Titan (Old Ironsides Book 2)

by Dean Crawford

  ‘What was the favor?’ Nathan asked Asil.

  ‘He wanted me to run a package up to North Four,’ Asil replied, ‘small, easy to conceal. I figured it must be high value ‘cause he paid up right there and then. Scheff hangs with some real handy dudes, you don’t mess with them, so I agreed to run the package for ‘im and set off right then.’

  ‘What happened next?’ Foxx asked.

  ‘I got to North Four off Constitution, and was headed for the drop off when the men in black show up in a cruiser. I don’t know, maybe they figured I was trouble or somethin’ but they started to walk up to me.’ Asil sighed again. ‘Before I know it, they pull their weapons at me and start screamin’ for me to get on the ground. That’s when the shootin’ started.’

  ‘You opened fire on them,’ Nathan said.

  ‘No, man!’ Asil wailed. ‘The shot came from behin’ me! I din’ know who the hell was shootin’ at who and I went to ground. The gun came out of the bag and I grabbed it and fired at everybody because I thought they was all police tryin’ to take me down.’

  Nathan frowned. ‘And how can you be sure you didn’t hit the officer?’

  ‘Because he was the first to go down!’ Asil said, one hand reaching up to massage his metallic brow as though the whole thing was giving him a digital headache. ‘I din’ know what to do, and then you showed up in a second cruiser and I figured I’d better high–tail it outta there before things got any worse!’

  Nathan leaned back in his seat and thought for a moment. He had arrived at the scene of the officer down and had seen Asil fleeing the scene, but he had not actually seen the kid shoot the weapon until later.

  ‘So if you’re so innocent in this why the hell did you fire at me?’

  Asil stared at Nathan as though he were four years old, not four hundred.

  ‘You got the police shootin’ at you, somebody else shootin’ at you and you’re holding a pistol that’s gotta be illegal. I didn’t shoot to kill man, I was tryin’ to slow you down so I could get away!’ Asil pointed at his own face. ‘Believe me man, with these eyes if I’d have wanted you dead you’d be nothin’ but a smokin’ patch on the sidewalk by now.’

  Nathan raised an eyebrow. ‘You think the DA will buy that as a reason not to prosecute, genius?’

  Asil’s brief anger withered and he shook his head.

  ‘I ain’t got nothin’,’ he replied. ‘They’ll send me down ‘cause that’s what they do with people like me, but I din’ do anythin’ here but try to get away with my life.’

  Foxx rested her hand on Nathan’s shoulder and gestured for him to join her outside the room. Nathan followed her out into the corridor and let the door rematerialize behind them, cutting off all sound.

  ‘I’ll buy it,’ she said. ‘Asil’s a street hood but he’s no shooter.’

  ‘Okay,’ Nathan replied. ‘How do you know him?’

  ‘He’s an informer,’ she replied. ‘We met him when we were investigating your case a few months back. He hangs with the wrong crowd for sure but he keeps his hands clean. He’s smarter than the others and sure as hell no cop killer – if he says that’s how it went down I figure I can trust him.’

  ‘What about this Scheff guy? You heard of him?’

  ‘No,’ Foxx replied, ‘but Asil will tell us what we need to know. He’s jammed up real bad in all of this and cooperation is about the only thing that’s going to keep him out of a jail cell. See what you can find out and bring it to the office – I’ll meet you there after I’ve spoken to Captain Forrester.’

  The prospect of avoiding further traffic time galvanized Nathan and he nodded keenly as he turned back to the door.

  ***

  VI

  ‘How’s he doing?’

  Captain Tyrone Forrester settled his two hundred twenty pound frame into a leather seat behind his desk that seemed to sag beneath his weight. His uniform was immaculate, his back straight and his shoulders broad as he watched Kaylin. Even sitting he seemed enormous, his bituminous skin as dark as his moods.

  ‘He’s been on traffic for four months, several good snatches, couple of reprimands for reckless endangerment but only ever of his own life. He’s a real go–getter, captain.’

