by M J Gauntlet
“I see,” replied Fuller, “Now please tell us, when you met Alicia Wilkerson, what was she like?”
“Funny you should say that, but I don’t believe I actually met Ms. Wilkerson at all.”
“But you just said…” the captain blurted out, but the shadow man interrupted him by clearing his throat loudly, and Ombulo shut up immediately.
“Now you were saying…” Fuller continued, after the outburst.
“Well, the lawyer, Ms. Wilkerson, used one of those android avatars. You know the kind I’m talking about? I mean it was a really good one too, but I never actually did see the real her. She could have been in another city, or halfway around the world for that matter, for all I know, working the damn thing by remote control.”
“So, you are claiming that you never met the real Alicia Wilkerson at all?” Ombulo said, with a sideways glace at the shadow man, who had moved into the light to stand next to the captain. Even in the direct light, there seemed to be darkness where he stood.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying, NOT claiming,” Zax snapped.
“It appears that you have left out a few details in your retelling of your day, Messer Grayson,” the shadow man said, in a voice that reminded Zax of dry, rustling leaves.
“Yeah, like what?” he replied testily.
“Like, for instance, your tryst with the night clerk Jinn McAlister…” the man began, but a seething Zax cut him off.
“That is none of your fucking business, asshole, you have no…” he started to say, exploding up out of the chair in protest.
“SIT DOWN!” the man commanded, in a strong whip crack of a voice. Startled, Zax found his muscles reflexively obeying the order, and abruptly sat down.
“Listen, I don’t give one wit about who you bed down with,” the Shadow Man retorted, speaking in that dry scratchy voice. “I just wanted to illustrate just how comprehensive ordinary surveillance can be on Imperium planets. You were recorded by the hotel’s hallway cameras, as was the comings and goings of anyone entering or leaving your room. The gravtrain PID’s, Personal Identification cameras, have you exiting the station closest to the lawyer’s offices at 13:10, which I might add is a ten-minute walk from Ms. Alicia Wilkerson’s office. Now here, your movements become a bit sketchy. For some reason, while Ms. Wilkerson’s security cameras time stamp shows you at the vestibule at 13:30 f.s.s. the footage from that point on, had been electronically compromised.
“The PID cameras on the inbound train, do confirm that you took that train northward bound at 14:50 just before second sunset. You exited the train at 17:50 after second sunset and entered the Weston hotel at 19:00
a.s.s. where, as I mentioned earlier, they recorded you going to your room and then soon after followed by Ms. McAlister. The hotel records show that you ordered a rather large room service meal and spent the subsequent night with Ms. McAlister.
“The following morning, you and Ms. McAlister went your separate ways. She headed home, and you went to the Imperial Interstellar Bank of Bright in downtown Plex. Bank cameras show that you were escorted to the Imperial vaults by a Ms. Lauria Talbot, an assistant bank manager in charge of the safety deposit vault, and after allowing you access to the safety deposit section of the vault, she returned to her desk.
“You spent about an hour in the safe deposit vaults, then exited, where you spoke with Mrs. Lauria Talbot for a few minutes and was approached by a bank officer named Carl Slater, who when questioned, said that you had worked for his cousin at the spaceport and had recently resigned. After that, you linked your e-card to the funds from a newly claimed trust account and left the bank. The cameras showed that a few minutes later, Ms. Lauria Talbot had also left the bank. The outside cameras confirmed that she met you across the avenue and you walked side by side down the street. At this point, you were out of range of any public surveillance imagers.
“The most recent data trace shows that you took a skycab to the precinct here, disembarked and walked into the lobby,” the shadow man ended, in final summation.
Zax found that his head was spinning, as he realized that he had been under some type of surveillance ever since he had left the police station two days ago. It was intimidating to realize the level of surveillance the government could achieve in order to monitor a citizen’s activities. Zax was so dazed by that revelation, that the next question the shadow man shot at him caught him unawares.
