Inescapable (30 page)

There was, Fox
had to admit, more history left standing in the MCD than there was
out in the area she currently lived in. You could still go to the
air and space museum wrapped around an old aircraft carrier, the
Intrepid, not that far from Sam’s house. Then again, Battery Park
was still there, but much of the street plan below the MCD was
gone. The World Trade Center site was still there, still largely
undisturbed, but the vast structure they had put up in the wake of
the terrorist attack was now dwarfed by the hyperstructures around
it. The street structure had been maintained in the MCD. Well,
almost. And admittedly the busy streets were now largely
pedestrianised and travelled only by autocabs and, to Fox’s
surprise, bicycles. She had not realised bicycles were still
popular until she had spent a few days taking runs in the area.

‘Tomorrow we’ll
go up to Central Park and run there. Do a quick scan and plot me a
route of about five kilometres.’

‘The park
itself is over four kilometres long,’ Kit replied.

‘Really? I
didn’t think it was that big. Well, take me around some lakes or
something. I just want to get more of a feel for the place. I’ve
always thought of it as somewhere to buy bad hotdogs. Tourists and
rich idiots. Precinct eighteen’s turf, and therefore nothing I’ve
been that interested in.’

‘You are
thinking of Mister August’s granddaughter.’

‘Maybe. If she
used to run in it… Well, she was probably rolling in it, but she
would go running there so it must have more users than the wealthy
and the gawking.’

‘I’ll plot out
a few runs for you. I’m sure we’ll have time to execute several of
them now that Mister August is likely to be dropping his
pursuit.’

‘Huh. Sam was
right about that. We shouldn’t be counting chickens just yet. NAPA
are going to have to do something about the man, and that might be
harder to arrange than it first appears.’

Vali’s Homestead,
Niflhel, 16
^th
May.

The message had arrived
at one in the morning, after Fox had decided on an early night. Kit
checked and her owner was definitely sleeping, pleasantly and
quietly if her neurochemical indicators were to be believed. So Kit
decided that she would go, alone, to see what it was that Vali
wanted that seemed to be so urgent.

She indulged
herself in a small debate, between all three of her copies, before
sending in an avatar wearing the little tunic dress that Vali had
programmed for her. He, she decided, was not going to get under it
as easily as Fox had. He, she decided, needed to earn some trust
back before she would be willing to ‘put out.’

The fact that
the young man appeared a little discomforted that she was alone
went some way to earning back that trust. ‘I was expecting you to
come with Zorra,’ Vali said when Kit appeared on the grass bank
outside his virtual home.

‘She’s asleep,’
Kit replied, a little more harshly than she might have wished. ‘She
doesn’t get enough sleep as it is without you disturbing her.’

‘I… Okay, I’m
happy to give this to you.’ There was a scroll in his hand and he
lifted it absently, not holding it out. ‘I wanted to
give
it
to you. Properly. Without the, uh… I’m
really
sorry about
the way I presented the other… Um… I’m not very good at this.’

‘No,’ Kit
agreed, ‘you’re not. But you do seem to be remorseful, and you are
trying, and the security hole has been patched. Mister Jackson said
it was a very clever exploit and he’s having the fix rolled out
across all MarTech’s servers so, in a way, you’ve done a
service.’

‘That doesn’t
excuse the… the abuse of your trust. Zorra compared what I did to
rape and I don’t believe she was exaggerating.’

Kit looked at
him for a second and decided that a little more contrition was
needed before she let him off the hook, but she had forgiven him.
He was just a male. ‘What do you have?’

Vali looked
down at the scroll. ‘Come up to the house and I’ll show you.’

‘Okay, but no
mead. I don’t think you’ve earned that familiarity back yet.’

‘I can live
with that. You… Uh, you seem to like the dress.’

‘I do, thank
you. Mistress Zorra made excellent use of it when I visited
Alexandria.’ There was some sort of mumbled reply and Vali’s cheeks
coloured, and Kit did her best not to grin at his discomfort. And
she decided that teasing Vali might be really good fun,
actually.

New York Metro.

