Randy stepped forward. “First thing I checked. There are no reported crashes or accidents.”
“Okay, what about flight plans?” Ryder paused. “I’m not sure how much that will help. Debbie is notorious for not following them.”
No one responded. “Joel, do you have anything else you can think of?” Ryder asked.
Joel shook his head.
“Joel, keep thinking, but get on that computer”—Ryder pointed—“and check out her flight plan, and track the flight as best you can. Look for system camera scans along the flight plan, and try to verify the last confirmed sighting.”
“Got it.” Joel immediately moved to the computer console.
“So far I can see two possible scenarios. They crashed in a remote area, or they were taken. The easier to verify is if they crashed. We should be able to narrow that with sightings.” Turning to Aster, Ryder asked bluntly, “Do you know or does Steerman know any personnel that were in the Kuu’Aali Falls area today?”
Neither Aster nor Ensign Steerman knew of anyone at the falls.
“I actually have several friends who were going to be at the Kuu’Aali Falls today,” Lieutenant Pinoke volunteered. “I’ll contact them now.” She stepped out of the room. Ryder was a bit surprised that Lieutenant Pinoke even had friends, but he put that thought aside.
“Logic suggests the simplest answer is the most likely,” Ryder continued. “I cannot imagine why, but the most probable scenario is that they have been taken, kidnapped, or murdered. Assuming this scenario, who would have had reason to do this? Who would have had the opportunity?”
Aster responded. “Most likely either a random act of violence or a carefully planned event. If it was planned, then someone you know was likely involved in the event.”
“What would be their motive?” Ryder responded. “That one stymies me. We don’t have money. We don’t have political influence.”
“That’s not totally accurate,” Steerman said, stammering.
“What do you mean?” Randy asked.
“Have any of you done a search on your names here?” Aster asked.
There was a pause, then Ryder hesitantly responded. “I did. I ran into security blocks. I assumed it was because we were designated as outsiders to the system. I couldn't find a way around it and couldn't get Mr. Small or Lieutenant Pinoke to assist. I'm afraid my hacking skills aren't that good yet.”
“It’s probably time you got some clarification on that.” Aster spread his portable computer to large screen mode. “You’re not blocked as outsiders, you’re blocked as individuals. I’m not blocked. Let’s look up your names. Why don’t we start with Athena’s family name.” Under the header “Swenson,” given names of Leonard, Jennifer, and Athena came up immediately.
“I had an uncle Len that died about sixteen years ago.” Athena perked up.
Aster took on a didactic voice. “Look at the top right corner on Leonard Swenson. The information identifies his immigration date. You’ll notice that he immigrated permanently to Demeter seventeen years ago. I suspect if you double check, you’ll find that your uncle died seventeen years ago. The information below that shows that he made biannual visits here during the previous ten years. You’ll also notice that Jennifer was his father’s sister.”
They next looked at the name Porter. They found Randy and Joel’s great uncle. The Flores name was associated with five generations of mid-level administrators at Demeter, and also the Director-General’s name from six generations before that. Creer only showed up with Rebecca’s name. However, when they pulled up Rebecca’s file, it showed a link to a Mr. Roundy, a pilot in the DDF from forty-five years earlier and former associate director in the DDF. He was apparently Becky’s grandmother’s brother.
Ryder showed sixteen hits. Ryder was only moderately surprised to see the names of both of his parents and his grandparents on his father’s side. Aster clicked on Ryder’s grandfather’s name, Stephen. The name registered as immigrating permanently to Demeter six years earlier, the same year that he died on Earth. He was also the current Director-General of Demeter.
“As you can see, there are political implications tied to the disappearance of the granddaughter of the Director-General and two other well-connected individuals tied to Demeter’s Directorate.”
Ryder froze as the grave realities of the situation settled over him, and silence ruled the room as his friends stared at him. Finally, he came to himself. “So the most likely reason for a kidnapping would be politically motivated. What groups or individuals would instigate such an action?”
