The BETA Agency

by Maxwell Coffie

  I gritted my teeth. “I think I have a fair idea.” I got out my cell-comm, and started to dial.

  “Who are you calling?”

  “A friend in the Enforcement Bureau.” I helped Chard to his feet. “You, sir, are coming home with me.”

  As the cell rang, Chard asked me, “I’m probably never going to play hoverball again, am I?”

  I looked at him, and for the first time, there was sadness. “Not for an official team,” I admitted. “No.”

  “Oh.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  He didn’t say anything at first. Then, softly, he started to cry.

  CHAPTER 65

  The doorbell rang.

  I opened the door to see Reeth Crawer. He gave me a once over, and shook his head. “Unbelievable. It’s like you have a genetic predisposition to insubordination.”

  “Nice to see you too, Crawer.”

  I let him into my apartment. Kattie was sitting at the kitchen island. He said hello to her, and then turned his attention to the miserable young Ruby watching a hoverball documentary on my living room sofa.

  “That him?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Chard Heller. He’s agreed to testify.”

  “And he’s sure about what he saw?”

  “Crawer, he was a damn lab rodent.”

  Crawer stared at Chard for a moment, and then sighed. “Unbe-flamin’-lievable. After those Syfron experiments, and the muck-storm that ensued, you’d think people had grown smarter. Now it turns out that we’re always going to be a bunch of messed up muck-brains. It never ends, does it?”

  I didn’t know what to say to that. “I think,” I finally murmured, “that you could crosscheck NeoChem’s current assets with Syfron’s former assets—see if there’re any lab facilities they purchased that weren’t declared, or whose permits haven’t been renewed. It’s a long shot, but it’s worth checking out.”

  “Yeah.” Crawer whistled, and Chard looked up. “Let’s go.”

  Chard grabbed his jacket, and went out to wait for Crawer in the corridor.

  “You did good, Everglade,” Crawer said.

  “Thanks.”

  “I’ll keep you updated.”

  I nodded. With that, he said goodbye and left.

  I returned to the kitchen, and grinned at Kattie. “We did it.”

  Kattie gave me a convincing smile. “Should we celebrate?”

  “You bet.” I fetched some flutes, and then grabbed a bottle of wine and a can of fizz from the refrigerator.

  As I was pouring, I noticed a black notebook on the counter. I stopped. “Did you take that from my room?”

  “I did. Did I overstep?”

  “Um, maybe you should have asked me first. But it’s alright.” I didn’t want to kill the mood.

  “This is the murderer’s notebook, right?”

  I nodded.

  “We still don’t know the reason for the killing.”

  “We’ll learn soon enough. Right after Crawer nabs that rump of a director Pyrate Ellios.”

  “I could translate this for you if you like,” she said.

  “What? You mean the book? You speak K’har?”

  “Not enough to translate the book. I’m not that intelligent.”

  “As always, your modesty is inspiring.”

  “I can just scan the pages and feed them into a translation program. Obviously, it will take quite a while to do all these pages, but I can do it.”

  I handed her a flute of fizz, grinning. “You have no idea how much I love you right now.” I lifted my champagne. “To Everglade and Everglade.”

  She met her flute with mine. I proceeded to empty my flute, but Kattie didn’t drink; she waited till I was through, and then asked, “Do you really think we could be a detective team?”

  I set my flute down. I had been joking when I’d said that actually. But now, there was a sincerity in Kattie’s eyes that startled me. “Well,” I said, “would you like that?”

  She nodded. “I would like to work with my sister.”

  I beamed. “I’d like that very much too. But you’re twelve. I can’t legally enter a partnership with you.”

  “It doesn’t have to be a partnership right away. You can register as a sole entity till I turn sixteen. In the meantime, I could help you out. It will be—“ She paused to find the right word. “Fun.”

  “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?”

  “Am I ever not?”

  I didn’t even need to think about it. “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Good,” she said. “Let’s toast to the Everglade Private Eye then?”

