Edge World

by Michael Guinn

  Her voice was soft and sweet and full of innocence. Amanda put her hands on the girl’s shoulders and pulled her closer.

  “I am not going to let them do that,” Amanda said. “Will you help me?”

  “I am,” the girl said. I thought I would be caught but the guard didn’t say anything, he just groped me as usual. I would be very happy if you would kill him when you leave.” After saying that, she pulled her shift open and unbuckled Amanda’s belt apparently with everything still on it, including her stunner.

  “Oh… This is wonderful! Will you get into trouble with giving me this?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe … if you get caught don’t tell them who you got it from.”

  “I will do that. What is your name?”

  The girl twisted out of Amanda’s arms and ran out through the door. Amanda only sat on the bed for a few moments and eagerly grabbed her belt and slung it around her hips. The stunner appeared to have a little charge in it, maybe enough for three or four uses. There was not much help in the other objects on her belt. She tried the wrist comm but it was still dead. Handcuffs wouldn’t be much help either, but there was one thing that would. All the senior officers at OSI carried a single pill to be used only in the direst circumstances. When taken it boosted the individual’s stamina, strength, and endurance for about four hours. At the end of the four hours the person becomes so weak that they can hardly walk, and usually require bed rest for two or three days. Every officer that is given the pill first takes a dose of about ten percent so that they would know what it would feel like. Even that small amount produced increased energy and stamina for the four hours period of the pill. The drug was kept under the strongest security and to date only one outsider had ever obtained one of the pills, and that was from an unconscious officer. Amanda didn’t know how much time she had as she slung the belt around her waist and then swallowed the pill she had removed from a concealed pocket in the belt. She bent and put on her moccasins, the only part of her uniform that was useful. Within a few minutes Amanda began to feel the effects of the pill. She felt able to punch through a wall, particularly the ones she was incarcerated within. She walked to the door and to her astonishment it was not locked. She slid carefully the door open. A young man, not one she had seen before, was sitting in a chair several steps away looking at and playing with some kind game or story. Amanda slipped through the door and with several quick steps she was behind the startled guard who was rising from his chair. With what felt like enormous strength she hit him on the neck with the side of her hand. The blow knocking him out of the chair and against the outside wall of the building. He tried to get up but Amanda stomped on his back and when he fell, hit him again in the head. He was totally out of it if not dead. At this point Amanda didn’t care which. She untied and then pulled his loin cloth off and split it into two parts. Then she wrapped each piece of cloth around her lower leg and tied it with rawhide pegging from his outfit. She had torn the shift that she had been wearing into a very small loin cloth and halter top. I certainly don’t look like any fashion model, …. maybe like a stripper, but it will have to do,” Amanda said to herself.

  The effects of the pill had Amanda felling she could jump down to the ground, but someone, probably the girl that helped her, had left the ladder to a second building. Upon crossing to the main building she found a small platform used to raise and lower materials and men. Without thinking further she quickly jumped on the platform and began descending to the ground. Amanda could see several adults and kids in the tree village, and a few on the ground, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to her. As she hit the ground she looked at the sun to try and determine the right direction to run. Amanda knew no one could catch her in the jungle, but out on the prairie, unless or until she found a horse to ride, they would quickly catch her. She could only hope that she came out of the jungle where they kept their horses. They had several locations probably in order to make them more concealable. Whatever, she would take her chances Amanda walked softly until she was out of sight of the village and then began to run, as quietly as she could under the influence of that pill. Loud noises started up behind her in the village. Then she really began to run.

  *****

  Lt. Baker sat in the conference room, waiting for the other Lieutenants to come to the meeting room, and wondering how everything got so messed up. Now that Lt. Cope is back, even though he is restricted to the office for the next two weeks, there were four lieutenants to pick up the work Captain Santos did. Lt. Baker had been acting as the head of OSI because of his seniority, but he knew he couldn’t take Captain Santos’ place.

  The other three Lieutenants came in to the conference room and all sat near Lt. Baker.

  “We need to update Lt. Cope on our current cases and what action we have been taking,” Lt. Baker started out. “Professor Smithe is a Federation Investigator here on Edge World investigating something that is going to involve all of us, but he hasn’t told us everything yet, Lt. Cope. I would have him here at this meeting but he left about an hour ago trying to find Captain Santo’s kids. I know you have been reading all of our log reports, so there probably is not a lot new to tell you. At least we have someone to deal with the public.” The other Lieutenants laughed at that. While Lt. Cope was the Public Affairs officer, he was out in the field whenever some public relations were needed. The Lt. just liked field work but had to take the Public Affairs position if he was to remain a Lt. under Captain Santos’ shake-up of the Department.

  “First, what is the word on the Satellite Communication system,” Lt. Baker asked?

  “Well, we finally have some action there,” replied Lt Adams, “our task force arrived there without incident, except for an aircar flying towards the island. It would not reply to the standard police hail, and veered away from the Island. They didn’t want to give chase and it never got closer to the Island than about five kilometers. That maybe was a mistake. Upon reaching the island they found there our two Officers. Plus, there was two dead bodies found previously by the officers. Apparently their patrol aircar had blown up just after their landing. The officers believe that whomever set off the charge miss-calculated how long it would take for the patrol aircar to arrive. They are certain that we have a mole in the department, probably working in the garage.”