Just then, Lieutenant Pinoke poked her head back into the room. “My associates remember seeing your friends arrive. Apparently, the hopper landed with great fanfare, scaring a number of locals. Your sister apparently buzzed the Kuu’Aali Falls before landing. They do not recall seeing any of them leave. Likewise, they did not notice anything peculiar in relation to other individuals around your party. However, they admit they were not paying close attention.”
“Joel, I should have thought of this sooner. You should be able to get a reading on the hopper. I’m guessing it’s still at Kuu’Aali Falls.”
It took Joel less than two minutes to confirm that the hopper was still at the falls, parked.
“Aster, can we use your craft to get there? I know it can travel faster than a hopper,” Ryder said.
“You got it.” Aster stood.
“Lieutenant Pinoke, will you join us?” Ryder turned to the Slick officer.
“No. I’ll patch our simulation information to your computer. The system here is more powerful and provides more variables. I believe you would be more useful here, working with me as the rest of your team feeds information to us,” Pinoke advised.
“That might be,” Ryder affirmed, “but I’m going.”
“Remember, keep emotion out of your analysis, and you will work better.” Heliotrope actually closed her palm on his shoulder. “I restate you would be more useful here.”
“Thank you, Heliotrope.” Ryder turned toward the exit. “I’ll do my best to keep my feelings in check, but I need to be there.” He walked out the door of the simulation room. The rest of the group followed.
Chapter 16: Puzzles
Rather than tracking down a hopper to use, Ryder and his companions converged on the craft that Aster and Steerman were flying. This had been the topic of a short debate. Steerman had argued that they did not have permission to travel the breadth of Demeter in a vehicle classified as a Cryellian fighter, even though it was unarmed. Aster had countered that they could get to the Kuu’Aali Falls in two hours in V mode, versus four hours in a hopper, and that was if they could find one. Finally, Steerman relented, but he finished with, “I hope you know you’re putting both of our careers on the line on this one.”
As they departed, Ryder wondered if they should contact the authorities over the disappearance, but was hesitant as everything so far was conjecture. They had located the craft undamaged. It would be embarrassing to discover that the girls had just gone shopping then decided to spend the night at the falls. Further, he wasn’t even sure who the authorities would be for something like this.
“Aster, who oversees criminal investigations on Demeter?” Ryder asked.
“What do you mean?” Aster responded inquisitively as they walked across the tarmac to the flyer.
“You know. If it turns out the girls were kidnapped, who investigates? Is it the DDF? Slicks? Do we have a police force?”
“There really isn’t a lot of crime on Demeter,” Steerman offered. “I know there is an investigation unit that works through the Director-General’s office. They would probably investigate a crime, unless it was instigated by the Pervs. Now, if that were the case, the Slicks could demand jurisdiction. Likewise, the Slicks take charge of investigations if Slicks are involved.”
“In other words, by the time they got it all sorted out, you could die of old age,” Aster said, then added, “Demeter old age, not Earth old age.
” He snickered.
No one else laughed.
Ryder continued to communicate back and forth with Lieutenant Pinoke, who was running scenarios based on the assumption that the girls had been snatched, trying to narrow possible points of exit or locations near the Falls where they may have been taken. As information came in, Ryder had Randy and Joel searching for surveillance archives that might give them visual insights into what had happened. He knew that he was taking chances with his clearance, using SPC authorization to access databases and archives that were supposed to be limited to the simulation room. He wondered about the impact on his counterpart at SPC. When he received some obviously classified archive footage, it bothered him to the point where he asked, “Lieutenant Pinoke, isn’t this outside the simulation rules of engagement? Aren’t you going to get in trouble for sending this?”
“Trouble? Oh, perhaps with the DDF, but I report to the fleet. This is well within normal investigation procedures when cooperating with authorities. In this case, my position is that you are the authority and should receive the data to further the investigation.”
