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Chapter Twenty-Four

The SysPol v-wing descended through the ochre haze of Titan’s atmosphere, long wings extending out from the fuselage as it slowed. Winds buffeted the craft, and restraints bit into Isaac’s shoulders for a moment before the v-wing pushed through. He stretched out his legs and massaged his thighs, but the act had little effect on the fatigue he felt from the seven-hour trip.

The v-wing may have been designed primarily for flight through Saturn’s varied atmospheric layers, but its airtight cabin and thruster capacitors allowed for short-range space travel within the Saturn State.

Their craft dipped underneath the main haze layer, revealing a chocolate-hued landscape of dark mountains shot with paler, rocky veins that led down to smooth plains stripped by eons of erosion. Not from the flow of water, but from the rain of liquid methane across the moon’s desolate surface, which pooled in vast, dark lakes and rivers.

Their v-wing veered around a puffy cloud with liquid methane drizzling from its flattened bottom in sporadic hazy columns. The lights of the Promise City dome and its surrounding cluster of terraforming towers glowed through the methane-nitrogen fog directly ahead.

The black dome had been built in the center of a wide, pale plain, and covered transit arteries formed spokes leading to lesser domes nearby. A ring of six immense, spindly towers with open tops encircled the city, drawing air to form hazy, ochre funnels at their peaks.

“Where’s the spaceport?” Susan asked from the seat next to him.

“At the top of the main dome.” Isaac pointed to a shallow, black cylinder rising from the dome’s apex. A pair of private v-wings took off from departure pads, and a luxury saucer slowed for its final descent. Floodlights bathed the upper surface with light, and green strobes pulsed along the borders of the structure.

“We have landing clearance,” Cephalie said. “Taking us in.”

Their craft pulled in its glider wings, and the graviton thruster eased back, giving way to the moon’s 0.14 gravities. They came to rest on a landing cradle, which latched onto their v-wing, and the bin sealed and descended into the spaceport complex. The atmosphere cycled outside their craft while the bin moved to their designated bay.

“I hope someone’s monitoring this system,” Susan said.

“They are,” Isaac said. “Most of the spaceport is operated by Polaris Traveler, including the machinery that killed Quang. Both they and SSP are monitoring the stacker like hawks.”

“And if the stacker tries to crush us, too?”

“Then this’ll be your big chance to blast our way out.”

Isaac may have flippantly dismissed the risks, but he couldn’t help but feel anxious until their bin locked into the correct position, and the side opened to reveal the arrival concourse. Several SSP and Polaris Traveler personnel stood waiting outside the bin entrance, though given their positions, Isaac wondered if they’d been in the middle of an argument.

“Here we go,” Isaac breathed.

The v-wing’s side split open, and stairs extruded down. Isaac stood up, grimaced at the stiffness in his back, then climbed down the stairs and walked over to the crowd.

“Detective Cho.” An SSP officer with a ghost-white buzz cut stepped forward and extended a hand. “Good to see you again.”

“Likewise, Lieutenant.” Isaac shook his hand.

“You two know each other?” Susan said.

“We do, indeed.” He extended his hand to Susan. “Lieutenant Alfons Garnier, Twenty-Nineth Precinct, PCPD.”

“Agent Susan Cantrell, acting deputy detective.”

“A pleasure, ma’am.”

“A year ago,” Isaac began, “Raviv and I helped the lieutenant with a rash of disappearances in the Fridge, which is the nickname for an unfinished subterranean expansion to Promise City. Officially, it’s known as the Ice Grotto.”

“Which has turned into nothing but a headache for our precinct,” Garnier grumped. “What did the city council think would happen when they left an area that large unfinished and unsupervised? Didn’t take long for job dodgers, addicts, gangsters, and far worse to move in, but our spineless councilors refuse to let us clear them out and lock down the Grotto.”

“Raviv and I caught a serial killer preying on the gangs for sport. Gruesome piece of business. The killer was into collecting trophies, and teeth were his favorite, especially if extracted while the victim still lived.”

“The Bloody Dentist, people called him.” Garnier cringed at the memory. “How is Raviv doing these days?”

“Promoted.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Garnier was of the mind that promotions could inadvertently distance good officers from the people they served, and he’d refused all attempts by his superiors to make him a captain during his long years on the Promise City police force.

“Yeah, I think he’s sorry, too,” Isaac conceded.

“Anyway, I’m glad you’re finally here. I understand this mess may be related to a case you’re working on.”

“I’m almost certain it is,” Isaac said. “We have evidence Melody Quang was at least tangentially involved in the deaths of two Gordian Division agents. I had hoped to pull her in for questioning. In fact, we were about to contact your precinct when word of her death reached us.”

