by Gian Bordin
"Mr. Young, would you be so kind as to wave."
He looked at her stubbornly.
"Mr. Young, I asked you kindly to wave … or do you want me to order you?"
After a short hesitation, he raised his arm briefly. The movement could clearly be seen on the big screen in the auditorium.
"Thank you, Mr. Young."
It was greeted with hushed laughter.
"I guess you want more proof than that." She nodded to two men who had been waiting at the side of the podium. They turned off the standard channel and probed around her with wave measuring equipment. "Any signals?"
"No, Miss Shen. Nothing whatsoever."
"Thank you."
She turned back to the audience, noticing that Pat Young had left. What was she going to do about him? "You are now free to ask questions."
For the next twenty minutes a lively discussion followed between the audience and her and Atun. At the end, she asked that the standard channel be turned on again and pointed out that its delay had shrunk to a fraction of a second as Vishnu approached Soro. At that point she cut the communication to allow Vishnu to land. She supervised security to dismantle the equipment and bring it into Atun’s locked office.
She was hardly back in her own office when her desk comunit signaled an urgent call from Syd Twan.
"Yuen-mong, I just heard the horrible news of the crash. I only called to let you know that I’m on my way to be with you … to comfort you."
"Hello Syd. What crash?"
"The crash of the shuttle at the Soro space port."
"Oh that."
"How can you be so detached? There were no survivors. Atun —"
"What about him?"
"He was in it. Haven’t you heard?"
"I have just spoken to him on instantcom less than fifteen minutes ago. I guess that by now he has set down again at Soro."
There was silence for several seconds.
"Syd, are you still there?"
"Yes … yes … so he is still alive. Why was I then told that he and your domestic were in that shuttle?"
The voice gave a hint of consternation, or was it disappointment? Might Syd have anything to do with it? she wondered. Could he have used Pat to get rid of the man he saw as his rival?
"No, Atun and Anouk are both fine. And Anouk is not my domestic anymore, but the person in charge of medium training. But who told you that they died in that shuttle accident?"
"Ah, mh, I guess they called all the directors after the crash."
"They? Who?"
"I don’t know. I guess somebody on your staff. I was at a meeting and only got the message right now."
"There was a crash of an unmanned UniCom shuttle that was sent to Soro."
"Unmanned you say?"
"Yes, Syd. You worried about nothing."
A moment of silence and then he said: "I’m glad it was a false alarm. It would have been rather disastrous at this point in time to lose Atun. I was rather upset when I was told. That is why I called you right away. Look Yuen-mong. I’m still shaken. Could I see you for a drink in, say, twenty minutes, to calm my nerves?"
"Thanks, Syd, but I’m sorry, I have a few more things to do tonight before leaving."
"Please, Yuen-mong. Say yes … for me?"
She hesitated for a moment. Should she go, pursue her suspicions and try to probe his mind, but then she decided against it. "Sorry, Syd. Another time."
"You know that I’m terribly disappointed. I really have a need to see you. I also have some important good news for you that I want to tell you in person."
"That Pat will be moving out of my house next week?"
"You already know." He sounded disappointed. "What a pity, I wanted to be the first to tell you. Please, see me anyway."
"Not tonight, Syd… Look, Chen Young is calling. Bye, Syd, take care."
She answered the second call, and her grandfather’s face appeared on her desk comunit. He too seemed upset.
"Good evening, grandfather. What I surprise."
"Yuen-mong, what happened this afternoon? First, Pat called me out of a Foundation meeting to tell me that Atun and your medium got killed when one of our air shuttles crashed and then a few minutes ago he bitterly complained to me that you set him up and then made him the laughing stock in front of a lot of junior people."
"The short answers are that Atun and Anouk were not in that shuttle and that Pat made a fool of himself without my help."
"He said that he saw them take off in that shuttle."
"Yes, they did, but I had a premonition that something was not right and ordered them to land and get out after a few minutes in the air, which they did. Atun sent the shuttle on its programmed course and then took an air shuttle taxi to Soro. Pat later came to my office with the news the UniCom shuttle had crashed and that there were no survivors. He offered to cancel the demonstration, and I said I would make an announcement myself about the incident. He must have gone against my clear instructions by broadcasting everywhere that the shuttle had crashed with Atun. Then he had the audacity to interrupt the demonstration and call it a fake."
"Why didn’t you tell Pat that Atun was not in the shuttle that crashed? Wasn’t that setting him up?"
"It could be seen in this light. However, I told him twice that I would make an announcement about the crash myself."
"But you knew he would not keep quiet."
"Tell me, grandfather, when you were CEO and you gave clear instructions to a subordinate, did you even entertain the possibility that he would go against them?"
He remained silent for a while, a faint smile on his face.
"No, you did not. So why should I?"
"You now made him an even greater enemy."
"Do you want to know what made me call Atun to abandon the shuttle?" He nodded. "First, it was Pat who approached Atun, that he should take a UniCom shuttle to Soro. You said yourself he was my enemy, but his hatred is not just for me. It is also for Atun and especially Anouk. So I wondered why he would want to do Atun a favor? Then he came in person to the roof, as if to make sure they actually boarded the shuttle. His excuse was to tell Atun that it was already programmed to set him down next to Vishnu. Why would he do this himself, rather than let the mechanic tell? I suddenly felt that something was wrong."
