Judgment at Proteus

TEN

It took us a few minutes to figure out which hypo was the useful one, get the needle straightened enough to be functional, dump Terese’s blood, and load the drug from Yleli’s medicine cabinet into it. By then, Blue One was starting to show the first signs of returning consciousness.

Fortunately, the sleeping potion was a potent one, and the twitchings and random grunts faded quickly away as the drug did its magic.

Our next task was a quick search of the apartment. From the way Blue One had been talking before our fight, I was beginning to wonder if there had been an actual purpose to Yleli’s murder. But I wasn’t ready yet to give up on my inferior Human way of seeing the universe in terms of cause and effect, and so Emikai and I went through the papers in his file cabinet and sifted through drawers and closets in the hope of finding something that would explain why a lowly Proteus Station medical tech had been worth killing.

We had finished our first search, and Emikai had started on a more detailed one, when Bayta and Ty arrived.

To my annoyed surprise, they weren’t alone.

“What is this, a party?” I demanded, glaring at Minnario as he floated through the doorway into the apartment. “Bayta, what in hell’s name—?”

“He wanted to help,” Bayta said, her tone just barely on the civil side of snappish. “I asked him to look up on his encyclopedia if msikai-dorosli could be used to carry things, and he said he could do better than that.”

I took a deep breath, willing myself to calm down. Bayta’s edgy defiance was a sure sign that she’d done what she’d thought to be right, knowing full well that I would probably be furious about it when I found out. The tension in her face also showed she’d continued to worry about my reaction the entire way here. “I appreciate his willingness to help,” I said in as controlled a voice as I could manage. “The problem is that even though he’s my attorney, he’s also an officer of the Filiaelian court. That means he can’t just sit back and watch a crime being committed. He has to report it.”

“What crime?” Bayta shot back.

“Kidnapping, for starters,” I said. A small voice at the back of my mind warned me that making a handy checklist for Minnario to refer to was probably not a good idea. But as was usually the case with those small voices, I ignored it. “Also criminal restraint, trespassing, medicating without proper credentials—”

[Please,] Minnario interrupted, one hand waving for attention, his eyes on the transcript on his display as it tried to keep up with our argument. [Mr. Compton, in general your analysis is correct. But in this case, fortunately, it’s not.]

“What’s the part that’s wrong?” I growled.

[The part that defines me as an officer of the court,] he said. [As you know, Kuzyatru Station is running on the Slisst Protocols. Those state that an attorney isn’t simply a defendant’s advocate, but also his partner and second in this form of combat. Though I’m required to turn over any evidence involved with the specific case at issue, I’m not required to impugn my client’s character or actions by bringing up anything outside of the case that he might have done.]

He gave me one of his lopsided smiles. [Including anything that he might still be doing, or that might be construed as criminal.]

I looked at Emikai. “Is he right?” I asked.

“I do not know,” Emikai said thoughtfully. “I have not studied the Protocols extensively.” He gestured to Minnario. “But he clearly has. Unless offered proof to the contrary, I would trust his interpretation.”

[Actually, I’m more concerned about Logra Emikai,] Minnario continued, eyeing Emikai warily. [As a former Filiaelian enforcement officer, his duties and responsibilities are far more rigid than my own.]

“Fortunately, they’re also a bit vague,” I said. “Moreover, since he agrees there are indications of wrongdoing on the part of our sleeping friend here, he’s agreed to give me a little slack. Specifically, I have one day to dig up something concrete before he brings this to the patrollers.” I cocked an eyebrow at Emikai. “Correct?”

“Correct,” Emikai said. He still didn’t look happy with the situation, but there was nothing in his expression or tone that might indicate he was thinking of reneging on his promise.

“Meanwhile, that clock is ticking merrily along,” I continued, turning back to Minnario. “You told Bayta you could help. How?”

[With my chair, of course,] he said, as if it was obvious. [Its lifting capability is provided by a set of eight Shorshic thrusters. As a highly redundant system, though, it will function quite well with only three of them.]

Leaving us five to use in getting Blue One out of here. “How hard are they to remove?”

In answer, Minnario touched a couple of controls, then reached over the side of his chair and got a grip on the nearest of the cylinders poking out from beneath his chair. He gave the cylinder a half turn, and to my astonishment the tube popped right out. [Not very,] he said, holding it up for my inspection.