“Not the best way to collect a witness,” Garnier said, in the manner of a massive understatement.

“No. It’s hard to have a conversation when they’re sloshing around in a beaker.” Isaac sighed and rubbed the small of his back. “What have you found so far?”

“Not much,” Garnier confessed. “Physical examination of the crime scene is obvious enough. One bin crushed another, but we’re struggling with the question of how. The captain put our best data forensics team on the job; they’ve been scouring the infostructure but have found jack all in the hours since her death. Honestly, it’s looking more and more like a glitch of some—”

“Excuse me!” A man in a pastel green business suit pushed through a pair of SSP troopers and took a long, floating step over. Polaris Traveler logos scrolled across his neck scarf. “I think I’ve waited long enough.”

“Not now,” Garnier breathed irritably.

“And you are?” Isaac asked.

“Emanuel Voit, Polaris shift manager on duty when this so-called ‘glitch’ occurred.”

“I didn’t say it was a glitch,” Garnier protested wearily. “I was merely pointing out for the detective that we haven’t found evidence of a deliberate criminal act. Not yet.”

“Which means you’re trying to pin this death on our company!”

“Mister Voit, please. Our investigation is ongoing. No conclusions have been drawn yet, and I’m sure the detective will have his own input to provide. Now, if you’ll excuse us, I need to bring his team up to speed on—”

“Oh, no!” Voit glowered at the Garnier. “Not without me! I’m not going anywhere until I know this case is being handled properly.”

“Please, stop right there, Mister Voit,” Isaac said sharply. “I believe I can help sort this out.”

“That would be most appreciated, Detective,” Garnier said.

“First, have we identified the infosystem where the failure occurred?”

“Yes, that part’s clear enough,” Garnier said. “Stacker Control Seven was the infosystem responsible for shoving one bin into another.”

“The lieutenant’s right,” Voit agreed. “SC7 interfaces with numerous other systems, such as the MTC. The Master Traffic Controller. But SC7 is the only system responsible for positioning bins within Stacker Seven. No other systems track what’s in which bin, and no other systems provide orders to the SRS robotics, so it’s the only one that could have caused this.”

“And do we have a save state from the time of the failure?”

“We do,” Garnier said. “Polaris provided us with the file, but we haven’t had much luck analyzing it. Everything checks out so far.”

“And has Polaris performed their own analysis?”

“We’re…working on it,” Voit said.

“Have you found anything?” Isaac pressed.

“Well, no. But I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.”

“I’ll need a copy of the file.”

“Of course.” Voit offered him a file exchange, and he copied it to the LENS.

“Cephalie, contact Kronos Station, and have them analyze the fault state. See if you can get it assigned to the same team who looked over the LifeBeam tower file. Regardless, have them check for any similarities between the two failures. Oh, and tell them I need the results expedited.”

“On it.”

“What’s LifeBeam have to do with this?” Voit asked.

“Nothing, until we’ve determined there’s a link between the two incidents,” Isaac deflected. “Mister Voit, I assure you both SysPol and SSP are approaching this incident with all due seriousness, but I need to inspect the crime scene next. Without any interruptions.”

“All right,” Voit said. “But you two better not keep me in the dark over this.”

“We won’t,” Isaac said. “Thank you for your time, Mister Voit. I’ll be in touch if I need anything else from Polaris.”

“This way, Detective.” Garnier led them to a counter-grav lift that whisked them down into the lower levels of the spaceport. They came out in a utility area at the base of the stacker trench.

Isaac craned his neck and watched the stacker robots pull a pair of bins out of storage, shift speedily at a diagonal, then slot the bins into position higher up and on the opposite side of the trench. A clear roof separated the robot from the basement level except for a wide-open maintenance bay where the robot could temporarily store bins removed from service.

“That’s the calmest I’ve seen their shift manager all day,” Garnier commented.

“Glad I could help, Lieutenant.”

Isaac walked around the circumference of the maintenance bay and the compressed forms of two bins. It made him think of a reclamation plant compactor. A small pool of blood collected underneath one corner, where a coffin-shaped segment had been cut away and removed.

“Melody Quang, I presume,” Isaac said.

“That’s right,” Garnier said. “Her body’s back at the precinct. We made a positive ID from her DNA and confirmed it with her data signature in the spaceport as well as with surveillance video of her entering the bin.”

“I’ll need the full autopsy report,” Isaac said. “Cause of death seems obvious enough, but the autopsy may reveal other valuable information, such as the data contents of her wetware.”

“You’ll have it, though I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Her wetware’s pulped. I doubt we’ll get anything useful out of it.”

