Prognosis
(Starspeak)
Tinkering with Adeptry was always fun, but I was only half paying attention to the complicated explanations on the M&Ms exotic plasma.
My mind was preoccupied with the three corpses that brought me to Kraknor, and I was beginning to suspect that two of them were rather tightly intertwined.
According to Ingrid, she’d lived more than two years on a suboptimal transplant match with no anti-rejection meds. She was either missing pieces to the puzzle…or she was lying.
That possibility wasn’t fun to explore. Especially not with so many alternate possible explanations still in play.
Topping my list of suspicions was Cadrune’s medical ‘specialist’. A pointedly vague title for their purported skillset. But even more dubious was the rak themselves. How Cadrune got involved with Ingrid in the first place was a real head scratcher.
Ingrid was pretty vague herself about the steps she took to travel from Hashtin to Kraknor in search of medicine, but she’d given me the broad strokes. Mostly doing local Adept work for a day or two until she had the cash for a ticket to where she wanted to go next.
An exotic alien like her? I wasn’t surprised when she confessed to getting hassled on her travels. Despite her heart strictly prohibiting her from real heart-pounding activity, she could handle herself.
Even if it was devoid of some of the details I’d have liked, she told a dazzling tale where she had to fight smart rather than hard, and it had left her with some pretty impressive psionic structures optimized for learning.
I thought Madeline and I were the only ones to really dig into those…
Smugglers, drug networks, a corrupt satellite station chief, she’d even crossed paths with an interplanetary espionage outfit.
Some of Agent Avi’s friends might not like that I learned about that last one. If they knew Ingrid and my commitment to help humans, I wouldn’t doubt that someone at some level of government would try leveraging me with information on Ingrid in addition to the corpse we were hunting.
Two pieces were missing from her story though: the Organic Authority, and an explanation of exactly how Cadrune crossed her path.
When pressed, she evaded with: ‘Cadrune’s a pretty private furfish. Can I convince you to bother them about it?’
If we’d been talking under stricter conditions, I would have said ‘no, you can’t convince me. Spill already.’.
But Ingrid pivoted away from the topic quickly enough to engage with Macoru and try catching up like old friends. And Cadrune had promised to cooperate…not that I expected them to.
So I prodded the Simulacrum in Macoru’s brain for consultation.
Macoru gave the tiniest flicker of annoyance, but didn’t object.
To my surprise, Nai’s eyes also picked up on Mavriste’s illusory appearance. She didn’t let it preoccupy her though.
Mavriste snorted.
I admitted,
Mavriste chuckled.
<…Generally not a good idea to let the bad guys know you’re coming…but looking Cadrune in the eye and tearing their heart out does have a certain appeal.>
While both of the twins were psionically skilled enough to carry out audible and psionic conversations simultaneously, Mavriste’s sister wasn’t quite able to hide that fact.
Ingrid scoffed scandalously.
“Are you speaking
“Caleb and I haven’t known each other long, but we share a concern for your wellbeing,” Macoru covered smoothly. “Rak like Cadrune don’t get this rich without some bones at the bottom of the bay.”
“Well you won’t have to worry about it once I’m dead,” Ingrid shrugged.
We just stared at her.
“[…Too cavalier?]”
“[By half and then some,]” I nodded, “[and that’s coming from me, which you wouldn’t know…]”
“But that’s saying something coming from Caleb,” Nai agreed. “Speaking of saying something…Macoru, just what state did you leave the estate security in?”
“Upset, but unharmed,” Macoru said lightly.
“Well we might want to avoid sudden movements and keep our hands in plain sight,” Nai said.
Ingrid might have had her fair share of adventures, but she was the only one caught off guard when a security detail of eight Vorak stomped into the hangar.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” she cried out. “[What the hell] Dartrig? You don’t knock?”
The rest of us stayed completely laid back, forcibly so, sipping our juice pouches and oozing as much ‘unbothered and unsurprised’ energy possible.
I recognized the security team’s head from their confrontation with Macoru. The rest of the rak looked professional enough, and they were certainly armed with high quality weapons…but their entry had been sloppy. They hadn’t actually cleared half the hangar after seeing us on the couches—especially Macoru.
“Quiet!” the head of security—Dartrig—barked. “All of you, hands up.”
We made sure we kept our hands visible, but we did not strictly comply.
“On who’s authority?” Macoru asked. “We’re not trespassing.”
“Harpe Cadrune owns this—”
“[Jesus] I invited them!” Ingrid complained.