“I’ll be damned,” I said, frowning as I took it from him. The whole chair was obviously designed to be operated from the main control board, yet this individual thruster also had its own on/off switch and level and focus controls. “It has its own power supply, too?”

[Yes, it’s fully self-contained,] Minnario said.

I shook my head in amazement as I handed the thruster back to him. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a chair design like this before.”

[As far as I know, it’s the only one,] Minnario said, a note of pride in his voice. [I travel a great deal, and had it custom-designed and built this way so I could swap out defective thrusters without having to take apart the entire chair.]

“Very efficient,” I said, bending over and peering at the underside of the chair. The thrusters were arranged down there in a three-by-three array. “You said there were eight of them?”

[Yes,] he said. [The central position of the array is a stabilizer, not a thruster. Oh, and even though each of the thrusters has individual controls, I can also control them directly from my chair while they’re detached, provided I’m close enough.]

I looked at Bayta. Her overt defiance was gone, but there was still a tightness in her throat and cheeks. “Do you want an apology now?” I asked. “Or would you rather save it until later when you can enjoy it more?”

She gave me a tentative smile, and as she did so the last of the stiffness faded away. “Later will be fine,” she said. “Right now, we have work to do.”

* * *

Having the means to carry our prisoner across Proteus was only the first half of the problem. We also had to somehow disguise the fact that we were carrying an unconscious Filly through busy hallways without someone becoming suspicious enough to call the Jumpsuits down on us.

Fortunately, Emikai had already laid the groundwork in his brief post-funeral questioning of some of Tech Yleli’s neighbors. One of the standard questions in a murder investigation always centers around the deceased’s employment history, which for Fillies would mean a list of his contracts. Yleli must have had a lot of such history, because each of the three drawers in his file cabinet was over half full. Naturally, the team investigating his murder couldn’t be expected to set up camp in his apartment, which meant the cabinet needed to be taken somewhere else.

The fronts of the file drawers were attached to the drawers themselves with simple screws, which Emikai’s multitool made quick work of. The cabinet was considerably shorter than Blue One, but it was deep enough that we were able to put him inside in a sort of half-sitting, half-crouching position that would probably have been pretty uncomfortable if he hadn’t already been asleep. After that it was simply a matter of putting the drawer faces back on and wedging them into place, turning the cabinet on its back onto four of Minnario’s thrusters, and we were ready to go.

Or so we thought. We had maneuvered the cabinet nearly to the door when it suddenly gave a hard twitch to the side and settled to the floor. “What happened?” I asked, reflexively grabbing for the side of the cabinet. “Minnario?”

[Yes, I set it down,] he said, frowning at his chair controls. [But I didn’t make it twitch. There’s something not right here.]

“What sort of something?” I asked. “Are the thrusters losing power?”

He shook his head. [No. Something seems to be interfering with the control signal.]

I looked down at the cabinet, the back of my neck tingling. Our first night here, when the Jumpsuits had gone crazy trying to find a non-missing Minnario, he’d mentioned that the locator in his comm interfered with his chair’s controls. “Emikai, you did relieve our friend of his comm, right?” I asked.

“Of course,” Emikai said. “It is over there on the side table.”

“Yeah.” I held out a hand toward him. “Multitool, please?”

We found the extra tracker pinned to the inside of Blue One’s inner tunic lapel. “Very cute,” I said, taking the device across the room and setting it beside the comm. “Minnario, how’s it running now?”

[It seems all right,] Minnario said, sending the cabinet on a few tango-like maneuvers around the living room. [Yes, that was the problem.]

“Good,” I said. There was a wafting of air as Bayta came up beside me. “Emikai, would you mind putting the drawer faces back on?”

He nodded and set to work. “So we were supposed to walk into a trap?” Bayta murmured.

“Or else they were just being careful,” I said. “Do you recognize our friend, by the way?”

She nodded. “He was one of the Filiaelians at the interrogation Usantra Wandek took us to. Do you think he was the one who killed Tech Yleli?”

“Could be,” I said. “I was trying to steer the conversation that direction when the noise from the funeral started up again and he tried to take me out.”

