The Exxar Chronicles: Book 03 - Acts of Peace and War

by Neal Jones

  "What about his credit account?"

  "It was closed by the bank after six months of non-activity. There was a balance of thirty-five orn, which was mailed to his home address in the form of a paper check. And, yes, I checked on that home address. In fact, I called Anteri Prill early this morning. He said that the house was fully owned by Doctor Moru, that he had paid cash for it fifteen years ago when he first moved to Anjisald to take his position at Bri'Nai. It's been sitting empty ever since. M'Harri hired somebody to take care of the lawn and the housecleaning about six months after Moru disappeared. She was certain that he would eventually come back home."

  J'Soran walked around the desk to get another look at the terminal screen. "Can you pull up the anteri's report?"

  Navarr obeyed, and then watched Varis' expression. "Is there something I missed?"

  "I recognize that name too. Vasik Prill. He was a classmate of mine at military school. I lost touch with him a few years after graduation."

  "That title 'anteri'? I assume that's the equivalent of a detective?"

  "Yes." Varis frowned, tapping one finger idly against her chin as she stared at the screen.

  Navarr too, was pondering the facts gathered thus far. She glanced sideways at Varis as she asked, "What did you turn up in your search on Moru's name? Anything I haven't found?"

  "No. In fact, you're far more thorough than I was. All I turned up was his employment at the Bri'Nai Institute."

  Navarr grimaced, frustrated, as she sat in her chair and laced her hands behind her head, staring up at the ceiling thoughtfully. After a few moments, she looked at Varis and leaned forward. "I can't do much else from here. There's no physical evidence that he was murdered, and Doctor Rosenberg listed a heart attack as the cause of death on his certificate. Unless I can prove this was a murder, I can't continue this investigation. I have nothing else to go on."

  "What about the security vids from the corridor the day he arrived?"

  Navarr shook her head. "Moru did have one visitor, but whoever it was kept their back to the camera, and they wore a traveling cloak – the kind with the big hood. From the size and height, it was probably a male. He was someone that the doctor was expecting because he invited him inside. Then he left a few minutes later, but he kept his face turned away from the camera and the hood pulled all the way up. We tried matching the clothes he was wearing to any passengers wearing the same outfit on the camera footage from DPC-nine, but most everyone was wearing some form of a traveling cloak." She gave another frustrated sigh. "The other thing that really bothers me about this is that I have two ambassadorial delegations arriving in three days, and this case is a security issue. In my official record, I have no choice but to mark this as closed because his death certificate reads natural causes, and I have no physical evidence to the contrary."

  "What about the computer terminal in his quarters?"

  "He didn't use it. Hard drive was clean. Nor did he have any luggage that my deputies could find. I checked that part of the liner's manifest as well. Mister Rosa never checked any luggage at the L'Dai colony, nor did he bring any on board with him. We searched his clothes for any personal effects. Nothing. Whatever he had was stolen by his mysterious visitor."

  "He must have at least had a credit chip, probably linked to an account that was only a few months old." Varis turned away from Navarr, walking slowly around the desk, thinking to herself. "Commander, would you mind transferring everything you've found to my comm code? I think I would like to investigate this a little further."

  "Sure. But there's not much else you can do from here."

  "I know, but it's been a couple years since I've used my vacation time. I think I'm due for a visit back to homeworld."

  ( 2 )

  "Commander Decev, thank you for coming on short notice." Mrs. Bixler, Joshua's teacher, ushered the science officer into her empty classroom. "I know it's your lunch hour, so I'll make this brief. Have a seat."

  "I assume from the tone of your message that this isn't a good meeting?"

  Bixler nodded, giving a sympathetic smile. "Josh is a fine student, and he's doing reasonably well academically, but I have a couple areas of concern. One is his work. So far this year, the students have written two short stories and a poem for their English class. This is what Joshua turned in." She handed Mariah three printouts, and then waited for a minute or two as she read them. "As you can see, he tends to focus on dark, violent themes." She paused, hesitating, and Mariah glanced up.

  "I see what you mean," she sighed. "I guess I could be grateful that his language isn't terribly graphic."

  "His writing style is actually quite good, and he fulfilled the requirements of the assignment. It's just that..."

  "Every assignment he writes is about death or violence?" Mariah prompted.

  "Yes. I hesitate to make judgments about my students when I've only known them for a short time. Joshua seems incredibly bright and very...driven, I would say. And I've had no problems from him behaviorally. Neither have any of his other teachers. But whenever we see a student focus on one thing or one area the way that Josh does with his English work, it...well, it is a cause for concern."

  Mariah nodded wearily. "Thanks. I'll have a talk with him. What's the other area that you wanted to talk about?"

  "Josh has befriended a new boy named Chad Durnham – a human. He's a year older, a freshman, and he and Josh have been seen hanging out quite a bit between classes, during lunch, rec time, etc. Chad transferred here three weeks ago, and already he has two demerits for disrupting a class with unacceptable behavior. If he receives a third, it's an automatic three day suspension. Naturally, I – and the other teachers – are concerned that Josh has begun spending a lot of time with Chad. We thought you should be aware of this."