  I grinned. “Here here.”

  We drank.

  Later that night, I was in bed, watching an old comedy movie, when I heard a noise from the living room.

  I sat up, and listened. I heard nothing at first. Then, I heard it again: a clatter.

  “Not this again,” I muttered. “I need to get another blaster.”

  I ventured out of the bedroom, wielding my lamp like a bat. I got to the living room, looked around. There was nobody there.

  “DEB,” I called.

  No response.

  “DEB?”

  Silence.

  I felt a flutter of panic. I turned to go grab my cell-comm, and jumped.

  Kattie was standing in the corridor.

  “Flaming tripe, you scared the bleak out of me.”

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Sorry, I thought I heard something. You should be in bed.”

  “I got up to use the bathroom. Maybe that was what you heard.”

  “I don’t think so.” I looked up at the ceiling. “DEB isn’t responding.”

  “Why does that matter?”

  “Long story.” I tried again: “DEB, can you hear me?”

  Arra, DEB’s voice rang, loud and clear. How may I help you?

  I sighed, relieved. “What happened? Were you offline?”

  No, Arra. How may I help you?

  “The A.I. is fine,” Kattie said. “You really don’t sleep anymore, do you?”

  I sighed and rubbed my temples. “Just go to bed, okay?”

  Kattie nodded, and went to her room. I double-checked the front door, the balcony door, and the windows one last time.

  Is there a problem, Arra? DEB asked.

  The fluttering in my stomach was still there. “No,” I said. “No, forget it. Goodnight, DEB.”

  Goodnight Arra.

  CHAPTER 66

  At dawn, I was making a bowl of cereal, when Crawer called the apartment line.

  “Boy, I do not miss this,” I said, when DEB had linked me. “You calling me at unholy hours of the morn.”

  “Ha, that makes one of us.”

  Then, he told me why he was calling. The station analysts had found an undeclared facility, far on the northern fringe of the Metro State. The facility had formerly been owned by Syfron, and then purchased by a dummy corporation. The dummy had been traced back to NeoChem through a few poorly organized credit transfers. Further investigation had revealed regular chemical transfer records, both in and out of the facility. There were also purchase records of unrefined greystone, and industrial grade solvents that a learner had confirmed could be used to produce greywater.

  “We’ve got them,” Crawer said. “With that kid’s testimony, and now this, it was easy to get a search warrant for the facility.”

  “How did you get an arbiter to sign a warrant this early in the morning?”

  “Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to.”

  “So,” I said, “nepotism. How many uncles do you have in government?”

  “Shut up. That’s not why I called you.” He paused. “I wanted to know if you wanted to come along.”

  “Come along?”

  “For the bust. We’re about to leave for the facility. If you make it to the station in thirty moments, I can squeeze you into a carrier.”

  “Seriously?” I was st
unned. “That would be amazing. Thank you.”

  “Tick tock,” he said, and the line cut.

  I ran to the bathroom.

  I was at the station in twenty. I asked about Crawer, and a young enforcer directed me to the rooftop. There were three carriers, and each was already filled with armed enforcers, ready for lift off.

  Crawer was standing by the hatch of the closest carrier. As he helped me onto the carrier, he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the brilliant detective who made all this possible: Ms Arra Everglade.”

  The other enforcers applauded.

  I was embarrassed. “Ex detective,” I clarified.

  I strapped myself in, and the carrier lifted off. It took us three hours to reach the southern state fringe. After we crossed the state line, there were no more buildings beneath us—just fields of grass.

  “There it is,” Crawer said, after about twenty more moments.

  I looked out the window. Below was a small grey building with a round tiled compound, smack in the middle of the meadow.

  “Okay, everyone set your blasters to low. This is a raid, but it’s on a lab. I expect resistance to be minimal. Is that clear?”

  The team nodded.

  He turned to me. “Everglade, you know you can’t follow us into the building, right?”

