“Yes, Subjugate-12,” Salvi said, analyzing him carefully. “A bad man was here.”
He nodded. “Bad man look,” he said, pointing to Sharon Gleamer’s house. “No. No. Bad.” He shook his head, waved his hands like a baseball umpire. “That’s bad. That’s a bad man. Bad man.”
Salvi looked at Sharon’s bedroom window, then back to the Subjugate.
“You watched her?” she asked. “You were a bad man?”
Subjugate-12 shook his head. “No, no, no, no. Bad man watched her. Bad man watched her. No, no, no. He’s a bad man.” The Subjugate stepped right up to her and she stiffened.
“Who’s a bad man?” she asked, stepping back.
“No, no, no.” Subjugate-12 shook his head. “No, no, no, no. Bad man hurt me. Bad man hurt. No, no, no, no.”
“Who will hurt you?” she said, stepping toward him now.
Subjugate-12 shook his head, kept smacking his fist into his hand.
“Who will hurt you, Subjugate-12?” she asked firmly.
“No, no, no,” he said, still shaking his head.
“It’s all right, you can tell me,” she said, her voice softening. “I know you want to.”
“Bad man watch,” he said, eyes wide. “I saw. Bad man watch.”
“Who?” she said, more demanding. “Who, Subjugate-12? Who’s the bad man?”
“There a problem here?” a voice said.
Salvi turned and saw Sheriff Holt, leaning out the window of his car as it pulled up alongside them.
Salvi stared at him. “No. There’s not.” She turned back to Fontan Pragge. “Tell me, Subjugate-12.”
A loud whistle caught their attention. She saw Edward Moses approaching them, and Bander further on pulling his fingers out of his mouth.
“Subjugate-12,” Moses said. “It’s time to go.”
Salvi looked back at Fontan Pragge. His eyes were still wide and he kept moving from one foot to the other, fidgeting, glancing from her to Holt, to Moses, and back.
“Subjugate-12,” she said, firmly. “Tell me what you know.”
Moses moved closer, and Pragge seemed to cower, darting his eyes between Holt, still leaning out his car window, and Moses on approach.
“SUBJUGATE-12!” Bander yelled from down the road by the van. “GET HERE, NOW!”
Moses unfurled his strong arm, holding it out to Pragge. “Come, Subjugate-12. It is time to go.”
Subjugate-12 hunched his shoulders, cowering like a child in trouble, and began to walk toward Moses, still slapping his fist into his open palm and muttering, “Bad man, bad man.”
Sheriff Holt drove off down the street then. As Pragge reached Moses, the other Subjugate ushered him forward, then looked back at Salvi. Moses gave her a smile and a slight bow, then turned back toward their van. And as he did, Salvi saw a glint flash along his halo. It was fast, it was brief, but it made her pause.
She couldn’t tell if it had simply been the sun’s rays reflecting off it, or whether she had just seen a code blue…
Salvi walked quickly back to her Zenith and set it in motion toward the Solme Complex. She needed to speak with Fontan Pragge again, alone. She was sure he was going to tell her something, but the arrival of Holt in his car, and Moses and Bander calling for him, had spooked the Subjugate.
She wasn’t sure how much she could trust the words of a brain-damaged man, and a hideous former criminal at that, but maybe that was just the thing. Maybe everyone doubted him. Maybe if Pragge had seen something he shouldn’t have and the perp had caught him, maybe they’d assumed no one would listen. Well, Salvi would. It was worth a shot.
As she drove along she ran over the scene again and again. Pragge had been fine until Holt and Moses showed up. He cowered when Bander yelled at him, but that was understandable. Bander was the caretaker and it was his job to mete out punishments. No doubt Pragge had been on the end of his baton before. But Subjugate-12 had no need to be afraid of Holt or Moses.
And the one thing she couldn’t erase from her mind was the glint from Subjugate-52’s halo. Had it just been a flash of refracted sunlight? Or had she witnessed something else entirely? Something that could put the future of Attis’ program at serious risk.