  "Okay. Thanks."

  "Josh hasn't mentioned Chad to you, has he?"

  "No," Mariah sighed, "but that's not a surprise. He never says anything to me these days unless I ask him something first. And even then I rarely get a straight answer."

  "I see," Bixler said, giving another sympathetic smile. "If you'd like, I can set up an appointment with the school counselor. You and Josh could meet with him together – or separately, whichever works best for you."

  "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Other than this, though, his grades are good? He's not failing anything?"

  "No. His GPA so far is a solid three-point-three. It could be a three-point-five, I think, if he would apply himself more. And that's why I bringing you these concerns now, when they're able to be dealt with before they become bigger issues."

  "Yes. Thank you. We'll have a talk tonight. May I keep these?" Mariah held up the printouts.

  "Yes. Have a good day, commander."

  ( 3 )

  Navarr had just shoveled a forkful of salad into her mouth when the doors to her office slid aside to admit Grax. The Orethian appeared upset, and Navarr quickly swallowed, pushing aside her lunch and rising.

  "Where's Tilura?" he demanded.

  "Tilura Shrane? Or Lidira Soam? Apparently the woman in my holding cell is known by both names. Lidira is wanted on your homeworld for questioning regarding a twenty-six year old murder case that is still unsolved."

  Grax swore under his breath, and then took a moment to calm himself. "Have you already contacted the authorities?"

  "Yes. I haven't received a response yet, but there is an outstanding warrant for Lidira's arrest. I imagine they will be eager to deport her."

  Grax muttered another curse, and Navarr watched him, curious, as he turned away from her, fuming silently. She sat, reaching for her salad. After a few moments Grax turned back to her. He pulled up a chair, and the security chief could see by his expression that he was about to propose a deal. She couldn't wait to hear it.

  "I need her," Thalor said. "Is there any way you can message the authorities again and tell them that you made a mistake?"

  Navarr almost laughed. "Excuse me??"

  "I need her help," G
rax repeated. "I'm going into the Nevala sector tomorrow morning to look for my sister, and I need Tilura's help."

  "Well, I'm sorry, Thalor, but I've already matched Tilura's facial ID to the one on the arrest warrant. The communiqué I transmitted this morning has the confirmation readout attached. There's nothing else I can do. She stays in that holding cell until an extradition officer from your homeworld arrives to claim her."

  Grax slammed his fist on the desk, making Navarr jump, and then he leaped to his feet and charged out of the office in an angry huff. Navarr continued to eat her salad, staring at the closed doors, puzzled. She'd never seen the Orethian merchant so upset before, and she wracked her memory, trying to recall if he'd ever mentioned siblings. Not that the two of them had ever had any personal conversations, but station gossip over the last year had already told the security chief a great deal about Grax. None of it, however, pertained to any of his family. Navarr set aside her empty bowl and logged into the Federation's criminal database. A search for the last name 'Grax' turned up only one result: Thalor's record. She next tried the Orethian general planetary database. The surname Grax was fairly common, with six hundred entries currently listed. Chris narrowed the search by typing in Thalor's name, and it was linked to eight other files – his parents' and six siblings. Two of his sisters were older, and the other, Sesrin, was two years younger than him. Both of his brothers were the youngest of the seven children, and Navarr sifted through a few more records to determine that only Thalor and Sesrin were unmarried.

  She sat back, pondering what Grax had told her about looking for his sister in the Nevala sector. Since the older two were married and their current addresses were on the Orethian homeworld, and since Sesrin had no current address listed in her file, it stood to reason that Thalor had been talking about her. After a few minutes the security chief left her office and made her way through the corridors behind the security office to the holding cells. She walked up to Tilura's cell and waited for the Orethian to acknowledge her.

  "Hello, commander. Is it lunch time yet?"

  "Almost. I wanted to ask you about Grax. He was just in my office, quite upset that you've been arrested. He said he needed your help to find his sister in the Nevala sector. What is that all about?"

  "His sister Sesrin disappeared in that sector about three months ago. He needs my help to find her."

  "You and Grax are old friends?"

  "Something like that. We used to smuggle together several years ago. We operated in that sector."

  "Yes, I've seen his record." Navarr stared thoughtfully at Tilura for several moments, and the Orethian patiently endured her casual scrutiny. "Okay. Thanks."

  Navarr returned to her office, wondering if she should summon Grax for another chat. But as she sat behind her desk her terminal beeped, its tone indicating an incoming transmission. She tapped the blinking icon on the screen to answer it. An Orethian male appeared.

  "Hello. This is Ders Flurin with the extradition service. To whom am I speaking?"

  "This is Commander Navarr, chief of security for Exxar-One."

  "Commander, you are holding a prisoner by the name of Tilura Shrane, correct?"

  "That's right. Case number 387-54891."

  "Thank you. Yes, that matches my records as well. The reason I'm calling is because there appears to be an error. The case in which Tilura Shrane was wanted for questioning has been solved some time ago. Due to a clerical error, the warrant was never removed from our computer systems. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please convey our apologies to Miss Shrane as well."

  "Uh...yes, I will. Thank you."

