EMPIRE: Imperial Detective

by Stephanie Osborn

  “Wine imports, of course,” Alexandre chuckled. “Why do you think Callista knows so much about them? But the center of the business is actually in the Imperial City; I ‘commute’ in VR. And if there is a condominium coming available in that building you’re in, especially if it’s near yours, we might just look at moving to the Imperial City. Then I can work from home, and Laura can be grandmère and provide child-care, while you both work. Hell, I might even help with the child-care; I don’t work every minute of every day, after all. Grandpère needs to be in on spoiling his grandchild!”

  “Oh! That would be wonderful!” Cally exclaimed.

  “Yes, it would! But… isn’t this your childhood home, honey?” Nick asked her.

  “No, no, no,” Alexandre said. “This is where Laura and I moved after Cally left for the Imperial Police Academy. The old house – which was much too big for just us – is rather an Ames clan sort of dwelling, a big, sprawling place with several families in various wings. We can visit there any time we want, all of us, but once Cally moved out, Laura and I decided we wanted something a little smaller and quieter…”

  “It used to be called empty nest syndrome, in ancient times,” Laura said.

  “I see,” Nick said with a grin. He looked at Cally, who returned the expression. “Cal, sweetheart, I think we have child-care taken care of now.”

  “I think so,” she said, happy.

  After that, they called Nick’s aunt and uncle on Flanders.

  “Aunt Bea, Uncle Joe,” Nick said in the simulation, “you remember my wife, Cally.”

  “Yes, dear,” Bea Jaansen Bertrand responded. “My, I think you’re even prettier than you were on your wedding day.”

  “Good to see you two kids again,” Joseph Bertrand remarked. “To what do we owe the visit?”

  “Well, we just wanted to let you know that there’s gonna be a family addition,” Nick said then. “Cally’s pregnant.”

  “That’s wonderful!” the older couple exclaimed in unison. “When are you due?” Aunt Bea asked.

  “Um, I’m about three, three and a half, months in,” Cally said. “It’s a boy, and we’re naming him Paul Hans Ashton, after Nick’s dad and my father’s middle name.”

  “Nice, nice,” Uncle Joe murmured.

  “Yes, Nick, I’m sure your father and mother would be honored,” Aunt Bea said, smiling while dashing away a tear. “That’s just lovely. Now, do you have child-care lined up? We can’t come there, but we could help financially…”

  “Mom and Dad are moving to the Imperial City from Sergut,” Cally explained. “It’s on the other side of the continent from Imp City.”

  “That works,” Uncle Joe promptly declared, looking at Bea.

  “It does,” Aunt Bea agreed. “Now, be sure to tell them that, if we can help in any way, we’ll be glad to. And you two should know, we’ve done well for ourselves financially, but with no children, well…”

  “What Bea is saying is, we’ve made you our heirs,” Uncle Joe noted. “And given that, if you need any financial help, especially while the little fella’s growing, you just yell, okay?”

  “Thanks, Uncle Joe,” Nick said with a smile. “We… appreciate that.”

  “Nick, Cally, we’re very proud of you both,” Aunt Bea declared. “You’ll have to send little Paul here for the summer to visit, when he gets old enough. Better yet, bring him sooner!”

  “Thank you, sir, ma’am,” Nick murmured. “We’ll do that. I’d been thinking I’d like to show Cal around my hometown anyway.”

  “You do that, son, you do that!” Joe said. “We just finished revamping the house, and there’s several guest bedrooms upstairs just achin’ to be used!”

  The last thing to do was to throw a little party at their condo; they invited The Team as well as the IPD Investigations division, which now consisted of seven investigators in addition to Ashton. More, each brought a significant other, so the Ashtons had quite a houseful. Consequently, the roar that shook their condo when they made the announcement could have been detected on seismographs, the couple decided later. They found themselves immediately enveloped in happy hugs and congratulations by everyone in the crowded room.

