Simone and Connie slipped away when the three men started singing.
CHAPTER 29
Officer Lucy Reims stretched back in her chair, put her hands behind her head, and then winced as she touched the bruise on the back of her head. She’d taken a nasty clout from one of the fugitives. The doctor had diagnosed a mild concussion and had prescribed painkillers and rest. She’d gladly accepted the painkillers but was ignoring the second part of the prescription. Conway was still laid up in hospital. His head injury was more serious, and he was being kept in for observation. She hated to admit it, but she could use his assistance with making sense of the events that unfolded after the encounter at the water mine.
Bannon’s statement had not been much help. His story about the fugitives taking the elevator back down the mine-shaft was supported by network logs that recorded cuff data traffic but there had been no sign of them in the mine itself. Then the network alert had pinged again when their cuffs connected at one of the agri-domes. This time, when they investigated they found fermenting vats and a still. Her joy at finally finding the source of the cheap booze plaguing the colony was tempered by the accompanying discovery of a dead body. The victim had been identified as the prisoner who had escaped from the can at the same time as Jacob Aarons. Forensics were analysing some blood found on a shovel near the corpse which they had initially assumed was the murder weapon. This assumption had turned out to be incorrect. It was a bullet that had shattered the mans face and spread his brains on the floor.
She supposed this would not have been too remarkable in a homicide investigation on Earth but on Mars it was unheard of. There were no guns on the planet. Or at least that’s what everybody had thought. They’d be keeping that particular detail out of the news feed.
She rubbed her temples. What a mess.
Her cuff pinged a notification. The chief wanted to see her. Great. Him meddling with the case was the last thing she needed. On the other hand, maybe she’d got lucky and somebody else was being assigned this shit-show. After one last scan of the documents open on her computer, she activated the screen saver and went to see what Chief Smith wanted.
The door to his office was closed, so she knocked.
Smith invited her to open the door with a terse, ‘Come!’
She opened the door and was only half-surprised to see Doctor Webb sitting in a chair opposite Smith.
‘Doctor Webb, this is Reims. She is the senior investigating officer on the Aaron’s case.’
Webb said nothing, coolly regarding Reims.
‘A pleasure,’ said Reims. She thrust her hand out.
Webb ignored the invitation to shake hands. ‘So you’re the one running this fiasco.’
Reims withdrew her hand. ‘Running this investigation. We call them investigations.’
‘Sit down, Reims,’ ordered Smith.
She pulled the chair out sharply, sat down and folded her arms.
‘Doctor Webb is concerned that you failed to apprehend the suspects.’
‘We made the arrest,’ said Reims.
‘Then where are they?’ asked Webb.
‘They had help escaping custody. It’s in my report,’ said Reims.
‘Yes, your report.’ Webb looked down at a piece of paper in front of him. Her report she filed less than an hour ago. ‘Daniel Maddock and Dimitri Ivankov.’
‘That’s right.’
‘Two men who were earlier in ColPol custody until you released them.’
‘They hadn’t done anything. We couldn’t hold them for longer than a day,’ said Reims.
Webb made a show of reading some more of the report. ‘And a mysterious woman with no colony records. Unrecognised by the ColPol AIs.’
‘Yes. The footage of her is linked from the digital report,’ said Reims.
‘It seems to me that you’re letting everything slip through your fingers,’ said Webb.
‘It seems to me you let a large grey alien cube slip through yours,’ retorted Reims.
Webb smiled thinly. ‘Touché,, officer.’
‘I appreciate this must be frustrating for you Doctor, but Reims is one of our best officers.’ Smith had finally decided to say something.
‘Then I worry for the efficiency of the colony police force.’ Doctor Webb got to his feet.
‘But they’ve disappeared with no trace. What are we supposed to have done?’ asked Reims.
‘The council expects progress, not excuses.’
‘I assure you, we shall be devoting all available resources to finding them,’ said Smith.
‘Let us hope that is enough. I eagerly await your next report. Good day.’
Doctor Webb left Smiths office.
‘That could have gone better,’ said Reims.
‘Reims. Just get the job done.’
‘Sure. While I’m at it, got any lepers you need healing?’
‘What?’
‘Never mind,’ said Reims.
‘I’m pulling as many as I can from regular duty to assist. You have an hour before you brief the team.’
The chief must really trust her to get the job done. Or, and she considered this more likely, she was being setup to take the fall when everything went south.
‘Thanks, Chief.’
A couple of hours later after the briefing was over, Reims returned to her desk and sat glumly looking at her screen. It was looking like she would be thrown to the wolves when they failed to apprehend any of the fugitives. The briefing hadn’t gone badly. Everyone had paid attention, there had even been one or two intelligent questions. However, she suspected the end result would be the same. The colonies most wanted criminals had vanished. There was no trace of them on any camera or network, and all the AI searches had come up empty. It was as if they had left the colony.
She switched the screen off. Her headache was coming back. She decided to go home early and try to get a couple of hours sleep while everyone carried out their actions from the briefing. Maybe one of the rovers would turn up missing or something. Anything that might give a clue as to where they had gone.