"Are you implying that Pat had something to do with the crash? This is a very serious accusation."
"Grandfather, the thought has occurred to me, but I have no proof, and I also have difficulties believing that Pat would be that foolish. It was a feeling of doom at that moment that made me call Atun … fortunately."
"Yuen-mong, I don’t want a feud between you and him. You are too precious. I will talk to him. Explain to him how you saw the situation. Maybe he will understand and learn something from it."
"That is kind of you. Make him also aware that orders from the CEO are orders, even if they come from a female cousin."
He broke into a smile. "I see, you intend to run a tight ship."
"I would not be your granddaughter if I did not."
* * *
Yuen-mong dismissed Mrs. Oddell shortly after that call. When she heard the air shuttle approach, she went to meet Atun and Anouk on the roof platform. They had a rather emotional reunion. She hugged both repeatedly. They locked the equipment in Atun’s office and went to a close-by restaurant for dinner. Afterward, while Anouk took a taxi to her apartment, she and Atun returned to her office.
As agreed during the meal, Atun first inspected both their offices for possible surveillance devices. He found listening chips in each. Using equipment he had borrowed earlier from the research lab, he checked whether their video phones were also tapped and sure they were.
"I suggest we do nothing about it," suggested Atun.
"I disagree. This is different from bugging our apartments. There we wanted to deceive them. Now, if I do nothing I will only earn their disrespect. I must take the bull by the horn. I want to make it absolutely clear to ev
erybody that I am the boss and I will not tolerate this. They will either respect or fear me, as the savaged did on Aros. It is their choice. But I also want to find out who is behind it."
"You’re the boss," he replied smilingly. "Shall I call security to open offices of possible suspects?"
She nodded. Ten minutes later, in the presence of the UniCom security guard in charge of the night shift, they gained access to Ko Young’s office. It did not take long before they found a recording device in the bottom drawer of his desk. A quick check revealed that Atun’s last words spoken in her office was the last item recorded. They found nothing in Kim Deng’s or in Xi Deng’s offices, nor the ones of Hak and Ron Deng, Pat Young, or Dan Shaw. However, Cor Deng had recordings from Atun’s office.
Next, they went to the comunit exchange. Closely supervised by Atun, the maintenance technician was ordered to check for listening taps on both their desk comunits. It did not escape her that the man was horribly frightened, and she instantly knew that he was lying when he reported that there were none. She looked at Atun, barely shaking her head.
"Let me check something," Atun said, taking control of the AI system the technician had used. The man moved aside reluctantly. Atun called up the diagram for the links to their comunits. "What is this? And this?" He pointed to two connections shown.
"Oh, they’re inactive links that should’ve been removed a long time ago."
"I ask you again," said Yuen-mong, "and you better tell me the truth or you will not have a job Monday morning."
The man avoided her gaze, wringing his hands.
"Speak."
"They are illegal listening taps," he murmured.
"Who ordered you to install these taps?" asked Atun.
"I’ll lose my job if I tell."
"No, you won’t, but you will if you don’t," she said sharply.
After a short struggle, he replied: "Cor Deng. You promised, ma’am."
"I did and I will. Let me know immediately if anything happens. Now remove those links. And not a word to anyone of this or you are fired."
They watched while he did it.
Back in her office Atun checked the movements of the air shuttle that had crashed. The last person who had used it the day before was again Cor Deng. It did not show where he went, but he was out for all of the afternoon. The shuttle was then serviced during the night shift by a technician.
"Can you find his name?"
Atun checked the service record. "Jack Hart."
"Where does he live?"
"You intend to visit him?"
"Yes."
He went to the personnel files. "UniCom IC 14, that’s where Anouk’s mother lives." He noted down the address and contact number. "Look, it says here that he started his annual vacation this morning."
"Interesting coincidence."
"Let’s call and find out if he’s at home." Atun entered the code, while at the same time disabling video transmission. His hand was already reaching for the cancel button, when an old woman’s voice answered.
"Is Jack there?"
"Who’s that? What d’you want?"
"It’s John. I’m a friend of Jack. He told me to call tonight to arrange something."
"John who?"
"We work together. You wouldn’t know me."
"Jack’s not in."
"When will he be in?"
"Don’t know."
"Too bad. I had this case of bootleg for him. I can only keep it for a day or two and then I must get rid of it."
"Oh, he’d want you to keep it for him. He said he’d be back in ten days."
"Difficult. I’ll do my best." He disconnected. "Looks like a dead end."
"What was that bootleg thing all about?"
"A stab in the dark to try to deceive her. Many of these guys drink quite a bit and their access to booze is limited. So they buy illegal stuff."
"Bootleg is illegal booze? Is it any good?"
"Terrible usually."
"Can we find out who programmed the shuttle?"