If the likes of Edward Moses was coding blue and allowed into town …
As she neared the facility, the console in her car beeped. It was a message from Kim Weston. Too distracted to put the Zenith into autodrive, Salvi swerved over to the side of the road and stopped. She opened the message. It was the forensics report on the third vic. Fresner had died from head injuries, and had indeed been raped. So far there were no hits on the DNA, but it matched the other victims. Time of death had been early morning, the revised times being between 8am and 10am. But Salvi’s eyes paused when saw the word BioLume. Weston confirmed that minute traces of BioLume had been found on the vic’s dress and on the carpet inside her apartment. Fresner’s house, she noted, did not have BioLume lighting.
Weston also stated that she’d heard back from Attis Solme, who confirmed that the BioLume bacteria could only survive twenty-four hours outside of its special gel-filled globes. Given that the BioLume had been found on or near all three vics, it was safe to assume that the perp was stepping in BioLume regularly.
Every day, in fact.
Salvi’s eyes left the console screen and looked up through her windshield. There in the near distance was the Solme Complex. The silver silos shining in the afternoon sun. She pictured the main BioLume plant, pictured the vats and their contents in all shades of green. She pictured the Serenes and Subjugates working in there. Pictured the BioLume spills on their coveralls. Pictured the spills, no doubt, that wound up on the floor. On the soles of their shoes.
This, she thought, was strong proof that the Bountiful Killer was a resident of the Solme Complex. Someone who worked directly with the BioLume. Someone who trod in it every single day. Someone who brought that BioLume into town with them.
She pulled her Zenith back onto the road and continued on. She drove up to the gates and as she pulled up, the guard on duty walked out to her.
“I wasn’t expecting you today,” he said, scrolling through data on his silver helmet visor. “You’re not on my list.”
“No, I’m not,” she said. “Something’s come up and I need to speak with one of the Subjugates.”
“You know you can’t visit without prior authorization from the mayor.”
“Well, can you call his office? I’m sure he’ll let me in.”
“He’s not here,” the guard told her. “He’s been gone all day.”
“He has?” she said. “Do you know where?”
“No. You’ll have to come back,” he said stepping away.
“Wait!” she called. “What about the caretaker? He here? Can I speak with him?”
The guard studied her a moment, as though contemplating whether to give in to her request. He eventually relented. “I’ll give him a call.” He walked back to his booth to make contact. All the while Salvi sat, hands clenched around the steering wheel of her Zenith, watching the drone hovering in the air above the Complex’s main building – watching her back.
The guard returned. “Alright, he said you can come through. Just let me scan you.”
Salvi nodded and waited while the guard scanned her car, then waved her forward to meet the drone and follow it to the appropriate parking spot. She did so, turned the car off and moved to open the door, but was startled to see Serene-41 standing outside her window.
“Detective,” he bowed in greeting, opening the door for her.
“Serene-41,” she said back, getting out of the vehicle. “Take me to the caretaker, please.”
“Of course.” The Serene turned around and set off toward the main building.
“Serene-41,” she said, moving after him. “When you went into town these past few days with Subjugate-52, did you ever lose sight of him?”
Serene-41 looked around at her, then seemed to think. “It’s quite possibl
e.”
“Quite possible?”
“Yes.” He gave a slight bow. “But the Subjugates must always travel in a pair, with a Serene or a guard. If I was not with Subjugate-52 then someone else was.”
“And what about the Serenes?” she asked. “I saw you the other day, putting flowers on the Gleamers’ doormat. You were alone.”
“Yes. I am allowed to travel alone. I am Serene-Supreme. I am trusted.”
She studied him carefully as she followed him inside the main building.
“Please wait here in reception,” he said. She nodded and watched him leave, then began to pace the curved-walled room with beige hues and BioLume lights. An empty, silent, shell. Much like the Serenes that dwelled here, in this vacuum of killers.
She soon heard footsteps and turned expecting to see Bander, but instead Dr Remmell stood there.
