EMPIRE: Investigation

by Richard F. Weyand

  Dunham turned his hands palm up on the arms of his chair, then let them drop again.

  “We will help you however we can, General Turley. For one thing, I am asking a retired sector governor to assist you in the political considerations. Sector Governor Eugene Derwinsky is the former sector governor for the Essen Sector, which is right next door. A new sector governor for the Earth Sector is also being considered, but cannot relieve you for at least a month.

  “On the military side, Fleet Admiral Mikhail Kotov commands the Navy forces in space in the Earth Sector. He of course is located groundside elsewhere and commands in VR, so he has not been corrupted. He will take your orders with regard to the need for Imperial Navy actions in the sector, such as attack ships from carriers and intercepting anyone who tries to flee justice in space.”

  “He will take my orders? He outranks me by two full grades, Sire.”

  “No, he doesn’t, Acting Sector Governor Turley.”

  Turley blinked. Twice.

  “I see, Sire.”

  Dunham nodded and continued.

  “On the military side, you will also command all groundside Imperial forces in the sector. Many of those will have new commanders, more-junior than normal. They will be the highest rank we can find remaining who are uncorrupted. Their reliefs will be drawn from their services in other sectors and will also take perhaps a month to arrive. You will all be learning as you go in the meantime.

  “To help you there, General Trujillo and Admiral Novetsky will assign a fleet admiral and a field general to assist you in military matters at that level. Consider their advice, but you must make the decisions. You are the commander on the scene.”

  Dunham looked at the investigation map again. It was still growing. He shook his head, then turned back to Turley.

  “I will also be here for you, Governor Turley. Perhaps we should chat, say once a day for a half hour or so. As you wish, but I am available to you at that level. This is the biggest thing on my plate right now, and I will help if I can.”

  Turley sat shocked for seconds, then realized the Emperor was waiting for her.

  “Am I to turn over criminals involved in this–“ she waved vaguely at the chart “– to the courts, Sire?”

  “No. The courts, the police, the prisons. All have been corrupted. The resolution of this crime will be under Imperial high justice, Governor Turley.”

  “Which means, Sire?”

  “Summary execution without trial. Mr. Hayes will generate the Arrest List, and later I will provide you with Imperial Death Warrants for the guilty. In the meantime, I suggest you arrest the Provincial Governor, the Planetary Governor, the head of the planetary police, and the head of the Stolits police department immediately. Do not let any of them escape justice, Governor Turley, even if it means the use of deadly force.”

  Turley nodded.

  “Yes, Sire.”

  “I’ll let you go for now, Governor Turley. Call me tomorrow.”

  The Emperor and the Empress disappeared from the channel.

  Gulliver had not said a word through the entire audience.

  “Holy shit,” he now whispered, just loud enough for her to hear.

  “I think Governor Turley is feeling a little overwhelmed,” Peters said when they were back in channel 22, the simulation of the Emperor’s office.

  “She’ll do fine,” Dunham said. “Oh, she’ll make mistakes, but I don’t worry about her honor or her loyalty.”

  “I don’t either. We were lucky she was on scene when this all broke. There is no one I would rather have there.”

  “Agreed. She seems overwhelmed, but she handles stress well. She grows into it, rather than shrinks from it. She’s done it again and again, and I expect she will do it again now.”

  Dunham was silent for several seconds. Amanda knew that look and waited.

  “It’s amazing how many times I ask someone to do the impossible and, not knowing it’s impossible, they simply do it anyway.”

  First Arrests

  The briefing – and the unexpected Imperial audience – over, Turley switched back to her command channel in the APC-CV in Stolits. She could see they had moved to Stolits Mall while she was otherwise occupied.

  “Sergeant Major.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Has my appointment as commanding officer of Sixty-Fifth Division and Imperial Fleet Base Dalnimir been published on base?”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “And General Daltrey and Admiral Pachner?”

  “They’ve confined themselves to quarters, Ma’am.”

  “They have?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. I think somehow the word kinda got around that was their best move, and they both did that.”

  Turley chuckled. She could well imagine how ‘the word kinda got around.’

  “So the Comm Center at IFB Dalnimir is at my disposal, Sergeant Major?”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  Turley opened a channel to the Comm Center and got the officer of the watch. It was almost one o’clock in the morning.

  “Comm Center.”

  “This is General Turley. I need you to ID, locate, and track four civilian VRs for me. Privacy issues are waived by Imperial Decree.”

  “Understood, Ma’am. The four individuals?”

  “Provincial Governor Vincent Pearson, Planetary Governor Hugh Knowlton, Dalnimir Bureau of Police Director Timothy Dennler, and Stolits Chief of Police Gennady Mosin.”

  “Working on it, Ma’am. You’ll get results on channel 531.”

  “Turley out.”

  Turley brought up channel 531 as a side display. It had an overview map of Stolits on it. As she watched, an icon appeared. The legend said it was Knowlton. She selected her command channel.

  “Sergeant Major, we’re going to be moving. We need to arrest four individuals. We have four companies and four arrests, so we’re going to be splitting up.”

  “A company of Imperial Marines to arrest one individual, Ma’am?”

