Edge World

by Michael Guinn

  “What? Who is Ja’haal and how is she connected to this whole thing,” Liam asked?

  “That is right, you wouldn’t know about that. We have been keeping in very quiet,” replied Lt. Baker. “Ja’haal is, or rather was, a member of Professor Blake’s research team, the team that was headed by Professor Pierson before he was murdered. she was found stabbed outside a building that is owned by the Traders Association but leased to a half-dozen different companies for storage and transshipment.”

  Lt. Baker covered all that Sgt. Townsead had discovered to date. “At this point we don’t know if the two research team members that were murdered are tied in any way to the caravan attacks or the problems with communications. Now we have Captain Santos’ daughters missing as well as Captain Santos, if she isn’t dead. Does this tie into the reason you are here in any way?”

  Liam was torn in two ways. If Amanda had been killed could he still resolve his case without prejudice? And did his case involve any of the bad actors that are currently giving OSI problems? The second question was the easiest to answer. He had already determined through interviews and paid informers that the research team now headed by Professor Blake was part of his case. He had been pretty sure of that before he ever set foot on the planet, but it helped to have solid confirmation. Liam couldn’t see that team getting very far without at least one jungle tribe helping them. But what of the caravan attacks? Were they part, and if so why? Was it just a small group of tribesmen, a whole tribe, or a whole bunch of tribes? Normally he would have identified everyone participating before informing the local law enforcement agency to round them up and have the Federation send them where they couldn’t do any mischief. Usually the prison planet that was being terraformed.

  “Lt. Baker, I really can’t go into my case right now except to ask that any remaining member of the research team be detained, particularly Professor Blake,” Liam said.

  “We already have a pick-up order on that whole crew but we haven’t spent much time on it since we and the City Militia believe they are still in Atlanta City. Finding Ja’haal’s body here has just re-enforced that. But it sounds like you believe they maybe are somewhere else.”

  “I am pretty sure they are in the jungle, but why did another team member get killed, and in the City at that? Dr. Pierson was murdered to get him out of the way. Although he was supposed to lead the team, he was really a spy for Pharmetco.”

  “A spy,” asked Lt. Owens? “What was he spying on?”

  “I will get into that later. Right now we need to find the twins and see if we are looking at a rescue mission or a graveyard. If Captain Santos is alive and free we would have heard from her. I recall in a conversation with Captain Santos she mentioned that Tamara and Kristina were helping a close friend named Charlie on a school project. “Please send a good interrogator to re-interview Charlie Norton’s mother. It is possible that Charlie knows where to find the girls. We just need to find Charlie, and his mother is our best lead.”

  A small office indeed was found for Professor Smithe. The headquarters staff were told that he had been hired as a paid consultant. He spent the rest of the afternoon reviewing all of the records generated in the last two months, starting with the attack and kidnapping of a young boy from a caravan. It wasn’t until almost time for the swing shift to take over when Lt. Baker called Liam and the other two Lieutenants back to the conference room.

  “The forensic team has stopped work until we get some light out to them,” Lt. Baker said. Initial tests seem to confirm that there was only one person caught in the explosion and that was the pilot. That would have been Sue Onn if she had flown with the Captain, and she had. The remains are still in the lab but there is so little left after the explosion that we have no guarantees that we will ever know unless the second person turns up. There were a number of horses and riders that came near the site, but they could have been anyone who saw the explosion and came over to look. For the time being, and until we get more evidence, we are assuming that Captain Santos was not killed in the explosion of her aircar, rather she probably is being held captive by someone.”

  “Why do you think she might be held captive,” Professor Smithe asked?

  “We don’t know, any more than we don’t know why someone would try to kill her by placing a bomb in her aircar. Obviously Captain Santos and her daughters are dangerous to someone and they are trying to handicap us the same way the comm satellite system is making it difficult for us to communicate. Why they would do that, I don’t know as it handicaps them in the same way.”

  “Don’t be too sure of that. As part of my investigations here I discovered that several of the commercial satellites have leased communication space, all by the same company. If they smuggled the right comm equipment onto the planet they could have a completely separate comm system. It wouldn’t compare with the current systems but would work fine for a small number of receiver/transmitters and a small area of the planet. I didn’t research any further as to the lessors. That wasn’t important to my case. But now I think we need to find the real owners.”

  “Do we try and organize a search party,” Lt. Baker asked? “Sue Onn knew the jungle and the tribes better than anyone else, because of her father. Most of our crime occurs in the towns and villages, with Atlanta City and Southport having their own militia. Captain Santos was planning on talking with Chief Onn about the caravan attacks. Could that be the reason for the bomb and the capture? Maybe someone doesn’t want her talking to the Chief about anything. It also could be why the twins were attacked and possibly now held capture.”

  “We can’t get too spread out Lt. Baker. Even though every crisis seems critical, we need to concentrate on those where lives are in danger. Speaking of which, have we heard anything regarding the team you sent to the communication island?”