  “A toast to the new parents!” Maia Peterson exclaimed, raising a glass of ginger ale; everyone had wondered what happened to the wine, as Cally usually served some very nice wines, and now they understood – the new mama wanted to avoid overloading her nanites in caring for the baby.

  “Hear, hear!” came the uproarious response, and everyone drank from whatever fluid they had in hand; this did include some beer for those who preferred, as Cally mostly didn’t care for beer and therefore wasn’t tempted.

  When the celebration had quieted a bit and everyone went back to noshing and chatting, Carter and Peterson pulled the Ashtons aside.

  “I guess this makes us sort-of-almost-kinda grandparents, huh?” Lee asked with a grin, and the foursome chuckled.

  “It sure does,” Nick declared. “And glad of it. I did already tell my aunt and uncle, and we told Cally’s parents, but we couldn’t figure out how to tell you two in advance without it getting around to this lot of hot-shot investigators that something was in the wind.”

  “And we wanted it to be a surprise,” Cally added. “So, um, we’re sorry Nick’s adopted parents didn’t get told sooner.”

  “Nah, don’t sweat it,” Lee said, waving a hand in dismissal. “We get it.”

  “And I can definitely see why you didn’t,” Maia decided, looking around. “Oh, Nick, just so you know, I’ve heard a few conversations hither and yon, and I think your division is a tad bit jealous of the fact that our lot has a collective nickname.”

  “Oh?” Nick wondered. “They’re jealous of The Team?”

  “I’ve heard it, too,” Lee averred. “I think they’re looking at calling themselves The Group, or some such, for your bunch of folks.”

  “The Gang, I think,” Maia corrected.

  “Oh! Yeah! That was it,” Lee agreed. “I knew it started with a G! The Gang. Which I’m fine with, as long as it’s not a gang like we just broke up a few months back, that wanted us all dead.”

  “It’s probably good for morale, too,” Maia decided. “It was, for The Team.”

  “I like it,” Cally decreed.

  “That’s fine,” Nick said with a shrug. “I can see it.”

  As the pregnancy progressed with no real difficulties out of the norm, Nick and Cally made inquiries, and discovered that the condo next door would become available, but not until a few weeks after the baby was due. A quick check with Cally’s parents revealed that the price was acceptable, and the older couple promptly signed the option paperwork to acquire it. Meanwhile, the impending parents decided that, with two spare bedrooms, they could make it work until the adjacent condo opened up to the Ameses.

  “Because the middle bedroom will just become the nursery,” Cally pointed out, “and Mom and Dad can stay in the far bedroom, and we’ll set up a baby monitor in VR, and hand off to whoever is available.”

  “That’ll work,” Nick decided. “It might be a little bit crowded in here until that condo becomes available, but your folks are nice, and we’ll all get along just fine.”

  “Hey, you just want Mom and Dad as additional French chefs!” Cally teased, and Nick grinned.

  “They taught you, didn’t they, babe?” he observed. “And I got no complaints there, at all. In any department.”

  “Yeah. I guess it’s a good thing we hadn’t furnished the middle bedroom yet,” Cally noted. “We got the far bedroom mostly outfitted by consolidating our apartments, so we’re good there, but now we just gotta get baby stuff for the middle bedroom, and we’re good.”

  “Yup. Now let’s go shopping for baby furniture an’ shit.”

  They did. Soon the middle bedroom looked like a proper nursery, with a crib, feeding chair, night lights and mobiles, and Nick even gave the room a coat of paint in a soft baby blue. A single twin bed in the corner woul
d suffice for a caretaker needing to stay close and still sleep, and an adorable child-themed and -sized dresser, chest of drawers, and nightstand that matched the crib was shoehorned into the room, as well.

  Then they started stocking the furniture and closet with baby clothes and diapers. A little baby shower held at the Carter house, and attended by most of The Team and The Gang, helped greatly in that respect, as well as outfitting them with other little essentials, like a breast pump, feeding bottles, teething rings, pacifiers, and more.