  Navarr signed off and closed the window, more puzzled now than ever. "A clerical error?" she echoed to the empty office. She logged into the Orethian criminal database and conducted a search for the case file that had triggered the alert in her own system earlier that morning. When Navarr had first read the arrest warrant for Lidira Soam – whose face matched Tilura's on the ID that she had used when arriving at Exxar-One three days ago – the date at the bottom of the warrant indicated that the case file had been updated last week. In other words, the warrant had been checked for its validity only a few days ago, and since it had remained active that meant that the investigation the warrant was attached to was still open.

  Now, however, case file 387-54891 was not available. An error message blinked on Navarr's screen, and a search for the name 'Lidira Soam' also turned up an error message: no results by that name in the database. She hadn't been serving in law enforcement for very long, but Chris knew enough to recognize when a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card had been played, and the heartburn she was starting to feel from the salad dressing suddenly roared in the back of her throat.

  Silently fuming, the security chief left her office to go release Tilura from the holding cell.

  ( 4 )

  Grax was sitting at his desk, glaring at the blank terminal screen, ready to throw it across the room, when the door chime interrupted his rage. He took a few moments to calm himself and then barked, "Yes! Come in!"

  Tilura entered, but remained on the threshold, eyeing Grax warily. "Commander Navarr let me go."

  At the sight of her most of Thalor's anger dissipated, but he, too, was wary. "She what?"

  "She let me go."

  Grax motioned for Tilura to come all the way in, and he ordered a drink from the dispenser behind his desk.

  "I'll have a Zebanite brandy," Tilura requested.

  "What exactly did she say when she released you?"

  "Just that there had been a mix-up back on homeworld. Apparently there was a mistake with that warrant. Something about a clerical error." Tilura accepted the drink. "I can see from your expression that you don't believe that either."

  "You tell me. You have connections back on homeworld in law enforcement? If so, you're much better than I ever gave you credit for."

  "Actually, I don't. This is as much a mystery to me as it is to the two of you." Her hand trembled slightly as she sipped her brandy. She turned away from him, walking to the viewport.

  "You were terrified, weren't you? You really thought you were going back to homeworld for questioning. What was his name?"

  "Who?"

  "The man who died twenty-six years ago, the one you were trying to con."

  "I don't remember his real name."

  "You're lying."

  She turned, furious. "Are you going to interrogate me, or are we going to start planning our mission??"

  "We'll start when you tell me the truth!" he thundered back. "You've been lying ever since you came back to Exxar-One! I told Sol what you told me about Sesrin and the Indravians on Shel'Belard. His friend on Shel'Belard told him that you were in that bar with the Indravians and Sesrin. All of you came into that bar together that night. So why don't you start by telling me everything you know about my sister's disappearance!"

  "Damn him," Tilura muttered, and then gave a short, harsh laugh. "Is there anyone in the Nevala sector that Solomon Gunn hasn't been friends with for two hundred years?"

  "So it's true, then? You were with Sesrin right before she disappeared?"

  Tilura knocked back the rest of her drink and then held out the empty glass. "Could I have another, please?"

  "You really are a terrible liar and a bad con artist," Grax remarked as he ordered up a bottle from the dispenser. He refilled her tumbler and then his as well.

  "What can I say? I wasn't meant to work on my own, I guess."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I wasn't kidding, Thalor, when I said that you and I made a good team. I never realized how much I had relied on you until you were captured after that heist on Mr'gss-Gl'nn. I tried running my own operation for a couple years, but it was hard operating and maintaining that entire ship by myself. I also discovered that a lot of our suppliers didn't want to deal with me anymore since you were out of the picture." She gave another rueful laugh as she sipped her brandy.

  "Where is that ship, by the way? You came
here on the Dagonite liner, right?"

  Tilura nodded. "I left the Gothmar in a storage dock on the L'Dai colony. That's where I boarded the liner. I paid for a month's rent on that dock, so it's safe for now. I even tipped the dockmaster an extra fifty percent just to make sure."

  "Okay. So who did you end up working for?"

  "Who do you think?" Tilura replied bitterly.

  Grax shook his head in disbelief. "Ghyl."

  "I had no choice. I made a couple of bad bets at a gambling parlor and lost a lot of my savings. One of Ghyl's lieutenants made me an offer that was too good to pass up."

  "You never did know when to quit." Grax walked to the viewport as he sipped his brandy. "How long?"

  "For about twelve years now."

  "So what happened to Sesrin?" Grax asked over his shoulder. "What part did you play in her disappearance?"

  "Sesrin became my partner shortly after you left. She wasn't any better working on her own than I was. The irony of it all is that we both ended up working for Draussen. As soon as he found out that we knew each other, he paired us up. And, I have to admit, we weren't too bad together." She paused, staring down at her drink.

  "But?"

  "Sesrin decided that Draussen was taking too large of a cut. She thought it wasn't fair, that we should be the ones taking a bigger cut because we were shouldering most of the risk. Draussen had us smuggling biotoxins and other dangerous medical substances for the Rykon League. The reward was substantial, but it was a risky business, and Sesrin thought that she and I should be getting sixty percent, not forty."