  “Dammit, I hoped you’d forget that.”

  “But just in case…” He handed me a stun wand. “I’m not authorized to give you an assault weapon, so take this. Just point and blast.”

  “Yay,” I murmured.

  The carrier landed, and Crawer moved his team out. I watched the other two carriers land, and their respective teams line up. Together, the three teams hustled up to the building, and charged through a back door. Then, there was silence.

  I stepped out onto the dew-drenched grass, and breathed in the cold air. I wished I had brought a jacket. I could almost see the wisps of water vapour as I breathed. I was wondering how soon the leaves would start to fall, when I heard a thunderous whooshing overhead. I looked up in surprise to see another hover carrier approaching.

  I leaned into my carrier, and asked the pilot, “Is there another raid team coming in?”

  The pilot shrugged. “Not as far as I know, Miss.”

  I frowned, and leaned out, just in time to see a patch of grass swing open about a hundred yards away. A round Hiti man in spectacles and a suit climbed out of the ground. He was followed closely by a large Bark in a heavy coat—likely a bodyguard.

  I knew who the man was. “Hey,” I screamed.

  They turned their heads to see me. Then, they ran to meet the fourth carrier.

  “Son of a bat.” I ran after them.

  The other carrier hovered above the grass, waiting for its two passengers. I realized I wasn’t going to make it in time. So, I flash flitted my rump there.

  “Hey, another step and I’ll zap you,” I cried, pointing my wand. “You’re under arrest. Put your hands up, and turn around.”

  Now that I was closer, I could confirm who the man was: Director of NeoChem Pyrate Ellios. Slowly, he and the Bark turned around with their hands up.

  I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Agent Q?”

  Q charged at me, and knocked me clean off my feet. The grass barely cushioned my fall, and my wand tumbled out of reach. In fractions, he was on top of me, pinning my arms down.

  “I told you,” he hissed, “to stay off this case. I told you. But you just had to keep poking your nose around, didn’t you? You flaming…stupid…bat.”

  I directed my palms at his face, “Language, Agent Q,” and blasted him. I could hear the crackle of burning wood, as he screamed and rolled off me. I jumped back to my feet.

  Ellios was still trying to climb aboard the hover carrier. I rushed up to him, and tore him away from the carrier’s landing skids. Without hesitation, the pilot lifted his carrier to the sky, and fled.

  “Real loyal staff you got there,” I sneered.

  “Get back,” Q roared.

  I looked to see the S.I. agent pointing a blaster at me. His jaws were glowing and smoldering with embers. “Do you know what you’ve done?”

  “Um, stopped a needless repetition of illegal experiments that once, nearly ruined the lives of an entire generation of children?”

  “Typical enforcer near-sightedness,” Q spat. “This project could’ve closed the gap between S.I. agents and black-blooded criminals. It could’ve rendered the Beta Agency obsolete, and finally replaced the security of the worlds into the hands of a legitimate organization.”

  “Don’t forget ‘make hoverball dramatically more exciting’,” I said.

  Q shook his head. “I hope you can wake up, look in the mirror, and know that you singlehandedly kept the lives of every man, woman, and child of the five known worlds in danger.”

  “Put the blaster down, Q.”

  “Or what?”

  I sighed. Then, I flitted over to him, and kicked the blaster out of his hands.

  “Your job is to enforce the law, Q,” I said. “Not to make it.” And I punched his lights out.

  When I turned to Ellios, he was on the ground, glaring at me. “I want my lawyer,” he declared.

  I remembered something someone had told me at the start of this case: that Hitis weren’t the smartest people she knew. Well, she had to meet this guy.

  “No problem,” I said, softly. “You’re going to need one.”

  CHAPTER 67

  By late afternoon, we were still on the northern fringe. All of the learners, and employees were on the grass in handcuffs, and they had been for hours. It turned out that the facility was larger than Crawer had expected, and it was taking forever to execute a thorough search.