‘Vali’s data this time
is a short email exchange,’ Kit said as Fox let the shower wash
away the slightly dopy feeling of a good night’s sleep. ‘The
metadata suggests that the messages were encrypted and I’ve
verified the checksums. The messages had to be taken from the mail
server Detective Brownlow used, or caught on the way in or out.
Then those messages were decrypted.’

‘So, more
evidence for the Overwatch meme.’

‘Indeed.’

‘Huh. I’m
starting to think I hate conspiracies more than politics.’

‘Isn’t the one
a subset of the other? Or at least an intersection.’

‘Probably. What
does this mail chain tell us?’

‘We have the
blackmail letter from Detective Brownlow to Mister August and the
eventual reply setting up the meeting which Mister Constance went
to. The detective includes a couple of attachments illustrating the
kind of information he thinks Mister August would prefer not to
have in the public domain. It is quite incriminating, though
somewhat circumstantial.’

Fox picked up
some shampoo from the rack beside her and set about washing her
hair. ‘Repackage the data. Make sure there’s no indication that
Vali was involved in getting it and then pass it through to NAPA
via Palladium. Could you get the robot to lay out my running
gear?’

‘Of course,
Fox.’

‘So how was
Vali?’

‘Very contrite.
I have decided to forgive him after he has been very contrite a
couple more times.’

Fox grinned. ‘I
think you’re getting the hang of this relationship thing really
well. Don’t milk it too much, though.’

‘I’ll be
careful, but teasing him was such fun.’

Fox began
rinsing her hair and wondered whether it was her fault or Terri’s
that they seemed to have created a monster.

17
^th
May.

‘I have identified
Sam’s mysterious client,’ Kit informed Fox after the morning
briefing with the board.

‘And?’

‘She works as a
maid at the Great Park Club. I found a lot of evidence that she is
trying to get the money together with her fiancé to move into an
apartment and finance the wedding. A recent posting on LifeWeb
suggests that they have now set a date.’

‘I wonder
whether the fiancé would be happy with the way his betrothed got
the money? Okay, we’ll sit on that one. I’m not blowing up some
poor woman’s chances of marriage just because a manipulative old
bastard threw money at her. Not unless we have to anyway. Send out
a request to set up a meeting with Cant. Today. I want to know what
he’s done with the information we’ve already sent him.’

‘I’m going to
say “nothing,”’ Kit said.

‘Someone so
young should not be so cynical. Give it another few hours, and then
you can be.’

~~~

‘What the Hell are you
doing?!’ Canard roared across his desk.

Fox had never
been intimidated by the man when he was her precinct captain, and
now he just came across as a petty dictator. She had got her
meeting, with Cant
and
Canard, at fourteen hundred, but only
after Palladium had lodged a formal complaint with NAPA’s judicial
division regarding the conduct of precinct 19 regarding the
Brownlow homicide. ‘Given that the murder of Detective Brownlow is
blocking any investigation I might undertake into the reasons
someone decided to frame Mister Clarion, I have presented all
evidence regarding the matter to Inspector Cant.’

‘Yes, and–’

‘Inspector Cant
has done nothing with that information and refused to meet with me
to discuss progress in the case. Under the judicial oversight laws
regarding circumstances such as this, Palladium Security Services
has lodged notice of concern regarding the conduct of Inspector
Cant and this precinct.’

‘We have not,
as yet, been in a position to interview Mister Harper August
regarding the “evidence” you presented,’ Cant said.

‘You were quite
happy to tip Mister Clarion out of bed at two am Saturday morning
when you thought
he
was responsible. Are you saying that you
can’t talk to Mister August on a Saturday afternoon?’ Cant glowered
and Fox turned her attention back to Canard. ‘Part of the complaint
is regarding the inequality of treatment. A bent, homophobic cop
was assigned to the Kenan homicide, and I had to step in to save
you from an embarrassing civil case. Now it seems that you want to
pin the murder of a cop on Mister Clarion.’

‘The evidence–’
Cant began.

‘Would have
taken twenty minutes to refute and you rushed in to lock Mister
Clarion up, but you refuse to do the same, with considerably more
evidence, to Harper August. You haven’t even arrested Philip
Constance, who you have on video shooting Detective Brownlow, and
you still have a movement restriction on Mister Clarion banning him
from leaving the building. That looks like double standards and
harassment.’

Fox’s eyes
fixed on Canard’s and she watched him, calculating. ‘I figure news
of the complaint is going to leak in time for the evening news
broadcasts,’ she said. ‘It’s lodged so even if we pull it, you’re
looking at damage limitation. And we won’t pull it unless you
actually start doing your job. I’ve no idea whether Brownlow was
dirty before he got the idea of blackmailing August, but he took
money to bury the Kenan case and then he tried to get more. That’s
going to be two dirty cops under your command coming out in just a
few months, Captain. The last thing you need is a third one looking
like he’s harassing a bisexual man to cover up the mess made by
another one.’

Cant’s eyes
narrowed and his mouth opened, but Canard got in first. ‘I’ll
review the case with Inspector Cant and consider further actions.
In lieu of a meeting, I’ll have my decision sent through to
Palladium this afternoon to inform you of how we intend to
act.’

Fox gave him a
smile which she was fairly sure did not get near her eyes. ‘Thank
you, Captain. Palladium Security Services stands ready to assist in
any way we can.’ Standing, she turned and headed for the door.

‘I’m surprised
Inspector Cant’s eyes did not manage to burn holes in your back,’
Kit commented as they headed for the elevator.

‘My jacket’s
lined to prevent that kind of thing.’ She looked down at the worn,
purple leather. ‘Though I
do
keep thinking I should get
something a bit more…’

‘Business-like?’ Kit suggested.

Fox gave a
grunt. ‘Corporate anyway. Now that my business seems to involve
more of this kind of thing. I hate politics.’

‘I know,’ Kit
replied, because she had heard the statement enough. ‘It’s
something of a surprise, is it not, that you seem to be quite good
at some elements of it.’

Fox grunted
again and stepped into the elevator. ‘Unfortunately, ploughing
through the red tape with a bulldozer is not
always
the best
way of dealing with it.’