Ryder realized that he couldn’t push Athena too far. She had been reclusive for weeks. Yet she wanted something to do, so he asked her to contact Mr. Small, and if possible, Miss Li. He hadn’t tried to reach Mr. Small yet, but he had already tried, several times, to reach Miss Li through his bug with no success. His calls had all gone straight to a recording. He continued to worry about Yara Li’s role. Unlike the girls, her bug was still functioning, even if she wasn’t answering. The girls’ bugs seemed to be in a totally disabled state.
Ryder had to think. He had to be prepared. He went into the washroom and did something he swore he wouldn’t do. He didn’t throw up but returned teary eyed a few minutes later. As he stepped from the washroom, he began pacing. Okay, if it were a kidnapper, then someone had to know. Who do we know who could be involved? Miss Li was obviously his chief suspect. Why would Athena know about the intended meet up with the girls if Miss Li were planning a kidnapping? If she had killed the girls, what was the motive? Perhaps she was an agent of the Per-Sian League, in which case she would obviously be off Demeter by now and on her way to Perv space.
Activating his link to the SPC, he called out, “Lieutenant Pinoke, could you check to see if there are any authorized or unauthorized flights that have left Demeter’s interior?”
Pinoke responded at once. “I’ve already been looking into that. There are over forty craft that have left Demeter interior space since late afternoon. All craft were either DDF or Slick vehicles. Only three from the proximity of Kuu’Aali Falls. All three of those craft were bound for Slick fleet vessels, and all arrived without incident. I’m still awaiting archival footage from the vessels. I’m having to battle with the ship’s captain for that footage, so I’ve gone to fleet command.”
Ryder continued to ponder. Who else was there? Was Mr. Small involved? He seemed as likely a candidate as Miss Li. If Mr. Small were involved, was he working with Miss Li? He’d have to keep that line of thinking open as an option. Captain White? He had known where the girls were going. He had arranged the hopper. Captain White had to be considered a strong possibility. Captain White’s co-pilot on the Pegasus? She would not necessarily know any details, since we landed months ago. Her opportunities would have declined with the passage of time and knowledge. What about Director Steerman? Possible, but what motive? Did she know about the trip to the falls? What about Athena? Athena’s emotional roller coaster could be tied to knowledge in a plot. Maybe she’d gotten drawn in through outside contacts. Maybe the Meteorology group was a hotbed of anarchists. Ryder chuckled and said, “And maybe I’m getting slaphappy.”
Steerman was flying, and Aster was taking a break in the lounge area. “You look hashed,” Aster observed. “Your eyes are red and puffy. You look exhausted. Maybe you should catch a nap. We still have more than an hour before we’ll get to the falls.”
Just then, Athena spoke up. “I have Mr. Small. Do you want me to patch him in?”
“Yes!” Ryder’s head cleared immediately, and he took the connection. “This is Ryder.”
Mr. Small hesitated. “Ryder, what’s going on? Why are you guys calling me in the middle of the night? I just got back from a meeting on SL277 with fleet command. Can this wait until morning?”
“The girls have disappeared!” Ryder said.
“Girls? Which girls?” Mr. Small grew serious.
“It appears that someone has taken Cynthia, Debbie, and Becky,” Ryder clarified.
The connection was silent so long that Ryder thought he’d lost it. Then he heard a deep sigh. “Hang on a moment,” Mr. Small finally responded.
A moment turned into the longest minute Ryder could remember. He thought perhaps Mr. Small had some useful insights that he was not getting, or perhaps some connections his former teacher was drawing on. When Mr. Small returned to the line, he sounded totally different. “Where are you?” he spoke in his military command voice.
“We’re on a Cryellian fighter about an hour away from the Kuu’Aali Falls. That’s where the girls disappeared.”
“By any chance, is Yara with you?” Mr. Small sounded anxious.
“No, and we can’t reach her. She was supposed to meet the girls at the falls earlier today,” Ryder explained.
There was a long pause, then Mr. Small spoke. “Ryder, I’d like you all to return to Europe right now. This could be serious. I’ll have a team at the falls first thing in the morning, but I need you back now.”
