Power Games

by David Applegate

  “You have been busy.”

  “Yes, and we should combine our knowledge to build space stations, docks, and a new fleet.”

  “What about Andre?”

  “As I said, we will give him an exact copy of his ship and let him leave with it. But only under truce. We will not hunt for him, but if he even looks the wrong way at one of our ships, I will restore the bounty, but I will not hold his inevitable betrayal against you. We need him armed; he will keep the Ogres and Nāga busy and divided.”

  Lilith stood and said, “I should get going.”

  “Would you like a drink before you go?”

  “What have you got?”

  Kaede tapped the far wall, and the panel slid open, revealing a small kitchen, he walked to the wine rack and said, “I have wine, sake, and beer.”

  ✽✽✽

  Inside the Inquisition HQ were floors filled with banks of computer desks with a bank of eight screens. At each desk, sat camera operators. Some watched traffic, some watched entrances to buildings, others watched government workers in their cubicles, and others tracked citizens. They all wore black uniforms and headsets.

  Some watched suspected members of criminal organisations. When a car went off established driving routes, the operator was alerted. They would direct the police to them, who would perform a traffic stop. It was a game to both sides, but sometimes someone would be caught with drugs, unregistered weapons, or if they were transporting a prostitute, the police would check if they had the proper licences.

  Facial recognition tracked citizens, and instead of arresting them for every crime when spotted, social scores were adjusted. When a score turned red, the operator alerted a team of Inquisition agents. Usually, two were sent to arrest the offender. The agents would then place the detainee in a confessional booth, a small chamber with no room to move. The chair was slightly too small and uncomfortable. On the wall, the screen would play videos of their crimes. Above the screen was a timer counting down, above it was the words, “Confession will set you free.”

  Those who confessed were sent to a prison farm; the prisons were kept in housing units with transparent plastic internal walls and doors in the main hall. There were few guards, but every time a rule was broken, the prisoner’s social score decreased.

  The unfortunate reality in most prisons is that prisoners do not always get beaten by the other prisoners, but the guards would beat the worst repeat offenders.

  Those who did not confess would go to various prisons. Some prisons were deep underground on moons. Others were on ice planets, where prisoners who did not work would have the heat turned off in their cells. Those who don’t confess had their social scores decrease more than those who do. Each day they worked their score went up by one. Those who broke the rules or did not work, their score went down.

  To be released, they needed their score to be over a thousand, hard given offenders came in with negative scores. But for those who reached negative one thousand, they were executed. Their body was given to the blood-Witches. They first harvested all the blood and then found recipients for all their organs. Hair made wigs. Skin sent to burn units. Eyes, ears, nose, and even bones sent to various hospitals.

  ✽✽✽

  When Sora slapped Akiko, Toshiko was alerted that Sora’s score went up by 10 and that Akiko’s score went down by 10. Toshiko changed Sora’s score up by 15, Akiko’s down by 1.

  Patya got an alert, he hesitated, his thumb on the cancel button, but changed his mind and pressed approve. He turned his attention to the screen built into the surface of his desk; It displayed a report on military readiness. He mumbled as he read, “Response teams in electric vehicles too slow… teleport detectors worked… only caught three out of ten mock raiders...”

  Patya shook his head and called Kaede.

  Kaede sat beside Hiro, tapped his earpiece and said, “Yes, Patya?”

  “Emperor, about the drill-”

  “Yes, another failure, at least the teleport detectors work.”

  Patya growled, “Perhaps for the next drill, we should have more teams on standby and teleport them immediately when a detector goes off.”

  “Thousands of couriers teleport every day. We cannot respond to every alarm.”

  “We need to do something to speed up verification and response?”

  “We do not have the resources to spy on every room, alley, and basement on the planet. We need smaller teams in V/STOL over the city in faster vehicles. I will talk to Dain and Rudolf.”

