She discovered quickly that in a crowd of a hundred different species, there was no standard of odd that she could reconcile. She started looking for the squat humans who made up the population of Collum Gate.
Aliens weren’t the threat.
Rivka covered the microphone with her hand before she started speaking. “You’re in danger.”
“Didn’t they catch the killer?” the Yollin ambassador asked.
“One of them. I’m convinced there’s a second member of the operation, the one responsible for the bomb. This place is a prime target, and we need to move everyone out; scatter them so we can check the building. I need everyone to return to their embassies or official residences, and I need them to be out of this building in less than ten minutes.”
She checked the time on her datapad.
“Eight minutes,” Rivka corrected.
“But they caught the killer,” the Yollin repeated.
“We caught one killer, the shooter. We did not catch the bomber or the stabber. Whether that is one or two people, we don’t yet know. You have my word on that as a Federation Magistrate.” Rivka was pretty sure, and she was willing to put her creds on the line if that was what it took to convince the aliens to leave the Forum in the next eight minutes. She uncovered the mic. “We can discuss it later, but we need everyone to leave this building right now. And I mean right now. I think there is a bomb in here! I hope I’m wrong, but in any case, you need to get out!”
She finished by yelling into the microphone and pointing toward the exits. The ambassadors stood almost as one but moved without a sense of urgency. Since most were elder statesman, their pace was understandable, but Rivka needed them to regain a spark of youth.
“Red.” She pointed toward a clear spot on the ceiling. “A little enticement, please.”
The crack of hypersonic darts blasting through the overhead lit a fire under the elder statesmen assigned to Collum Gate. The rush cascaded into a stampede, but the ambassadors found kindness in lending a hand to each other as they streamed toward the exits.
“And you, too,” she told those on the dais as she waved them toward an exit. They both reluctantly nodded and strolled away.
“Pack it up. Time for us to go,” Red ordered, motioning to Ankh and Jay.
“We need to find the device!” Rivka jumped from the dais and joined Ankh in searching where a thing could be hidden. Red stormed over to Rivka, picked her up, and started running. “Come on!” he bellowed.
Rivka fought him for a moment but stopped. “I’ll go. Put me down.” He slowed and let her feet touch. She nodded as she sprinted toward the door, catching up with the last of the diplomats heading out. Jay scooped up Ankh and struggled to run without the adrenaline surge.
Lindy materialized, taking the Crenellian into her arms, letting her railgun bounce on its sling over her shoulder. Relieved of her burden, Jayita was able to keep pace with the much bigger and stronger bodyguard. Jay’s platinum-blue hair was the last through the door. It closed behind her, and despite everyone’s expectation, there was no building-destroying explosion.
Once outside, Rivka angled toward the groups that congregated outside. “Don’t bunch up!” she yelled at them, waving her arms wildly. Whether they finally got the message or just wanted to avoid the crazy woman, Rivka achieved her desired result. The ambassadors drifted toward their waiting vehicles and departed slowly but surely.
When Rivka checked her datapad, it was ten minutes beyond when the meeting was supposed to start.
“That’s not what I expected,” she said. Red and Lindy both shrugged. “Maybe it is set for later? Or maybe there is no bomb.” Rivka’s features fell as dejection set in.
Ankh spoke softly. “Erasmus used the building’s wireless electronics to create a sensory screen, blocking all signals into and out of the building.”
“As in, if it was a remote activation, it wouldn’t have gone through.” Rivka was about to tell Ankh to lift the block, but the Yollin ambassador approached. She held up a finger. Wait one.
“Madame Magistrate, I have to protest the discombobulation of my meeting. You’ve singlehandedly set back my place in this group by a hundred years. It will take two lifetimes to get it back. You’ve destroyed my credibility!”
The Yollin’s mandibles clacked with his agitation.
Rivka looked at Ankh and nodded. “Lift it.”
With a crack of lightning and the roll of thunder, windows shattered and the center of the Forum collapsed.
