Dead Man on the Moon (13 page)

The top floor of the med center was given over to inpatient care. The med center itself was fairly small. Dr. Fang was the only full-time doctor for Luna City's five-thousand-odd residents, though she wasn't the only person who dispensed medical care. All homes were equipped with an autodoc that could handle many injuries and most illnesses. Nurses, medical technicians, and physicians' assistants handled most of what was left, leaving Dr. Fang surprisingly free to conduct research as well as oversee Luna City's medical community.

At the entrance to the patient ward, Noah showed his identification to the nurse on duty, and she led him toward Viktor Riza's room. The corridor, like all hospitals, smelled of cleaner and disinfectant.

"What kind of shape is he in?" Noah asked.

"Pretty good, considering," she said. "Official cause of death was drowning. He lost oxygen long enough to kill more than seven percent of his brain tissue. We regrew it, of course, but he still qualified as dead. He's retained most of his physical functions, but his speech is a little odd. He can't say the letter 'p,' for some reason. We'll be starting physical therapy with him as soon as he's recovered enough."

"How was he found?"

"A maintenance worker discovered him lying face-down in one of the fish ponds, half in and half out. No one else was around. The worker pulled the patient out and called for an emergency crew. The paramedics rushed him here on life support until the med techs could replace the damaged neural tissue with new stuff."

"What about his blood work?"

The nurse checked a monocle similar to Noah's. "He came back positive for tetrahydralocyathine," she said. "Blue. We're seeing a lot of that lately. Levels didn't seem to indicate he's an addict, but it was definitely enough to knock him out. It may have sped up his death, but we don't know for sure."

"You're getting a lot of Blue up here?" Noah said, surprised.

"Unfortunately," the nurse sighed. "It's easy enough to make, if you have a well-stocked chem lab, and lord knows we have plenty of those around."

Noah wondered how Linus would take this news, then decided the Chief probably knew already. He thanked the nurse and entered the hospital room. It looked the same as hospital rooms the world—galaxy?—over. Tiled floor, bits of machinery, window that looked out over the Dome. Viktor Riza occupied the bed in the room's center. He turned his head on his pillow when Noah entered, and Noah almost dropped his kit. The man's face was pale, and his dark brown hair was mussed and flattened against his head. His brown eyes were bloodshot, and his freckles stood out
above his mustache like grains of sand on white paper, but Noah recognized him. Noah called Linus to recuse himself, but the chief wouldn't have any of it.

"I don't care how you know him. He could be your long-lost father, and I still wouldn't let you out of this case. Look, kid, I understand your position, but we simply don't have the staff up here to let people pick and choose like that." Before Noah could reply, the murder victim spoke.

"I . . . know you," Viktor said, voice hoarse. "You threw us . . . threw us out of Wade's .. . apartment. . . last night. I thought you . . . were bluffing when . . . you said . . . said you were . . . a co'."

"I'm Deputy Noah Skyler," Noah said, setting his kit on the tiny bedside table and setting his onboard to transcribe the conversation. Text scrolled across the bottom of Noah's monocle. "Why don't you tell me what happened last night? Everything you remember."

"I remember . . . you threw us out," Viktor said. His left hand was twisting under the covers like a snake. "Me, Crysta, and Bredda."

"Do Crysta and Bredda have last names?" Noah asked, making a mental note to corroborate the information with Wade later, and wouldn't
that
be fun?

Viktor thought a moment. "Crysta . . . Nell and . . . Bredda Meese. We were partying with . . . Wade and you . .. came in and threw us out."

"You were using Blue?" Noah asked. "It was in your blood screen."

Viktor remained silent for a long time. His left hand continued to twist, and Noah wondered if it was a nervous habit or an aftereffect of the brain damage. Finally Viktor said, "Blue is . . . illegal."

"Officially you died," Noah said gently. "You've lost enough memory and brain function to qualify yourself as a different person after the medical center brought you back. Any crimes Viktor Riza committed can't be pinned on you. You'll have the option of naming yourself Viktor Riza
again, if you want, and any possessions you had will come back to you unless you made a will specifying otherwise, but legally you're someone else. So you can tell me anything you want without worrying about reprisal. I just want to know what happened."

A tear leaked out of Viktor's eye and trailed down his cheek. He made no effort to wipe it away. "You know . . . what? My earliest . . . memory is driving to the . . . tether 'ort to board the shuttle ... for Luna. I don't. . . remember my family or . . . my friends. I don't remember anything . . . from when I . . . was little. But I ... do remember two girls . . . and a guy ... I fucked after talking to them ... at a bar for . . . half an hour." Another tear followed the first. "They . . . should have let. . . me die."

Noah kept his face impassive, though his insides were twisting up. Would Viktor be lying on this bed right now if Noah hadn't tossed him out the door last night?

"How much Blue did you take in the apartment?" Noah forced himself to say.

"Not. . . much. Just enough to get... us a little high and ... kee' me and Wade from coming ... too fast. It's the way . . . you're su—su—su'osed to . . . use the stuff. Lets us . . . kee' it u' . . . all night, if we . . . want, without blasting."

Hence the name "Blue," Noah thought. The trouble was, Blue was also addictive. The first symptoms of dependence included an inability for males to function sexually without it. "Tell me what happened after you left the apartment," he said.

"I hadn't . . . finished, right? And . . . Crysta and Nell were ... willing to kee' 'artying. One of the ... girls said she knew ... a s'ot down by .. . the fish'onds ... where .. . we could find . . . some 'rivacy, so .. . we headed down there." Viktor's hand twisted some more.

"Did you talk to anyone along the way?"