  “Yes, Emperor,” Patya said. Kaede ended the call and walked past Lilith, who was half asleep on the couch, and opened a wall panel in the rear of the room and said, “You can sleep in here.”

  “I’ll be fine. I will teleport home and-”

  “We have much work to do,” Kaede interrupted.

  “I don’t want to run into Takahiro or Toshiko.”

  “Toshiko didn’t betray you and Takahiro cannot just wander into my office.”

  “Are you sure?” Lilith asked.

  “Asmodeus informed me that you told Toshiko that should anything happen to you, she is to continue your work. Yes, she shared your secrets with Takahiro, not bust because of loyalty, but because she needed his help.”

  “Just one night,” Lilith said as she walked into the small bedroom.

  “Sleep well,” Kaede said and slid the wall panel closed.

  In the morning, Lilith was gone. Kaede found a note, it read, ‘I will think about your offer. As for your problem, you need one hundred and eight seers inside orichalcum chambers, each with my magic mirror to detect raiders. Connect them to a network of cosmic resonators to detect any incoming teleport or gates. Also, have chambers with ritual rings around the Palace. Have the focus linked to the orichalcum mesh throughout the Palace. Each chamber should have a magic team ready to activate binding and anchor to block unauthorised teleports, and gates. I will send you more details soon. Take care. Liz.’

  Chapter 42

  Like many, Izanami had a page on the social network; she had millions of likes and dislikes. She selected friends and went to Kaede’s page. He had billions of likes and a few million dislikes. She clicked the heart beside his image five times.

  “Nami, why do you bother? Hearts are only temporary.”

  “It drives the other girls crazy because Kaede will send me hearts back.”

  After Sora watched Izanami go inside, she went over to the gazebo, picked up her phone and looked up Izanami. Kaede sent Izanami five hearts.

  Sora checked her page. She had received a hundred new likes and a heart from Toshiko. Sora smiled, and she sent five hearts to Kaede. Most of the messages to Kaede were filtered, but so many said marry me.

  Sora checked Akiko’s network page; she had 1,999 new likes. She gave Akiko a heart. She checked the ranking on her friend list. Izanami had far more points than her. Good thing a social score will not control my title.

  ✽✽✽

  In his office, Kenta stood by the window in a black and yellow kimono as he smoked a large cigar. He saw Sora go back to kicking the ball between two guards and set the knob beside the window to black.

  As the window turned from clear to black, he turned his attention to a young, naked female Flower Elf who lay on her belly on the large rug. Her maid’s uniform lay in a heap on the floor beside her. She smelt of sex and cheap perfume.

  Kenta walked over to her. He knelt beside her and ran his hand down her back. As he slid his finger inside her, he asked, “Again?”

  ✽✽✽

  Kaede’s bedroom was the largest room in Takahiro’s former residence at the top of the tower. He lay on his futon by the fire pit in the middle of the room. Seconds before the alarm sounded, Kaede woke, walked over to the large set of drawers by the door and turned off the alarm. As he walked to the bathroom, he removed his nightdress and tossed it in the laundry basket by the door. He went to take a shower, looked at the stream of water, sighed and stepped in.

  Once he was d
ry, he returned to his bedroom and dressed in the large walk-in closet. He opened the vault in the floor, removed a case and removed the Imperial Seal, which he placed around his neck.

  Toshiko was outside his room, waiting for him. She escorted him to the Emperor’s private office, a small complex west of his bedroom. Toshiko looked inside the room, then stood at the door to the outer office. Kaede went inside.

  The room was large, a large computer desk with four additional screens on four arms which folded up to the roof. A large bookshelf stood against the rear wall, and the door led to a private washroom. To the left was a paper door to a Japanese tearoom.

  Kaede placed his identification in the slot in the front of his desk. Then he placed his palm on the screen. The computer resumed, he opened a browser and searched for the Stealth Incident of 11,574. The first result was an email to him, which contained a classified report from the official inquiry and a group of images.

