by RJ Johnson
Meade smirked a bit. "Only what it took for my original ArmBar to recharge. I ahh... liberated it from someone who thought he was faster than me."
Suresh's head bobbed as he acknowledged Meade's meaning. "You Coalition are as violent as they claim."
Meade shrugged. "It's a bit rough and tumble on Mars I'll allow that much, but, a man survives on his wits no matter where he is in. Downtown seems to be a good example of that Suresh."
Suresh nodded in agreement. Meade's Armbar beeped announcing the completion of the video decryption.
"Let's see what happened the night he died first." Meade announced as he scrolled the video library he had hacked from Vicktoria's ArmBar.
A holographic projection emitted from Meade's ArmBar and suddenly Vicktoria and Sanjay Sinjakama appeared on the bed having sex. She was on all fours moaning as the elder Sinjakama sweated and grunted. He collapsed in exhaustion and quickly got off the bed and slid on his shorts. Meade watched him retreat to the bathroom and Vicktoria call out to him.
"Where did you go?" Meade heard the water turn off in the bathroom and watched Vicktoria stretch herself on the bed revealing her flawless body. He nodded in approval, perhaps he should've taken her up on her offer.
"Koschei pinged me, he needs some help with some sort of technical database issues up in Command." Meade heard Sinjakama call back from the bathroom. Vicktoria stopped stretching and he watched start to go through Sinjakama's drawers searching for something. He wasn't sure what the woman was looking for, but it was clear she wasn't looking for money or anything valuable. Meade watched her go through his cabinets and discover the false bottom in the cabinet. Opening it, she took out the flat gray container of Osmium and shake her head. The water in the bathroom stopped running and Vicktoria quickly replaced the Osmium in the bottom cabinet and close the door. She began primping herself in the mirror and called back out to Sinjakama.
"Something to do with that programming problem you were telling me about?"
Meade watched Sinjakama reenter the bedroom and look wistfully at Vicktoria. He shook his head and leaned in to caress her hair. "Something like that." He said.
"He doesn't need you like I do..." Vicktoria purred and the bed sheet fell away. Meade moved to get a better view of the show. "Besides," she continued, "you rarely ever take advantage of our free time together, always talking as you do about your business."
"Your body is only a tenth of the reason I love you my dear." Sinjakama stopped caressing her hair and kissed her deeply on the mouth. "Your mind is the true jewel."
"Of all the boys, I've never known anyone sweeter than you." Vicktoria reached up to touch Sinjakama's chest, "You certainly know how to make a lady feel wanted."
Meade watched Sinjakama pull away and pocket something. "You see that Suresh?"
"What?" Suresh asked.
Meade rewound the projected simulation and re-watched Sinjakama and Vicktoria lean in to kiss each other again. As Sinjakama leaned in to kiss, his left hand went behind the cabinet and remove a small thumb drive which he quickly pocketed without Vicktoria noticing.
It was quick and if Meade hadn't been trying to stare at Vicktoria's holographic breasts, he might not have even seen it. Meade smiled broadly. There was no mention of a thumb drive found on his body. This might the break in the case he was looking for. Whoever had that thumb drive was likely the culprit.
"Find something?" Suresh asked from across the room.
"I think so." Meade mused as he rewound and watched Sinjakama pocket the thumb drive again. He furrowed his brow and brought up the inventory screen on his ArmBar. He scrolled through the holographic interface and looked for the report on Sinjakama's body. "Hmm."
Suresh sidled up next to him and looked over his shoulder. "What is it?"
Meade pointed at Sinjakama Sr. pocketing the thumb drive. "See that?"
"So?" Suresh asked. "That's Master Sinjakama's thumb drive. He took that everywhere he went."
"What was on it?"
Suresh shrugged. "He kept a variety of documents, issues, schedules, anything he might end up needing through the day."
Meade nodded absently, "He took it everywhere he went?"
"I never saw him without it." Suresh replied. The young Indian cocked his head, "Why?"
"Cause it wasn't listed on the inventory Koschei gave Atel Sinjakama." Meade slapped the ArmBar interface shut. "Whatever he had on that thumb drive, Koschei didn't want us to know about it." Meade whirled and walked out the door with a purpose.
Suresh quickly stepped after him and followed Meade out the door. "Where are we going?"
"Sinjakama had an office on board. Every engineer I know always kept a backup of everything he ever created." Meade said with purpose as they strode down the hallway. "We find that backup, we find out what's going on."
They moved down the hallway passing several of Koschei's security guards, their dark helmets glowing as they moved through the dimly lit hallway. The Alpha shoulder checked Meade slamming him against the wall. Meade saw red for an instant and was about to go after them, but Suresh held him back.
"My apologies for your inconvenience sir." Suresh said bowing deeply. "My friend is of the Coalition and is unaware of our customs."
The Alpha said nothing, his three Betas standing behind him their ArmBars charging ominously. Meade's eyes narrowed and he stared at the man behind the helmet.
Suresh bowed again and apologized even more profusely. The Alpha waved his hand and the Betas turned, following the Alpha as they continued on their way.