One look at Nai told me everything I needed to know. She wasn’t concerned. Whether that was because she knew the goons wouldn’t shoot or because she could take them out before they did, it didn’t matter.
Instead of trying to follow their Tarassin, I turned my attention toward the surrounding minds. Ingrid, Macoru, Nai, and the chief of security all shone brightly with their Adept minds, and the other seven Vorak were easily discernible at this distance. Beyond the confines of the hangar weren’t so apparent with only basic psionic senses…so I popped a candled radar.
Nai gave me a quizzical look, but I answered with a subtle glance of my own toward Macoru, Cadrune’s security…I wanted to keep my superconnector quiet for now.
Much to my surprise though, everyone in the hangar noticed the candled radar deploy, including the security team.
“What is that?!”
“[Dude, what the fuck, you think antagonizing these guys right now is smart?]” Ingrid hissed. “[I live with them and they’re barely listening to me!]”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“[I don’t care,]” I said. “[Unless you tell us to leave, these rak can get bent. Besides, I’m just looking…]”
The security pointed guns at me, and I got a warm fuzzy grateful feeling inside watching Nai put herself between me and them with zero hesitation. More surprising was Macoru doing the same.
“Easy…no one is shooting anyone. Put away the guns before you hurt someone,” I heard Macoru say.
I was more focused on combing our surroundings, flitting through the minds nearby. Security hadn’t followed Macoru here. The timing was wrong. No, they’d been sent after Ingrid, as a precaution, must be. Which meant Cadrune—or someone close to them—had done the sending.
Cadrune had stared us down a week ago and outright denied us information about Ingrid. Whether it was chivalry, financial investment, a creepy obsession, respect of privacy, it didn’t matter; Cadrune was interested in Ingrid. If someone loudly knocked on the front door looking for her, Cadrune’s move wouldn’t just be to dispatch security. No, they would be nearby, probably in psionic contact with their own security team…
There they were.
“Hey Dartrig—[Ingrid, rak here’s name is Dartrig, right?]”
“[Yeah.]”
“Hey, Dartrig. You’re coming with me,” I said, getting to my feet.
At least no guns shifted nervously at that statement.
“Where do you think you’re going?” they hissed.
“Well we’re here about Ingrid’s condition, and she’s said I should talk to Cadrune about it. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to talk to your boss. Is that going to happen with you, or without you?”
They picked the former.
Cadrune was waiting at the very edge of their property, flanked by four more security guards and looking more anxious than a kid with their hand in the cookie jar.
“So did you lie about knowing Starspeak?” I asked casually.
Staring at Cadrune’s face didn’t give anything away. They’d said they didn’t speak it the first time, but my trust for the billionaire was at an all-time low.
One of the bodyguards leaned closer to provide a translation, but I took that for a grain of salt.
“Harpe Hane, I’d appreciate an explanation as to what exactly you’re doing here?” Cadrune said smoothly.
“Hmm?” I put on my best genuinely confused expression. “I thought…I mean, I was just taking you up on your offer. I could have sworn you said ‘you were completely at my disposal’. I didn’t misinterpret did I?”
“I said I would abide entirely by Ingrid’s wishes,” Cadrune said.
“
she admitted.
“Then it’s settled,” I smiled.
Cadrune’s security was only so deferential to their boss, and at least two of them were loyal enough to get upset on their behalf.
“And just according to what madness do you think that?” the translating bodyguard scoffed.
“Oh? Cadrune didn’t mention?” I said oh-so-innocently, “They extended an invitation to visit the estate.”
Only slightly mollified, the translator passed on the message.
“That was more than a week ago,” Cadrune said ruefully. “It was not a standing welcome.”
“What can I say, a hurricane got in the way. I would have showed up anyway, but before today the only contact I actually had with Ingrid was her direct request to get involved with the disaster relief. And you know what? I’m glad I did. We helped a lot of people. Made a lot of fast friends.”
“If that’s your attempt at a threat, we’ll have you know however many friends you have in this city, I have more.”
“A threat? Oh no, the opposite! I want to make a few more friends. And at the very top of the list is Ingrid’s doctor. Think I could meet them? Me and my Flotilla have put together a lot of medical knowledge on humans.”
“I told you, I will strictly abide by Ingrid’s wishes,” they said. “And if they don’t wish to discuss such with you, I will not force the issue.”
<…Sure, I have a checkup tomorrow if you want to ask more questions. You can talk to them.>
Cadrune didn’t miss how smug I was. That was fine. They’d yanked me around, and I had a sneaking suspicion they hadn’t tried to contact us after the hurricane in hopes that I’d died. Or at least become completely indisposed.