“We weren’t expecting you,” he said.
“No.” She smiled, not wanting to raise any alarm. “I just had some questions I would like to ask of Subjugate-12.”
“Have you the authorization from Mayor Solme?” he asked.
“No.”
“Have you the authorization from me?”
She stared at him. “Not yet.”
“Why do you wish to speak with him?” he asked, his untrusting beady eyes glaring out of his dark-rimmed rectangular-framed glasses.
Salvi considered carefully what to say, knowing that Remmell had been one of those identified by the prostitute. She decided on bluntness. She decided on the truth. She wanted to see his reaction. “I think he knows who the killer is.”
Remmell scoffed a small laugh. “Subjugate-12? And why do you think that?”
“I think people underestimate him,” she said. “His brain is fried so people pay him no mind. But he still has eyes and ears. And if the Solme Complex has done its job,” she said with a smile, “if you have done your job right, then he will know what is good and what is bad. He will know what is right from what is wrong. And if he’s seen something bad, something wrong, I think he can tell me.”
“I assure you we have done our job and Subjugate-12 knows right from wrong. But he is also very fragile. He cannot handle stress.”
“Well, what he’s seen may have caused him undue stress,” she said. “Has he been acting unusual this past week since Sharon Gleamer died?”
Remmell stared at her.
“He has,” she answered her own question. “So, let me speak with him.”
“No,” he said firmly.
“Why not?”
“Because if he’s under stress, you will not put him under any more.”
“You’re happy to let this killer do it again?” she asked.
Remmell stared at her. “I will speak with him.”
“I need to be present.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?” he asked, stepping toward her. “So you can undo your blouse, confuse and entrap him, like you tried to do with Subjugate-52?”
She stared at him.
“I won’t have that,” he said. “Subjugate-12 is my patient.”
“Dr Remmell, you’re impeding a murder investigation right now.”
“I will speak with the Subjugate!” he said bitterly. “If there’s anything to report, I will let you know. Good day!” With that, Remmell stormed out of the room, almost knocking into Levan Bander on his way out.
“What was that about?” Bander asked, stepping into the room with Serene-41.
“I need to speak to Subjugate-12 and he won’t let me see him.”
“Why?”
Salvi exhaled. “I think he knows something.”
Bander stared at her, then looked back at the Serene and motioned for him to leave. The Serene obeyed. Bander looked back to her. “You don’t think it’s him? Pragge?”
“No.” She shook her head. “But he knows something. He’s seen something.”
Bander pouted his lips and nodded. “Well, when the mayor isn’t here, Remmell is in charge of resident welfare. Not much I can do.”
“But you’re the caretaker.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I oversee the security of the Complex, but personal welfare of residents comes down to Remmell.” Bander stepped forward. “What’d he say to you today in town? Subjugate-12?”
Salvi looked back at him. “Nothing. He just gave me the impression he knew something.”
Bander gave her an awkward look. “You know he’s retarded, right?”
“Yeah,” Salvi nodded, “but he still has the ability to witness a murder, or witness something that he shouldn’t have.”
“I guess,” he said, scratching his head. He looked back at her and shrugged. “Well, until Remmell gives you the OK, there’s nothing you can do. You’ll have to come back.”
She sighed, looked around the reception area. Thought back to the incident on the street; Holt sitting in his car, Edward Moses approaching him. She turned back around to Bander. “What about Subjugate-52?” she asked. “Can you take me to see him?”
Bander stared at her. “You trying to get me fired?”
“No,” she said. “Look, Remmell wouldn’t let me see Subjugate-12 because he thinks I’ll cause him undue stress. He said nothing about me seeing Subjugate-52.”
“So what do you think 52 can tell you that’s so urgent it can’t wait until tomorrow?”
“Let me ask him the right questions and we’ll find out,” she said confidently.
Bander studied her, eyes narrowing. “You think 52’s the killer?”