Viktor started to shake his head, then stopped. "Wait. Yeah. One of the girls . . . talked to some . . . guy in the 'ark on . . . the way over. They walked ... off a ways for it. I...
think they were . . . arguing. I don't. . . remember very . . . well. That's the last.. . thing I remember."

"Did you talk to the man?"

"I don't. . . remember."

"Do you remember whether it was Bredda or Crysta who argued with him?"

Viktor thought. "No."

Noah asked several more questions, but learned nothing more. "I need to check your body for evidence," he said at last, opening his kit. "You have the right to have a witness in the room, of course, and if anything I do makes you feel uncomfortable, you can say so and I'll stop."

"Just ... do it," Viktor said. "I don't have . . . anything else to lose."

Noah nodded, pulled on a set of gloves, and set to work. He started with Viktor's hands, checking for defense wounds and finding none. The man's fingers were cool, almost cold. The fingernails showed flecks of green and gray, and Noah took careful scrapings of the material. Checking Viktor's right hand was difficult—Viktor couldn't stop it from twisting. Noah managed with some effort. That done, Noah helped Viktor out of his hospital gown, leaving the man naked under the white sheet. Viktor lay there with his eyes screwed shut, unmoving except for his breathing and the ceaselessly twisting hand. Noah worked his way up Viktor's arms to his shoulders, checking for wounds, bruises, or residue by eye. Then he did the same with a scanner and an imager. Viktor remained absolutely silent and kept his eyes screwed shut. Noah understood the silence and the closed eyes—he'd seen it many times in murder and rape victims, and he suspected he'd react the same way to a stranger going over every inch of his naked body in a hospital room.

Noah went over Viktor's head and ran a fine comb through his coarse hair, shaking the bits of debris into a polymer envelope. He found more greenish material inside Viktor's ear canals and took samples. Then he worked his way down Viktor's neck, chest, and stomach. Viktor was
well-muscled, but not overly so. His genitals lay flat amid a nest of dark, curling hair. Noah gently ran swabs over penis and testicles to gather samples of any vaginal secretions left behind. Viktor accepted this treatment without comment. When he finished, Noah twitched a corner of the sheet over Viktor's waist and continued down to his thighs, shins, and feet. He photographed and scanned carefully, leaving nothing unchecked. Once that was finished, he opened the small wardrobe and found Viktor's clothes in a clear sack on the floor. Noah opened the sack and smelled fishy dampness. He would have to take these back to—

"Attention! Attention!" A call was coming in from Linus. Noah took it.

"How's it going down there?"
Linus asked in Noah's ear.

Couldn't be better,
he thought.
I'm partially responsible for our victim's death, that's all.

"I'm just finishing with the victim's interview," he said quietly. "I've processed his body and I'm gathering his clothes now."

"Great,"
Linus said. His voice sounded tight with tension.
"Keep me posted"
And he signed off. Noah turned to Viktor.

"Thank you," he said. "I think I have everything I need. We may have more questions for you later, though."

"Sure," Viktor said in a dull, lifeless voice. "I'll be . . . here."

Noah took up his kit and the clothes and left. In the echoing corridor he nodded to the nurse at her station and headed for the elevator, feeling wretched. If he hadn't tossed Viktor out last night, he would never have stumbled down to the fishponds high on Blue and he wouldn't have drowned. He'd probably be perfectly fine, none the worse for wear. So Noah would have been a little tired today—big deal. A man's life was worth more than a night's sleep.

Unless Viktor's death was murder. In that case, it would be the killer's fault, not Noah's. And there was definitely something odd about all this. Who had the girls talked to? Where had the extra-large dose of Blue come from? And
who had drowned him? It wouldn't take much pressure to keep a man high on Blue from struggling. Noah grimaced. A quick drowning that left a wreck in a hospital bed.

Noah left the medical center, determined to find the answers.

Before he came to Luna City, Linus had visited Las Vegas any number of times to attend law enforcement seminars and forensics conferences. His friends always snorted at this, as if attending a conference in Las Vegas was nothing more than an excuse to gamble and take in shows on department time. Major conventions, however, were always held in someplace like Las Vegas or New Orleans or London. After all, Linus had pointed out, who would attend a conference in Mud Hole, Arkansas?

Tourist Town reminded Linus of Las Vegas with a dash of Valium. It had its own little dome with a little amusement park, complete with a little roller coaster. After graduation, it was traditional for new grads to ride it facing backward, something which took a fair amount of flexibility. It was also supposed to be a prime place for losing one's virginity, but Linus had his doubts about that. If you weren't firmly strapped in, the roller coaster dropped out from under you in the low gravity, leaving coupling couples hanging in midair like cartoon characters.

Underground, beneath the amusement park, was a wide avenue with a tasteful little casino, three hotels, half a dozen theaters, and a sprinkling of restaurants. Luna City University didn't have a sports arena—yet. Linus strolled down the avenue and wondered if Mayor-President Pandey's negotiations with the entertainment companies would include building one. The cynical Marine whispered it probably did—you could probably make some good money making vid-feeds of college students playing low-gravity volleyball in bikinis. Bounce bounce bounce.

Tourist Town was actually fairly busy, and the avenue was crowded with people, many of them clumsy in the low
gravity New students who came from wealthy families often came to Luna with their parents in tow, and they filled the little hotels to capacity for a month or so. Lights, holograms, and music vied for Linus's attention, but he tuned them out. Instead, he followed his nose to a pair of red double doors inset with gold filigree. A silver fountain surrounded by exotic plants tossed slow-motion water high into the air, where it glittered like molten glass before pouring slowly back down. The bottom of the fountain was littered with small coins. A tastefully lit sign told him he was standing in front of the Moon Dragon Restaurant.