“Do you know,” Divine said suddenly, interrupting Whist, “I think that we are all feeling a little shocked by the terrible nature of this attack. I’m sure I’m not alone in expressing my total horror and disgust that something so calculated and brutal could occur within the confines of our great city. Don’t you agree, Agent Genny?”
A cool sensation of relief flooded down Weslan’s spine. She could obviously see he had been disturbed by something, and wanted to help him calm down. And perhaps she was right—the dead bodies and destruction he had witnessed earlier were horrifying, though he had felt nothing at the scene of the attack. Maybe he had only repressed his emotions, only to have them surface once he had moved to a new location?
Whist watched him a little more carefully. “Well, have a drink Genny and step outside if you need to.”
“No, I don’t think that will be necessary,” Weslan said.
“And may I also add,” Divine said sweetly, “how grateful the citizens of Rackeye are that the League’s finest protectors are bringing their resources to bear on tracking down these terrorists. Surely, without your assistance, they will only continue to menace us even more.”
Whist glanced at her with a mildly annoyed expression, but she didn’t seem to notice. Her eyes remained on Weslan, and he found the attention oddly calming. The sense of danger was beginning to dissipate. Divine was his friend, and if he followed her lead, everything would be fine.
But of course, the threat to his home, his family and his old friends was real and very menacing. That was certainly what was disturbing him so greatly. After all, if these terrorists really had stolen missiles, then a shuttle carrying hundreds of passengers could be shot down at any minute.
The dark lady spoke to him in a tranquil voice. “Obey,” she said.
Weslan coughed. “Obviously we will not rest until the enemies of this city have been brought to justice,” he said. “The League is nothing if not ardent in the protection of its citizens.”
Whist blinked slowly, then flicked through the notes on his phone.
“I assume you heard of the attack on Ambrosia?” Divine asked Weslan.
He nodded.
“A most disturbing event. And of course, they were Calderan seperatists. They obviously wanted to us know that us we shouldn’t expect to be safe anywhere. Do you know, agents,” she glanced at Whist, “I really do fear that a wave of violence is coming that will threaten the very stability of our great society.”
“Not if we can help it,” Weslan said.
“How very fervent. But I can only say that we will all sleep easier if Rackeye were provided with a little more concrete protection. VennZech has developed an array of automated protection systems, and we will certainly be petitioning the League to allow us to deploy them.”
There was a brief pause while they waited for Whist to respond. “Indeed,” he said eventually. “And if you don’t mind, Miss Divine—”
“It’s Madam, actually,”
“Oh right, sorry. Well, if you don’t mind, I’d just like to ask you some questions regarding VennZech’s security procedures. It will help me get a better understanding of what happened.”
Divine smiled broadly. “Of course.”
“Now, you were previously employed in Rackeye by the League’s biological research council, as a representative to the Adjudicate office, were you not?”
There was a brief pause.
“I’m not sure I understand what that has to do with this recent attack,” Divine replied politely, though the temperature of her demeanour had dropped slightly.
“Just a routine question,” Whist said.
“I have worked with the adjudicate before, yes.”
“So, you would you say you’re experienced in League operations on colony worlds?”
Divine bowed her head graciously. “I am a humble servant, as we all aspire to be.”
“Right,” Whist said, and scanned through his notes. “Why is VennZech shipping dangerous missiles onto Caldera?”
“Oh, I think I can answer that,” Tensall jumped in. “Obviously we’re not using them, but we are manufacturing new guidance chips for the seeker heads. It was necessary to bring in some of the old stock to run comparative tests.”
“Fully assembled? With the warheads and propulsion?”
Tensall nodded gravely. “It’s certainly an oversight that should have been caught. Believe me, Agent, VennZech is conducting a complete investigation.”
“I’m sure Agent Whist doesn’t doubt our diligence in this regard,” Divine said sweetly.
“Of course, not,” Whist said with a wry smile.
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The meeting concluded amicably, and Divine gave Weslan such a warm smile when she shook his hand that he found it difficult to think of anything else. Somewhere in the background, the dark lady chuckled approvingly, but she was quieter and further away. He had, it seemed, found some measure of respite from the doom that pervaded his mind.
They were driven back to the starport, and returned to their car. Whist took them back to the Sentinel office in an atmosphere of uncomfortable silence.
“Don’t worry if you have some funny reactions to this morning,” Whist said eventually, and his tone was milder.
Weslan looked at him in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“The crime scene. It wasn’t pretty. Everyone reacts differently their first time, so don’t worry about it.”
Weslan colored. “It was hardly my first time dealing with death, thank you very much, and I will keep my reactions to myself.”
“Uhuh?” Whist’s eyebrow raised. “I thought you had amnesia from that crash?”
“To be quite frank, I’d be more worried about your belligerent attitude towards our respected hosts. You seemed entirely insensitive to the fact that they had just suffered one of the worst terrorist attacks in the planet’s history.”
Whist paused while he switched lanes. “They weren’t our hosts, Genny, they were involved in a corporate robbery, which makes them at least fall under the category of due suspicion. If you take nothing else away from today, at least understand that.”
“Well, you may choose to be as cynical as you like, but I shall at least hold upstanding members of the Helvetic community in high regard.”