  Foxx sat opposite the captain, as ever struggling to match the man’s stoic discipline with the nearby shimmering holo–images of his family playing in endless silence on his desk, often with the captain carrying the younger children, one in each arm.

  ‘What about the Lucidity Lens business? He still using it?’

  Foxx sighed. ‘Maxed out. He has it on for two hours per day, regular as clockwork. Doctor Schmidt says that it’s a dangerous path but we have to let him run his own course.’

  ‘Can’t be easy on the guy,’ Forrester agreed, ‘four hundred years gone in a blink, his family long dead. He probably still feels like he only said goodbye to them last week.’

  Foxx nodded. ‘I want him on the force, captain. He’s proving himself an asset and he’s adapting well to life in the city. The novelty of living in orbit hasn’t worn off for him yet, we should use that to our advantage.’

  Forrester agreed. ‘He has the governor’s blessing that he can move planet–side any time he wants to, Kaylin. We can’t deny him that right.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘How do you feel about that?’

  ‘What difference would it make?’

  Forrester smiled. ‘You two have grown close, since what happened with Franklyn Ceyron. You keen to have him stick around with us up here in this floating junk pile?’

  Foxx lifted her chin slightly. ‘He’s a good cop, a natural detective. He seems happier up here.’

  Forrester exhaled noisily and glanced at a file on his desk.

  ‘Doctor Schmidt believes that Nathan’s desire to stay up here is to maintain a psychological separation from the pain he perceives is down there. Nathan won’t return to Colorado because he can’t bear to be reminded of his family.’

  ‘And yet he visits them every night in the Lens.’

  ‘That’s not real,’ Forrester reminded her. ‘The Colorado down there right now is what’s real and it’s that he hasn’t faced up to yet.’

  Foxx shrugged. ‘So, what do you want to do about it?’

  Forrester reached for a file on his desk and tossed the flimsy electro–film across to Foxx. She caught it in one hand and looked down at it.

  ‘I’ve got two women waiting outside for you. They’re here on behalf of a convicted felon who was recently sent down for sixty–to–life for the murder of a police officer planet–side in San Diego, while they were both on leave.’

  Foxx scanned the electro–film and words leaped out at her: a single gunshot following an altercation; multiple witnesses; weapon recovered, one cartridge discharged and confirmed as victim’s cause of death; jury unanimous in verdict; appeal denied.

  ‘Looks like a slam–dunk,’ Foxx said. ‘He’s going down and there’s no appeal process. Says here he got Tethys Gaol?’

  ‘Arrived there seventy two hours ago,’ Forrester confirmed. ‘Chances are he’ll be dead within the week.’

  Foxx frowned. ‘The gaol’s hell, but it’s not so bad that he’ll be killed so…’

  ‘He’s one of ours,’ Forrester cut her off, ‘an officer with the prison service.’

  Foxx blinked and glanced down again at the officer’s record. No history of discord or reprimands; exemplary service; commendation twice for outstanding performance and courage during a riot in a Los Angeles jail before he moved to orbital service.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ Foxx asked.

  The captain leaned back in his seat, his big hands folded across his cavernous belly.

  ‘You’ll need to talk to them to figure that out for yourself, but I don’t need to tell you that the felon’s chances of living out his sentence are slim in Tethys, and the wife and mother are adamant that he’s innocent. I want you to bring Nathan in on this. It might give him the focus that he needs right
now, help him through.’

  Foxx stood up, then hesitated. ‘You know, he does kinda get a thorn up his ass if he gets his teeth into something. I don’t want Nathan marching into Tethys to get this guy out of a jam if he decides he thinks that the con might be innocent.’

  ‘He’s your puppy dog,’ Forrester replied, ‘keep him on a tight leash if you have to, but I want to have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that this guy’s guilty of killing a fellow cop. I don’t need to remind you how it would feel to face sixty or more years in Tethys for a crime you hadn’t committed, you readin’ me?’

  Foxx nodded. ‘You got it.’

