“…And so what I want each of you to do,” he said, “around re-doing your Oaths and your regular case work, is to think about what you think we need in that building. What facilities, what capabilities, what could we do that would make your work flow more smoothly? And then I want you to write it up – nothing fancy – and send it to your team leader, who will then collate the requests and bring them to me. And the lead team, consisting of myself and the team leads – Maintenance, Dispatch, Bookkeeping, Field, Investigations, and Special Teams, or as many of those as we have so far – will sit down and hash them out, and figure out how to incorporate and accommodate as many of them as we can, given what we have to work with.”
“What about the section leads, Lee?” Ashton wondered.
“Well, other than a couple of offices for visiting section leads, they don’t really have a lot of input into Headquarters itself,” Carter pointed out. “It’s looking like General Quan, who heads ICPD, is going to be the Imperial City section lead, and possibly my assistant director… though he’s said he has enough to do without adding Assistant Director to his titles… but he’ll be on the periphery of the discussions, at least.”
Peabody raised his hand.
“Yes, Peabody?”
“Do we know who the other section leads are going to be?”
“Pretty much, yes,” Carter said, “though the sector and empire representatives are still a little up in the air. The Emperor and I are trying to sort our way through whether or not each sector has a representative, or whether there’s a representative body comprised of sector heads that then sends a single representative…”
“This is separate from the sector governors, though, right?” another officer, one of the younger beat cops, asked.
“Right,” Carter confirmed. “We’re talking about the sector police heads, here. There’s another structure that the Emperor uses for his sector governors.”
“You’re letting us have input into the new headquarters building?” Peter Stone, Ashton’s old roommate that he’d convinced to return to the IPD on Sintar only recently, asked then.
“Absolutely,” Carter decreed. “The old Headquarters was as squirrelly as a forest full of rodents! It was hard enough to get shit done as it was, even without the crooked aspects! We want to make this job easier, without the temptations to do it the wrong way. And so we need to know what will make the job easier, from the people who do it. If you could ask for anything in this new Headquarters, what would it be? Tell me now, while we can still take a shot at incorporating it.”
“Then let’s go, people!” Ashton decreed, and the meeting broke up with enthusiastic police officers discussing what they wanted for their ‘dream’ Headquarters.
The next day, Carter called a live meeting of the Investigative and Special Teams divisions in an auditorium one floor down. Much to everyone’s surprise, Emily Walton was also there.
“Okay, guys,” he said. “I wanted to make sure everyone who works with him is in on this, as well as include a special person in his life.” He gestured to Walton. “Winston Peabody, would you please come forward?”
A startled Peabody rose and moved to the front of the big room.
“Um, here, sir,” he said. “What do you need, sir?”
“It isn’t what I need, but what I can do for you, Mr. Peabody,” Carter said. “I see you obeyed my request to wear your dress uniform today.”
“Yes, sir. When the Director tells you to do something, you do it.”
“Good man. Ladies and Gentlemen,” Carter continued, turning to the audience, “Investigator Peabody, here, did a really incredibly brave thing. He deliberately and on his own recognizance, infiltrated a conspiracy to remove – to kill – the top brass in the IPD as well as a couple of important members of the ICPD. And when he reported their existence and was asked not only to continue, but to gather evidence against them, did not hesitate, but did so.” Carter paused, and looked out over the gathered divisions. “This put him at significant risk, and in the end, he was also one of those targeted for termination.”
Carter turned back to Peabody. “Mr. Peabody, step forward, please.”
Peabody did so.
“Ms. Walton, if you please. Do it just like I showed you.”
Emily Walton moved to stand before Peabody, where she produced a medal on a short ribbon – white, with a wide central red stripe and two narrow blue stripes flanking it – and pinned it to the chest of his tunic.