Whist scoffed. “Oh please, they were lying to our faces. They have an agenda of their own, and you’d have realized that if you weren’t spending your time getting lost in Divine’s eyes.”
Weslan laughed loudly and raucously. It was a vulgar, braying laugh that was meant to intimidate as much as convey his contempt. But he let it continue too long to be believed, and quickly snapped back with a response.
“Of course,” he said. “Everyone told me you were obsessed with conspiracy theories. That’s why nobody wants to work with you.”
Whist only glanced at him with amusement, which made Weslan even more furious. “Is that what they say? How dreadfully hurtful.”
“And everyone could smell the alcohol on your breath. Honestly, you’ve put on a disgraceful show today.”
Whist nodded. “I appreciate your frankness. And what did you think of the plasticuffs?”
Weslan’s brows raised in an expression of impatient confusion. “What plasticuffs? What are you talking about?”
“The charred cuffs I recovered from the scene. One pair had been cut. The other hadn’t. I thought you had a photographic memory?”
Weslan shrugged. “I’m sure that it isn’t unusual for barbarian terrorists to restrain their captives before executing them.”
“There was also a knife thrown in with the bodies. The fire created a charring effect along the blade, most likely from a small blood stain. So, I think that whoever attacked that location restrained two men, but one cut themselves loose and attacked them. Then they shot him.”
“That’s fascinating, agent Whist, but I don’t see what it changes about the attack.”
“Why tie them up if they knew they were going to kill everyone? Why only those two? Most of the blood stains were outside the portacabin, which means, most likely, that the thieves were trying to silently disable, but not kill, the guards inside when they were surprised. But if they had so thoroughly planned the theft, and were prepared to kill, why not neutralize the guards one by one when they first entered?”
“This is all supposition, obviously,” Weslan said tiredly.
“One of the bullet casings doesn’t match the others,” Whist continued. “The others are a brand used by colonists, but this one had a slightly different finish. I’ll have to send it to the forensics lab, but I would not be shocked to learn that it is a type manufactured only in Rackeye.”
“A different finish? Where did you come up with that?”
“It’s the kind of detail you start to pick up on after twenty years pursuing urban crime. And another thing—why didn’t the container locks trigger an alarm? Your guard said the gatehouse was neutralized early, but the site logs show that the interior alarm was pulled, and that tripped the gatehouse system just fine. And even if the men inside were drunk, or sleeping, why weren’t they killed there? The rest of the bodies were outside that structure.”
Weslan said nothing. The dark lady was beginning to laugh at him again and he felt his skin crawling. He was tired and stressed, and didn’t want to think about ludicrous theories.
“Are you a colonist sympathizer then?” he asked sharply. “VennZech set this all up as a fake?”
Whist glanced away from the traffic to scowl at him. “Don’t put words in my mouth you little brat. I have no idea what really happened. But we all know they contract cartels to run their shipments and nobody’s supposed to talk about it. Maybe someone got greedy? Maybe there was a dispute about payments? Or maybe they did stage the whole thing to cover up an internal power struggle. But colonist terrorists? Come on, that doesn’t add up. How could they possibly have found out about VennZech’s top secret weapons shipments? Why would anyone in VennZech want to tip them off for anything less than a corporate bribe, and how could a bunch of farmworkers afford that? And I’ve never heard ‘Burn Helvet’ used anywhere before—that was definitely faked.”
“You are forgetting about the recent attack on Ambrosia.”
“Which, again, was completely beyond the capability of Calderan colonists. And only VennZech has the evidence on that attack, so they can come up with whatever story they want. Hell, with the kind of money they have to throw around, maybe they staged the whole thing precisely to use as cover.”
“Cover for what exactly?”
“Covering up their relationship with the cartels, I imagine.” Whist sighed. “But that’s just one possible explanation. I know it’s not exactly popular in the Sentinels, but real investigators are supposed to question everything. Think for yourself. Don’t just accept what powerful people tell you at face value. Especially not when a beautiful woman is lighting you up like a Christmas tree.”
Weslan thought for a moment. “I think I understand. I should try to upset all of my peers, and societies’ thought leaders, and end up being posted to a backwater planet for twenty years where my career can rot.” He smirked. “You understand that I left Rackeye for Barroche for a good reason?”
Whist chuckled as he shook his head. “Too cold, kid.”
“Or I could wait to see where this investigation goes, and arrive at rationally informed conclusions, instead of hair brained fantasies.”
“Almost all of the key evidence will be provided by VennZech, and they have already decided what the story is going to be.”
“I for one choose to trust the luminaries of our Helvetic world,” Weslan said in a haughty voice. “They did build the galaxy, after all. And Divine was right, the League should send some of the army here if things get any worse.”
“No chance,” Whist said. “The other planets would be in uproar about imperialism. The League is on thin ice out here, kid.”
“Hmm. The governors’ concerns can be dismissed. It’s for everybody’s protection.”
Whist said nothing as he stared at the road. His face seemed to set in a colder, stonier reserve. “I guess you must be one of those ‘new men’ they’ve been promising us for the last few hundred years.”
Weslan didn’t bother to reply.