  *

  Nathan saw the message request flash up on his optical implant even as he was finishing the report on Asil. Betty Buzz Luther hadn’t been impressed that both Nathan and Foxx considered that Asil was likely telling the truth and had been even more appalled that the street hoodlum was also an informant for the department, but it wasn’t his job to worry about her preconceptions and besides, as he read his message he realized that something new and interesting had just come up.

  Nathan got up from his desk and walked across the office to a small waiting room reserved for visitors and VIPs to the precinct. Unlike the rest of the building the waiting room was maintained in an orderly and pleasant state, with soft music and lighting within creating an ambience more inviting than the cattle pen downstairs.

  Nathan reached the door and it shimmered and vanished before him as he walked in to see Kaylin Foxx with two women, both of whom he instantly clocked as wearing distressed expressions, evidence of tears and long–term strain creased deeply into the lines of their faces.

  Nathan slipped quietly into the room as the door reappeared behind him and Foxx introduced the two women.

  ‘Nathan, this is Roma and Erin Reed, the mother and wife of a prison officer named Xavier Reed. Ladies, this is Detective Nathan Ironside.’

  Nathan managed to maintain a somber expression as he shook the hands of the two ladies, despite the fact that Foxx had just referred to him as a detective. He sat down alongside Foxx and glanced at her, saw her wink at him before she spoke again.

  ‘Xavier Reed has just started a sixty year term in Tethys Gaol for the murder of a fellow officer in San Diego,’ she explained.

  Nathan couldn’t help but wince now. He knew plenty about the gaol and the fact that Xavier was a prison officer was virtually a death warrant inside Tethys.

  ‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ he said, aware of how trite it sounded.

  Erin Reed looked at him through eyes blurred with tears. ‘I know how police feel about cop killers, but I hope that you will hear us out detective?’

  Nathan glanced again at Foxx and felt a tingle of excitement ripple through his belly and climb tantalisingly up his spine as she handed him an electro–file for him to read. He took the file and looked at Erin.

  ‘You’re right, cops have a deep seated and understandable hatred of cop killers,’ he replied. ‘But that’s not why we’re here, right?’

  Foxx smiled faintly and her eyes twinkled as she looked at him and both Erin and Roma nodded vigorously.

  ‘Xavier is a great cop and he loved his job,’ Roma said proudly. ‘He worked long hours by choice, was commended twice for bravery in the line of duty and was considered by his superior officers to be destined for greater things. He would never have done something like this and he has maintained his innocence throughout.’

  In his time with the Denver Police Department, Nathan had become more than familiar with the horror and disbelief the families of convicted felons harboured, unable to come to terms with the fact that beloved sons, daughters, mother or fathers could be capable of such crimes, that there must have been some mistake. Almost always, there had been no mistake and the felons were as guilty as they come, but just occasionally…

  ‘What did Xavier claim happened on the day of the murder?’ Nathan asked, keeping his voice calm and slow, trying to build upon the ambience that the room was designed to create.

  ‘He said that he was in an argument with a fellow officer,’ Erin said, ‘and that they went outside to cool off. The next thing he knows the other officer reaches for his pistol. He drew too and a shot was fired. The other officer died.’

  Nathan frowned. ‘Then how can Xavier say that he didn’t fire the shot that killed his fellow officer?’

  ‘Because he said that the shot came from behind him,’ Erin insisted. ‘Xavier stood by that claim, but nobody believed him because he fired in self–defense and he got a fizzle.’

  Nathan frowned at Erin and looked to Foxx for an explanation.

  ‘Xavier claimed that the plasma charge in his pistol didn’t ignite when he pulled the trigger,’ she said. ‘A fizzle happens once maybe every thousand shots and just bleeds the plasma energy out into thin air over a few seconds. The jury claimed he was fabricating the event and that there was no second shooter.’

  Nathan looked back at Roma.

  ‘So you’re saying that this victim, the one that Xavier is supposed to have shot, drew a weapon on him and that’s been verified by the witnesses?’