“Tell us Zaxxion Grayson, what was your business with your attorney,” the shadow man said, in a voice that was suddenly once again commanding. The hair at the nape of Zax’s neck tried to stand on end, as he found his mouth opening to automatically answer the question, when he noticed a warning look in Lieutenant Fuller’s eyes. Shutting his mouth with an audible click, he paused dramatically, then again leaned backwards in his chair.
“Frankly sir, that is none of anyone’s damn business. That is between Alicia Wilkerson and me. Also, just for the record, she wasn’t my lawyer. Ms. Wilkerson was previously retained by my father years ago. If you want an answer to that question, I suggest that you ask her,” Zax snapped.
“Hmm, that would be rather difficult since Ms. Wilkerson was recently found dead in her office. The sniffers say that she was killed either during your visit or shortly afterwards,” the Shadow Man said idly. Shocked, Zax sat up in the chair. But before he could reply, the Shadow Man, he must be an Imperial agent, Zax thought, continued his revelation.
“It also happens, that four other bodies were discovered in an alley just across from Ms. Wilkerson’s office. They belonged to four well known members of the Hyaenas, a violent South Centennial street gang! Forensics indicates that they were also killed near the time you left the offices of Alicia Wilkerson. From the condition of the corpses, whomever had the confrontation with the gang members would have created quite a ruckus, yet you claim to have neither seen nor heard a thing,” the agent said, as he leaned over the table closer to Zax. “And before you plead that you don’t possess the ability to dispatch a group of gang members, I have before me reports of similar encounters you have had of this nature. Although this information is second hand in nature, it indicates that you were skilled enough to inflict serious injuries on those that have attacked you in the past!” the agent said, in voice that turned silky smooth. But, before Zax could answer another voice chimed in.
“Messer Grayson, have you ever heard of a woman called Typhoid Mary?” Lieutenant Fuller asked suddenly. Zax was brought up short at the non-sequitur inquiry, as were both Captain Ombulo and the Imperial agent. When Zax perplexedly shook his head in the negative, Fuller continued speaking.
“Typhoid was a very contagious disease from Old Earth’s pre-space history. It was long before modern day pathogenic controlling nanites were developed and inserted into humans. Anyway, she was this human woman who traveled around the countryside and wherever she went and whomever she contacted, people would contract this fatal disease and die. The funny thing was, she was never sick. Nothing ever happened to her because she only carried the disease with her, to those around her. Those near her died, but she remained immune. Do you begin to see my point?” Fuller finished waiting for a response, when one was not forthcoming, he continued.
“No? Well look at it from our point of view. In the last forty-eight hours, you have been at, or near, two scenes where there have been five homicides each! The first scene, where your father was one of the victims, can be marked down as unfortunate happenstance. But now it turns out that you were present at a second scene of mass murder, and this begins to stretch the laws of probability. You could see how one could start to wonder if, perhaps, something else is going on. Something that, it appears, you are in the middle of. It looks as if you have become another ‘Typhoid Mary.”
During the lieutenant’s monolog, Zax took a moment to gather his thoughts. I wonder if that wasn’t Fuller’s intention all along. He speculated to himself. Zax straightened up in his seat and narrowed his eyes as he looked around the tabl
e.
“Let me get this straight,” Zax began, in an incredulous tone, “after I returned home to find that everything and everyone I cared about had gone up in ashes, you are now suggesting that I had something to do with my father’s death?! Then the very next day, I went to his attorney’s office and casually killed her? Then afterwards, upon leaving the building I then decided, that just for laughs, I should single handedly take on a hardened street gang and I killed all of them! This all without a getting mark on me, mind you. Finally, I then went calmly back to the hotel, went to bed, had sex and the next day went to the bank as though I hadn’t a care in the world?!” Zax found that he had unknowingly rose up out of the chair as he was speaking, and that he was breathing heavily with tears in his eyes. Hastily, Zax wiped his face with his sleeve as he glared at each of them in turn.