“So…think you can put me on the schedule or something?” I asked. “I’d hate to get the same reception my friend, Macoru, received today.”
“That could be arranged,” Cadrune said. “Dartrig, please take Harpe Hane’s identity. Ingrid’s medical check is just after noon. I’m particular about time, however, so please don’t be late.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t dare,” I assured them.
“Then if there isn’t anything else, I’ll leave you to your business with Ingrid,” Cadrune said. “But if possible, could you be persuaded to sit with me for an interview?”
Huh.
Hadn’t been expecting that.
“…Maybe,” I said. “Why?”
“I’m not a young rak anymore, and I tried writing some memoirs about my past business ventures, but it was too boring. I even tried hiring someone, and it still went nowhere. My heart just wasn’t in it. But you Humans are…truly unique. What can I say? I’m interested. And getting to know Ingrid has only made me more interested in your people.”
“Fine, but I’m going to want something for my trouble,” I said.
“Acceptable. But I don’t suppose you could give me an idea of what exactly that is beforehand?”
“No way.”
“Why’s that?”
“Don’t trust you,” I said. “Wasn’t that obvious?”
“Of course it was,” Cadrune giving the kind of smirk only old people could wear.
“Tomorrow then,” I said.
Cadrune and their security walked back to the estate, leaving me free to return to the hangar where the girls were still hanging out.
“Productive?” Macoru asked.
“Yes, thank you,” I said.
“I didn’t actually do that much,” she pointed out.
“So? Better to have and not need, right?”
“Fair enough.”
“[Well I feel bad for the radio silence, so I hate to flake. But this has been a really big day for me, and I honestly need a nap,]” Ingrid said. “[Nai made it sound like you had some other stuff to do today too. So…tomorrow? No hard feelings?]”
“[I don’t know if I’d go that far just yet,]” I admitted. “[But this is a good start. Just don’t ghost us again.]”
A sour look went across her face, but she nodded.
“[Fine.]”
“[…I’ll be upfront with you then,]” I said. “[There’s something more going on here with Cadrune, and I’m not going to just leave it be.]”
“[I don’t suppose you could be bribed otherwise?]” she asked.
“[No. Why are you so keen to keep your distance?]” I asked, bewildered.
“[Because I’m a dead girl walking,]” Ingrid said simply. “[It’s hard to be around people who I know are just going to get hurt when I’m gone.]”
“[You don’t think your Vorak friends are going to be hurt when you die?]” I asked.
“[...No, they will, I just…]”
Ingrid trailed off, unwilling to voice the unfortunate implication of what she was about to say.
“[You just care about hurting some Vorak billionaire and their staff a lot less than hurting your fellow abductees,]” Macoru said in halting English.
Ingrid darkened at that, but didn’t deny it.
“[If it’s all the same to you, I’m going to head back now,]” she said.
·····
We took the hint and followed her out of the hangar, letting her lock it up. Nai and I made our way back to our vehicle while Macoru just materialized her super-sick bike again and peeled off.
By the time we got back to the Jack, it was still barely lunchtime. What a busy morning.
“We found two more corpses, boss,” Sid said.
“Where and who?”
“Who…like the bodies?”
“Who had them,” I clarified, following Sid into the Jack’s cargo deck. One end of it was tented off with translucent plastic tarps as a makeshift morgue. Of course, all our corpses were fake, so was it really a morgue?
The biological material the corpses had been sculpted from was real enough to smell though. We’d already decided on incinerating the corpses sooner or later, but not before we pulled every clue we could from them.
“Tasser, rundown?” Sid asked.
Tasser and Donnie were dressed up in plastic frocks and face guards while they literally dissected the fake corpses for every last bit of information.
“Corpse number one, Island Boy,” Tasser said, nodding to the one Mavriste and I had dragged back from the cult. “We traced it back from Stiragu Island to those three dead smugglers. But get this: we figured out where those guys got the corpse.”
He turned to Donnie, giving him the juicy part.
“They stole it,” he chuckled.
“How do you know?” I asked.
Both of them flicked me psionic documents. Police reports and still images.
“Nineteen months ago, Opal, an Organic Authority contractor was robbed of several medical supplies in transit. They reported several kilograms of rare enzymes and proprietary bacterial cultures stolen—insanely valuable cargo, but ultimately lightweight. Thirty kilos tops.”
Tasser drew my attention to one of the still photos. A boat run into the shore of a canal, with half a dozen armed rak in masks dragging some small crates away from the wreck…as well as one very-not-small crate.”
