April

by Mackey Chandler

  "Theo seems to be one of those strong personalities - almost an elemental force of nature," he explained. "She got the name her dad had reserved for a son, she's a Theodore, not Theodora and in more ways than you ever want to know he made life difficult for her."

  "I didn't find out about her background until one day they brought a fellow in who had beat up his wife and threatened to kill his daughter, because he claimed in a drunken rage he wasn't sure she was his child. It would have still been OK, but he was handcuffed to Frank's desk there next to Theo's and he made the mistake of addressing Theo with what you might call a gender slur. When she got up and was unlocking his cuffs he must have sensed something was wrong. She grabbed him by a little finger and his hair and marched him in the wash room."

  "I tried to rush over to stop anything bad happening. After all he had just beat up a much younger woman pretty badly. My other people all stood in my way and blocked me out of the wash room and Skip insisted quietly she wasn't in any danger. Theo came out, got in her purse and got what appeared to be a piece of heavy plastic braided hose, filled with some kind of metal shot and went back in with it. After awhile she came back out and told Frank to take some supplies in and tell the fellow to clean the room up."

  "Whatever she did I couldn't see a mark on him. Frank directed him to resume his seat by the desk, but this time he didn't cuff him to it. The fellow sat there as rigid as could be and trying not to look at Theo, but he looked like a rabbit poised to run."

  "After a while she looked up and checked him out. It was obvious he could see her out of the corner of his eye because he started shivering, so I called to Frank to bring him in here and he sat him in the chair you're using. I told him truthfully, when someone causes a serious problem here, we usually just ship them back home. But I had a feeling he might have just had such an altering experience I could release him. Besides, it would be safer for his wife and daughter if I kept the whole problem here, where we were aware of it, rather than sending them all down home where he could start up again."

  "So I asked him and he was uncommonly eager to assure me he would never give us trouble again. I told him I was obligated have to have agent Wilson, who had helped him to the restroom, inquire of his wife on occasion and make sure she was not being mistreated again. I can't tell you how emphatic he was, that she would find no problems and I believed him. Theo has suffered a lot of the same crap that man's wife and Doris caught and she simply doesn't put up with it anymore. You won't find a better advocate."

  "Wow, she doesn't look capable of being so rough."

  "Yes, but I didn't just tell you because it's an interesting story. It's not correct to terrorize prisoners, even if it did probably save the rest of the family. It's wasn't properly Theo's or my judgment to make. We should have shipped him Dirtside. You shouldn't lose control of your own people like I did. So, now you know, even though you favored me over Eric Willard, I'm not perfect by a long shot. How does that affect us?"

  "I don't know anybody perfect, but you're my friend now and I can see you try to do what's right and it's enough you care and try, as far as I'm concerned. OK?"

  "OK, but would you be comfortable to do business with me if I wanted to hire your scooter?"

  Her mouth fell open, because the shift threw her completely off. She hadn't seen where he was going. To her this conversation left the original subject in broad leaps. To her thinking there was just no direct bridge from an interesting story about his agent, to asking if they would work for him. Was he really saying he wasn't always in control or perfect, so could she still work for such a person? Who was perfect or always in control? Nobody she knew. Did he really demand that much of himself? She could see she was a long way from understanding how Jon thought.

  "You wouldn't be hiring the boat, you'd be hiring us. I already had my dad say you offered me a job, but I was sure he was just teasing. But even if he wasn't, he said I couldn't do it yet because it was too dangerous."

  "As for Bob, I hate to say it about my brother, but despite his many talents I don't think he is suited to police work. He is a business man, but he is way too good at taking any advantage he sees. He'll even give me the short end of the stick if I let him and he feels no shame about it. It just seems natural to him to take whatever advantage he can get and if you let him, he sees it as your fault for allowing it. It seems to be getting worse as he gets older too. I can see him getting in over his head if he has too many chances to shave the edge on ethical issues. Do you understand what I'm saying?

  "I do, although that's more than I wanted to know, but what I'm interested in is the scooter you guys are buying. I've found out the last couple days it's really hard to hire a scooter in this market and the owners are ridiculously risk adverse. If my department was your first customer, before you are known to everyone as couriers and seen coming and going all the time in the business, it might really help us, because we have a passenger pickup which might call for some finesse and secrecy. I believe you would approve of picking your friend Jeff's dad up?"

  "Well sure, but how'd you hear we have a scooter? Bob has it in for rebuild and it hasn't been re-registered yet."

  "The old owner told me who he sold it to, when I called him up thinking he still had it. He even suggested you might not be all scheduled up with work, until you are sure when it's coming out of the shop."

  "Well, yeah, fine, I could see us helping, but beside being refurbished right now, it has some more to be done by my grandpa and Jeff. So when do you need it? Because it isn't in any shape to boost right now."

  "Now there is a problem where I can help. You'd be surprised how cooperative most people are, if you tell them it is a priority for something to be done for Security. Also my predecessor not only took every piece of free or cheap equipment he could get, but he left me a hefty contingency fund," he said, hope returning to his face.

