“So you’re going to stay with them?” Ted observed.
“They eat well. My cabin is comfortable, and most importantly, they need me.”
“Make sure they treat you as an equal and not a servant.”
“I understand,” Ankh repeated.
“Take care of yourself, Ankh. And them. I get the impression from Terry and Char that they like the Magistrate, and would be quite upset if any harm came to her.”
“They won’t realize how much I will do for them, but I will do it because you ask.”
“They never realize, Ankh, but they do appreciate it. Accept that they don’t know the extent of what we do, because they cannot know. Their minds haven’t gone where ours can.”
The Crenellian maintained his expressionless look, needing to say nothing further. They stood like that for a few moments before each going their own way. Ted disappeared through the hatch to the interior of the destroyer.
A fire team of Bad Company warriors showed up, each of the four carrying a bulky crate.
“Where’s that going to go?”
“Spare parts go into storage, and I will modify the extra cabin to be a workroom.”
Rivka didn’t want to hold the Crenellian back. “Welcome aboard, Ankh, and thanks for joining the team.”
He looked at her for a moment before heading into the ship.
“What do you think is on his mind when he does that?” Jay asked.
“Not a clue, but we all have our quirks.”
Jay faced the Magistrate. “We all have our unique way of approaching life.” Jay shook her rainbow-colored hair.
“That’s a much better way of looking at it.” Rivka turned serious. “Are you staying on with the crew?”
“Things are just getting interesting. Now is not the time to leave. I’ll stay for as long as you’ll have me.”
“Then we better get you some time in the Pod-doc.”
“It won’t change me, will it?” Jay worried.
“It will change some of your physical characteristics, but we’re up here, aren’t we?” Rivka tapped her temple with a finger. “Stress is a window to the soul. Same thing with success. Do your looks define you, or is it what you do? Words only matter when followed by action.”
“Words alone can tear people apart,” Jay suggested, sadness tinging her voice.
“And that’s why you’re a member of the team. You bring a perspective that the rest of us don’t have.”
Jay smiled briefly and, lost in her thoughts, made her way on board. The hangar bay was mostly empty and quiet. The work on the corvette had been completed, the equipment stored, and the maintenance bots recovered to do other work for the War Axe.
Red, Christina, and Kai appeared from the doors that led to the armory. They each carried boxes.
“Where are we going to put that?” Rivka exclaimed. “And what did you do with Lindy?”
Red smiled and waggled his eyebrows, his bald head shiny under the lights. A heavy mechanical tread resounded from the doorway, and a mechanized combat suit appeared. The faceplate was mirrored, but Rivka knew who was driving it.
“Don’t tell me you’re borrowing a mech?”
“You can have it,” Christina replied.
Lindy hoisted the mech-sized railgun into the air.
“Where are we going to put the mech? Come on, Red, I’m a lawyer! I think you have the wrong idea about what we do.”
Red looked confused. “Magistrate, I’ve been with you on every one of your missions. Some need the mech more than others, but better to have it and not need it, right?”
“I have the law on my side!” Rivka declared. Red motioned with his head to deliver the new load of weaponry, ammunition, and explosives.
“How’d that work out on Morinvaille?”
“A mech would have come in handy. And explosives. Fine. Bring the mech.”
“You can strap it on the outside of the ship. You don’t need to keep it inside,” Christina explained. They handed the boxes to the warriors leaving the ship after delivering Ankh’s crates. The four took the three boxes and hurried inside.
“Put them in the rec room,” Red shouted after them. One of the warriors was bleeding from a long scratch down his arm. “And watch out for that cat. He’s a ruthless killer.”
“Don’t I know it,” the man said over his shoulder.
Terry and Char strode briskly across the hangar deck, the wombat’s long nails clicking on the metal as she trundled after them. “We’re glad we caught you.” Terry offered his hand, and they shook. Char hugged her. “Sorry. I guess we’re not supposed to touch you, but I’ve had other people inside my head for as long as I can remember.” He pointed at Char with his thumb.