“Look, I came in, voluntarily I might add, because I stupidly believed that the planetary police were truly looking for the people who had likely had my father murdered, possibly for revenge for some long-forgotten incident. I thought that maybe, just maybe, that this one time being a Laster wouldn’t matter, but I can see that I was wasting my time. Instead of trying to find out who killed my dad, you are trying to somehow pin not only his murder, but a series of other homicides on me. What is it? Are you trying to tidy up your books so you all can make your quotas for the month (he looked pointedly at Captain Ombulo)? Well, fuck you all!” Zax shouted, as he stepped back from the three of them. “Now, either press charges and hold me or let me go. If you want to arrest me, then I will hire an attorney. But either way, that is the last word you are going to hear from me!” Zax finished saying with a derisive snarl, defiantly looking them all in the eyes.
Ombulo burst out of his chair and moved towards Zax, his hands balled up into fists. “Why you little punk, I’ll…” he began, but again Imperial agent interrupted him as he turned to Zax and pointed towards the door.
“No young man, we have no further questions for you at this time. You are free to go,” he said smoothly. Ombulo looked as though the top of his head was going to explode.
“You mean you are just gonna let this Laster just walk?!” Ombulo said, incredulously. The thin, tall, darkened man, turned a frigid stare the captain’s way, and Zax could see the man wilt in front of him as he snapped his mouth shut with an audible clack of his teeth.
“As I was saying,” the shadow man continued, “we have no further questions for you at this time, but I warn you to stay on planet where we can find you if need be.” With that, he turned to Lieutenant Fuller.
“Could you please escort Messer Grayson out of the station lieutenant, and afterwards I would like to speak to you in the captain’s office.” As the agent was about to leave, he paused and turned back to the lieutenant.
“Oh, Lieutenant Fuller, I don’t think that Messer Grayson will need any more hotel chits from the department. He seems well heeled enough to pay his own way now.”
Fuller closed his eyes in a silent groan, at the look on captain Ombulo’s face. Picking up Zax’s rucksack and the collapsed floater, he shoved them into Zax’s arms and pushed him towards the door. Out in the hall, he pointed to the exit with a final wave.
“See ya around, ki…I mean Zax,” Fuller said, remembering his promise.
With that he turned, headed for the captain’s office, went in and shut the door. Zax was afraid that Lieutenant Fuller was in for a long night.
Fuller entered the captain’s office in the middle of a subdued tirade being delivered by Captain Ombulo.
“Special Branch or not, I don’t see how you can let that little squib go like that,” the captain hissed angrily, as he began pacing around the office. “Look, we got the kid’s prints and DNA traces all over the lawyer’s office. He says that he never met her in the flesh, right? But… we have a clear fingerprint off both the android and the recliner where her actual body was found, yet he claims that he had never met the lawyer in person and was never in that section of the office!”
“What could possibly be his motive to kill a person that records show, he had never heard of until yesterday?” Fuller said, interrupting. Ombulo swung around at the lieutenant’s voice, focusing his angry glare on him.
“Don’t be an ass, Fuller,” Ombulo said, with a sneer, “to cover up his tracks of course.”
“And what tracks might that be?” inquired the Special Branch agent, quietly.
“Why the fact that he had his father killed for the money, obviously. The lawyer would be the only person who knew about the trust fund.” Fuller found his eyes unconsciously rolling ceilingward. Ombulo saw the expression and sneered at the lieutenant.
“Don’t think I don’t know about the bleeding heart you have for these Lasters, Fuller. I thought that maybe, after a few weeks down in Last Town among the Lasters, after you had gotten a chance to see how they lived, you’d be cured of the condition. But I see you are just as soft on them as ever. Now be quiet and listen to how I think this whole thing went down...
“Somehow the kid learned that his dad had put aside a sizable chunk of his Imperial pension into a trust fund for him. But there’s a catch, the money will not be available until his maturity, which is a few years off. The punk decides that he can’t wait and decides to hire a couple of local thugs to take the ol’ man out. The kid cleverly arranges it, so that he isn’t at home when the job is done, giving him the perfect alibi. Something had to have gone wrong and the hired thugs are killed too, but he figures it is all for the good. Grayson then waits for a lawyer to notify him on how to collect the inheritance, then when he sees that she is a fucking sicko invalid, he decides to kill the only person who could connect him to the murder,” Ombulo then paused for effect, before adding: “See, simple as a one-celled paramecium.”