  “The intermittent comm signals have stopped and we are back to just plain static. That could mean our team has arrived. Stupidly I didn’t think about having a comm technician go with them to try and stop the static,” said Lt’ Baker. “I was concentrating on getting our officers out of a danger that may have not existed.”

  “We are dealing with people who don’t hesitate to kill. Better off too much force than not enough.”

  “Since you are sure that research team is no longer in Atlanta City, should the Militia and OSI stop searching for them there,” Asked Lt. Baker? “Even with the forty or so new recruits we are very short-handed.”

  If they are holed up in some warehouse or other such structure, you aren’t going to find them, or at least not in time, so go ahead pull the men.”

  “Do you want me to tell Captain Carlos who you really are?”

  “Not at this time. Continue with the story that I am a hired consultant and that you are in charge, Lt. Baker, until circumstances change. I don’t want to be sucked into all of the administration problems the head of a law enforcement has to put up with every day. When you talk with Captain Carlos, see what progress is being made with that staffing agency. We are going to have to use some of their technicians to repair the static on the com networks anyway. We need to know immediately the good guys from the bad guys. As soon as we are in communications with your rescue team, either their arriving back here or as soon as the static on the network clears up. Have them go meet and pick up a couple of satellite technicians and take them back to the island. When you talk to Captain Carlos, bring him up to date and see if he can’t get a couple of technicians he trusts to be ready to go to the island. It is a pretty good size agency and they can’t all be on the take.”

  “The GPS on the patrol aircar indicates they are still on the island,” said Lt. Owens, “but that is the only signal that we are able to get from them. Perhaps we could send a smaller crew with the technicians, right from here. That certainly would get us communications back the quickest.”

  “I agree that would be the best and quickest. With communications back we will be able to turn out attention to finding Captain Santos and he
r daughters. I am with you on not sending search parties out until we can communicate with them. That will solve one problem and…”

  One of the Control staff came running into the conference room.

  “I am sorry,” he blurted out, but the comm signals are gone. Completely. Not even any static that we can pick up.”

  “Maybe they turned it off in order to…” said Lt. Baker. “And we have lost the gps signal from the patrol aircar.”

  Lt. Baker looked around at the others in the room. “What do we do now?”

  There was no answer from anyone, including Professor Smithe.

  Chapter 13

  Investigators Townsead and Yugoslav were trudging from one office building to the next, trying identify all of the trading companies leasing space from the Traders Association in a certain building where a woman was murdered

  “We aren’t getting anywhere with this, Yuri,” Tracy said. “We have interviewed almost fifteen trading agencies and not one of them will admit leasing any space in that building.”

  “Well, at last count there were over forty agencies that facilitate the movement of objects and people from off planet to all the many towns and villages on this planet. That isn’t even counting the really small one and two people companies that specialize in stuff no one else wants to handle.”

  “Even so, at least one of the agencies must use part of that building from time to time. Do you think we have enough to force the lease agreements out of the Traders Association?”

  “We might get a judge to issue us a warrant, but the Traders Association has plenty of legal counselors on staff. It would take several days at the best before we found anything and even with the names of all the companies that had legal access I doubt that it would lead us anywhere.”

  “So, are you saying that we should give up this line of investigation, Yuri? Where else should we look?”

  “I just think you are right,” replied Yuri, “we need to step back and look at these murders as part of something bigger.”

  “In what way,” Tracy asked?

  “Both of these murders involved members of a scientific research team. Oh, we have had half a dozen people killed elsewhere in the City during the same period, but they all were domestic violence, robbery gone wrong, or an argues between friends or strangers that got out of hand. These two, I think, were killed as part of a bigger plan: maybe they didn’t like what the team was doing as a whole and they wanted out; or maybe they wanted a bigger share of whatever they intended to get and threatened to go to the authorities if their share wasn’t increased. I just don’t know why but I have this feeling these murders are important.”

  “That’s a great idea, Yuri, but what do we do now?”

  “We have been trying to find who had access to that building where Ja’haal was kill without any luck. Let’s talk to shop owners in that area and see if we can find anyone that saw any activity other than freighters around that building in the last two weeks. There aren’t many shops down there in the warehouse district, but there are some. I don’t know what else to try. Do you still have the holocubes of the missing team members, including Professor Pierson?”

  “Don’t you,” Tracy asked? “Even though the murders happened here in the City, every one of our officers has those holograms, just in case.”

  “Well, they gave them out, but there are so many missing and BOLO (Be on the lookout for) that most of our officers just review them at the beginning of shift, but don’t carry them on duty.”

  “It’s a good thing I carry mine,” Tracy said with a laugh.