“I don’t. He’s simply transparent. Anyone can see what he’s thinking,” Char clarified. Rivka had seen into both their minds and found it refreshing. No subterfuge. No hidden agendas. No secrets that they were trying to hide.
“You should think about becoming a Magistrate. Both of you.”
“What, and leave all this behind? We will continue our life’s work rescuing Magistrates. And the downtrodden—we’ll help them, too,” Terry explained.
Is Jay here? a small voice asked in Rivka’s mind.
“She’s inside,” Rivka answered, looking for the source of the question. Floyd wobbled past and bounced up the stairs and into the ship.
“What the...”
“We put her in the Pod-doc. She’s like a small child. Plenty smart. I wish she would stop with the marking her territory. She is adamant about it.”
“Marking?”
“You don’t want to know. We have a bot follow us around for the sole purpose of cleaning up after her.” Terry pointed to the small bot hovering inside the hatch on the side of the bay.
Char leaned close to the Magistrate.
“I think Terry likes blowing stuff up too much to do anything else. After a century and a half, one gets set in their ways. We’ll stay with the Bad Company and do our best to keep the Federation at peace, in our own way. You do it your way, and in the end, we’ll all get to live in a better place.” Char smiled, took Terry’s hand, and waved goodbye. “Oh, Nathan wants to talk with you.”
Rivka waved back and hurried into the ship, working her way around the various crates and bags filling the corridors.
“This looks like a Rigellian pirate freighter! I’m not cleaning it up, but someone sure as hell is,” Rivka bellowed from the bridge before securing the hatch behind her. A soft meow came from under the front console. “Hamlet. What are you doing in here? Are there too many changes for my little introvert? Come up here and give me some loving.”
Surprisingly, the cat climbed from his hiding spot and leapt into her lap, lying down as she stroked his fur.
“Chaz, connect me to Nathan Lowell, please.”
The screen shimmered to life, and Nathan appeared with a distinguished-looking older man, with gray at his temples and a cigar in his mouth. The father of the Queen.
“Nathan, Lance, nice to see you both.” Rivka wanted to talk about the twenty planets that had been freed from the Mandolin Partnership, but didn’t want to interfere with her boss’s boss’s boss’s agenda.
“Once again, good work, Rivka.” Nathan smiled broadly and nodded once.
Lance Reynolds, nominal head of the Federation, chimed in, “I am impressed that you were able to dismantle a major corporation like that. I think I need to be more clear when I send guidance. You were only supposed to collect evidence and determine if there was more. You were never supposed to engage with someone who had their own combat fleet and billions of credits worth of influence. In any case, I like your can-do attitude, Magistrate. My daughter was right about you.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Rivka replied.
“You don’t need to say anything. I’d love to give you lots of time off to recover, but criminals won’t take a day off, so the good must be vigilant. Get back to Station 7 and get your people int
o the Pod-doc. Get your upgrades, and then take your new mission. It’ll take you a week to prep for it, but we need you out there on the front lines defending the good people of the Federation from criminals like Oscura Mandel.”
“There are more criminals like him?”
“Different criminals, but there will always be someone who wants to be the next Mandolin. The lure of money and power makes people take obscene risks and do weird things. Magistrates can stop that cold, but only if they’re out there. I’m sorry, Rivka for asking you to remain constantly deployed. Remember, evil never sleeps.”
“There is a blood trade out here. Mandel was a buyer to use as leverage over world leaders. Maybe in the data we’ll find who the supplier was, but as of right now, it’s still out there. I’ll let the other Magistrates know. We’ll end the blood trade, one way or another.
Nathan said a few last words. “We would all appreciate that, Rivka. On another note, Lance has approved bonuses for your crew. Are you going to add any more people? If so, we’ll have to talk about your budget in greater detail.”
Rivka didn’t bother to mention the bonus she was going to give her crew as part of her winnings from Red’s victory in the fight on S’Korr. She opened the hatch to show the current state of her ship. “We are packed to the gills. That’s it on crew. It’ll only be the five of us.”