“You were saying?”
Rivka and her team headed for the hover-van.
Chapter Fourteen
“Take us to the station. I need to talk with the asshole,” Rivka said, ice crystals hanging from her words.
“Which one?” Jay wondered. Rivka winced. She wasn’t enamored of any of the locals.
Emergency vehicles screamed in alarm as they passed on their way to the Forum, where they would find no casualties. Not even the guy she’d kneed. He had staggered through the parking area the second he’d caught sight of her, trying to put as much distance as possible between his privates and the Magistrate.
“The guvna. I need access to the prisoner.” Rivka looked at her datapad, trying to formulate the questions that would lead her to the shooter’s accomplice. “Turn the zombie loose.”
Ankh shook his big head. Hovering over his small neck, the movement threatened to topple him. “You’re not going to like this.”
“What?” she asked, already expecting the worst.
“Datapad.”
She was holding it in her hands. The screen jumped and shifted. “Did you hack into my pad?”
“Not as far as you know,” Ankh delivered in his naturally deadpan voice. Jay chuckled.
“Oh, shit!” Rivka exclaimed. “Step on it, Red. They’re going to execute him.”
She turned her attention back to the pad, riveted by the scene on the screen. The shooter was chained to a wall while a masked officer stood at ease with the rifle.
“Ankh, contact the station for me and order them to halt the execution. The bombing of the Forum is the evidence I need to reestablish Federation jurisdiction over this case.”
Ankh held steady and stared out the front window. Red bumped a girder and nipped another vehicle in his headlong rush toward the station, continuing to accelerate. The traffic lights flashed red and he dodged upward, skipping over the lateral traffic and returning to the travel lanes.
“Come on, buddy. I need those lights.”
“They have changed the codes. Reestablishing control now.” The last series of lights flared green and held steady. “The station has refused your request to stay the execution.”
“Why did they think it was a request?”
“They deemed it so in their denial. It was clear that it was a Federation-based order.”
Rivka ground her teeth as she watched the execution theatrics move toward their inevitable conclusion. A microphone appeared before the condemned man. “Any last words?” a voice off-screen asked.
“Fate has already delivered my sentence. I have become the destroyer of worlds, without remorse, without shame. My cause is noble, a purpose far greater than the small minds here can contemplate. A destroyer is a creator when from the ashes, something new arises. Collum Gate had lost its way, but now the people have a chance for redemption, free from external influence. In that, I am the creator of a new and better world. My life is sacrificed for the greater good, and my time now ends because my job is done. Let the new world blossom.”
The shooter smiled and faced the camera, appearing to look directly into Rivka’s eyes. The microphone disappeared and the camera zoomed out, panning to a single officer, holding the rifle that Red had hoisted from the attic trap. A drum beat three times and stopped. The officer squeezed the trigger and the rifle bucked, but there was no flash or smoke.
The convict jerked once, and his head flopped sideways. The sound had been turned off so viewers wouldn’t hear the
shot that exploded through the man’s chest.
The camera panned out to show the guvna with a firm stance, head held high. Someone shoved a microphone into his face.
“The laws of Collum Gate are sacrosanct in that violence begets violence,” the guvna said solemnly in his prepared comments following the execution. “Don’t be violent and you won’t be on the receiving end of such terrible punishment as we had to witness today. I have to thank Supra Harpeth and his team for finding the criminal and bringing him to Justice. If you have any questions, I’ll take those now.”
A reporter up front in the small crowd was first to raise her hand. He pointed at her.
“If the executed man was the shooter, then who blew up the Forum at the time of a diplomatic gathering?”
Rivka pointed at the screen. “Answer that, asshole!”
The guvna looked over his shoulder to summon the supra, and they talked in hushed tones behind their hands. When he turned back, the guvna raised his arms to quiet the crowd. “I will be looking into that personally. Thank you for coming.”
