„So Yezzania Senglu escapes us once again.“, the inspector summed up.
„It appears so.“, his assistant agreed.
„Do we know when and how our agent died?“, the inspector inquired.
„No further details. We just got a burst transmission from Binary Bloom, signed by its governor, informing us that she is deceased.“
The inspector pursed his lips and twirled a pen between his fingers. The office was tastefully furnished in dark red wood, with contrasting powder blue wallpapers, in the style of Chroma IV classic design. Colors were the foundation of interior design and fashion on the planet, and many books had been written about the meaning and emotional impact of various color schemes.
„And the last report from our agent“, the inspector continued, „mentioned that she was worried that the target had spotted her, yes?“
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
„Yes, sir.“
„We must assume the worst. Add murder of a police officer to the list of suspected crimes for Mrs. Senglu. That is a capital crime of interplanetary scope. Contact the nearest Junkstorm planet and request administrative assistance.“
„Yes, sir.“
—
Meanwhile, half a planet away, someone else had better information about Yezz and was drowning them in a glass of his favorite alcoholic drink. The text responsible for his current state of mind was still on the display in front of him. It was short. „Dr. Scotcher“, it read, „We regret to inform you that your message could not be delivered. The recipient is listed as recently deceased in our database.“
One of the few things he knew about the pirate outpost called Binary Bloom was that it had a surprisingly well functioning administrative bureaucracy. Much of it run by AI systems, of course, but it showed someone had bothered to get them, set them up and properly train them.
His slightly trembling hands, and not just from the alcohol, moved over to the tablet next to the larger display. With a few taps he deleted all the data from that hypercore analysis he had done for Yezz. Then, with another few taps, he reverted and the system restored the data from the snapshot backup. He thought about deleting it again, then decided to decide in the morning. Maybe it was worth something, to the right people.