"Great bedside manner." Meade grumbled.
"You cannot act like you're still in the Coalition." Suresh hissed. "These men are not used to having their authority questioned. We are lucky that you have been deemed untouchable. It is only because of that that he didn't not strike us down where we stood."
"I think he'd find it a bit harder to deal with me than the folk he's used to." Meade shook his head. He opened his ArmBar and entered in a search for Sinjakama's office. Fortunately it wasn't too far from his quarters.
"It's this way." Meade indicated and they continued down the hall passing another Alpha and his security squad.
"Plenty of security on this boat." Meade commented as they pressed themselves against the wall to avoid another confrontation.
"Security is the highest paid position available on Rosetta. Well-paid, well taken care of with some of the highest privileges." Suresh said as they continued. "The better they are paid, the less likely they will turn against Koschei."
"Smart man." Meade commented as they arrived in front of Sinjakama's office. It too was taped up with warnings from Koschei announcing barred entry. Meade waved his ArmBar over the entrance and the door keyed red. Meade harrumphed. Part of his deal was that he was supposed to have access all over the station, no exceptions. He tried again and was again denied entry.
Suddenly Omar Rodriguez's face popped up on Meade's ArmBar.
"May I help you with something?" Omar barked at Meade. The man was not happy.
"Just doing my job Constable." Meade said lightly. "Sinjakama's office seemed like a good place to look into."
Omar's face was inscrutable. "I can assure you there is nothing for you to find in there. My men cleaned out his office after his death and stored all personal effects."
"Couldn't hurt to check it out." Meade replied. "Maybe your men missed something."
Omar's eyes flashed, Meade grinned getting a kick out of the fact Omar was getting so irritated with him. "My men are highly efficient and good at their jobs Mr. Meade. I think you'd best return to your quarters for the night. If you think your investigation would be served by searching his quarters, I will meet with you in the morning."
The screen winked off before Meade could protest. Suresh's shoulders slumped. "What now?" Suresh asked.
"Now, you hack the door and get us in there." Meade said determined. "Rodriguez was lying."
"How do you know sir?" Suresh asked.
> "His lips were moving." Meade retorted. "I don't trust him so far as I can throw him and the fact is, no one is that thorough. Sinjakama was crafty and knew how to hide things. I'm betting his men missed something."
Suresh hesitated, "I do not know if that's such a good idea."
"I'm all out of good ideas Suresh, I think it's about time we tried one of the bad ones." Meade said.
Suresh nodded "As you wish."
He opened the panel next to the door and quickly overrode the mechanism. The door slid open hesitantly at first, before finally retracting completely. Meade and Suresh stepped through quickly and into the sparse office.
On first glance, Meade was disappointed. It was clear someone had gone through the office rather with a fine tooth comb leaving almost nothing behind. The quantum computer was ripped out of the wall, wires hanging from where it had been installed. The office was devoid of nearly all furniture save for a chair upended next to the desk. Suresh glanced around and shook his head.
"I am not so sure he was lying."
"I'm given to agree." Meade frowned. "But just in case..."
Meade looked at the chair and grabbing it as he turned it right side up and sat down facing the empty computer desk like Sinjakama would if his things were still there. A small rectangle charging station for Sinjakama's ArmBar was lying on the desk where he would naturally place his arms while working. Meade pretended he was Sinjakama for a moment and imagined typing and gazing at the screen. The best way he thought to investigate was putting himself in his victim's shoes and experience their environment as they had. Nothing beat that.
Meade looked around at Sinjakama's surroundings shaking his head.
"Think." He whispered to himself. "You know he hides stuff where people aren't likely to look. Where would he...?" He closed his eyes and imagined the room in his mind's eye. He began feeling under the desk and around the corners of the wall, feeling for anything that might be out of place. He ran his fingers up and down on the chair's arms and grinned when he found it. Rodriguez's men weren't as thorough as they thought. Meade pressed on the chair and a small cavity opened.
"Eureka." Meade grinned as he withdrew a thumb drive from within.
"What is it?" Suresh looked up and wandered over to Meade to examine the tiny square of plastic in his hand.
Meade examined it closely. "It's an entanglement drive. Which means whatever Sinjakama saved onto the thumb drive he was holding onto was automatically saved onto this one."
Meade pushed the entanglement drive into his ArmBar and quickly downloaded the info. He brought it up and was disappointed. "Encrypted. No chance you're a savant with cryptographics are ya Suresh?"
Suresh shook his head. Meade groaned, "Well then without the key, we won't have access to the data on here."
"I may not know how to decypher the code," Suresh added, "But, I believe I can help with the key."
Meade grinned, he could hug him. He opened his ArmBar and the encrypted information from Sinjakama's entanglement drive appeared on his screen. A prompt appeared on the projected screen.
"Seven character password." Meade said. "Anything come to mind?"
"Try Garuda1. It is his ship's name and designation after all." Suresh said. Meade quickly typed in the code. The screen flashed red and Meade shook his head.
