“We certainly don’t need to be told to take over the militia duties down there, which could happen,” Captain Santos said. Lt. Adams, check your personnel lists and pick out a couple of good training officers that we can send down there. Inform them they will receive bonus teaching pay as long as they are down there.”
“Shall I just consider those officers where we can plug in a couple of new recruits, or anyone. Regardless of their current assignment,” Lt. Adams asked?
“Pick the best officers that can do training and run them by me. Probably better select twice as many as we need so I can nix those officers I can’t spare right now. Inform the Southport Militia Chief that we will be sending them a couple of officers sometime next week.”
“Anyone else have something we need to discuss?”
There was no response from the five officers that were attending the staff meeting.
“Just to keep you up to date,” Captain Santos said, “Investigator Townsead is working with the City Militia on the Dr. Pierson case. Apparently a second member of the team has been murdered and they are trying to back-track her movements from where she was found to where she was stabbed. This might lead to where her team has been hiding the past two weeks or so.”
As Captain Santos and her staff were getting ready to leave the meeting, one of the central’s staff came rushing into the room.
“We just got a comm from Jacobson. He is on the way here and is he mad. Apparently another attack has occurred on a caravan and this time several caravan members were killed in the attack and Jacobson said he knows who is responsible.”
For the next several seconds you could have heard a pin drop. Then Captain Santos said, “Lt. Adams, check and see how close our new recruit class is to graduation. I think we are going to need them as soon as possible.”
Chapter 9
Captain Santos sat in her officer with Lt. Baker waiting for Jacobson to arrive. Reviewing the message Eric had sent ahead hadn’t provided any further information. An attempt to reach the OSI team embedded with one of the caravans had proven impossible due to the static on the comm systems. A pair of officers was sent by aircar to that caravan’s last know location ordering the team back to headquarters. As short as they were on officers, Captain Santos wasn’t about to take a chance on sending a single officer into what was beginning to look like a war zone.
“What do you think we will do if it turns out to be a war between jungle tribes and the caravans,” Lt. Baker asked?
“I really don’t know,” Captain Santos replied. “There has never been a large-scale conflict on this planet going back to the beginning. That is, in part why we have the current law enforcement system in place. Not needing or having to pay for any kind of standing army has allowed the government to exist without any direct taxes on the people. Our export tax on minerals, and a small sales tax on none food items has been more than sufficient to operate government. But now we are seeing possibly the downside of that policy. The OSI has eight hundred officers. The Atlanta City and Southport Militias could add another two hundred together. That is only a thousand to cover a whole continent and two mayor cities, and we both know at least thirty percent of those would not be suitable for any type of combat. There an estimated eighteen thousand making up the various jungle tribes with five thousand of those being from the Pawassa tribe. Then there is at least a thousand in the caravans, with families and kids. Do you see us with a paltry five hundred or so officers attempting to stop a war between these groups? And where do the nomads fit in? There are only eight or nine hundred of them but they may need protection from us. See why I inquired how soon the new class of recruits could be graduated. Forty some additional officers will help, even if they are green.”
“You know I first entered law enforcement on Monosate. I stayed there only a couple of years before coming to Edge World,” said Lt. Baker. They had a standing army besides the regular law enforcement systems. But they needed the army to break up the almost constant fighting between Duchies over land ownership. However, the population on Monosate was approaching one billion when I left. I got fed up with all the back-biting and graft that occurred in our department and chose a low-population world like the Edge World. Granted We are very limited in useable land here, but the five million population still has plenty of space to grow.”
“I did indeed know the reason you left Monosate and that played into my decision to promote you from Sargent to lieutenant and the position of my Assistant, Lt. Baker.”
“I have been meaning to ask you something for a couple of weeks now, and it is not exactly business, but I think I should tell you anyway,” Lt. Baker said somewhat tentative. Captain Santos was a little surprised;
Lt. Baker pretty much to himself except for work, and his work was excellent.
“Certainly, Jonathan, I hope you can feel alright in telling me anything you think I need to know. Your advice has always been very good.”
“Workplace rumor has it that you have been seeing that Professor that came into headquarters the other day. Is this right?”
“Yes, I have seen Professor Liam several times socially. Why do you ask,” Captain Santos replied? She really didn’t know where Jonathan was going with this. She had never called Lt. Baker before by his first name but since this was apparently something personal, she would treat it that way.
“Well…I have seen the Professor before. Not here on Edge World but on Monosate just before I resigned. I don’t know exactly what he was doing there but he was palling around with the Department Chief who was one of the most crooked people on the planet. It probably was all innocent, but I thought you should know something about the Professor you probably wouldn’t get any other way.”
“Thanks for the information. Professor Liam works for the Federation and mentioned he had last come from Monosate, but you are right, I might not have known.”
At that moment Jacob Erickson, President of the Traders Association stormed into the room.