“This is the Gold Shield award. From this day forward, when a member of the IPD steps forward to place him-or herself in danger in order to protect other members of this, or any other, police department from a conspiracy anywhere in the Empire, they are eligible for the Gold Shield. Yes, it’s new. I just got approval for it from Consul Saaret yesterday, and the award had to be made up, so this is the soonest I could award it. And it goes to Mr. Peabody first, which seems appropriate. Congratulations, Mr. Peabody,” he added, as a beaming, proud Walton stepped back, to reveal the medal hanging below and to the left of the IPD Throne pin on Peabody’s tunic, where Carter had instructed her to place it.
The room erupted in applause, as Peabody flushed, then smiled.
It took some time, and in the end, in order to expedite matters, the Imperial Guard offered their lie detector chair for Oath service as well. Once Ashton had a small but loyal set of investigators on staff, his little division began assisting the ICPD Investigations division in doing in-depth background checks on the various staffers.
The very last staffer to re-take the Oath was Winston Peabody. He was scheduled to take the Oath in the temporary Headquarters building late in the day, and he formally requested that Director Lee Carter and wife ICPD Colonel Maia Peterson, Investigations Lead Detective Dominick Ashton and wife ICPD Detective Callista Ames, and his own newly-minted bride, best-selling mystery author Emily Walton, be present for the swearing ceremony if at all possible. He also formally requested that Imperial Guard Captain David Mercer initiate the Oath, and Imperial Guard Lieutenant Peter Cox serve as technician on the lie detector chair, as they had been involved in his cooperative interrogation during what he thought of as ‘the Imperial Council Uprising.’
Unbeknownst to him, a certain newlywed couple in the Imperial Palace also watched the very brief ceremony via VR transmission.
His invited guests were already present in what was dubbed ‘the Oath Room’ – a temporary location for the new IPD lie detector chair, without the usual accoutrements of an interrogation room – when Peabody entered, formally escorted by Captain Mercer. Lieutenant Cox and IPD physician Dr. Alexander Martin sat at a table in the corner with the telemetry equipment. Peabody went straight to the chair and sat, straight and tall, his back pressed against the backrest, his forearms resting on the chair arms, and his calves pressed against the chair legs. He shot a glance at Emily and smiled; she returned it, proud tears in her eyes.
“Are you comfortable, Investigator Peabody?” Captain Mercer asked.
“Very comfortable, Captain, thank you,” Peabody replied with a nod.
“Lieutenant Cox, are you and Dr. Martin ready?” Mercer continued.
“Yes, sir,” came the response. Mercer stepped back to allow the guests to watch.
“You may begin when ready, Investigator Peabody,” he said then.
Peabody took a deep breath.
“I, Winston Lewis Peabody, do solemnly swear that I will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Throne of the people of Sintar.” He paused, then added his own, unofficial addendum, “To the end of my days.”
Mercer, who had started to step forward at the conclusion of the standard Oath, paused to allow the addendum, then moved to Peabody’s side once more.
“Lieutenant Cox? Dr. Martin?”
Both men, grinning, gave thumbs-up.
Amid applause from the guests, Mercer declared, “Welcome to the Imperial Police, Investigator Peabody.”
Given it was the end of shift
, the entire group went out for drinks and dinner. They headed for the Laughing Cat Pub, sending invitations to The Team at ICPD and the rest of Ashton’s investigative division to join them in the ‘backmost back room’ for a celebration. The ICPD Team’s favorite waiter, George, cheerfully took good care of them, ensuring everyone was properly served, and giving the pub’s cook staff and management a heads-up on the private celebration occurring in the back. George also called Jeannie, one of the waitresses, to come help him serve the big gathering – by this time, Ashton had slowly brought investigators into his division, and the entire group of celebrants numbered twenty-two people.
Soon everyone was seated around a conglomeration of tables pushed together, with their preferred libations at hand and their dinner orders taken, even as Carter special-ordered several large platters of appetizers for the group.
Just then, Carter paused, holding up a hand to tell the others to wait. The group instantly silenced.
“What’s up, hon?” Peterson asked.