  ‘No,’ Roma said in reply. ‘Nobody saw the victim draw his pistol, they only heard what they claim must have been my son’s shot and then everybody rushed outside to see the victim lying dead in the street and Xavier holding a smoking gun. He was apprehended by his colleagues and was unable to pursue the shooter he claimed really killed the victim that day.’ Roma shook her head, tears streaming from her eyes. ‘If only they had listened to him, they might have found the real killer and my boy would not be facing death in Tethys Gaol right now.’

  Nathan sat back for a moment and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ Foxx asked him.

  Nathan reflected for a moment before he replied.

  ‘When I went after Asil this morning, after that cop was attacked, I and pretty much everybody else who was on the scene assumed that he was the shooter. It just stood to reason; a cop down, Asil holding a pistol and firing back at us.’

  ‘You think there may be something in Xavier’s story?’

  Nathan sighed and glanced at the electro–film, an image of Xavier Reed’s eager young face, resplendent in his dress uniform after graduating from the police academy.

  ‘Please, detective,’ Erin begged him tearfully as she grabbed his hands, and for a moment he thought that she might slip off the couch onto her knees before him. ‘Please look into it. If there’s anything that the police have missed, it might be enough to save my husband’s life. You and I both know that he won’t survive long in that terrible place and my lousy salary as a shuttle–taxi flight attendant doesn’t earn us enough to pay a fancy lawyer to fight Xavier’s case.’

  Nathan rested one hand on Erin’s and squeezed it gently.

  ‘I’ll look into it right away and see what I can find, I promise.’

  Nathan glanced meaningfully at Foxx and together they stood and walked from the waiting room. The door closed behind them and Foxx took Nathan’s arm.

  ‘Don’t get carried away with this, Nathan. There’s not much evidence to suggest that Xavier did anything other than shoot his colleague.’

  ‘And yet I take it that Forrester handed you this, and that you brought it to me,’ Nathan countered. ‘So you both think it’s worth pursuing.’

  ‘Forrester wanted to see what we thought about it. So?’

  Nathan glanced back at the waiting room.

  ‘Neither the wife nor the mother spoke about how they knew Xavier was innocent,’ he replied. ‘They both told me what Xavier told them. They’re not blinded by love for Xavier, they didn’t tell me what happened at the scene of the crime as though they were there. They related what he told them, plain and simple. They believe him, one hundred per cent.’

  ‘That’s not enough,’ Foxx said. ‘Sure, they’re convinced they’re onto something here but then they would be, wouldn’t they? I don’t think this is a case that ca
n be solved, Nathan.’

  Nathan gripped the electro–film tighter and smiled at her. ‘I bet you dinner that I can.’

  Foxx smiled brightly and rolled her eyes. ‘So where do you want to start, oh Romeo?’

  ‘What’s the weather like in San Diego these days?’

  ***

  VII

  CSS Titan

  Heliosphere Patrol Sector Four

  Admiral Jefferson Marshall awoke to a soft beeping sound and a buzzing in his ears. The cabin was dimly illuminated with subdued lighting that mimicked dawn on Earth, the walls glowing with the first hint of sunrise on a distant horizon. Marshall glanced at his optical display and noted that he had slept for almost eight hours – two more than he would normally have needed.

  He sucked in a lungful of air that was scented with the sweet aroma of the pine forests that surrounded his home in Idaho, and he could hear the sound of birds calling each other with the sunrise. Despite the array of technology surrounding him, designed specifically to remind him of home and bring comfort to the military lifestyle, none of this helped his tiring body as he dragged it off the bunk and sat for a moment gazing down a slope to the shore of a limpid lake that perfectly reflected the dawn sky.

  Marshall reached up and felt for the Lucidity Lens, then switched it off. The image of the dawn sky and vast panorama of forests faded slowly away and the interior of his quarters aboard the largest warship in the fleet swam into view. Marshall wasn’t much one for fantasies, but the lens did bring him some measure of comfort when away from home for so long, which he often was. He reflected briefly that he had probably spent at least half of his life on tours of duty, far from Earth and his family. Plenty of criminals had served less time aboard the orbital prisons that drifted in the frigid vacuum of space around Jupiter and Saturn.