The leader of the local law enforcement walked past those standing with him on the small stage, shaking their hands briefly before he and the entourage hurried off-screen. A commentator’s face appeared and started rehashing what had been said, his take on their take on the so-called facts. Nothing new. She tapped her datapad off.
“Why are we going to the law enforcement center again?” Red asked.
“Slow down, Red. I need time to think.” Rivka looked out the window and mouthed words but didn’t say anything. Red pulled to the side, stopping at a mini-mart.
“Jay, can you run in and buy us some water?” Lindy asked. Red nodded and popped the side door. Jay held her hand out. Lindy was hesitant to give her a credit chip. Ankh put his small hand in hers and climbed out. Together they walked toward the mini-mart.
“Are they, you know...” Lindy wondered.
“No. Crenellians aren’t compatible with humans. I think he trusts her, compared to us, who are just oversized barbarians. She put herself between the shooter and him, proving her loyalty with actions, not words. And she’s nice all the time, no matter what. Who wouldn’t want to be her friend?”
“I can’t blame him or her. I’m glad you two found each other.” Rivka looked up from her datapad. “I think this is going to be a lonely job. We have each other. The locals who should appreciate our help are against us almost as much as the criminals. It chaps my ass. They want our help, but they don’t. They want the problem to go away and us to leave their planet. I’m not sure my ass has ever been as chapped as it is right now.”
“We’ll take your word for it,” Red replied. Lindy smiled at him.
Jay opened the minimart’s door and held it for Ankh. He strolled out at his slow pace. He looked around as he walked, taking in the sights but unaffected by the grandeur. Jay waved a bag that was stuffed to bursting.
When they reached the hover-van, she passed out bottles of water and see-through baggies with a variety of items best described as nuts, berries, and weeds.
“What am I looking at?” Red asked while examining the bag.
“The clerk called them snack packs, high in energy and nutrition,” Jay replied happily. She opened her bag and popped a handful into her mouth. Her smile melted into a sour face. She leaned out the window. Upon seeing the immaculate ground, decided not to spit it out. She hid the bag in her lap as she ejected the foul concoction, closed the baggie and stuffed it all back into the bag.
She held the bag open for her teammates to deposit their snack packs.
“Why is everyone looking at me?”
Rivka shrugged. The respite and camaraderie had cleared her head, and she made a decision. “Take us to the station, Red. I need to talk with Harpeth and the guvna if he’ll deign to see me. Ankh, what kind of chatter are we hearing on the diplomatic channels? Are they lining up to leave?”
“Why do you think I know what is happening on the diplomatic channels? They are encrypted.”
Rivka stared at him without blinking. He maintained his composure for only a few heartbeats before coming clean.
“Fine. Yes. No one is leaving, but the Yollin ambassador has filed a complaint with Collum Gate about the failure to provide adequate security for the diplomats. He demanded that the Federation take control of the situation. He named you as the only one on this planet who seemed to care about the diplomats. The complaint and demand were signed by over one hundred others, and have been formally registered with the Federation.”
“When were you going to tell me this?” Surprise gripped her features as she glared at the Crenellian.
Her datapad registered an incoming call.
“High Chancellor Wyatt.” Rivka smiled. “To what do I owe this honor?”
He dipped his head to give her the schoolmarm look.
“Is it about the diplomatic letter?”
He tapped his nose with a finger. “Don’t execute any of their bureaucrats. They don’t know any better, but you need to take charge of the investigation and find those responsible.”
“We nailed one of the bastards, but Collum Gate took him away before I could interrogate him. Then they wouldn’t let me see him, as you already know. The explosion at the meeting was what I needed to reestablish jurisdiction over the case, but they refused to comply with my order to stop the execution. I’m pretty miffed,” she admitted.
“Cool and calculating—that’s what they need. There will be some turmoil at the station since the planet’s leadership is now fully involved. I would be surprised if a bunch of people have not already been fired.”