“I just got a very special message,” he said. “Gimme a minute, here.”
He opened the missive, which had arrived under Imperial header, and read it in the lower half of his vision, then began to grin.
“Nick, I think one of our ongoing discussions just got decided for us,” he said.
“Oh? What’s that?” Ashton responded.
“Well, let me read this message to all of you, and I think you’ll see.”
And he began to read aloud.
Director Carter,
I would like you to make the Oath of the IPD while the candidate is seated upon the lie detector chair an integral, ceremonial part of the hiring of any Imperial Police officer, now and in perpetuity. The candidate may invite guests to view his or her Oath Ceremony as desired, and it should be the culmination of the candidacy process, after which the candidate shall be considered a full, active member of the Imperial Police provided s/he passes the chair. This seems to me symbolic of the Oath which I, and all Emperors and Empresses regnant, must take upon ascension to the Throne, and therefore fully appropriate for those enforcing the Law of Ilithyia II.
Please congratulate Investigator Peabody for us, both in his completion of the Oath, and in his newlywed status. It was a beautiful ceremony, and inspired me to the decision.
Trajan Imp.
“Damn,” an impressed Ames said, as Peabody and Walton beamed in somewhat startled happiness. “The Emperor watched it?”
“The Emperor and Empress, it sounds like,” Carter said. “He says to congratulate them ‘for us,’ but says it ‘inspired me.’”
“I expect he took an interest on account of knowing Win from the Medved case, back when his sister was on the Throne,” Ashton commented.
“Not a half-bad celebration, here,” Peterson said with a grin.
It went on late into the night.
Thus, after some six or seven months, and fully a quarter of a year after the royal wedding, the entire staff of the New IPD Headquarters was declared loyal. Several small enclaves of ‘oldies’ were discovered and eliminated from IPD employ, though in as far as they could tell, no one else had any plans to start a conspiracy to return the IPD to its old ways, or otherwise cause trouble. They simply were more in it for themselves than they were for the good of the people, and were prone to taking bribes, extorting, or otherwise lining their own pockets.
Meanwhile, after considerable discussion within the ‘showing respect to the Director’ working group, and back and forth with that Director, it was finally decided that a simple, informal tap of the right index finger to the temple would be a sufficient indicator of respect, on the rare occasion when it might be needed.
Further, the requests coming from the force on what should be included in the new Headquarters building had been weeded through and the plans finalized.
So by the time Nick and Cally approached their first wedding anniversary, not only was the Headquarters staff clean, but the foundation of the new building had been installed and the first large masonry levels laid. The rest of the structure would go up quickly.
For their first anniversary, the Ashtons headed out of the city and some three hundred miles inland, to the Altay Mountains, where they rented a small chalet in a resort town for a long weekend. They whiled away the time walking through alpine meadows filled with wildflowers, picnicking in scenic vista areas, and even going above the snowline for some off-season skiing.
One night after lovemaking, as they lay in bed, Cally turned to Nick.
“Um, honey?”
“Yeah, Cal? Something on your mind?”
“A little, yeah. Something we’ve really never talked about before, but probably should have.”
“What would that be?”
“Kids.”
Nick silenced for a long moment, staring at his wife in the dim lighting.
“Cal… are you saying you’re…?”
“No, silly,” she said with a grin. “The nanites take care of that. I have to tell ‘em to stop, first.”
“Oh. Then what…?” he asked, confused.
“Do you like kids? Do you want kids?”
“I like kids, sure, I think,” he decided. “I haven’t been around any in a long time, really. I did some babysitting as a teenager, to save up money for the Police Academy, and I enjoyed that; I thought most of the kids were really cute. As for wanting ‘em… I dunno. I never really thought about it, to be honest. If you’re the mom, probably.”
“Any time soon?”
“I guess we can’t wait too awfully long, or we’ll be too old.”
“Right…”
“So… yeah, I guess we can look at having a child or two. If you want to, too.”
“YAY!”