“Alright, Santos, this has gone too far there was another attack on one of our caravans and this time a woman and six-year-old boy were
killed and over a dozen injured. I thought you were going to put some guards on the caravans to stop these attacks.”
“We do have a team on one of you caravans, but there are simply too many caravans to cover even a small portion of them, Mr. Jacobson. How did you get the information on the attack so quick? Communications have been bad to terrible even on the law enforcement system.”
“I didn’t trust you would put enough guards to do any good and I was right. I have had a team visiting each caravan every two days by aircar to at least bring us news of another attack as quickly as possible.”
“Where and when, exactly, did the attack take place Mr. Jacobson,” asked Lt. Baker, sitting to the side?”
Jacobson, in his anger, hadn’t noticed Lt. Baker.
“The attack occurred about twenty miles south of Junction sometime yesterday afternoon. My team arrived about two hours after the attack and immediately flew here to Trader Headquarters. I knew there was no sense trying to see you till after your usual meetings with staff, or I would have been here first thing this morning. I also took time to dispatch medical teams to the attack site.”
“Why didn’t your team bring the injured in with them? But never mind, the message you sent ahead mentioned you knew who was responsible for the attack,” Captain Santos asked?
“Yes! This time the Caravan Master and Assistant Master recognized two of the young men participating in the attack. They stated that the
two men were from the Pawassa Tribe. They saw them before on the river trade route. I had sent the two men to determine if we could set up another trade system in competition with the current one run by the Pawassa. They recognized them from seeing and talking to the both of them about the positives and negatives of running the river trade. That is why we know who the attackers were this time.”
“Tell me, Jacob, did you find that i
t could be profitable to have a competing trade route between Atlanta City and Southport?”
Jacobson had quieted down after realizing that Lt. Baker was in the room and also asking questions, but after Captain Santos’ question he flared up again.
“What in hell are you asking me that for? We have Pawassa attacking our caravans, killing our women and children and you are busy asking questions about the river trade. No, we decided it would be too costly with minimal returns. Now are you happy and can we get back to the caravan that was attacked?”
“I will re-direct our team of officers as soon as they get in back to the site of the attack. I imagine that the caravan will continue into Junction. I am not sure what all they will find by the time they get there. Hopefully they can find more evidence telling exactly whom the attackers were.”
“We know who the attackers were; we don’t need any more evidence than the two eye witnesses.”
“You are quoting to me what someone told you and which was told
to them by the eye witnesses, right after a traumatic attack. Even then we only know the identity of two individuals that participated in the attack. So, I am going to take that information as only a lead. After my officers interview the two who should be calmer by then, can we consider it as evidence. Even if it turns out that there were two Pawassa tribesmen with the attacking party that doesn’t mean the tribe itself is involved. They may just be a small group of young men and women playing at something that got out of hand. Did they manage to steal anything from the caravan?”
“No,” Jacob said grudgingly, “they haven’t even tried to take anything and if they wanted to it would be dead easy.”
“How is that,” Captain Santos said.
“Our caravans are strung out somewhat in a line. After we were attacked of course they try to pull the wagons in a circle. A tactic from very early days on Terra, I believe. The attackers could cut out the last wagon, or even any wagon for that matter, and loot the wagon while keeping the rest of the caravan away with showers of arrows”
“Was the Caravan Master and his Assistant also able to give a good estimate on the number of attackers this time?”
Holding himself in with visible restraint Jacob said, “They reported between thirty and thirty-five with the majority being women.”
“Now that is strange. Women usually much less prone to violence than men. They all used bows for weapons?”
“Seems like it. Certainly no one was hit with crossbow bolts. We have a lot of bows on the caravans. It is mandatory that each wagon has at least two crossbows and fifty arrows. The teenagers get pretty good with the bow through their hunting. Everyone else have little or no time to practice and in many cases the bow and arrow rules are not enforced. Who could blame them, there hasn’t been any danger until recently.”
“So even after the two previous attacks nothing was done to protect the caravans from additional attacks?”
“That is YOUR JOB, Captain Santos, to protect the caravans. And you haven’t been doing a very good job of it.”
“That is NOT our job, Mr. Erickson. We provide law enforcement, not guards. We will continue to work on solving this problem, but we can’t guard every wagon or even every caravan, particularly if the caravans don’t take steps to protect themselves.”
Erickson had sat down for a minute but now rose again to his feet.
“We know who is causing the problem and we will take steps to end it. The Council meets a week from Firstday and unless you have arrested the perpetrators by then I plan on requesting the Counsel to move the jungle tribes to the western equatorial jungles. It is the same type habitat but it would be very difficult if not impossible to attack any of our caravans.”
“I suggest you do no such thing. Just how do you propose moving over eight thousand people to the western jungles if they don’t want to go? Our constitution allows them to live where they want, and I certainly have no intention of breaking that law.”
“The Counsel will have to change that law as well as use the large amount of money they have extorted from us to pay for establishment of an army.”