There was only one person in the communal kitchen when she returned home. Josie. She worked the night shift at the data centre and was fixing herself some breakfast.
Josie smiled at Reims. ‘Hi, Lucy.’
Reims crossed to the sink and poured herself a mug of water, then popped the lid off her painkillers and tipped one into the palm of her hand.
‘How was work today?’ asked Josie.
Reims popped the pill in her mouth, gulped it down with some water, then slammed the cup onto the counter. ‘I’m going to get some sleep. If anyone wants me, tell them to go away.’
Josie stopped spreading jam on her toast. ‘That good, huh?’
Reims wordlessly made her way into her bedroom, closed the door, collapsed onto the bed and let sleep take her.
CHAPTER 30
Kevin grabbed the painkillers from the creation compartment as soon as the hatch opened. He gulped two down and then continued to drain his large glass of water. It had turned out that wine created by the Box dished out a hangover every bit as wretched as one delivered by traditionally fermented beverages.
There was a groan from the sofa. ‘Do you have some more of those?’ asked a recumbent Dimitri.
Kevin tossed the packet to Dimitri and requested another two glasses of water from the Box.
His dad was still asleep in Kevin’s compartment. Things were getting a little crowded in the Box; his dad was asleep in the bed and Kevin had taken the floor. In retrospect, he could have got the Box to make him a camp bed or something, but he’d been in no state to do anything quite so sensible.
‘Thank you, Kevin.’ Dimitri had his hand on his brow.
‘We gave them a good send off,’ said Kevin.
Dimitri did not respond.
Kevin inwardly cursed. He had just reminded Dimitri his wife was dead. Dumb. ‘Sorry.’
‘No. Don’t be sorry. It was not your fault.’
The door to Simone’s compartment opened and Connie walked out. She was wearing pink flannel pyjamas decorated with cartoon Disney princesses. ‘Is there any coffee in this damn thing?’
‘Uh. Box make us some coffee,’ said Kevin.
Connie looked down at her pyjamas and gave a one word explanation ‘Simone.’
Kevin started to laugh. The Box only made things that Simone knew about. His sister’s taste in nightwear had not improved since they were kids.
Simone’s head poked out from around the door. ‘What’s so funny?’
This only made it harder for Kevin to stop. He managed to gasp out, ‘Disney,’ before being totally consumed by the questionable humour of the situation.
Simone smiled and shook her head. ‘I’ll have a coffee please.’
‘It’s not that damned funny,’ muttered Connie as she poured the requested beverage.
By the time Kevin had recovered his composure, Connie and Simone were with him at the table eating a breakfast of jam on toast.
‘Is there no bacon on board this thing?’ asked Connie.
‘Bacon? No,’ said Simone.
‘How about eggs?’
‘Not while the Box can only make things Simone has experience of,’ said Kevin.
‘Seriously? You’ve never eaten bacon and eggs?’ Connie looked distraught.
Simone put her hand on Connie’s. ‘Connie, dear. We have a vegetarian diet on Mars. Do you know how much water it takes to raise just one pig?’
‘That’s it. There’s no way I can live on Mars without bacon.’
Kevin scratched his head. ‘How about we organise a gourmet field trip to Earth? Simone can eat all these foods you’re talking about.’
Dimitri hauled himself upright on the sofa. ‘She can try some vodka. There’s a plan I can get behind.’
‘Maybe not vodka,’ said Kevin.
‘A trip to Earth is maybe not so crazy,’ said Simone.
This surprised Kevin. Their last trip there had not ended well. ‘It’s not?’
‘There’s more people there, like Connie, who would jump at the chance to get off-world.’
‘It’s true,’ said Connie. ‘You don’t know what it’s like there. Give people the chance to come here and live and th—’
‘What do you mean come here?’ interrupted Kevin.
‘Why not?’ asked Connie. ‘Kev’s world is a paradise compared to Earth or Mars.’
‘Mainly because there are no people here.’ Dimitri stopped, then looked at Kevin. ‘Wait a minute. Kev’s world?’
‘Yes. It’s the name we gave it on our first visit,’ said Simone.
Dimitri managed a small smile. ‘Of course. What else would you call it?’
‘I’m serious,’ said Simone. ‘Connie and I talked it over last night.’
That figures, thought Kevin. While he’d been singing bawdy Martian settler songs with Dad and Dimitri, Simone had been planning for the future.
‘So, we bring people here and then what?’ asked Dimitri.
‘And then we start a new colony,’ said Simone.
‘A new colony? Are you nuts?’ asked Kevin.
Simone got to her feet and started pacing back and forth as she talked, the words coming out in a tumble. ‘Why not? It’s a hell of a lot more hospitable than Mars. No terraforming required; the atmosphere is breathable, and I’m willing to bet we can get terrestrial crops to grow here. Getting a manufacturing base setup would take a little longer, but we have the Box’s fabrication capabilities to tide us over with small scale production.’
‘You’ve obviously been thinking about this,’ said Kevin.
‘Like I said, Connie and I spent time last night going over it all.’
‘Right.’
‘First thing we need is some sort of shelter. What sort of weather does this place have? Can we expect storms? Heavy rain? Snow even?’ Simone stopped pacing and looked at Kevin. ‘There’s so much to do.’