  Confused, Kaede looked at the sender, which was Emperor Kaede Hashimoto. He looked at the data and used the security program to locate the terminal it was sent from. It was sent from the main terminal of the data centre, in subbasement twelve of the Palace. The message was five minutes old.

  Kaede looked at the images. They were of the interior of a room, cut into a grey rock. One series of images was a trail of three sets of large boot prints in dust that led to the wall. The wall and floor had no joints, and the last imprint was only the back half of the boot against the wall. The final image showed drag marks with smaller boot prints made by someone who had been walking backwards; the trail led to the wall. The last print was only half of one; it was at the base of the wall.

  Kaede put his phone on the desk, transferred the report and pictures to his mobile, and then deleted the email. He checked the report, and it stated the tread matched boots only issued to Imperial Sky Force. He looked at the last page of the report. The final entry on the audit trail was from Technical Support. They had sent the file to the Inquisition, addressed to Czar Petrov. It had no date of receipt.

  Kaede picked his phone up off the desk and called Patya. “Patya, we need to talk.”

  “About?” Patya asked.

  “I was bored, so I looked at the evidence from the pirate asteroid again,” Kaede said.

  “Kaede, if you have another theory, build a model, and I will look at it later, I am headed to the racetrack,” Patya said.

  “I know you want to see my new sports car, but this is important.”

  “Will you let it go?”

  “I believe the Goblins’ claim that Galen’s ship disappeared into the darkness.”

  “They are pirates; they will lie just to annoy us.”

  “Likely. But this is about Galené. Did you check all the photographs?”

  “No. I had agents examine most of them. I only saw those in the final report.”

  “Hold on. I am sending you one now,” Kaede said. He sent Patya the last image.

  Patya looked at the photo. It showed the rear half of a boot print against a wall. He pulled into a side street, and he turned his car around. “Where did you get them?”

  “Someone sent them to my inbox.”

  “These photos don’t have evidence tags.”

  “Which means what?”

  “It means they never made it into evidence. A boot print halfway into a wall would have raised eyebrows. On its own, it means nothing, but it validates the Goblins’ claim that the three Ogres came and went from that room. One of the Ogres was described as 240cm, with black skin as if it was burnt to a crisp, and that he had no hair. Mind readers were able to extract a clear image of his face, and it matched a known pirate.”

  “Yes, we know the Goblins claimed they worked for Andre.”

  “Yes. The pirate we let go because he was dying.”

  “They took the dust filters for processing, didn’t they?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “Most dust is skin. Did anyone check for DNA?”

  Patya turned east. “I am headed to the Inquisition building now. Someone has tampered with evidence. We always check dust filters for skin and hair.”

  “Should I appoint a special investigator?”

  “Technically you should, but you need an agent with Omega clearance to investigate me.”

  “Lady Nadia has Omega clearance.”

  “She is suspended.”

  “Yes, officially I appoint Lady Toshiko, I prefer if someone who can work with you, investigate tampering with evidence.”

  “Are you removing me from the investigation?”

  “No. I fear evidence will show it was you. I prefer we dig and dig until we find out how the spies are tampering with our systems.”

  “Any theories?”

  “Maybe someone in Technical Support is a mole using the routine checks on the system to copy data.”

  “Possible.”

  “We need a phoney investigation to lure the spies out.”

  “What do you propose?”

  “Do not pressure Viktor. Just let him know Andre is not to be pursued. That should start enough rumours to get the Ogre’s attention. Kaede Security will hire Lady Nadia and the others as private agents. Investigate everything, learn as much as you can, but close the inquiry with a finding that Hiro’s injuries were due to a flaw in the cockpit design.”

  “A flaw?”

  “Due to the limits of technology, the system does not identify metal bars by content but scans a barcode on the material. A low-grade carbon instead of a superplastic alloy was used on Hiro’s cockpit. I am sure recommendations will include having third-party inspections of materials using a hand scanner as part of the quality assurance inspection. I suggest that the Ministry of Business, Finance and Economics inspect all factories using automation.”