  While all that was in work, Alexandre was busy adjusting his wine trading business to accommodate the move, and Laura started packing their things with Alexandre’s help; they intended to put everything but their clothing and personal items into storage until they owned the condo adjacent to their daughter and son-in-law. They also put the house on the market, but it was set up so it wouldn’t close until after the baby was born. This would, they explained, avoid cramping the Ashtons during the last weeks of the pregnancy, when Cally would be most uncomfortable and potentially irritable.

  “We want to help, not be in the way,” Laura said, and Cally and Nick were appreciative.

  Meanwhile, criminal action in the Imperial City began to pick up in an odd fashion. Requests began to come in from the Imperial Guard to look into this or that situation, and generally the IPD Investigations division was tasked to do the job, sometimes in conjunction with the ICPD’s Investigative Team. Due to the request coming from the Guard, IPD always turned over the perp to the Guard for processing; most of the cases went into the standard courts, but a few simply disappeared, and Ashton and Carter – having some experience with these things – assumed they were tried in the High Court, and their sentences performed with no one outside the Palace staff the wiser. Occasionally a cryptic death notice reached the news media, but the cause of death was usually absent. Given the tendency for High Court executions to be cremated and the ashes anonymously disposed-of, it was hardly surprising.

  “These are espionage attempts of some sort, aren’t they?” Ashton asked Captain Mercer upon the fourth time the IPD arrested someone for violating security on the Defense Department Complex in the inner ring around the Imperial Park, and Mercer showed up with a team to collect the prisoner.

  “Um, I’m not at liberty to say, I’m afraid,” Mercer responded.

  “Fair enough. I won’t press. But can I ask what’s going on to produce all this?” Ashton tried again.

  “That, I can say, because it’s kinda sorta in the news already,” Mercer said, “though it might not be obvious to you. See, the Imperial Navy stopped acquiring new ships about six or eight months ago, maybe longer; I’ve lost track…”

  “Wait,” Ashton said, surprised. “You don’t just mean new designs, do you?”

  “No, I mean all ships,” Mercer confirmed. “As in, they aren’t replacing what they’ve already got when it starts to wear out.”

  “Damn,” Ashton said, shocked. “What are they up to?”

  “That’s evidently what these guys,” Mercer waved at the handcuffed perp as two of his colleagues escorted him past, “want to know, too.” He paused, then added, “And no, before you ask, I don’t know, either, and couldn’t tell you if I did.”

  “Where are they from?”

  “We’re working on finding that out,” Mercer said, cryptic.

  Subtraction

  Ashton was returning from lunch with Cally; she was still working out of the ICPD headquarters precinct, but Colonel Peterson and the other members of The Team were being very protective of her. The baby bump was distinct and obvious now, and her ability to be on her feet a lot had been substantially reduced due to the baby’s weight. So currently she only went out on non-dangerous cases, and Peterson had gotten a little mobility scooter for the division, expressly so that she – and any other investigators who might turn up injured in future; Smith was still having a few issues after the lightning strike – did not have to walk far and risk her feet swelling and her back hurting. It was this scooter Cally had used to meet Nick at a little diner a couple of blocks away from her precinct – one which was favored by The Team for their delicious and relatively inexpensive plate lunches.

  Lunch had been excellent, and the time spent with Cally as enjoyable as it always was – more, perhaps, because the baby was kicking, and Cally encouraged him to feel it, then declared little Paul kicked even harder at Nick’s touch. It was sunny and comfortable outside, he was happy, and he sauntered cheerfully down the street toward the front door of ‘Temporary New Headquarters.’

  Abruptly he was nearly knocked over, and his arms were full of shapely female.

  Female that was patently not his wife.

  “NICK!” a vaguely familiar voice squealed.

  “What the hell?!” Ashton exclaimed in surprise, trying to get hold of the woman pressed against him, her arms around, him, and push her away – at least far enough to see who had given him this overly-friendly greeting. When he did, he gaped in shock.

  “Tabby Koch?!”

  “YES!” she all but shouted. “I knew you’d remember me!”

  And with that, she planted a deep, passionate kiss on Ashton. He managed to break the kiss, whereupon he grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her away.