  “Yeah. You know, the planetary governor, the chief of police, that sort of thing.”

  “Forget I said anything. A company sounds good, Ma’am.”

  Two more icons popped up on channel 531. Just one more to go. Who was missing? Ah, Dennler. Yeah, he probably had more protections on his VR. Nothing an Imperial Marines comm center couldn’t handle, she suspected.

  There he was.

  The chief of police and the director of the planetary police were both at home. The provincial governor and the planetary governor were both in their respective governor’s palaces. ‘Residences’ they called them, but palaces they were.

  “All right, Sergeant Major. We have our arrest targets on channel 531. Let’s split up and go get ‘em. We’ll tag along with whoever goes to arrest Mr. Pearson.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  The command APCs had had drones in the air since they left IFB Dalnimir. Turley watched from above as the battalion split up into companies. Two companies took to the surface streets and headed off in different directions into residential areas. The other two companies moved down Stolits Mall to the major government buildings at the other end.

  Mosin

  Stolits Police Chief Gennady Mosin lived in a large house in an upscale neighborhood near downtown Stolits. It was about half past one in the morning when First Company got there. The company split when they got close, and two platoons approached his house from either direction. A total of nine APCs, including the command APC of Captain Armand Peletier, came down the block from either direction.

  At either end of his block, a police patrol car was parked. When the police officers saw the APCs approaching, they got out of their cars and tried to wave them to a halt. The Marines were having none of it though, and the police jumped out of the way as the APCs bore down on them. The APCs pulled up in front of Mosin’s house.

  They now had his VR ID, and they knew he was in the house, so Captain Peletier called Mosin in VR, attaching an emergency stat
us to the call.

  “Yes, who is it? Do you know what time it is?”

  “Yes, Chief Mosin. It’s what we in the Imperial Marines call oh-one-thirty. I’m Captain Armand Peletier, and I have orders to take you into Imperial custody.”

  “Imperial custody? For what?”

  “I wouldn’t know, Chief Mosin. I just have my orders.”

  “Well, go to hell.”

  “You might want to look out your front windows, Chief Mosin, because I have a company of Imperial Marines out here who are prepared to demolish your house and strain you out of the wreckage, if that’s what it takes. They may be a little upset about how the general was treated in your jail earlier this evening.”

  “General? Jail? What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Jan Purny, who you thought was a nosy reporter, is actually Ann Turley, a lieutenant general in His Majesty’s Imperial Guard. Everybody’s a little upset about you trying to kill her and then frame her for the murder of her attacker.”

  “Oh, shit.”

  “That’s one way to put it, Chief Mosin. So would you be coming out to join us, or will we be going in there after you? I can pretty much assure you this APC won’t fit through your front door, which means there’s bound to be some damage.”

  “I’m coming, I’m coming. Bunch of fool nonsense. The planetary governor is going to have some serious words with your commanding officer, Captain.”

  “Oh, I’m sure of it, Chief Mosin. Right now, though, I have my orders.”

  “All right. Give me ten minutes to get dressed.”

  Mosin was as good as his word and appeared at his front door within the ten-minute window. He was walked back to the company command APC, where he was let in and seated in the cabin.

  “Arresting the police chief. What a crock.”

  “As you say, Chief Mosin. I’m afraid I’m going to have to put these on you.”

  Peletier produced a set of cable ties, and cable-tied the chief’s wrists and ankles, then buckled him into the seat.

  “All right. Now let’s check in and see if anyone needs any help,” Peletier told his first sergeant over the company command channel.

  Dennler

  Timothy Dennler was talking to Planetary Governor Knowlton about the hacking into their computer systems when he got a heads up about the Imperial Marines breaking Jan Purny out of Stolits City Jail.

  “Sir, there’s something else we need to deal with happening right now,” Dennler said with urgency.

  “What is it? What’s happening?” Knowlton asked.

  “A contact just told me a column of Imperial Marines armored vehicles smashed into Stolits City Jail and demanded Jan Purny be released to them.”

  “Smashed into?”

  “Yes, sir,” Dennler said. “Apparently they drove an armored vehicle right into the lobby and Imperial Marines demanded her release. They said they were there to get her and they would kill anyone who stood in their way.”

  “What does Mosin say?”

  “He’s at home in bed, sir. They haven’t woken him. His standing orders are that anything can wait until morning.”

  “Idiot,” Knowlton said. “All right. Hold the channel. I’m calling Daltrey to find out what the hell is going on.”

  “Should I wake Chief Mosin, sir?”

  “No. Let him sleep. He can’t do anything at this level. Just hold the channel.”

  Knowlton placed a call to Major General Phillip Daltrey. The call was routed instead to an officer of the watch.

  “Sixty-Fifth Division Headquarters. Lieutenant Kasuga.”

  “This is Planetary Governor Knowlton. I was calling General Daltrey.”

  “General Daltrey’s calls are being taken by General Turley. Do you want me to connect you, sir?”

  “Who is General Turley, Lieutenant?”

  “Lieutenant General Ann Turley is the commanding officer of the Sixty-Fifth Division of His Majesty’s Imperial Marines, Sir. Do you want me to connect you?”