  “We arrested a young man who has been working in the garage for the last several months,” said Lt. Adams. His supervisors gave him good evaluations but he was caught with a small explosive package in the yard. He hasn’t talked yet but we don’t need a confession, he was caught red handed or maybe explosive handed. We sent out a caution to all officers to check their vehicles daily, at least once in the morning. If the mechanic refuses to talk it is not going to help us find out who is behind this plot.”

  “As much as I believe in my oath to the nation when I was hired, it is a great temptation to make him talk using whatever works,” said Lt. Baker, “but I just can’t. Captain Santos has turned the OSI into a law enforcement agency that is respected by the populace, and I can’t allow anything illegal to occur, even to save Captain Santos’ life.”

  The other three Lieutenants were silent for several minutes, looking into their own value system perhaps.

  “Well, we can’t torture that mechanic but there is a lot of other avenues to explore,” Lt. Baker finally said. “Possession of explosives and attempted murder will hold him till we have time for him. Adams, what else did you find out in regard to the communication snafu?”

  “Our team is still working out exactly what happened. We do know that two of the Satellite Center employees were murdered and equipment was installed to gradually increase the static of both of the systems until you couldn’t use the commercial comm system or the law enforcement comm system. The law-enforcement system was more difficult to jimmy, and they have been working to repair that system first. The two employees that were scheduled to replace the current crew that was murdered were given their shift off, supposedly a bonus for
good work. They are currently working on the system under close supervision until we are sure they are clean. Lt. Marcos sent us two teams of Militia to help interrogate the rest of the staff of the company currently holding the contract for manning the Satellite Communications Center. I think there is going to be major changes when this is all sorted out. We are also keeping a patrol out around the island. Apparently the same aircar has been seen approaching the island several times. I have given orders to shoot it down if it doesn’t stop for inspection, the next time it is seen.”

  “Ok, sounds like everything is under control. Do you have any idea when our comm system is going to be up and running again, Lt. Adams?”

  “They say we will have our law enforcement comm system will be back on line by tomorrow evening, but I think it is going to be at least three or four days. They want us to believe how hard they are working for a few brownie points.”

  “let’s look at some of our other problems,” Lt. Baker said, pulling the other Lieutenants’ attention back to the meeting. Investigator Townsead, please brief us on the two murders in Atlanta City that may have OSI involvement?”

  Townsead had been sitting at the back of the room, listening to the four Lieutenants. Now she stood and walked to the head of the table.

  “I am going to give you a little of the background for those who have not had the time to follow the case. Originally a Dr. Pierson first came up missing and then was found murder in his hotel room. He was heading up a team of scientists to do something, I don’t know what, in the jungle. A Dr. Blake, one of the team members, took over the team. However, when the Militia arrived to interview the team members, they had all disappeared. Normally we would have no interest in a city murder, but there were indications that someone from a jungle tribe was involved in the murder. Then another of the team members surfaced, with critical knife wounds. Investigator Yugoslav invited me to team with him and I decided it would be a good move. When we got to the hospital we found the woman, Ja’haal, had been brought into the hospital the evening before but didn’t notify the City Militia until the following morning. When we tried to see Ja’haal, we found that she had died during the night. We hurried down to the morgue to see the body before it disappeared; as everyone we wanted to interview had done. Fortunately they had just started the autopsy. Not to go into detail, but there were traces of a very toxic jungle plant. So, another murder with no leads. But Yugoslav knew someone who was a certified tracker. With the trackers help we followed what to me was an invisible trail. It led to a large warehouse which was no surprise, since we were in the warehouse district. The surprise came when the tracker traced the ownership of the building – to the Traders Association.”

  Lt. Cope whistled in surprise, and all of the other Lieutenants expressed varying amounts of shock.

  “Is Yugoslav sure that is a Trader Association building?” Lt. Baker asked.

  “Absolutely. He had to do some deep diving into multiple corporations to find the real owners. He then obtained a search warrant for the building. I went with him and while we didn’t come up with much solid evidence, we are sure our missing team members have been staying in that building, and that Ja’haal was originally stabbed in that building but manage to get out and crawl until a passing aircar spotted her and called in for an ambulance. I am guessing that had the aircar spotted her five minutes later, all they would have had would be a dead body.”

  “Damn it. We need Captain Santos here,” exclaimed Lt. Baker. “I can see that there is a large conspiracy developing right under our noses, but I just can’t tie it together. Is there anything that is going right?”

  “I know you aren’t expecting an answer,” Lt. Owens said, “But there have been absolutely no attacks or problems with the caravans the last few days. That’s not much, and it may tie into this conspiracy, particularly now we know the Traders Association may be a player. I pulled our few officers off the caravan routes. They were not having any success trying to catch raiders and I am sure we are going to need them here.”