“I don’t know,” she said, rubbing her forehead. “And I won’t until I talk with him.” She fought to hide the frustration in her voice. “I just need to speak with him one more time. Please.”
Bander considered her a moment, then glanced around at the doorway that Remmell had disappeared through. He looked back at Salvi, then checked his watch.
“I can give you ten minutes,” he said quietly.
“Great!” she said. “Let’s do it.”
Chapter Seventeen
Silo Six
Bander walked Salvi through the tunneled corridors toward the glass bridge that led to the BioLume factory. Serene-41 tried to follow, but Bander waved him away again.
“Go wait in reception,” he told the Serene.
They crossed over as the sun was beginning to set. Salvi stared off into the farms, saw Serenes among rows of vegetables, and further beyond in the vineyard. They looked like they were packing up for the day. She recalled Bander’s comments about how business was booming here at the Complex. Attis Solme was getting rich off all the free labor. He was exploiting them, but at the same time it couldn’t be denied that he had taken them out of the prison system and had them doing something positive with their lives, repaying their debt to society. Regardless of whether Attis Solme was getting rich off his slave labor, or luring the tech-heads in the city, working to get neural implants back on the market, there’s no way he would jeopardize the good thing he had going. There’s no way he would be the killer.
She looked back at Bander and saw him swipe his security pass and submit to the retinal scan. He wrenched back the lock with a loud clank and wheeled the white metal door open. She followed him inside and saw the factory below was empty except for the four vats of BioLume glowing up at her in their various shades and reeking of that wet mossy smell. Bander moved alongside and looked over the railing.
“Subjugate-52!” he called out. There was no answer. “He must be working in the silos,” he said. “This way.”
They walked down a set of stairs to the factory floor. Salvi studied each of the large vats as they moved past. Then her eyes fell to the concrete floor, saw numerous smears of green here and there.
“How often to do you get spills on the floor in here?” she asked.
Bander glanced at her over his shoulder. “Regularly,” he said, “but it’s never much. A drip here and there. There’s no health hazard in that. Why the inter
est?”
“Just curious,” she said, glancing down to his feet. They looked a similar size to Mitch’s. A similar size to the perp’s.
She looked up at Bander’s broad shoulders and back as she followed him. She thought about his comments on U-Stasis, how he’d used it to follow his niece and found Sharon Gleamer on there. His name wasn’t mentioned among the prostitute’s clients, though. But then again, would the killer pay for sex when he so clearly enjoyed taking it by force?
It made her of think of Mitch then, and of last night. Mitch had access to her apartment that morning, but he’d also had access to her the night before. And she’d been drinking. Killing her would’ve been easy. But he hadn’t. They’d had consensual sex, then they’d both fallen asleep.
Because Mitch wasn’t the killer.
She thought of the prostitute again, and of Dr Remmell being one of her clients.
“Does Dr Remmell ever come in here?” she asked Bander.
“Yeah,” he said. “He comes to study his patients, see how they’re coping in a working environment. Takes notes.”
Salvi nodded to herself, as Bander opened the door. The cold air hit her as they stepped outside the factory and headed for the six large teardrop-shaped silos, each connected by a silver pipe that ran back to the building housing the vats. They walked along, passing each silo until they reached the one last in line.
“He’s in here,” Bander said.
“How can you tell?” she asked, looking up at the silver walls.
“Air hatch up top,” he said, checking his watch again.
She looked up and saw a portion of the wall near the top of the teardrop was open like a window. Bander took hold of an iron ladder welded onto the side of the silo. He looked back at Salvi, giving her the once over. “You alright to climb?”
“Of course,” she said.
He nodded. “Alright.” Bander began climbing the ladder and she followed, turning her mind back to Subjugate-52. Had Edward Moses been the one to attack these women? His priors were the most compatible with the current crimes. But could he have done this while under watch? And how did this explain Salvi’s apartment? Moses would not be able to leave Bountiful. There’s no way he could’ve gone into the city to her apartment.
The Subjugate Page 32