Bayta shivered. “If there isn’t a trap waiting out there now, there will be soon,” she said quietly. “They’ll be furious when they discover what we’ve done.”

I shrugged. “Just gives us more incentive to figure out how they fit into the murder, and then find a way to nail them for it.”

“Logra Emikai’s only giving us one day.”

“It’ll be enough,” I assured her. “If not to nail the Shonkla-raa, at least to persuade Emikai to give us more time.”

Emikai finished wedging the last drawer face in place and straightened up. “Are we ready?” he asked.

“We’re ready,” I confirmed, taking Bayta’s arm and rejoining the others. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Where exactly are we going?” Bayta asked.

I looked at Minnario, busily maneuvering the file cabinet into line with the door. “Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll find something.”

* * *

The bullet trains would have been the fastest way to get back across the station. But they would also harbor more prying eyes and idly inquisitive minds than I wanted to have staring at our party and our cargo. So instead we took the back route, traveling the regular corridors and hallways and avoiding even the major traffic lanes and glideways.

We did what we could to disguise the oddness of our party by letting Emikai walk alone beside the floating file cabinet, with Minnario hanging back at the very limit of his control range, while Bayta and I and the watchdogs hung back even farther.

The marching order was helpful, but it was also open to exploitation by any Shonkla-raa who might have tumbled to what had happened and managed to track us down. I kept a close watch, but while we got plenty of curious looks from the other pedestrians no one started any trouble.

And finally, we arrived at the hiding place I’d had in mind ever since Bayta and Minnario had first showed up at Yleli’s apartment.

Minnario’s room.

“I do not like it,” Emikai said flatly as I started pulling the drawer covers off the cabinet. “It is well known that you are Attorney Minnario’s client. This is the first place his allies will look for him.”

“The second place, actually,” I corrected, taking hold of one of Blue One’s arms. “The first place they’ll look will be my room. Give me a hand, will you?”

Together, he and I got the sleeping Filly out of his makeshift coffin and up onto the couch. He didn’t fit on this one any better than I had on the one in my room, but I wasn’t particularly worried about how comfortable he would be with his feet hanging off the end. “Good,” I said, reaching behind him to confirm that his wrist restraints were still secure. “Phase one, complete. On to phase two.”

“Which is?” Emikai asked.

[To prepare for trial,] Minnario spoke up. While Emikai and I had been getting Blue One out of the cabinet, he had settled in at the computer and was peering at the display. [I’m informed your next hearing will be tomorrow morning at ten o’clock.]

“I thought Chinzro Hchchu wanted me to investigate Tech Yleli’s murder,” I protested. “How am I supposed to do that while I’m sitting around listening to lawyers?”

[Obviously, he thinks you can,] Minnario said, gesturing toward the display. [The message is very clear. Ten o’clock tomorrow.]

So much for Emikai’s grace period. Depending on how much legalese Chinzro Hchchu decided to pull out of his sleeve, Minnario and I could be stuck there the whole day. “In that case, I’ve got the rest of today to figure out who Blue One is and find a connection with Tech Yleli. Do either of you have a camera I can use to take his picture?”

[I do,] Minnario said, pulling a small, flat disk from his chair pouch. [You call him Blue One?]

“Only until I get his real name,” I said, taking the camera and getting a few shots of Blue One’s face from different angles. “When we first met, he was wearing a blue tech’s outfit.”

“You did not say that you and he had previously met,” Emikai said, eyeing me oddly.

“It just hadn’t come up yet,” I assured him. “I wasn’t hiding it, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“What were the circumstances of this meeting?” Emikai persisted.

“Usantra Wandek wanted to ask me about Asantra Muzzfor’s last hours aboard the super-express,” I said. “Blue One was part of the audience. End of story.” I turned back to Minnario. “Did you and Bayta—?”

“That is not the end of the story,” Emikai interrupted. “You have not even told me all of what happened to Asantra Muzzfor. What did you tell them?”

“I told them the truth, the same as I told you,” I said. “Besides, all of that is irrelevant. You heard Minnario—we’re dealing with the New Tigris incident, and no one has any business looking at anything else.”

Emikai’s blaze darkened. “I am not a member of the court,” he rumbled. “I choose what is relevant to me.”