Cally flung her arms around him and kissed him breathless.
“I take it, that’s a yes?” he asked, when she let him come up for air.
“Yes!”
“Well, let’s get busy, then,” he said, pulling her close once more.
Addition
By the time the New Headquarters building was being fitted out and trimmed inside, the Ashtons had a little announcement to make. So first, they visited Cally’s parents in VR.
“Hey, Mom an’ Dad,” she said, as the couple arrived in the simulation of her parents’ home.
“Hi, honey,” Laura Ames, Cally’s mother, greeted her. Her avatar moved to Cally’s, and they embraced.
“There’s our kids! Good to see you two!” Alexandre Ames, Cally’s father, said, following Laura. When they’d both hugged Cally, they turned to Nick and embraced him as well.
“Now, what’s this important news you had to tell us?” Laura wondered, gesturing to the sofa, as she and Alexandre took the armchairs opposite. “Has one of you been promoted to inspector? Is Nick officially the permanent head of the detectives for the IPD?”
“No, no, nothing like that,” Nick said, waving a dismissive hand. “I’ll be as surprised as anybody if they make me permanent head.”
“I wouldn’t,” Cally staunchly averred. “I still think you’re gonna end up doing that, if for no other reason that you’ve been in that position – what? Eight, nine months already? Closing on a year?”
“About a month short of being a year,” Nick said quietly. “What I’m really expecting to happen, though, given how well he’s doing, is either Peabody is gonna make detective soon, and with his experience, Lee will move him into the slot, or he’ll score somebody from one of the sector departments to transfer in and take over.”
“That’s not very fair to you,” Alexandre decided. “You put it all together, and some other bloke waltzes in and takes over?”
“No, it’s okay, because I’ve always known it would be that way,” Nick said. “Lee Carter and Maia Peterson are about the closest I have to parental figures any more, and Lee’s always been straight with me. I had no illusions coming in that this would be permanent. And I don’t really think I want it to be. I like doing field investiga
tions more than paperwork in an office.”
“Hey, Maia does both,” Cally pointed out. “She’s only not doing it so much now on account of, as she puts it, ‘not being young enough to keep up with you guys,’ meaning us in The Team.”
“Well, there is that,” Laura said, crossing her eyes, and they all laughed. “So what is this news? Tell me, tell me!”
Cally elbowed Nick.
“Oh!” he said, then, “Well, um, we, I mean Cally and I…”
“Honey, spit it out!” she told him.
“You spit it out! They’re your parents, honey!”
“Okay! We’re gonna have a baby!” Cally announced.
A shocked Laura clapped her hands and squealed in delight, and Alexandre made a wordless exclamation.
“Alex!” Laura cried in excitement. “We’re gonna be grandparents!”
“Boy or girl?” Alexandre wondered, grinning broadly.
“The nanites say it’s a boy,” Cally said, proud. “So we’ve decided to name him Paul Hans Ashton, after you, Dad, and Nick’s father Hans.”
“We would have named him Alex, but we were afraid that might get a little confusing,” Nick explained somewhat contritely.
“And that makes perfect sense,” Alexandre murmured, accepting. “I’m very honored, children.”
“Good, Daddy,” Cally replied, rising and going over to hug him. “We hoped you would be.”
“Now, Cally, are you going to retire from police work to be a full-time mom?” Laura wondered.
“No, I hadn’t planned on it,” Cally replied. “I like my job, after all, and think I’m doing good work for the city. So Nick and I have been talking about what to do for child-care…”
Laura turned and stared at her husband, who smiled, knowing exactly what his wife was conveying, after so many years together.
“Yes, my dear, I think that’s an excellent idea,” he said. “And yes, given I own my own business–”
“I never have thought to ask what you do, sir,” Nick commented, flushing at the omission. “I knew you had your own business, ‘cause Cal told me, but…” He shrugged. “I didn’t want to be nosy or anything.”
EMPIRE: Imperial Detective Page 17