  “Tabby, stop that!” he declared. “I’m married now!”

  “So?” she said with a grin. “That never stopped me before.” She took his arm in hers, and they headed for the front door. “So let’s go inside and get re-acquainted.”

  She entered ‘Temporary New Headquarters’ with him, her arm still intimately entwined with his despite his best efforts, her body pressed far too close.

  “I heard you’re a detective now! Where’s your office? I wanna see!” she said, eager, as she all but paraded them through the bullpen. Then she stretched up and planted a wet kiss on his cheek.

  Ashton stopped dead.

  “Stop. That,” he declared, loud enough for the gawking beat cops to hear; all of them knew Ashton was married and his wife was about to have a baby, and a few recognized the woman fawning on him as the doted-upon niece of former IPD Headquarters General William Kershaw. “I already told you, Tabby, I’m married. Happily, I might add.”

  “Oh sure, sure, Nick,” Koch smirked. “But you look awesome! And I never knew a man that didn’t like a little on the side if he could get it. So believe me, honey, you can!”

  “You do now. And I don’t want it.” He turned on his heel and stalked off.

  Behind him, Koch blinked in surprise and a little bit of anger at the flat rejection. Then she looked around and saw the other cops watching; most were now smirking. Aha, she thought. Look good for the other cops. Riiiiight. I’ll get him later, then.

  So she tagged along in Ashton’s wake.

  When he went through the door marked “Investigations Lead,” and saw the office inside was empty, her eyebrow rose, and a knowing smirk crossed her own face.

  She entered the office and closed the door.

  Ashton, who was in the process of seating himself, glanced up at the sound of the door closing. He scowled, then moved back around the desk to the door, and opened it wide.

  “This door stays open,” he declared, as she reached for it to close it again. “No. You touch it again, I won’t hesitate to throw you out.”

  “Oh,” she said then. “Can, um, can’t we at least talk?”

  “For a few minutes. I have a lot to deal with this afternoon.”

  Ashton gestured at the visitor’s chair, as he moved behind the desk once more and sat. Koch took the indicated chair and stared at him for a long moment.

  “So you really did it,” she said then.

  “Did what?”

  “Got the training. Are you really the head of the Investigations division?”

  “I am, at least for the time being. And yes, I got training… but probably not what you think.”

  “I… don’t understand.”

  “Never mind. What are you doi
ng here? I figured you for dead in the destruction of the original Headquarters building.”

  “No, I wasn’t even on Sintar when that happened,” Koch said. “My uncle sent me off-world, back home to Hesse, so I could stay with my grandparents while I got my master’s degree.”

  “In what?”

  “Forensics.”

  That makes sense, Ashton thought. It follows through for all the police work. But probably not quite the way she intended to use it.

  “Were you working for IPD then? Did you get transferred to the sector office?”

  “Not really, no,” she said. “I was on sabbatical, so I could study and attend classes full-time. I got the pay, though, so I could manage to do that without needing a job to pay for incidentals.”

  The joys of nepotism, Ashton decided, trying not to curl his lip in disdain. Uncle’s baby girl.

  “So did you get an IPD grant for the tuition, or what?” he asked.

  “No, my uncle paid for the tuition.”

  “Uncle Bill of the deep pockets, huh?” came out of his mouth then. Fortunately he managed to disguise the disgust he felt, so it didn’t show in his tone or his face. Koch blinked.

  “You know who my uncle is? Um, was?”

  “I do.”

  “How long have you known?”

  “Since we were dating.”

  “And it didn’t bother you?”

  “The hell you say.”

  “You’re one of us! I knew it!” she said with a wicked grin. “I knew you’d come around!”

  “Tabby, what are you doing here?”

  “Coming back to work,” she said. “My sabbatical is over and I got my degree, so I’m reporting back for duty.”

  “Have you taken your Oath?”

  “My what?”

  “Your Oath of service.”

  “Silly Nicky, I took that years ago,” she said with a flirtatious smile.