“We’re on our way there, High Chancellor.” Rivka frantically waved at Red to get going. The hover-van lifted off the ground and raced into traffic. The Magistrate hung on as the erratic maneuvers began afresh. She tried to sit still but found it to be impossible. “I’ll take care of it. The locals are tools to help me find the shooter’s partners.”
“They already executed the criminal?” the High Chancellor interrupted. “He had only been in custody for a couple hours.”
“They don’t mess around. They perform executions using the murderer’s own weapon.”
“Who are executions for, Magistrate?” Wyatt asked in a patient voice.
“Reduce the burden on society of long-term incarceration of an incorrigible. Communities can’t take the risk of a psychopath being reintroduced.”
“While you’re solving this case and after you’ve meted out Justice, get back to me with the right answer of why Collum Gate employs capital punishment. And listen to the question. I asked who they were for, not what.” The High Chancellor’s image disappeared, to be replaced by the diplomats’ formal complaint. Wyatt had given Rivka homework in the middle of a high-profile case.
She had regurgitated her law school answer, one of many options, but the one she believed. The High Chancellor hadn’t bought it. It made her think outside the boundaries of a conspiracy to murder alien diplomats. From her datapad, the official complaint stared at her.
It was worded simply, but the impact had to roil the highest levels of Collum Gate’s government.
“Be careful what you ask for, Magistrate. You may get it.” Jay was being her honest self. Rivka had wanted jurisdiction in a bad way—and now she had it.
“No one else can die,” Rivka punched her fist into her palm. “Ankh! Find me another breadcrumb.”
Harpeth rushed out the front door and started running. Rivka held out her hand. Stop. The supra slowed to a walk.
“Anything you need, Magistrate, let me know.”
“We need a solid forensic examination of the Forum.”
“That’s where I’m headed now. I invite you to join me?” The supra started inching away.
“I want to talk to the guvna first. We’ll meet you there.”
“The guvna is inside, but he’ll be leaving soon.”
“Then we’d better catch him before he goes.”
&nb
sp; Ankh climbed out of the hover-van. “Are we going to ride with you?” the Crenellian asked, looking at Harpeth. Jay appeared at Ankh’s side, giving the supra the hairy eyeball. Red remained in the driver’s seat.
“Lindy, go with them. Red and I will be along as soon as possible.” Rivka’s stone-cold tone suggested her decision was final. Lindy slugged the last of her water and threw the empty container back in the van. Rivka issued one final warning to the supra. “Listen to my people and take care of them.”
Harpeth toed the ground and shuffled his feet. Rivka waited for him to say what he had to say.
“I’m sorry, Magistrate. This has been a goat rope from the first murder. We didn’t believe it was orchestrated, and then all of a sudden it was. Then the aliens came down on us for not doing our jobs, while also not helping us. It was like beating our heads against a stone wall when we tried to talk to them. Then you showed up, ran around our city, killed some people, and found the perp. We wanted so badly for it to be over that we didn’t hear what you had to say. Thank you for remaining on the case while we were busy patting each other’s backs.”
“Why did you do that? Collum Gate took all the credit, but we won together. Your people conducted the raids to secure the hideouts, but without him,” Rivka pointed to Ankh, “we wouldn’t have found any of those places.”
“The senior positions are put through a public approval process. We have to uphold the law, but we have to maintain good public relations as well. It prevents heavy-handed law enforcement.”
“You mean it prevents effective law enforcement. We were looking for a serial killer, and you wanted to pussy-foot around because the public might not approve? How happy are they going to be when they have to pay for the building that was just blown up by the perp you dutifully ignored?” Rivka closed on the supra.
“I can only say I’m sorry so many times. What do you want from me? A resignation? Fine. I failed spectacularly. I should go.”
“Stop!” Rivka put all the weight of her position into that one word. “You’re going to make this right by getting to the Forum and finding evidence that we can use to corner this scumbag. On the way there keep unfucking yourself, so that you can do your damn job when you arrive!”
Serial Killer: A Space Opera Adventure Legal Thriller (Judge, Jury, & Executioner Book 3) Page 13