"I can try, although I have my doubts that this would be recorded." He again went back to the shuttle log. "There’s nothing recorded here, but maybe we can find out who brought it to the roof platform." He looked up on the duty roster who was in charge of the shuttle service that evening. It was the same person who had started work at 13:00. He highlighted the contact number and was just about to activate it, when she said: "No, let’s go there in person. Then I know if he’s telling the truth."
Twenty minutes later they were at the shuttle garage dispatch office, talking to the man. He confirmed that he had taken the shuttle to the roof platform himself.
"Who programmed it?" asked Atun.
"It had already been programmed before I started work. Normally, I’d have done it. It’s a simple operation that takes a few minutes."
"The unit was serviced the night before by Jack Hart. Is he reliable?"
"Jack Hart? Yea, he’s OK. I can check what he did, if you want me to."
"Yes, please, do that."
He looked up the service record and then shook his head.
"Anything wrong?"
"It says here that it was a regular weekly service, although the last one had just been done three days earlier, and he took less than half an hour, see?" He pointed at the start and end times. "A full check takes one hour or more."
"Who schedules these checks?"
"The manager of the garage, unless the last user reports some malfunction."
"Would that be recorded?"
"It should, but I can’t see anything. Mr. Deng junior used it last."
"Thank you," said Yuen-mong. "We appreciate your help."
On the way back to the office, they talked about it.
"The guy could just have programmed the shuttle and done nothing else, only marking down half an hour’s work," remarked Atun. "If that’s the case, then Pat is suspect number one and we know his motives. Cor Deng is a possible second. He lost about 450 million credits on selling his shares and then we booted him out of the board. Both good enough reasons for wanting us dead."
"There’s a third … Syd." She told him about his call that afternoon. "He also must have talked with Pat yesterday or today, since he told me that Pat was moving out next week. So the two could have plotted together."
"I thought you liked Syd. You suspect him?"
"I won’t let liking come in the way. I more than like my grandfather, but he remains on my list and not at the bottom either, and so does Syd. In fact, he has gone up a few notches today. Having done it once, it may come that much more easily to do it again. He was rather cagey when I asked him who had told him of the crash… Atun, can you check whether Pat called him this afternoon before we started the demonstration?"
Atun entered the comunit traffic records for outgoing calls. "Here it is. Pat called him at 14:32; the crash occurred at 14:21 and he would have known shortly after that. I guess we can check that with the Soro port controllers —"
"— so he called him before he came to me. I recall it was 14:40. Let’s see who else he called."
"Only a call to the Foundation offices at 15:03."
"My grandfather told me that he was called out of a meeting by Pat’s call. Check if his secretary made any calls around that time."
"Yes, there are three calls, one to Pat’s villa, one to the Lake Terrace Bar, and the third to T. Rinchin —"
"— that’s her name. She called her home… So he didn’t call all outside directors as Syd claimed. Syd got special treatment. I would like to know why."
"Maybe he called him about moving out of the villa."
"Shortly after receiving the news that the shuttle crashed?"
"No, that doesn’t sound likely, does it?"
"Atun, from now on I don’t want that you ever to leave your office without either me or Anouk with you and I want you armed. Use one of those small pistols from Old Earth. They are easy to hide. I don’t want to lose you." She leaned over his sho
ulder and kissed his cheek. "Promise?"
"Yes, love."
She kissed him again. "Let’s now go home too. I want to be back tomorrow and search through 21-year-old UniCom files."
* * *
On their way to UniCom Saturday morning — they walked for the exercise — they passed a little office that had a sign ‘Private Investigations’ on its window. Through the partially open blinds she could see a guy sitting behind a desk.
"Atun, you still have the address of Jack Hart?" she said, stopping.
Atun searched the pockets of his jacket and pulled out a slip of paper. "Yea. Shall we go in?"
"No, you go alone. He might recognize me and that might only make things more complicated. Pay him half the fee right away. He looks like he needs it."
She waited a few steps farther down the street for Atun.
"He’ll try to find out where the guy went," Atun reported. "I offered him a bonus of five hundred credits if he gets us an answer before Monday morning."
She smiled. "Good. I must say life is easy if you don’t have to count your credits."
"You said it."
Their search through old records did not reveal anything new, filling in a few holes of who was in charge of what at that time. Kao Deng was vice-president of finance. Of his two sons, Xi already headed research, while Kim was in charge of HST, the largest division of UniCom, and Ko Young supervised all other operating divisions. The only new item was that her mother’s oldest brother, Kwong Fook, was the company secretary at that time. Checking on his background, they discovered that he had trained as a lawyer, graduating from the famous Galactic Law Academy in 2402. Yuen-mong vaguely recalled that Syd’s framed diploma in his office also showed the logo of that institution and the same year of graduation. So the two must have been fellow students. Why Syd had not made a reference to that, in fact, behaved as if he did not know Kwong Fook?
It was a frustrating Saturday. Rather than getting any firm leads, they seemed to uncover more loose ends. She decided that over the next few weeks, she had to create opportunities to get to know Kim and Xi Deng and find where Kwong Fook was being kept in hiding.