“Looks like six,” Nathan said, pointing at the cat in Rivka’s lap. “If you want the whole Evil Magistrate vibe, you’ll have to get a hairless cat.”
“I’m not getting another cat. I didn’t even want this one.”
“That’s the thing about cats, Magistrate. We don’t choose them, they choose us. Lowell out.”
“Is that how it works, little man?” Rivka asked. He was purring rhythmically in response to being petted. “Chaz, make sure we don’t have any stragglers on board, like warriors or wombats, and let’s take to the sky. Sounds like we have a new case.”
Grainger looked at Rivka over a pile of plates. He stifled a belch. She ducked her head and did the same thing. “So...” He didn’t finish the sentence.
“You weren’t clear at all on the job description, bitch,” she accused.
“Your alternatives were limited. Remember that part where you were in prison garb and shackles? Did the job description matter?”
Rivka chewed on her lip. Her stomach grumbled. “Happy tummy,” she purred. “I guess not. Will people be trying to kill me everywhere I go? I now have powered armor and major firepower on board my corvette. Hello, my name is Rivka Anoa. You’re innocent until proven guilty, except that you’re really not. Don’t look at the mech or she’ll kill you, just like I will.”
“Sounds legit. Maybe you should start more conversations that way.”
“You didn’t feed me and then say such nice things because I was hungry.” Rivka leaned back and crossed her arms.
“Your next mission—” Grainger started.
“Case,” Rivka corrected.
“Mission.”
“Case.”
“Your next foray to shine light into the dark places of our galaxy is a serial killer on Collum.”
“Serial killers fall under local jurisdiction. They suck, but they aren’t a Federation issue.”
“Unless they are only killing foreign dignitaries. We’ve lost one a week for the last eight weeks. It can’t continue, or all the delegations will pull out. You know what the Federation thinks about having to abandon a planet, plus Collum’s Chancellor has requested Federation intervention.”
“This sounds more like a normal case. Do they have any suspects?”
“Some, but none sound promising. Everything we have is in the case file. Download it before you go. And on a separate note, your death message was touching.”
“That was sent by mistake. I think Erasmus was trying to get back at me for being taller than his Crenellian.”
“I’m sure that’s it.” Grainger stood and almost bumped into Doctor Tyler Toofakre. “Excuse me,” he said before turning back to Rivka. “You don’t need to leave for a couple days. They’re expecting you on Thursday. Enjoy your downtime.”
“I’m sorry I’m late. Emergency dental repair. A front tooth had been knocked out, but she wouldn’t say what the circumstances were. Oh! You’ve already eaten.”
“You think domestic abuse?” Rivka asked, suddenly interested.
“I don’t know.” He waved to get the server’s attention and ordered the same thing he always ordered. “I am concerned. Don’t look, but there she is now. Is that your bodyguard?”
Lindy and Red both waved.
Rivka started to laugh and motioned for them to come into All Guns Blazing’s restaurant.
“You know her?” Tyler asked.
“Quite well, as a matter of fact. I have my suspicions about what happened.” When Lindy and Red arrived, Rivka fixed them with a stare. “Let me guess—you were testing how well your new nanocytes made repairs. Didn’t he tell you that the first pass isn’t good with teeth? It’ll take another time or two before the nanos figure out how to fix a chipped tooth.”
Lindy punched Red in the shoulder. “Dammit!”
Red tried to look innocent, pointing at Lindy and then at his arm.
“How do you know about the teeth?” Lindy wondered.
“He fixed mine too.” Rivka nodded to the dentist.
“Thanks for taking care of me, doc. I have to admit, I expected weird. Seriously, who likes sticking their meat hooks into someone else’s mouth? But you’re a normal guy. You know what? With us around, she needs more normal in her life.”
Tyler didn’t know how to respond to that. Rivka let him off the hook.
Rivka frowned. “Next case is on Collum. We’re going after a serial killer who’s hunting aliens.”