  “Takis might think I am trying to push his workplace inspections out the door.”

  “No, you are making quality control a workplace health and safety issue, giving him more work, not less.”

  “You should know Takis is assembling a legal team to go after Takahiro.”

  “Shut it down, give him a minor win only. I designed the automation, but many of his inspectors approved the process.”

  “You may have to pay a fine.”

  “If my lawyers say it is fair, I will promptly pay it.”

  “What about Galen?”

  “Are you worried Takahiro plans to blame you for failing to uncover his criminality?”

  “No, this is a case with no wins. If we increase security checks and monitor more officers more often, the people will start to worry we are attacking the right to privacy.”

  “Takahiro already accepted responsibility for Hiro without admission of guilt. No pressure but in a few months Petrov Oil will be up to its neck in oil, and none of us will want bad publicity to tarnish the end to the fuel crisis and the start of an economic boom.”

  “I will check with the Inquisition’s lawyers and get back to you.”

  ✽✽✽

  A few hours later, Kaede and Patya entered a conference room. Seated around the table were Fukuhina, Hilda, Cerise, Naru, Emi, Yuki, Hitomi and Nadia.

  Naru stood. “Do we need a lawyer?”

  Patya raised his hand. “None of you is under arrest or investigation. Lady Toshiko recovered data from a massive breach of security. The enemy had Imperial Fleet communications equipment and had been receiving information from Alcyone Nine and a dozen ships in the local fleet.”

  “Then why are we here?” Emi asked.

  “I am hiring you. I need each of you to fill out a request for extended leave to take a position at full pay equal to current rank with Kaede Investigations as a private inquiry agent,” Kaede replied.

  “I am no longer an employee of the Inquisition?” Nadia asked.

  “You are all on extended leave without pay pending results of a major security review,” Patya said.

  Nadia, visible shaken; looked as if she was about to cry.

  Kaede came o
ver to her and said, “Nadia. There is much we cannot tell you. But for now, we need your help to work on a spell to trace a teleport. You’re not working on the spell, but you will be going to crime scenes where teleport has been used to take spell readings and bring them to the Lilith foundation.”

  “When do we get our names cleared?” Emi asked.

  “When we capture the Night Queen,” Kaede said.

  “Is that our real mission?” Emi asked.

  “No. All agencies will begin using seers. Once we have the spells to identify the spell’s caster and the teleport destination, the clairvoyant will guide agents to the suspect,” Kaede said.

  “How does gathering spell data get us cleared?” Nadia asked.

  “As you know, the asteroid base known as The Hub was operated by the Dökkálfar. They smuggle drugs, weapons and stolen goods. The leaked information was found on computers there, but we have to link terminal ideas to Dökkálfar agents, whom all use teleport to evade capture,” Patya replied.

  “We have volumes of data, but we need more,” Kaede said.

  “To record a spell, don’t we need a neutral port installed?” Emi asked.

  “We have a soft neural link by Izanami Technology. Just plug the black box into your tablet and wear a pair of smart glasses,” Kaede replied.

  “Until this operation is over, you cannot tell anyone. You will all report to Lady Yuki, and your security clearances are temporarily suspended,” Patya said.

  “My husband thinks I am a risk to his security rating. Can I tell him I am no longer a suspect?” Emi asked.

  “Yes, without my security clearance, I cannot be a blood-Witch,” Cerise said.

  “Nothing I can do, you have to act as if you are all under investigation,” Patya said.

  “But my fiancée is refusing to marry me until I am cleared. Can I at least tell him it is just part of an operation to catch a spy?” Cerise asked.

  “No, sorry,” Patya said, “I cannot help you. But unless charged, you can work for private companies.”

  “Without the ability to obtain a warrant or access secure databases, how can we investigate?” Nadia asked.

  “Lady Yuki will handle that, you will be reporting to her,” Kaede said.