“Fine,” I said. “You come up with some questions, and I’ll be happy to answer them. But later. Right now, I have to get back to my room and my computer and see what I can dig up on this guy.”

For a moment Emikai glared at me. Then, reluctantly, he nodded. “Very well,” he said. “But this conversation is not yet over.”

“I’ll look forward to finishing it,” I assured him as I turned back to Minnario. “As I was starting to ask, were you and Bayta finished with your witness prep work?”

[Yes,] the Nemut said, looking back and forth uncertainly between Emikai and me. [Before you leave, though, do you have more medication for my guest?]

“Yes, of course—sorry,” I said, digging the bottle and hypo out of my pocket and handing them to him. “Give him—what was it, about two of the little hypo marks?” I asked, looking at Emikai.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “Two vikka every six hours.”

[I understand,] Minnario said. [What about food and water?]

I gazed over at our sleeping Shonkla-raa. If Emikai’s six-hour time estimate was accurate, he should be coming to in about three and a half hours. “Tell you what,” I said. “Forget any fresh injections for now—I’ll come by about the time he’s due to wake up and handle it. I think by then I’ll want to talk to him anyway.”

[Are you sure that’ll be all right?] Minnario asked, looking apprehensively at our prisoner. [What if you’re late? He’s considerably bigger than I am.]

“He’s a lot meaner, too,” I said. “But don’t worry, he’s not going to break out of those restraints any time soon.”

“But if we’re not here by the time he starts to wake up, call one of us at once,” Bayta added.

“Right,” I agreed. “We’ll see you in a couple of hours.” I raised my eyebrows at Emikai. “You coming?”

“In a moment,” Emikai said. “I would like a word first with Attorney Minnario.”

I frowned, looking back at Minnario. [It’s all right,] he assured me. [Actually, I’d like a word with Logra Emikai, as well. Until later.]

“Until later,” I said. With a final look at Blue One, I took Bayta’s arm and left the room.

The corridors were crowded as we made our way back toward the medical dome. But that was okay. I didn’t really want to talk right now, and I could sense Bayta was in a deep study of her own. The only ones of our group who said anything for most of the way, in fact, were Doug and Ty, each of whom sent out a yip greeting to another watchdog and his master as they went in the opposite direction on the glideway.

The traffic had mostly cleared out, and I could see the archway into the medical dome ahead, when Bayta finally spoke. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to check on Terese before we go to our room,” she said. “Make sure she’s all right.”

“No problem,” I assured her. “Were you able to find out anything new about the attack?”

“Not really,” Bayta said. “She didn’t seem to want to talk in front of Minnario.”

I grimaced. “Yeah, I was afraid that would cramp your style a little. Did anyone notice the missing hypos?”

“I think Dr. Aronobal might have,” she said. “I saw her looking at the area where they were all laid out, and then she went out in the corridor and had a short conversation with one of the techs. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he left in something of a hurry.”

“Well, I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” I said. “They can’t prove anything. At least, not until they talk to Blue One.”

Bayta exhaled loudly. “There’s something wrong here, Frank,” she said pensively. “Everything that’s happened here is just wrong, somehow.”

“For example?” I asked. I already had my own list, but I wanted to hear hers.

“The attack on you, for one thing,” she said. “Why did they send only one person? Were they really that overconfident? Or did they want you to win so that you would do exactly what you did?”

“You mean wrap Blue One in cotton and drop him in a hole?”

“Or they may have hoped for something worse,” she said, a brief shiver running through her. “They might have thought they would lose on the New Tigris killings, and were hoping to get something else to accuse you of. If we hadn’t found that spare tracker, it would have led them right to him. Whether he was alive or … not.”

“True,” I agreed. “Okay, so we’ve got the attack. Anything else bugging you?”

“Yes, several things,” she said. “Why lure you to the scene of Tech Yleli’s murder? Just so they could jump out at the right time and frame you? But that didn’t work. More importantly, they should have known it wouldn’t work.” She gestured down at Doug and Ty. “As Logra Emikai and Chinzro Hchchu quickly realized.”

I looked down at the watchdogs, thinking about Doug’s lack of action when the locals accosted me at Yleli’s funeral. “Actually, that alibi may actually not be as tight as they all think,” I said. “Doug didn’t exactly leap to the defense of all those fine, upstanding citizens who jumped me. I wouldn’t mention that to anyone else, of course.”