  They left their aircar and started walking from shop to shop. It ended up that there were a lot more shops than even Yuri expected, and even one or two apartment houses that had yet to be demolished. But shop owner after shop owner were no help. Apparently none of the team members had been in any of the shops within a kilometer of the warehouse. One shop owner that sold low-class food stuff to the few living around the area, did remember two young ladies that came into the shop almost every day starting a couple of weeks before, but he hadn’t seen them for several days, and besides they didn’t look like any of the hologram images of the research team.

  “They were dressed the way young kids sometimes dress now a days.” He said.

  “And how do young kids dress now,” Tracy probed?

  “You know, in leather and feathers. Like someone living in the jungle.

  Tracy and Yuri pounced on the statement but couldn’t get any more information out of the shopkeeper. He couldn’t remember really how they looked or what time of day they usually came in to shop. The shopkeeper was sweating nervously now. Tracy and Yuri tried for an hour to pry more information out of him, but to no avail. Finally they left the shop.

  “He is lying, but about what I don’t know,” Yuri said. We could pull him in to headquarters and work him over some more, but my gut feeling is that nothing more that he might say will help us on this case.”

  “You are probably right,” Tracy agreed. “Now what?”

  While the two of them stood and discussed next moves, a young boy, probably eleven or twelve years of age came up to them on a grav board. His clothes were definitely lower class, but they were clean, compared to his face which had streaks of dirt and grease on it. He stopped right in front of the two officers.

  “You two the cops showing holos of missing people.” He asked. He had an engaging smile and a large shock of straw-colored hair that went every which way.

  “Yes,” answered Yugoslav.

  “Can I see them? I got a pretty good idea who they are.”.

  With some reluctance Townsead pulled her holo of the research team and bent down to the ragamuffin. He barely looked at the holo of Dr. Pierson, but latched on to the other five.

  “Yeah, I seen them,” the boy said.

  “When! When did you see them and where were they,” asked Townsead forcefully?

  “What’s it worth?”

  “It is worth a trip to the poky if you don’t answer me.”

  “In that case I aint sure I have seen nobody.”

  “Let me deal with this, Tracy. We pay informants regularly for good information and we need this.”

  “You get standard rates for good information. Fifty credits with a bonus if it turns out to be useful to us,” Sgt. Yugoslav.

  “Deal, the boy said.

  Yuri reached into his pocket and drew out a fifty credit note. “Ok, now give.”

  “About two weeks ago I seen five of those dudes climb out of an aircar and go into the warehouse you have been interested in. Just five, the older dude I didn’t see at all.”

  “You mean this one,” as Tracy showed him the holo of Dr. Pierson.

  “Yeah, that’s the one. I didn’t never see him at any time,” the boy responded.

  “Did you ever see them other than that one time,” Sgt. Yagoslav asked?

  “Nope. Didn’t see any of them again. Course I don’t hang around this area too much. Better places with more people is where I usually hang out.”

  “And they just got out of the aircar and walked into the building?”

  “That’s what I said, aint it?”

  “Was there anything unusual about the aircar? An unusual color or

  shape?”

  “Nope. It was just a large aircar, the type they sometimes carry freight. But not unusual unless you consider the wording on the outside which a lot of aircar have.”

  “Wording? What kind of wording? Do you remember what it said?” Yuri asked with some excitement.

  “Of course I remember what it said! Just like a lot of aircars in this area. I aint no dummy.”

  “Well, what did it say?”

  “It said The Traders Association.”

  *****

  The twins followed Ethan to several houses where he thought someone might know about Charlie, but with no luck. Most of them were empty or had just a father or mother present who had no idea what their sons and daughters were up to.
>
  “You don’t think your friends are avoiding us on purpose, do you?” Tamara asked Ethan.

  “I don’t see why or how,” Ethan replied. While news travels pretty fast in the villages and between villages, I don’t see how anyone would be avoiding us, or even why they would. The only possibility I could see is the new group calling themselves The Advisors.”

  “I have never heard of such a group, or at least our mother has never mentioned them,” Kristina said.

  “About five years ago a group of young people started following a certain medicine man. No one knows who he is, at least no one outside the group, because he always wears a silver mask. It has been rumored that he is heavily scarred from burns or a knife fight and that is why he masks his face. Anyway, they started a new village not so far from here, and they have been terrorizing or causing unrest in other villages. Chief Onn won’t let them in this village at all, but he has declared a portion of the jungle off limits and not to be entered for any reason. If Charlie got involved with any of this group, we may never find him.”

  “You mean they might kill him,” Tamara asked?

  “There is no ‘maybe’ about it. That group hates everyone, particularly outsiders. Apparently there have been some attacks on the caravans and it is no secret that group probably did it.”

  “That’s awful. Why doesn’t Chief Onn do something about it?”

  “I don’t know,” Ethan replied. “He must know about it. Everyone else does. He just says he is not sure and that it is up to the authorities to handle it. He is really busy with the river trade. There isn’t enough young men and women in the village to handle it all, so he hires other villagers and even outsiders.”

  “What do we do now,” Kristina asked? “We can’t just leave without knowing about Charlie.”