  I was surprised to find that I was getting impatient. This was probably the biggest bust of the last decade, and all I could think about was getting back home to see Kattie.

  I was sitting on a pile of seized boxes, when I saw Crawer coming towards me.

  I jumped to my feet.

  “This raid—thought it would never end,” Crawer grumbled. “A lot like my first marriage. We got what we came for though,” he said. I expected him to be pleased, but he looked grim. “I think we solved another mystery in the process too.” He took out his cell-comm, tapped the screen a few times, and handed it to me.

  I read the list of names on the screen, and felt an overwhelming sadness. “Where did you get this?” I asked.

  “It was wiped off their hard disks, but we brought a few techies along so they recovered it.”

  “Let me guess. They were test subjects?”

  “Every single one of them.”

  I looked at the names again, my eyes especially falling on ‘Juun Albright’.

  “They’re all black-bloods, remember?” Crawer said. “They’d make good source material for a project like this. I’m guessing they were approached, and asked to take part in the experiments in exchange for some credits. Makes sense; all the victims were young, poor, and with huge student loan debts.”

  “But they were loose ends,” I murmured.

  “It’s the working theory,” he said.

  “No,” I said, handing him back his cell. “Believe me. It’s the correct theory.”

  “Unfortunately, we still don’t know the muscle they hired to kill the poor kids.”

  “Don’t worry. We don’t have to worry about that anymore. It’s—” I hesitated. “Taken care of.”

  Crawer nodded. “If you say so.”

  I looked at Agent Q, who was handcuffed and sitting in the grass between two enforcers. “I just can’t believe that S.I. was a part of this.”

  Crawer snorted. “They’re probably going to deny any knowledge or involvement in this. That Bark agent is going to be on his own.” He sighed. “I’m going to go find out what’s taking them so long.” He offered an off-hand salute. As he walked away, my cell-comm rang.

  It was Kattie.

  I picked the call. “Hey, Kattie. This is kind of a bad
time.”

  “I did that translation you wanted. The black notebook?”

  “Oh?”

  “The first few pages have names and addresses. They’re the names of the Ripper victims.”

  I took a deep breath. “What else?”

  “The rest of the pages revolve around one person, and one process he keeps referring to as perpetual reanimation. I am not sure what it means, but it’s nothing good. To be honest, now I wish I hadn’t read this book. It’s very…disturbing.”

  “What’s the name of the person he keeps writing about?” I asked.

  “Give me a moment.”

  Silence.

  “Fey Watters.”

  My heart stopped. “I-I’m sorry, Kattie, could you say that again?”

  “Hold on, I think I heard a noise in the living room.”

  “Kattie?”

  Nothing.

  “Kattie?” I said, a little louder. “Kattie, answer me.”

  There was a loud clatter. Then, a thump.

  My body went cold. “Kattie?”

  There was a loud hysterical laugh. “Hello, hello, hello again Miss Everglade.” Another voice. A woman’s voice. “Did you miss me? I told you I would see you soon.”

  “Who is this?”

  “Tut-tut. Disappointing, Miss Everglade. You just learnt that Watters was the object of my biggest project, and you still don’t know who this is? I thought you were supposed to be a detective.”

  But the theory she—or he—was insinuating was too outrageous, too impossible. “Where’s my sister?”

  “She’s fine.” I could hear the grin in her voice. “At least, for now.”

  I tried to keep my voice steady. “What do you want?”

  “Exactly what I tell you to do.” Her voice lowered. “Or little Kattie loses her pretty little face.”

  I swallowed, and nodded. “I’m listening.”

  CHAPTER 68

  I stared at the stone temple. It towered some one-twenty feet over me, with stained-glass windows that gleamed in the moonlight, and a golden sunburst on the highest steeple.

  I had not told anybody, had not called anybody. And for the first time in a long time, I felt truly alone. My hands were trembling.