrible. Even animals from Terra won’t eat them, although the native animals, particularly the birds, seem to like them. Not only was the taste terrible, to the very few that tried it, but when cooked also gave off an odor similar to gasoline.”

  “But you say the fish and seafood served here is ok,” Liam asked Amanda?

  “Oh yes, it all comes from our vast inland lakes and commercial seafood plants. If the records are correct, it was over one hundred years after the first settlement. Apparently, a couple of miners set sail for one of the islands off the southern coast one day hoping to find a good mining spot. A severe storm marooned them on a very small group of rocks without any of their food supplies and nothing growing on the bare rocks. After several days, one of the men believed that no matter how bad the fish were described, he was too hungry not to try anything. Much to his surprise, several fish he caught with a pieced together net had an unbelievable terrible flavor but the shellfish were quite edible. great flavor. By the time they were finally rescued they were sick and tired of seafood, but one of the men thought they had, indeed, found gold.”

  “After that story I think I will stick with something not a fish,” Liam said.

  “Good, that leaves more delicious fish for me,” Amanda said laughingly. “The years I spent growing up in caravans I never had the chance to eat fish. Fish were critters in rivers and lakes that smelled terrible and tasted worse. Then on Terra I had a student’s allowance that never came close to the prices fish and seafood garnered after they were endangered for many years. It was only three or four years ago that a fisherman I was dating talked me into trying bites of his fish dinner. After that I eat the few fish and the limited types of seafood whenever I can afford it, which isn’t often.”

  “Alright, already, you talked me into it, I will try this fish filet, since you are paying for lunch. If I don’t like it I will just order something else. I can see where you must be a great interrogator.”

  “Well, if I am going to put this on my expense account, I better ask you some work-related questions.”

  “Oh, that is what this is all about. You are going to grill me while I eat grilled fish.”

  Amanda had to laugh at that.” Well you ARE a man of mystery. I have told you about every minute of my life, but I don’t even know exactly what you do in your job.”

  Liam thought for a moment while their food was served.

  “I think I told you that I work for the Federation. They send me to various planets which I survey. Usually one that someone in government thinks he sees a problem developing. I come in and interview various socio/economics groups, where crimes happen too often in ratio to population, and in general look for problems that are developing. Then I write a lengthy report and submit it to the Federation Council. Once in a while they have me testify in front of the Counsel, which is mostly so they can ask me stupid questions and to which I give stupid answers. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen very often.”

  “What have you found about Edge World,” Amanda asked, not without a little trepidation.”

  “I have not been here long enough to even start an outline of my report. I recall I stayed on Monasate for close to a year and when I finished I hadn’t a thing to report. Don’t worry, I always give a copy of my report to the local government before I leave.”

  There he goes again. He can talk and talk about his work and at the end he is about as clear as mud. He sounds almost like a politician. I guess I had better get used to that if I am going to keep seeing him. Maybe I can get him to say more when I get him into bed. It surprised Amanda that she liked Liam enough that was what she was thinking. And if she wasn’t mistaken, that was what Liam was thinking also. It was a shame that she had to go to work after lunch.

  “You were right, Amanda, I have never tasted fish any better and I have eaten them on a hundred planets!”

  “You have really been on a hundred planets,” Amanda asked with some astonishment?

  “Well, probably not that many. My average stay on a plane
t is about four months, so not counting travel time and time on Terra, I would have had to spend over thirty years. Figure grow up and years spent in University, I would have to be over fifty-five years. I am not that ancient yet.”

  “How old then are you really?”

  “If I tell you then you have to tell me your age, right?”

  “You know, you aren’t supposed ever to ask a ladies’ age.”

  “Hey, women and men have managed to become equals in most everything else, why not about that?”

  “I think if men and women are still around for another thousand years that is one thing they will still be in effect. But I will be thirty-eight in just a few months,” Amanda said. “And every grey hair in my head was put there by my fifteen-year-old daughters.”

  “You are just a youngster, then. I will turn forty-six on my next birthday.”

  “You are a real oldster then. You must be about ready to retire,” Amanda chided Liam a little.

  Liam made as if to throw the remainder of his drink on Amanda, but then said, “truce.”

  “Ok, Liam, truce, at least on ages. Anyway, I don’t think eight years is that long of a gap, Do you?”

  “That depends on what it is in regards to,” Liam said while smiling at Amanda?

  Amanda turned a very becoming pink when she realized how Liam might take that but he didn’t seem to notice, or at least didn’t seem to notice.

  “How many years have you been working for the Federation?” Amanda asked to cover her embarrassment.

  “It seems like forever: in fact, it has only been fourteen years. They snatched me up as soon as I finished my education. I didn’t even have time to look around the different universities for a position. It seems like Terra is nothing but educational institutes of one kind or another. It makes sense in a way. The other systems in the Federation, even the very earlies ones like Anteris II, haven’t had the time to set up a really good education systems beyond early education and with the vast educational facilities on Terra, they probably never will. At least not in the next few hundred years.”