  “Lt. Adams, how many officers do we have readily available within reach of headquarters?”

  “We have most of our officers out in various villages or following up on some incident. But many of these are from this new class that recently graduated.”

  “Do they have enough experience to do that kind of work,” Lt. Baker asked with a frown?”

  “We aren’t kicking them out on their lonesome. For every three rookies we have in the field, there is one seasoned officer doing close supervision. I know that could be a problem. We can just hope nothing drastic happens. Besides everything else, I mean.”

  “All right,” Lt. Baker said, “is there any other place we are having problems?”

  “I think we should be looking at the last Counsel Session” said Lt. Cope.

  “Did you get to attend the Session or was it still one of our other officers,” asked Lt. Baker?

  “I was tired of sitting around my house so I got my cousin to help me to get to the Session. Except in emergencies the Counsel only meets four times a year, although a Session might last for several days or even weeks.

  “What important problem do we get to add to this whole mess?”

  “President of the Traders Association, Jacob Ericson, submitted a proposal to move the Pawassa Tribe to the Western Division in order to stop the caravan raids. Of course the Traders Association would pick up the river trade so there would be no problems there.” This was met with a number of groans.

  “Apparently the Traders Association has agreed to fund the move with 10 million credits. The proposal will be considered at the next meeting which has been postponed for a week.”

  The shock was much greater: Lt. Adams had turned as pale as a sheet as he absorbed the impact of what Lt. Cope had just said. The other two Lieutenants were shaking their heads in total disbelief. Lt. Baker was the first to realize the total significance of what Lt. Cope had said.

  “What? You are saying? You are saying that would be civil war. Is Ericson crazy?” The officers were so astonished by the whole idea that they didn’t know what to say.

  “Why are we just learning about this now?” Lt. Baker demanded.

  “Because I just got back from the Council session and this is not something we want on a comm system, ours or anyone else’s,” replied Lt. Cope.

  “What was the reaction of the Council members when this proposal was submitted by Ericson?” asked Lt. Owens

  “You know the Council Members; you could submit a proposal to paint every second citizen red, and all they would say was the proposal is scheduled for discussion in several weeks,” said Lt. Cope.

  “When is Ericson’s proposal scheduled for discussion?”

  “That is going to be the kicker,” Lt Cope said with a wide grin. “If Erickson’s proposal is part of this whole conspiracy, someone goofed.”

  “How is that?” Lt. Baker asked.

  “Ericson requested the shortest time allowable, a week. Without an appeal, that is when the discussion date is locked in. But as you all probably know, a week from today is the beginning of the year-end holiday. Nothing will occur for three days but parties, after which the new year begins, Including a new Council Schedule. The absolutely earliest this proposal can be discussed by Council will be after that”

  All of the lieutenants were smiling at this except for Lt. Baker.

  “If this is part of a larger conspiracy, who really believes Ericson will wait that long?” asked Lt. Baker. “This may slow the conspiracy down, but we still had better be ready for whatever happens. And I mean ready by yesterday.”

  “Ready for WHAT?” several of the Lieutenants spoke together.

  “For whatever happens,” stated Lt. Baker. “I only know one person that can solve that. Captain Santos.”

  “But we don’t know where to find Captain Santos, or even if she is alive!”

  “If we can’t find her or if she is dead, what are we going to do?”

 
No one had an answer to this!

  Chapter 14

  As soon as Amanda heard footsteps behind her, she quietly stepped off the trail and crouched behind a deeply entangled liana to break her outline. This deep in the Jungle there was only a slightly pale path to indicated the trail she had been following. Two young men silently passed her, believing Amanda had to stay on the trail, or some trail. Not even the two villagers who grew up in the jungle were able to transverse the jungle easily except on the numerous trails. Once they had past, Amanda tried to plan a rational course of action although the drugs coursing through her bloodstream insisted on movement, any kind of movement. Granted, they allowed greater eyesight than normal, every leaf appeared to be in a stark silver outline. After a few moments of indecision, Amanda decided to follow closely behind the two villagers, depending on her increased hearing to keep her from running up at them. Amanda knew she could not get out of the jungle before the drugs wore off if she tried to run any way but on the trails. She took the few minutes needed for the villagers to get sufficiently ahead to dump anything she was carrying and not needed, retaining her stunner, a flare and a beacon. Unfortunately she had nothing to carry water, supposing she ran across some. Already she was very thirsty, a side effect of the drug she took.

  *****

  It was well after the middle of the night when Liam returned to the OSI Headquarters and received the latest bad news update. Lt. Baker was hoping that Professor Smithe had found a lead to the location of Captain Santos and/or her daughters. No one was happy. Liam was sure that the possibility of a longevity drug was fueling the current planet wide conspiracy, but the Federation did not want any drug manufactures’ - legal or otherwise - to be exploring in that direction. Liam sat listening to Lt. Baker’s synopsis while roiling over in his mind his feelings about Amanda and her two girls. It was only when Lt. Baker reached Richardson’s proposal to the Council. Then he sat bolt upright.