“Still worth a look,” Isaac said, staring at the crushed bins. “What about the v-wing’s infosystem?”

“It’s in there, somewhere.”

“Can you bring a team in to retrieve it?”

“Sure thing, though again, I wouldn’t get your hopes up.”

“The v-wing’s outer hull should have provided some protection to the nodes,” Isaac countered.

“Yeah, but maybe not enough.” Garnier shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. We’ll pull out whatever we can find.”

“That’s all I ask, Lieutenant.”

* * *

“What now?” Susan asked as they sat down at their booth. The bottom level of Promise City Spaceport included a large cluster of restaurants, and several featured tinted floors and wide windows where visitors could observe the sprawl of Promise Park far below.

Promise Park, as the name implied, represented a preview of the moon’s final terraforming stage. Their booth provided a bird’s eye view of a vast lake, filled not with liquid methane, but crystal-clear water. A single artificial landmass of green, rolling pastures floated atop the lake with pontoon bridges connecting outward to the park’s boundaries. Virtual images along the walls displayed clear, blue skies dotted with cottony clouds.

Titan’s gravity was so low and its atmosphere so thick that human-powered flight could be achieved with relative ease, and Promise Park was the best place on the moon for the activity, since adventurous citizens could take flight without environmental gear. A young woman flapped past their window, arms wide with the added length of her glimmering wing membranes, while a young man pursued her, a small harness-mounted propeller buzzing on his back.

“Thoughts?” Susan asked.

“Analysis of the fault state may link this to the LifeBeam tower virus.” Isaac turned away from the window.

“And what if it does?” Susan pressed. “Where do we go from there?”

“I don’t know. Quang was our connection to Stade, and now she’s dead. Maybe there’s something on her v-wing, but…” He shook his head.

“That seems doubtful.”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t expect Quang to be so careless. We’ll have to wait and see what turns up.”

“And if nothing turns up?”

“Well then.” Isaac leaned back in his booth. “That’s the question, isn’t it? We don’t have the slightest clue where Stade is, and he’s demonstrated a knack for hiding in the shadows. Other than a statewide manhunt, I’m not sure where we go with this.”

“I’m kind of doubtful even that would find him.”

“Yeah.” He placed his cheek on a fist. “Zhù hǎo yǔn.”

“Sorry. That didn’t translate through.”

“We could use some good luck right about now.”

“You’ll get no arguments from me.”

“Let’s review what we know,” Isaac said. “Maybe something will come to us.”

“Fine by me,” Susan said. “I’ll start. We’re almost certain Stade killed both Delacroix and Quang.”

“Andover-Chen, too, but he was just collateral, unless we’ve missed something big.”

“Right. Also, either Quang or Stade used the Ōdachi alias to contact the Fanged Wyverns and had them clean out Delacroix’s apartment.”

“The information we recovered from his apartment led two places,” Isaac recounted. “Quang and Delacroix were in a relationship, and Delacroix had met with Stade on Free Gate.”

“And before that, they met on the Atomic Resort.”

“Where Delacroix and Stade spent time together in a brothel…for whatever reason.”

“That’s also where Stade purchased a copy-protection codeburner from Kvint.” Susan frowned. “That’s another strange part. Why that piece of illicit software?”

“Yeah,” Isaac agreed. “The attack viruses Stade purchased later make sense; he’s clearing out his accomplices and covering his tracks. Atomic Resort is also where Ōdachi—again either Quang or Stade—tried to convince Thorn to kill you.”

“After which, Kvint revealed Stade is also a false name, set up by Quang.”

“Which begs the question,” Isaac continued. “Who, exactly, is Thomas Stade?”

“Yeah.” Susan glanced down at the park. “Do we even have a motive yet?”

“Nope.”

“If we had that, I bet all of this would slot into place.”

“We can dream,” Isaac said wearily. “But let’s keep working through this. Both Quang and Delacroix have been offed. What did they have in common?”

“The Gordian Division contract with Trinh.”

“And the failed impeller.” Isaac leaned back and stared off for a moment.

“You think that could be involved?”

“Maybe. Not sure how, though. It seemed like a dead end last we talked with Quang, but that was before we could link her to Stade.”

“A time drive is a valuable commodity,” Susan noted. “The wrong people could do a lot of bad things with one.”

“True, but Negation Industries chopped up the impeller before handing it over.”

“Could they reassemble it?”

“I would assume so, though I’m not sure what would be involved. We could ask Andover-Chen, but I imagine the repairs would be difficult. You’d need to supervise them with an experienced…”

He trailed off, and they both exchanged looks of simultaneous realization.