“And what about the slain gang members outside the lawyer’s office?” Fuller interjected.
“An unrelated matter. Those skaggs up there are always ending each other. Good riddance I say.”
Fuller was trying his best not to explode at his captain. He didn’t want an incident of ‘insubordination’ to appear in his folder. Luckily, the Special Branch agent was under no such restriction.
“Captain Ombulo…you are an idiot! Please shut up and do not say another word,” the agent said, calmly. Once again, the captain’s head looked as though it would swell up, pop off his shoulders and fly around the room.
“First of all,” the agent continued, unconcerned with Ombulo’s blood pressure, “those were the bodies of two Cree assassins found in the smoking ruins of Ezekiel Grayson’s home. Do you even realize how much it would cost to hire just one? If Zax Grayson emptied his entire account and then worked double shifts for a year, he might, might I say, be able to hire just one.
“Secondly, have you forgotten the forensic evidence the sweepers found at the scene of the gang deaths? There was a blood stain, that was recovered from one of the weapons found in the alley. It was analyzed and identified, to be typical of the DNA/nanite signature of those from the Marcosian Restoration Worlds. As you know, the Marcosians, along with the Nubians, and the alien Uk-Quarkian League, are the main adversaries to the Imperium in this quadrant of space. Did it even occur to you, that there is something so monumental happening around this Zaxxion Grayson, that it involves two Cree killers and a Marcosian agent?”
“But…but…what about the fingerprint we found on the lawyer’s medical bed?” stuttered Ombulo.
“Any fool could see that it was planted there, to keep us on Zax’s trail, and maybe force him into making a stupid move,” the agent replied, derisively. “By the way, did either of you know that the kid was bugged?”
“What!” Captain Ombulo exclaimed, eyes wide.
“Of course! He had to be!” Fuller exclaimed, smacking himself in the forehead. Looking around the office, he saw Ombulo’s look of surprise, and the smiling face of the Special Branch agent. “Otherwise, how was the Marcosian agent able to follow in Zax’s path so closely, to be ab
le to find the lawyer,” Fuller said, by way of explanation.
“Yes, that seems like the only explanation to me, so I unobtrusively had him full body scanned, when he was in the interrogation room. As it turned out, he has two bugs on him. One on his clothes and another one attached to his floater. I decided to allow them to remain active, for the moment.”
“It seems to me,” Fuller interjected, “that whomever or whatever set this series of events in motion, it has to revolve around his ex-Imperial Scout father and not the kid. If the kid was the initial target, then why bother with the father? All they had to do was to snatch the boy. It is probable, that whatever they were after, was something the father knew or had hidden away somewhere and these people are trying to get it.”
“That’s the first bit of real thinking I’ve heard today,” the agent exclaimed, “and I’m willing to bet that whatever it is, it is either now in Zax’s possession, or is resting in the Imperial safe deposit box in the Imperial Bank in Plex. That’s why I want Zax free and on the streets. If we are lucky, he might lead us to the foreign agent and whatever it is the Marcosians are after.”
Zax left the precinct, stood outside the building, and checked his wrist chrono. It had felt like he had been in the interrogation room for hours, but surprisingly, it had only been less than two. It was still three hours before second sun set and his dinner date with Lauria Talbot.
Zax’s first inclination was to head back the Weston hotel and speak with Jinn. Despite what she said about wanting him to stay clear of her, he wanted to let her know that he was alright and truthfully, he was worried about her. But, it was something that Lieutenant Fuller said in the examination room, that changed his mind. What if I am some sort of ‘Typhoid Mary’? Is it possible that my association with her, might somehow bring her harm? Zax wondered, unsure of what was going on around him. Besides, there was something else bothering him.