“What wasn’t reported stolen was a suspiciously coffin shaped box. We calc’d the weight based on the boat…it was a body.”
“How do you know it was Island Boy?” I asked.
“Because two of the crew were picked up by Agent Mashoj and Pudiligsto law enforcement. They were known associates of the South Sto’ Stooges, and very unpopular, so they were sold out quick. This was not a robbery sanctioned by the city’s highest and mightiest corrupt forces,” Tasser said. “Less than two weeks later, a very comparable package was shipped to Stiragu Island. But remember that name, ‘Opal’. It will be important later in today’s feature presentation.”
“Opal,” I repeated. “Got it.”
“Corpse number two,” I said. “Your aquarium find…let me guess: Water Boy?”
“Fish Legs,” Donnie disagreed. “They were on ice at the aquarium for at least a year in a sealed cooler. Would have gone unnoticed for longer if not for the internal audit from the attached Org employees.”
“I’m hearing about the Org twice now,” I said. “Are you telling me they’re involved?”
That would be something with cosmic implications. My personal experiences withstanding, the Organic Authority was famously stable and reliable because they lived and died by the public trust in their goals. If it looked like they were getting involved in things beyond the scope of medicine, plague prevention, and ecological preservation, they wouldn’t be trusted enough to operate as widely as they did.
“They are,” Tasser confirmed. “But not in the way you think. It’s looking like this contractor, Opal, took them for a loop.”
“Corpse number three,” Sid said. “Garbage Plate here was discovered yesterday afternoon in a landfill by the Org.”
“The corpse was just dumped in a landfill?” I asked surprised.
“Coffin and all,” he confirmed. “Colloquial coffin, I mean. Not the kind from the A-ships.”
“Gotcha,” I nodded. “Why was the Org poking around a landfill?”
“Anonymous tip, they said. Mashoj said they could get us the audio on the call,” Donnie said.
“I’m inclined to agree,” Tasser said. “We talked to some Vorak, and landfills like that are mostly just temporary storage for raw material reprocessing operations, chewing plastics and metals back into usable forms.”
“Earth does have recycling, you know…” I said.
“Barely,” Sid snorted.
“The point is…it’s blue collar work,” Tasser said. “The employees at the yard itself aren’t going to be paid enough to risk running afoul of the Org. One of them popped the lid, saw the corpse, knew how bad it would be if they were ever found to be feeding an alien corpse to a recycler, and called the Org anonymously.”
“Someone got spooked,” I followed. “Not just the landfill employee, but whoever dumped it. They heard something, and ditched the corpse to avoid being tied to it.”
“Which brings us to corpse number four…” Tasser agreed, leading us to the fourth corpse, still under a sheet.
“Meet Jigsaw,” Donnie said, pulling the sheet back.
My eyebrows shot up.
The corpse was flayed. Unevenly.
There wasn’t even a square inch of skin on it. It was like looking at a life size version of the musculature models you could find in biology classrooms. The left arm was missing even more though. It wasn’t wrapped in tight muscles fastened to the bones, but rather loose blood vessel structures that looked more like filthy sponges than body parts.
The dead giveaway was where the parts were incomplete, muscles seemed to have been pressed into molds, leaving cuboid impressions.
“It was only half-baked,” I said. “This looks like the bones we found. Where’s this one from?”
“Opal’s corporate headquarters,” Donnie said. “The Org dissolved their contract and raided the place last night. A bunch of files got burned, but that corpse was on ice in one of the analysis labs.”
“The lab?” I asked. “Not a lab? Just one?”
“Opal wasn’t a large contractor,” Tasser explained. “They were primarily a medical supply company. The Org bought their surplus. Their headquarters had some very limited lab setups. Definitely not the kind of place capable of fabricating a fake corpse from scratch.”
“Well they didn’t buy it did they?” I asked. “Did they?”
“No record of it,” Donnie said. “The bill of sale could have been burned…or it could have been something else. Ownership records were the first thing destroyed in the raid, but the business listing implies it was owned by another corporate investor.”
“Someone else owned Opal and cleaned house so they couldn’t be linked,” I followed.
“Looking at the meat, the Org said that Jigsaw here is actually the oldest corpse,” Sid explained. “That’s why it’s damaged. Whoever owns Opal hadn’t perfected the process yet.”
“This is all to say, are you busy for the rest of the afternoon?” Tasser asked. “Because the Org and planetary authority are holding more than a dozen Opal employees apprehended in the raid, and we could get in on the interrogations.”
“Hermano,” I said, motioning him to ‘stop’. “Know when you’ve made the sale. Let’s go.”