~~~

IB-62 was Fox’s
preferred source of news when it came to the local stuff, and Kit
monitored it as a matter of course. Generally she did not feel it
necessary to bother Fox with it, but at four in the afternoon she
splashed the feed up over the darkened window and Fox raised an
eyebrow.

‘… Brownlow was
killed while off duty, but the death of any police officer is
something we take very seriously.’ Canard was up on stage in the
press briefing room at the precinct HQ. Someone had arranged a
conference, it seemed. ‘NAPA is working hard to uncover the
perpetrator of this act and those responsible for it. Inspector
Cant is, at this moment, arresting our main suspect, Philip
Constance.’

‘Kit?’ Fox
asked.

‘We intend to
pursue the individual or individuals responsible for procuring the
execution of Detective Brownlow, as well as the man directly
responsible,’ Canard continued. ‘To this end, movement restriction
orders have been issued for one Harper Markus August and a number
of personnel associated with Augustine Property Services. These
people are
not
under arrest at this time, but we have
evidence which we wish to present to them for explanation.’

‘Inspector Cant
and a squad of four uniformed officers have just arrived at Mister
Constance’s apartment building,’ Kit stated. ‘The timing appears
foolish.’

‘They’re hoping
Constance will do something stupid and they can shoot him. It’ll
make it far easier to tidy this up and let August off with a
slapped wrist. Let’s hope Constance has more sense. Put a request
through to NAPA. I want to interview Constance regarding the Kenan
case as soon as possible.’

‘You don’t
think they’ll just shoot him on entry?’

Canard’s voice
stopped Fox replying immediately. ‘NAPA is determined to bring this
case to a just end and with
full due process
rather than
being rushed into decisions by external interests. This precinct
stands for law and order, and it always will.’

‘Little dig at
Palladium which I’m pretty sure the memetics team can spin around
on him. They
want
Constance dead, but they’ll be doing
everything by the book while they have our complaint hanging over
them. As long as he knows what’s best for him, Mister Constance is
going to be alive for me to interview tomorrow.’

18
^th
May.

NAPA was
really
eager to do everything by the book, it seemed. Fox was given the
opportunity to interview Constance at ten am the next morning, and
they even put her in an interview room for the purpose. Of course,
that meant they could monitor everything said and done in the room,
but that was not really an issue.