“Chronometric engineer!” they said in unison.

“Which Delacroix was,” Susan finished. “Trinh could be after an off-the-books time drive.”

“This might be it.” Isaac rubbed his chin. “They tell us they’ll use the exotic matter for other work, but instead, they switch it out behind the scenes and reassemble the impeller in secret.”

“And Delacroix helps them do it.”

“But there’s a problem with this theory,” Isaac said. “When would Delacroix have had the opportunity? He’s been either joined at the hip with Andover-Chen or back at Earth this whole time.”

“Or ‘on vacation,’” Susan pointed out.

“Hmm.” Isaac nodded slowly. “Maybe he assisted remotely during the time he and Stade ‘spent’ at the brothel?” He pulled up dates for their resort visits and compared them to the sales records for the failed impeller. “No, it doesn’t line up. Their time together on the Atomic Resort came two weeks too early. Trinh hadn’t taken possession of the impeller cubes yet.”

“Damn,” Susan breathed. “Thought I was on to something.”

“It’s all right.” Isaac flashed a smile at her. “That was a good guess. If the dates lined up differently, we’d be all over this lead.”

“Then you don’t believe it’s the impeller?”

“I wouldn’t go that far. The failed impeller is shady business, and it links Delacroix and Quang. The stink coming off that deal is related to this whole mess. Somehow. I’m just not sure how.”

“Where are the impeller pieces now?”

“Quang said they were moved to their new Kraken Mare plant on Titan.”

“And here we find her crushed while leaving Titan. Coincidence?”

“Hmm.” Isaac leaned back in thought.

“Hey, kids,” Cephalie said, appearing over the LENS resting at his side.

“News?” Isaac asked.

“Some. You already have a preliminary report on the Polaris infosystem fault state.”

“And?”

“They found strange code fragments in one of the buffers which bear some striking similarities to the fragments recovered from LifeBeam. Not a conclusive match, but…”

“Good enough for our purposes,” Isaac said. “We can assume Stade killed Quang. Anything else?”

“Looks like the flight recorder in Quang’s v-wing is recoverable. Imaging shows at least one of the redundant nodes wasn’t crushed. SSP’s cutting their way to it now. We should have the contents within the hour.”

“Good. That might be interesting.”

“How so?” Susan asked.

“Remember what Quang said about Trinh’s Kraken Mare plant?” Isaac said. “She made it clear she’s not involved. But what if her flight recorder shows she visited the facility during this trip? That would be unusual for someone in her position.”

“You’re thinking she stopped by to check on the progress?”

“Maybe. If so, Stade might even be at the facility.”

“Perhaps that’s how he infected her with the attack virus?”

“Speculation aside, it’s clear we need to check out that facility,” Isaac said. “Cephalie, put in for a search warrant.”

“Understood. I’ll take care of it.” She vanished.

“What are we going to do when we get there?” Susan asked. “Neither of us knows much about exotic matter.”

“No worries. I’m one step ahead of you.” Isaac opened a comm window and waited for the call to go through.

“Raibert Kaminski here.”

“Agent, this is Detective Cho.”

He waited eight seconds for the light speed delay to play out.

“Hey, Detective,” Kaminski replied. “Been wondering when I’d hear from you next. You find the murderer yet?”

“No, but that’s actually what I’m calling about. You remember the impeller Negation Industries sold Trinh?”

“Sure do. What about it?”

“I have reason to believe the remains of the impeller may no longer be in a disabled state.”

“What? You think they might be putting the impeller back together without authorization?”

“That’s one possibility, yes. However, Agent Cantrell and I aren’t qualified to inspect exotic matter devices. We were hoping your division could assist us.”

“Sure, we can help out. Andover-Chen would be perfect for the job. I bet the man could lick an impeller and tell you if it’s configured right just from that. Besides, it’ll do him good to stay busy. We just finished a round of tests and won’t have any more until tomorrow while Negation performs some recalibrations. Where do you need us?”

“One moment.” Isaac pulled up the coordinates for the Kraken Mare plant and transmitted them. “I’m sending the location over. It’s a Trinh Syndicate facility south of Titan’s Kraken Mare.”

“Got it. Bit of a trek to get from here to Titan, but with just me, Andover-Chen, and Philo, we can max out the Kleio’s thrusters and be there in about three hours. I’ll leave the rest of my crew behind and spare them the high gees. That work for you?”

“It certainly does,” Isaac said. “Just let us know when you leave. We’ll coordinate our departure from Promise City so we arrive at the same time. Much appreciated, Agent.”

“Don’t mention it. See you at the Kraken Mare.”


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