It was Ryder’s turn to pause. “Mr. Small, I don’t think that makes sense to me. We’re almost there. You say you can have a team there in the morning. What team? What’s going on?”
“We should have told you earlier, but you and Debbie are the grandchildren of the Director-General,” Mr. Small admitted. “Your grandparents wanted you to have a chance to experience Demeter on your own before they started influencing your decisions. I told them they were wrong, but they don’t always listen to me. Now we have the devil to pay. If Debbie has been kidnapped, you’re a hot target. We need you out of harm’s way. Miss Li and I are part of the Directorate Security Team. We’ll take over immediately.”
“Mr. Small, if it’s not a big deal, then no harm done,” Ryder argued. “If it is a big deal, I don’t want to wait until morning. Where is Miss Li anyway?”
“That’s a problem,” Mr. Small confessed. “I don’t know. I can’t get through on her public or her security line.”
“Then I guess we’ll see you at the falls in the morning,” Ryder snapped.
“Ryder!” Mr. Small shouted.
“Good-bye.” Ryder cut the line and blocked all calls to require manual receipt.
“Ryder, we might have something,” Randy called from the computer he was working on.
They had found surveillance archives that showed Miss Li meeting up with the girls at one of the lookouts to the falls. The footage lasted over three minutes. The girls were animated, but Miss Li was reserved, which wasn’t unusual. However, Ryder did notice that Miss Li never smiled during the entire exchange. That was not like her.
“Nice work, Randy.” Turning to Athena, Ryder continued. “Can you take stills of the areas from this footage and start ID’ing people in the pictures? It looks like there’s about forty of them.”
Athena nodded.
Ryder patched back into Lieutenant Pinoke and brought her up to speed. “Can you scan Slick records to check for any matches on the pictures we’ll forward to you?” He sat down heavily. Forty more suspects. That wasn’t going to speed things up, he thought.
Thirty minutes later, as Steerman and Aster were bringing the craft in to the main terminal for Kuu’Aali Falls, Randy announced, “I’ve got another one."
Ryder watched the surveillance video around the hopper. Less than thirty minutes from the moment Miss Li connected with the girls, they were back at the hopper. The drama wasn’t much to look at if you didn’t know what you were l
ooking for. The girls were walking with Miss Li. Debbie was obviously arguing with her about something. Walking near them was a person with a broad brimmed hat that reminded Ryder of the cowboy hat that Hondo had been wearing before the river trip. Another person wearing similar headgear merged with the group. Their body language changed suddenly. The two hats backed off two steps and held everyone’s attention. Miss Li spoke with the hats, then led the girls inside the hopper single file. Before entering, he saw Debbie sneeze and bend over halfway up the steps, then go inside. The two hats followed. Five minutes later, Miss Li exited, followed by the girls. Debbie was being carried cradlelike by the latter of the two hats, as if she were a small child asleep. They walked toward the main building, where a third hat joined the group, then turned off to the left of the building on a path that ran down to the bottom of the falls.
Ryder was able to watch the sequence one more time in fast forward before they landed. He could see no angle where the cameras picked up the faces of either of the hats. He only paused where Debbie had sneezed, rubbed her eyes, then bent over to the third step. He wanted to watch the archive again in slow motion, but he also wanted to get to the hopper, and to the path that descended to the base of the falls. He finally elected to forward the archives back to Lieutenant Pinoke. He paused, and then asked her to send it to Mr. Small as well.
Chapter 17: Henchmen
“Hey, I’ve seen these guys before,” Debbie whispered anxiously to Cynthia.
Cynthia returned the whisper. “Shhhh. Better if they don’t think we have any idea who they are”
She was surprised that Debbie could figure out who they were so fast. They were obviously wearing heavy makeup, making their skin seem almost pitch black. They were wearing some sort of wig under those floppy cowboy hats. Even through all that, she thought she recognized one of them. But she wasn’t about to admit it.
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