  "He recognized things come up in the middle of a financial year, so he squirreled away a sizable chunk of cash, in a couple accounts outside the usual accounting trail. I have to say he's an honest man, because it would have been easy to loot them when he left, instead of handing them over. So instead of just being the government heavy and using threats to motivate I can sweeten the pot as an incentive. I feel it's a better operating style anyway. Give your brother a call and let's go talk to him and then hopefully we will all go talk to the repair yard."

  "Ok and Jeff and Happy too, because they are working on it already, but watch out with my brother, so most of the money doesn't end up in his pocket instead of going to the repair yard," April warned.

  "You can tell him privately, if I have any doubts, I'll have Theo take him in the washroom and ask where it went," Jon said with a warm smile.

  * * *

  When they were away from M3 there was nothing much to see as they went ballistic and Eddie switched to com mode and looked to see if he had any messages, before pulling the hood down and relaxing. He didn't usually work Off-Shift so he was soon asleep.

  The senior pilot's voice awakened him. "Five minutes to terminal burn for New Las Vegas. Please check you are belted and your possessions are secured." There was no one minute warning like some crews gave. He didn't engage his spex but he knew the senior pilot was flying. The feel was different. She had a harder hand, moving the shuttle around more aggressively. Probably ex military he thought. He disembarked with no problems logging on the net here as himself.

  NLV had a lot more traffic than M3 and there were several restaurants and businesses which served the public without having to go into spin. There was even a small hotel, where you could rent a basic sleeping cubical, without going into the station. He headed to a small snack bar type restaurant he liked, which served various versions of dough wrapped food. There were pasties, pirogues, ravioli, blintzes, pita-pockets, wantons, burritos, empanadas, every variation on the popular theme, which was practical to serve in zero G.

  He meet his friend Ernie at a booth with padded seats, made to let you grip t
hem with your legs in a comfortable natural crouch and tuck your feet behind a padded bar. They had a pleasant lunch. He had a couple empanadas, with raisins and scrambled egg in them. Before he left he gave Ernie his hotel confirmation, USNA passport and Visa card. He was a real close match to Ernie in appearance, so Ernie would pass OK as long as he dealt only with private systems and didn't have to leave the habitat, or try to do anything like open a bank account, or sign contracts, where his ID would be checked against his genome.

  People had same name matches and used business aliases. Then there were natural twins who were not illegal clones. There had to be some flexibility in the systems for those sort of variations, or they'd have constant false alarms bringing business to a halt. That wouldn't work with people who were here to party, not be hassled every time they tried to charge a fifty buck drink.

  He kept his Japanese chop which was probably the most secure ID he owned, but unique to the USNA residents of the Mitsubishi habitats. He wasn't about to loan his hanko to a dock rat and police informant. He still had two other identities, a Swiss passport, linked to the EU system and he still had an Aussie passport under another given name, which was linked to his own genome in the computers. He had a cover built for the Aussie document as a twin, including a photo in his wallet of him on a beach with his arm around his twin's shoulders.

  Nobody cross checked everything, especially on different systems. It was beyond human ability. His Australian ID was currently checked in ISSII a month back, just as his Swiss ID had been logged on and off the primary European Union satellite recently. That ID also showed him as sharing an apartment with a French retiree, who resided in Monaco. The elderly gentleman received a little help with the rent each month for that subterfuge and the only intrusion he actually made was to receive mail there occasionally, which the old boy forwarded.

  The computer would assume he had been in NLV all this time, unless somebody started looking very closely. Scanning those IDs in and out was the sort of thing his family arranged to have done in bulk for a set bribe and were happy to take care of for him since there was no per document charge. They regarded it as a basic cost of doing business, like the electric bill or com charges. He was the straight arrow of the clan but he wasn't a fanatic about it. Sometimes bureaucracy made it impossible to do what was right.

  Ernie would stay in his room, order a few meals and go down to lose a few EuroMarks at the casino. He had never exactly matched Ernie to a crime, but he was one of those fellows who seemed to know every other character in a station who did have a record. He ran close enough to the edge, that he fit perfectly in the roll of liaison between the criminal community and the law. In other words he was a snitch.

  After they parted, he visited the common washroom outside the businesses and hurried down the dockage to catch the shuttle for ISSII as the Aussie. It was an older boat than the first one and he followed the same routine without problems. The crew was not nearly as friendly and the cockpit camera was off.

  He couldn't sleep anymore, so he watched a movie off his own pad and never left his seat. No wonder the crew kept the camera off. They were a clumsy bunch, jerking the shuttle around and making a few extra corrective burns. He was glad to get off and head for Ajay's hotel. He touched the pad and logged into ISSII with no problem. There was no alert on his genome.

  Eddie expected to contact Ajay pretty easily. He knew he had legal business, which would take some time after the conference. So he should still be in the same rooms. He was not alone in staying over. The Nano-Electronics conference was officially over yesterday, but many of the scientists were still here enjoying a chance to see friends in their field they did not have time to visit, while the lectures and seminars were in session. Some were staying to get the most value from a trip to orbit by extending their stay for a personal holiday, after their employer paid their way here.