  “No. Thank you, Lieutenant.”

  Knowlton switched channels back to Dennler.

  “Daltrey’s calls are getting bounced to the switchboard out there,” Knowlton said. “They offered to connect me to the commanding officer. Some woman named Ann Turley. Lieutenant General.”

  “I didn’t know there was anyone on Dalnimir who outranked General Daltrey.”

  “Neither did I.”

  Dennler searched the name Ann Turley in another channel. It returned a long listing, which he scanned down with growing alarm.

  “Shit. You remember that colony out west some retired Imperial Marines knocked over about six months back?”

  “Yeah. Thulia? Something like that.”

  “Julian. Guess who commanded that little operation?”

  “Ann Turley?” Knowlton asked. “Was she active duty?”

  “No. Officially she was retired at that time. And remember the Groton Insurgency ten years back?”

  “Yeah. Nasty business that. Wait. Are you telling me that was also this Ann Turley?”

  “Yep,” Dennler said. “She seems to be the Emperor’s go-to gal when he wants to knock over a government. And she was last reported on Julian four months ago. That’s over four thousand light-years from here.”

  “Shit. She must have come straight here. That’s not good.”

  “No, sir, it’s not. And is it just me, or does Ann Turley sound a lot like Jan Purny?”

  “Shit,” Knowlton said. “Trajan set us up. That fucking bastard set us up. She comes here, does everything she can to get a reaction out of us, then he has her take us down.”

  “That’s what it’s beginning to look like, sir.”

  “Now what do we do?”

  “Remember that tape of her taunting us through the video pickup in the hotel room, sir?” Dennler asked. “Maybe it’s time to get out of town.”

  But they had waited just a bit too long.

  Dennler cut the connection with Knowlton and put some things together. He had a bug-out plan, but he had thought he would have much more warning. It took him precious minutes to gather up necessities and head to the garage in the basement. He put a personal VR suppressor in his pocket and turned it on before he left his condo and headed down to the basement garage.

  “Ma’am. We have one contact who’s killed his VR. Dennler. Last known location is his condo building. We’re watching it.”

  “Stand by to move to intercept, Major Parnell.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. We’re almost there.”

  “Ma’am. I have a vehicle leaving the underground garage of that apartment building. Tracking the vehicle.”

  “Major Parnell. Detach one of your drones. Don’t let him get away.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. But he’s in front of us and he can move faster than we can.”

  Turley expanded her view, went into her ‘see everything, look at nothing’ battlefield mode.

  “Captain Peletier, do you have Chief Mosin?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. We were just going to call in and see if anyone else needed assistance.”

  “We have a runner, Captain. Planetary Police Director Dennler is on the move. You should be able to intercept. If you spread out along this line, he should have to cross your position.”

  Turley drew a line across the map they were looking at. The icon for Dennler’s vehicle was also shown.

  “We should be able to do that, Ma’am. We’re already moving.”

  “Maintain pursuit, Major Parnell. Keep him moving.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. We’re on it.”

  Peletier had given his First Sergeant their movement orders while he and Turley talked. The APCs of First Platoon roared through the streets of Mosin’s subdivision and out onto the arterial streets, laying out a line across Dennler’s line of advance.

  Peletier looked at the drone feed of Dennler’s vehicle. It was a late-model electric sports car, and he was moving fast.

  “Top, do you think we can disable that car wi
thout killing the occupant as he comes at us?”

  “We can try, Sir. Coming at us he’s not moving across our field, so that makes it a lot easier. Under automated tracking, we should be able to do that.”

  “All right. Get people ready. Give the automated tracking a mechanical for that car. Try to take a shot through the battery pack. One shot. Let’s see if we can stop him without killing him.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  Timothy Dennler pushed his speed as high as he dared in the city. Even at this time of night, there was some traffic. He raced through the high-end residential sections near the downtown where the streets were broader and the traffic lighter.

  Four blocks in front of him, an Imperia Marines APC pulled out of a side street.

  “Target lock. Firing one.”

  The ten-millimeter, one-thousand-grain osmium slug left the barrel of the front osmium driver of the APC at over three thousand feet per second. It bulled through the hood, firewall, instrument panel, and interior on the passenger side of the sports car to impact in the battery compartment. It shattered multiple batteries until it finally came to a stop. The broken batteries in turn shorted and caught fire.

  Timothy Dennler saw the APC pull out, saw a flash, and then the world exploded. The passenger side of the dashboard and the passenger seat erupted, showering the interior of the car with bits of plastic and metal and upholstery. The vehicle computer, sensing major failure, engaged all brakes in emergency mode. Dennler was thrown forward against his harness as the cabin of the vehicle started to fill with acrid chemical smoke from the battery fire.

  Dennler held his breath until the vehicle stopped, then jumped out of the driver’s door. Three APCs were coming down the street toward him. He turned to look back, and another three APCs were advancing up the street toward him from behind.

  Having seen what a single round from one of those osmium drivers could do, Timothy Dennler stood in the middle of the street next to his ruined car and held up his hands.