Captain Santos just shook her head. “I plan on flying to the main Pawassa village and talk to the Chief. We just might get some leads that way.”
“A week from Firstday, that is all that I am giving you,” Jacob said and then stomped out of Captain Santos’ office.
“Do you think what he is proposing would work,” Lt. Baker asked?
“No, of course not. At most he will get a war started that could tear this country apart. I have known Jacob for a long time and he has never acted stupid before. Well, maybe once. There is an alternate motive behind what he is doing but I don’t know what it is yet.”
“Are you really going to see Chief Moran Onn,” Lt. Baker asked?
“Yes, I am, but not by myself. See if you can find Investigator Sue Onn and have her report to me ASAP. Also get copies of the recent interviews with Jacob Ericson on all of the senior officer’s comm units. I am hoping someone will come up with a motive for Ericson’s actions.”
“I will get on that right away, Captain. I think Sue is working a case about thirty miles south of Atlanta City. I can have her back her by early afternoon.”
“Good. I want to do this follow-up as soon as possible. I doubt I will be in any real danger with the Chief’s daughter riding along with me but young men, and women I guess, tend to get irrational when in groups.”
After Lt. Baker left the office, Captain Santos commed Marilyn, her house keeper.
“Marilyn, it looks like I may be very late getting home tonight. In fact, I might not make it until tomorrow morning. Would you stay overnight with the girls? It will be at your usual bonus rates.”
“Marilyn brightened right up. “of course I will be glad to stay with the girls tonight Captain Santos. Don’t worry about us.”
Marilyn had worked for Captain Santos ever since the girls were born. Particularly in the early days Captain Santos had had to work overnight many times and she secretly thought Marilyn wish those lucrative days would come back when Marilyn had received almost a third of the Captain’s salary in bonus payments.
With that task off her mind she started work on her often delayed paperwork. Amanda wondered for a minute why they still called it paperwork when almost all of it was electronic. It wasn’t the first time she had wondered about that without any satisfactory explanations. Oh well, she thought, enough procrastinating and time to do some work till Sue gets here.
*****
Tracy was up and making santee, which they both preferred to coffee, when Yuri came into the apartment. It had only been a few hours since he had left but Tracy’s landlady would start gossiping again if she thought that Yuri had spent the night. Might as well as, Tracy thought suppressing a giggle. Yuri had a key to her apartment although he had never used it except when he was coming to pick her up or leave at night/morning.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Tracy said as Yuri came into the kitchen, “The santee will be ready in a few minutes.”
Yuri kissed the back of Tracy’s neck as he came up behind her. “I don’t feel like sunshine this morning; you about wore me out last night.”
This elicited a laugh from Tracy as she headed into her bedroom to get dressed.
Some twenty minutes later they were in Yuri’s air car headed towards their rendezvous with the handler and his tracker.
“You said you had seen a tracker work before, Yuri, do you think it can do the job this long after the stabbing?”
“I think it will still work, or at least that is what I have been told. They said they have had some success as long as thirty days after the track was laid, but it is not real reliable past a week. So twenty-four hours should be dead easy. That is not what I am worried about.”
“I thought you weren’t worried, Yuri,” Tracy asked? “
“I am not worried about the tracker following back the path from Ja’haal. I am worried that it will just lead us
back to where she was pulled or dropped out of an aircar or other vehicle, and the lead stops there, so to speak”
Technician Thomas Hastings was waiting for Yuri and Tracy to arrive at the small and dilapidated coffee/santee shop. The area once held an assortment of apartment houses and small business, but the warehouses that fed the river trade and off/on planet trade were expanding into the area. The shop was doomed, the owner was just holding on till he got a good price for his land. There was a large warehouse on one side of the shop but the other side was a vacant lot, probably held by the owner of the shop. Yuri set his aircar down with Hastings following and both got out. The location where Ja’haal had been picked up by the medics was just a short distance away from the shop.
Hastings introduced himself to Investigators Yugoslav and Townsead. His tracker was a small, oval shaped container that apparently rode on two inches of air. There was a half dozen inset areas covered by a transparent material, and with a number of touch plates around each one.
“I knew there wasn’t any way I could operate one of those things, and now that I have seen one up close, I am positive I couldn’t,” Yugoslav said to Thomas.
“I spent a whole year learning how to use this one. Oh, you could learn what the different numbers mean, and the correct response to each, but it takes a year to really understand it. It has only been in the last year that I feel comfortable with Alice.”
“You gave your tracker a name, Townsead asked?
“They encourage that at training school. I have had Alice since the first day of class. Even now, after a year of training and three years of experience, I would have a difficult time handling a different tracker.”
“Well bring Alice along; the site we want to start with is only a short distance away,” Yugoslav said, or is it too heavy to carry?”
“Oh, I don’t have to carry Alice. Although when on a trail she works much slower, just traveling like this on smooth ground, she can out-race us all.”
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