"What about money? It was the only think he loved more than that ship."
"That's only five letters." Meade racked his brain thinking back to the file on Sanjay Sinjakama's info dump. "Sometimes people use personal, meaningful dates for their passwords. Anything come to mind?"
Suresh shook his head. "Nothing comes to mind."
"What about his birthday?" Meade asked. Suresh shrugged, and Meade figured he should at least give it a shot.
"It's worth a shot. He was born May 19th, 2021."
Meade typed in 5152021 The screen began to flash red. A message appeared on the screen.
TWO PASSWORD ATTEMPTS. ONE ATTEMPT REMAINING BEFORE DRIVE IS ERASED AND FORMATTED.
"NO!" Meade cried out. "If we lose this data, we lose our only clue. Think Suresh! Think! What could his passcode be?"
Meade could see Suresh racking his brain, until finally, he looked up at him and smiled. "The only thing he loved more than himself, money or his son was this station. Try Rosetta."
The screen flashed green and the encrypted data appeared on his ArmBar scrolling by almost too fast for him to read.
"Good call!" Meade cried out in victory. "Now all I have to do is figure out what the hell I'm looking at."
Suresh looked over his shoulder and cocked his head. "If I am reading this correctly, it appears to be some sort of navigational program."
"For what?" Meade wondered. "It's..." He didn't have time to think on the decrypted data long as he heard the door to Sinjakama's office slide open. Meade whirled around, closing his ArmBar's data screen and aiming the taser at whoever was interrupting them.
"I thought I told you, you were to meet me in the morning if you wanted to search Master Sinjakama's workspace." Omar Rodriguez looked taller to Meade at that moment for some reason. He was an imposing man and the growl in his voice did nothing to soften the man's image. Meade grinned and stood.
"Couldn't sleep. Figured I'd let you get your beauty rest. Looked like you needed it."
Omar growled and pointed at Meade's hand. "What is that?" He strode over to him and wrenched Meade's bruised arm over removing the thin plastic square from his hand. "Where did you find that?"
"Pulled it out of my ass." Meade shot back, gritting his teeth against the pain. No way was he going to show weakness in front of this Neanderthal.
Omar took the small disc out of Meade's palm and slide it into his ArmBar. A screen popped up and Omar's eyes widened in shock. "Do you know what this is?"
"Hadn't had the chance to scan it yet." Meade hoped he didn't notice the lie. Meade had had his ArmBar scan the chip as soon as he removed it from the chair. He hadn't glanced at the data yet, but whatever was on there scared Omar. This worried Meade. He didn't think there was a lot that scared the 6'5" security chief.
"You're coming with me." Omar announced and wrested Meade's arms around his back whirling him around as Omar removed some plastic cuffs. "I'll let you explain to Koschei and Sinjakama what you were doing in Master Sinjakama's office."
"My job you dumb..." Meade didn't finish as Omar cried out. Meade turned to see Lazarus and a team of dangerous looking men standing behind him all aiming their ArmBars and Rattlers. Lazarus withdrew a large knife from Omar's back as the security chief’s eyes were wide in shock, turning to see his murderer standing over him.
"You..." Omar couldn't get any words out as his body slumped to the floor. Lazarus smiled and nodded.
"It's all right Rodriguez. Trust me, I'll tell tall tales of your valiant fight before finally succumbing. Your reputation will go down as one of the great warriors."
"You piece of shit..." Omar gasped out, blood bubbling out of his lips. Meade watched in horror as Lazarus leaned down and calmly slit the security chief’s throat.
"No need for name calling Rodriguez." Lazarus calmly replied, "After all, it's just the business we're in."
Lazarus wiped the bloody knife off on the security chief's clothing and turned to face Meade who was in shock at the sudden turn of events.
"What are you doing?" Meade shouted, "Are you insane?"
"Ahh ahh!" Lazarus said calmly waving his knife at Meade. Suresh held Meade back from doing something stupid, and for a moment, Meade was grateful. Lazarus withdrew the small entanglement drive from Rodriguez's ArmBar and scanned it. Smiling, he turned to look at the private investigator.
"Vicktoria says you downloaded her ArmBar." Lazarus said menacingly.
Meade swallowed and decided on how to handle this. Clearly this was a man he had underestimated. Might as well go with the truth and see where that led. "What can I say?" Meade said raising his hands. "You caught me red-handed."
"Consortium punis
hments are quite severe for hackers and the theft of personal data. In fact, I would be well within my rights to strike you down now." Lazarus replied menacingly.
Meade shrugged. "I've faced scarier men than you. You ain't exactly the intimidating type."
Lazarus only smiled and glanced at Omar's unmoving body. Meade took the message and decided to shut his mouth.
One of Lazarus's men was the Bartender with whose nose Meade had helped readjust. Meade grinned at him, "Come on fellas, can't we come to some sort of agreement?"
"I'm afraid the time for negotiations has passed." Lazarus replied and lowered his weapon. "Boys, if you wouldn't mind, let's bring Mr. Meade back to Downtown and show him how we treat thieves and hackers."