“The hunter becomes the hunted. We got your back, Magistrate,” Red promised.
The End
Destroy the Corrupt - Judge, Jury, & Executioner, Book 2
If you like this book, please leave a review. This is a new series, so the only way I can decide whether to commit more time to it is by getting feedback from you, the readers. Your opinion matters to me. Continue or not? I have only so much time to craft new stories. Help me invest that time wisely. Plus, reviews buoy my spirits and stoke the fires of creativity.
Don’t stop now! Keep turning the pages as Craig & Michael talk about their thoughts on this book and the overall project called the Age of Expansion.
Your new favorite legal eagle will return in Book 3, Serial Killer!
Author Notes - Craig Martelle
Written July 28, 2018
You are still reading! Thank you so much. It doesn’t get much better than that.
My Bad Company Book 3 – Price of Freedom is a finalist for the Dragon Award for the best Military Science Fiction of the year! At first, I didn’t care, but then I talked to a few people, and it is a big deal. Who skips the Academy Awards? Well, it wasn’t going to be me, so I bought my ticket and am going to Atlanta to attend a couple days of DragonCon and the award ceremony. We have a lot of work to do between now and then to rally the vote. I don’t want to go all that way and not win, do I?
Michael Anderle will be there too, and we’ll be on stage together. I would love to win, and hope that you signed up to vote (before this book comes out) and that you voted after you received your ballot. We appreciate your support, first and foremost as readers who enjoy our stories.
I have a copy of Black’s Law Dictionary, and that is my main reference. The law is incredibly complex, and ninety percent of a lawyer’s job is looking stuff up. Research, research, research. The shows on TV show the cool lawyers whipping things off the top of their heads, quoting legal precedent by case name. They only get there by studying and memorizing—the oft-maligned Socratic method, as it may be. Yes, law school is where you earn your stripes in figuring out how to research, and coherently defend a position based on that research. Nothing is cut and dried. In law school, we had to ta
ke one position, switch sides, and then defend the other position with equal zeal. That’s where lawyers in training learn the ropes.
Veronica Helen’s Kingpin's name:
Oscura (Italian for dark)
Nefas (Latin origins of nefarious)
Organization name: Nefas Services
Micky Cocker – Mandolin Inc, but I went with Partnership as offered by Staci Armstrong. (Kitchen slicer or musical instrument, a double entendre)
And Oscura Mandel as the nominal head. I am at the point where I had to choose the names—look for a mash-up of a number of offerings—thanks to Staci Armstrong, James Caplan, Micky Cocker, and Veronica Helen for their suggestions. We'll find the Mandolin Partnership (there's a twist here, you'll have to read the book) with nominal head Oscura Mandel. He goes by Nefas, his middle name, but only to his friends. Are you my friend, Rivka?
Here are some of the other offerings for names and such. Thank you to such a great group of supporters.
Tommy Donbavand offered a couple names that I used in this book—go Tommy D!
Zaxxon Major—six continents, constantly at war with each other
Quarst—small world with 124 smaller moons surrounding it
Micky Cocker offered the following names that all appear somewhere within Destroy the Corrupt. Gargeath, Kleath, Lauton, Colston, Dromet, Reemstar,
Breedin. Rashveil, Solaric, Pyrothasm, Collum Gate and Morinvaille. For the record, every time I referenced the planet called Morinvaille, I copied it and pasted it from a previous entry.
Jordan Smith suggested Show Low—named after a poker game, someone gambled the planet and showed the lowest card to win. This planet plays a small role in the book:)
Heidi Bauer suggested a name that I used—I like it, but it was hard to type. You’ll see that I often try to keep things simple for the sake of my fingers and typing speed. Belheeake
Tom Dickerson suggested S’Korr, a sports arena-type planetary economy with overpriced beverages and snacks, plus cheap team-logo knickknacks.
Destroy The Corrupt: A Space Opera Adventure Legal Thriller (Judge, Jury, & Executioner Book 2) Page 19