“But why try it at all?” Bayta persisted. “In fact, it’s worse than that. Not only did the frame-up not work, but in a way it actually backfired on them.”

“How so?”

“It brought you and your Westali training back to Chinzro Hchchu’s attention,” she said. “I assume that’s why he asked you to investigate the murder.”

“Which led me to Sector 25-C, where no one knew me, and into an ambush,” I reminded her. “Maybe it didn’t backfire as badly as you think.”

“Oh,” she said. “Right.”

“But let’s not be hasty,” I continued. “They may have gotten me hired so as to set me up for the ambush. But on the other hand, it could also be that the ambush was their response to me getting hired. In which case, we could argue that there’s something about Yleli or his murder that they don’t want us to find. Or else they want us to think there’s something about the murder they don’t want us to find.”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Bayta said slowly. “I don’t know, Frank. This whole thing’s starting to sound like a bizarre game.”

“Not if Asantra Muzzfor was a representative member of the group,” I said grimly. “He could get as convoluted as the best of us, but there was always a solid core of intent and motive beneath all the foam. If this is a game, there’s some deadly reason for them to be playing it.”

Bayta snorted. “All it’s doing…” She trailed off.

“All it’s doing is what?” I prompted.

“I was going to say all it’s doing is wasting time,” she said slowly. “But then I realized it’s mostly wasting our time. And keeping us away from Terese.”

That was a thought that had been hovering around the edges of my mind ever since Emikai and I discovered the tricked-out hypos. “Well, if that was their plan, it’s about to come to a screeching halt.”

“What are you going to do?” Bayta asked. “Tell someone about the extra drugs they’ve been giving her?”

“Not someone,” I said with a tight smile. “Everyone.”

She frowned at me. “What?”

“You heard me,” I said. “I’m going to write up the whole thing and put it on the station’s main computer network. An hour from now, every pea-picking horse-faced Filly on Proteus is going to know about it.”

“That should certainly stir things up,” Bayta murmured.

“I hope so,” I said. “At this point, stirring is exactly what we want.”

We passed the receptionist at the archway and headed across the dome. Foot traffic seemed a bit lighter than usual, and I wondered briefly if this might be a good time to drop in on Building Twelve and see what the hell was going on in there.

But there were two figures loitering outside that particular building’s main entrance, and I doubted they were just sampling the air. Making a mental note to check on the place again when I headed back to interrogate Blue One, I continued on to Building Eight, courteously opening the door for Bayta and the two watchdogs. I nodded a greeting to the receptionist as we passed, pressed myself against the wall halfway down the corridor to get out of the way of a tech with a loaded equipment cart, and turned into Terese’s room.

To find an empty, neatly made-up bed.

I walked to the side of the bed, my eyes and brain taking a quick inventory. The narrow cabinet that had held a change of clothing was empty. So was the under-bed shelf where she’d kept her reader and music headphones.

I turned around to find Bayta standing just inside the doorway, her eyes wide. “Frank—”

“Come on,” I said, taking her hand and heading back into the hallway. I nearly ran down the same Filly tech along the way and brought us to a halt in front of the receptionist. “Where is she?” I asked shortly.

The Filly gave me a quizzical look. {Who?}

“The Human girl, Terese German,” I said, striving to keep my voice civil. Maybe there was a reasonable explanation. “She’s gone. Where did they take her?”

The receptionist dropped her gaze to her computer display and punched a few keys on her board. {Terese German was checked out an hour and twenty minutes ago,} she reported. {Her condition had worsened, and her doctors decided to move her to an intensive-care facility.}

I clenched my teeth. An hour twenty would put it right after Bayta and Minnario had left. Also right after Aronobal had discovered that two of the gimmicked hypos were missing. “Which one?” I asked. “One of the other buildings here in the dome?”

{No,} the receptionist said, her blaze paling a little in confusion as she peered at the screen. {She’s not here.}

“Then where?”

{I don’t know,} she admitted, still studying her screen. {The location should be listed. But the reference point is blank.}

I looked at Bayta’s ashen face. She’d been right. The Shonkla-raa had indeed wanted to keep us away from Terese.

And now they’d succeeded.