  The same ploy of an exotic destination had fueled conventions in Hawaii for years. However some of the really repressive countries quickly herded their delegations back on the shuttle for home, under the watchful eye of handlers who were not above drugging or strong arming anyone, who got too enthused with the heady free atmosphere of the conference. An occasional bright boy sneaking away was the price you paid in the game of control and defection.

  When the clerk at the Radisson desk informed Eddie that Mr. Singh had checked out already it worried him. He wasn't 100% sure he might not have been snatched. Some defectors were really kidnapped and then they agreed to go along with it because their governments would never be sure they hadn't defected and then backed out. It could be a real career killer. Once the shadow of doubt was cast on you, your access to secrets dried up. And while not leaking talent as badly as China or South Africa, the USNA was getting some of their people leaving for The European Union or Australia. They imposed all sorts of financial restraints to discourage emigration.

  Quite a few people were forced to leave behind their savings and were unable to sell their house and take the money with them for a fresh start. The fact some were willing to just walk away and start from scratch, to live in a country which recognized such things as the right to privacy in their constitution, was an embarrassing indictment of his country. Of course he had always created his own privacy, whether anyone granted it to him or not. But not everyone had that ability.

  The first hitch came at the hotel. When he told the clerk how very badly he needed to contact Mr. Singh, the man had ignored the five-hundred dollar bill Eddie had folded over and smoothly tucked under the edge of the terminal between them. A little integrity was a fine thing, but if carried to the extreme how could you ever get anything done? Maybe the man really didn't know where the scientist had gone.

  He retrieved the ignored money awkwardly. He wasn't used to having to take it back. He retreated to the hotel restaurant where he ordered a late second breakfast, as the empanadas on NLV were a distant memory and pulled out his pad to go to work.

  He quickly found Ajay had not checked into any other rooms under his own name. He didn't think Ajay fit the profile of someone who would have a false ID prepared in case he should need it. Not because he wasn't bright enough to figure out how to do so, it just wasn't part of how he lived.

  Eddie was from a family in which such skills were a matter of course. Until he was about twelve, he just assumed it was a normal thing for his uncles to all have new names and sometimes new faces, when the family got together for Christmas each year. They always still went by their nick names like Freddie the Wheel, Marty the Hand, or Two Shot Billie. Even now they were good natured about his working for the 'wrong side' as they put it. He was careful however to make sure his professional jurisdiction never overlapped with his families sphere of influence. He was far enough from Chicago to not bump elbows with them.

  He considered the possibility Ajay had just walked on a shuttle early for some reason and gone back home without any problem. Maybe they were worried for nothing. But a check of the flights showed no Ajay on the public transport. Eddie thought he was still on the station for some reason. It just felt right. So he had to be in a room under some other person's name, or a private home. Eddie thought about the possibility he might be sleeping with the fishes, as his uncles would say, but then he would not have checked out so normally. He started checking all the new hotel check-ins since Ajay left his room.

  On a hunch, Eddie ran a list of the station residents against the conference list, to see if anyone was attending who already lived on ISII. He got two hits. A married couple, the Agapitos, both in the Nano tech line of work and with a residence here. He punched up their number and was rewarded with a live answer. A diminutive lady answered with a assertive gaze. She had a Filipino look to her hair and clothing. A mix of Hispanic and Asian. Her straight black hair was short in a no nonsense hairdo, with a sort of crest swept back on each side, almost squared off and her dark eyebrows were unplucked and emphasized her broad face.

  He immediately took a liking to her. She di
dn't look or act like someone he could bullshit, so he played it straight and asked if she knew where Dr. Singh had gone after the conference, because he had tried his hotel and he had checked out.

  "Dr. Singh had someone bothering him," she informed him and explained he had gone elsewhere to avoid them. She would be happy to relay a message if he wanted but since she had no way of knowing he was not part of the problem, she would not tell him where the man was staying.

  "Excuse me a moment," he said and acted as if he had another call on the pad. The breach of manners caused a frown on her face, but she allowed it. He checked the hotels again and there was a room taken last night in a cheaper hotel, under this couples name. He switched back to her.

  "Forgive me for being forward, but is he with your husband at the Arlington? I'd like to go by and speak with them if I could."

  "Yes you've figured it out, but I don't suggest you go there. If you turn up unannounced and alarm them, you might come to some harm from their private security. Why don't I give them a call and they can join you at the Radisson if they agree and they can decide if they should trust you before allowing you in their private space."

  Eddie was jolted she had him located exactly in such a short time. "I'm impressed," he admitted. "You can locate me behind a proxy so casually?"

  She made a little snort through her nose. "No crack needed. You're sitting in front of the ugliest wallpaper pattern known to man. I would never forget where such a visual obscenity was. A homeless person wouldn't line his box with it."

  He looked over his shoulder. It was pretty nasty stuff. Gold and Maroon flock. What were they thinking?

  "Please, do ask them if they could meet me here, perhaps we can work something out. I do have Dr. Singh's best interests at heart."

  "In which case you won't mind telling me who you are and who you work for before I call them. Right?"