Maybe Simone needed this to help cope with Jacob’s death. Building some shelter certainly wouldn’t hurt, and would help keep her occupied.
‘Alright,’ said Kevin. ‘But don’t you go doing any manual labour.’
‘What?’
‘Your condition.’ Kevin looked away, suddenly feeling awkward.
‘My condition?’ Simone hesitated. ‘Oh. You know.’
‘That ColPol officer wanted to arrest you for it. Plus, Dad told me,’ said Kevin.
Dimitri coughed. ‘I’m going to get some air.’
‘I’ll come too,’ said Connie.
The pair rapidly made an exit leaving the siblings alone.
‘Dad? But how did he—’ Simone made a small moaning noise. ‘Jacob.’
Kevin got out of his chair and hugged his sister as she started to cry. He felt her body jerk with sobs before she pulled back slightly, wiping her eyes and sniffing back the tears.
‘He’s gone, Kev. How can he be gone?’
Kevin didn’t know how to answer.
‘I have to be strong. For our little boy.’
‘It’s a boy?’ asked Kevin.
‘It was Jacob’s choice.’
‘I’m going to be an uncle,’ said Kevin. He’d always known he would be. There was no way Dad would have rested until Jacob and Simone continued the family name. But not like this. On an alien world after Jacob had been murdered.
Simone gently pushed away from Kevin. ‘You’ll make a damn fine uncle, Kev.’
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence.’
Simone wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and mustered a faint smile. ‘No problem little brother.’
‘You really want to do this. Founding a colony,’ said Kevin.
‘Yes. I don’t want Webb getting his hands on my son.’
‘Because he’s gene-edited,’ said Kevin.
Simone nodded. ‘Yes. With Jacob out of the picture he’d probably spin it as being in the best interests of the baby to take him into protective council custody.’
Webb. Kevin wanted to tell Simone what Dad had told him about their mothers accident not being an accident. ‘Simone. There’s something I have to tell you.’
Simone frowned slightly. ‘You sound serious.’
‘You can’t let Dad know you heard it from me,’ said Kevin.
‘Kev. What is it?’
Kevin wiped his hands on his trousers. They’d become unaccountably sweaty. ‘Lula found something strange in the ColPol report about Mum’s accident.’
‘Go on.’
‘Sim. It wasn’t an accident. The record had been modified. By Webb.’
‘Webb?’
Kevin nodded.
‘I mean, he’s blocked the Program since Mum died; but...’ Simone frowned.
‘Lula set up an AI to find out who had modified the accident record. It found someone.’
‘Webb.’ Simone’s voice was full of fresh loathing.
‘I couldn’t keep this from you, but please, don’t tell Dad.’
‘Why doesn’t he want to tell me?’
‘Uh. Because of. You know.’ Kevin looked down at her belly.
‘He’s protecting me.’ Simone let out a long sigh.
‘Yes. Well. You know.’ Kevin shrugged awkwardly.
‘Don’t worry. I won’t tell him.’
‘Thanks,’ said Kevin.
‘For now.’
CHAPTER 31
Reims knew that the investigation was heading for failure. The last thing that could be called progress was the discovery that some of the blood at the scene of the homicide was from Jacob Aarons and Lula Ivankov. There was, however, no sign of either of them, and the murder weapon had still not been found.
There was a gun on Mars and ColPol did not have a handle on where it was. This concerned Reims more than the missing fugitives. She’d turned up nothing to suggest that the Aarons and Maddock were the desperate terrorists they were being portrayed to be by Webb and the council. Admittedly, the Ivankovs had a murkier past; Reims
had uncovered an illegal booze supply network that had been run by the married couple but nothing about them suggested to her that they were guilty of the heinous crimes against Mars they now stood accused of. In the weeks since the incident, the charges against the missing families had become more and more serious and, in Reims’ opinion, mostly fabricated.
‘Penny for them?’ asked Conway.
Reims looked up from her coffee cup. ‘Just wondering how we ended up running this shit-show of an investigation.’
‘Just lucky, I guess,’ said Conway.
‘Sort of luck we could do without. The chief’s been shielding us form the worst, but Webb’s an impatient man.’
‘I still don’t see what he expects us to do.’
‘Perform bloody miracles as far as I can tell,’ said Reims. ‘We got anything new from the deep AI analysis we ran on the water mine data logs?’
‘You mean the analysis we’ve already run six times?’
‘That’s the one.’
‘Nope. There’s no trace of any footage that was replaced with that looped recording.’
Reims was hoping they’d find some evidence that the artefact was the means of travel being used by the fugitives. It was the only theory that made any sort of sense. It was like Holmes, that detective in her favourite books said, “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Conway spun his chair away from his screen and stood up. ‘Want to go get some coffee?’
Reims spotted a flashing notification icon on Conway’s screen. He hadn’t activated the screen lock. Sloppy, as usual. ‘Check your notification first.’
Conway leant over his keyboard and accessed his notifications. ‘That’s funny.’
‘What? Another one of those pranking vids?’
‘No. One of our friends and family AI searches has found an anomaly.’
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