Endurance: The Complete Series Page 10

  The commissioner regarded him for a moment, perhaps gauging his honesty, before she uncrossed her arms and waved her hand in agreement. “Fine. I’ll page the Endurance and have her come meet you upstairs.”

  “Thank you.”

  “One more thing before you go.” Wen looked up at him, though somehow she made it feel like she was looking down. “You and the organized crime team are working on this together. I know there’s some bad blood between you. Am I going to have to deal with problems coming up later?”

  “If Lieutenant Okoro will play nicely,” Viktor said, “I will do so, too.”

  “That’s not what I asked, Lieutenant. Am I going to have problems because of this assignment, or are you all going to act like adults?”

  Viktor forced his expression to stay neutral as he spoke. “No, Commissioner. There will be no problems.”

  * * *

  Viktor headed to the eighth floor and contemplated the officer running the investigation. Lieutenant Okoro had been Sergeant Okoro when Viktor last knew him. They’d worked in the organized crime division together for several years under Captain Soun, and while they were never exactly friends, they did work on many of the same cases.

  More importantly, Okoro had been running backup the day Viktor got into a bar fight and broke a suspect’s arm, the act that eventually led to his dismissal from the Org Crime division. Neither Okoro nor any of the other officers present bothered to stick up for Viktor at his disciplinary hearing, allowing Captain Soun to get rid of the problem by simply firing him and having him reassigned to the outskirts of the solar system. Easy fix for the captain, no inconvenience for the other officers, and complete ruination of Viktor’s career.

  At least it wasn’t all bad. He had more time to read out there.

  He arrived on the eighth floor and located the investigative team in one of the meeting rooms. Four officers sat in a semi-circle of chairs around a gigantic touchscreen displaying the known information about the case. Lieutenant Okoro himself stood at the board, in the middle of saying something while the rest of the team took notes.

  Viktor took great pleasure in barging into the room during the lieutenant’s speech. “I am Lieutenant Ivanokoff. I was told to report here as a consultant on the investigation.”

  Okoro turned to face Viktor and put on a forced smile. “Lieutenant. You’re late.”

  “My ship did not arrive on time.”

  “Oh, right. The Endurance, wasn’t it?”

  The other four officers exchanged glances with each other, and Viktor knew he’d already lost any appearance of dignity he might have gained from his entrance. But rather than give Okoro the satisfaction of a verbal acknowledgment, he simply nodded.

  Thankfully, Okoro didn’t prolong the discussion. “That’s fine. Take a seat. I was just going over who’s going to be doing what, before you interrupted.”

  Viktor seated himself on one end of the semicircle and avoided eye contact with the others in the room.

  Okoro pointed to an image of a house on the screen. “Quick recap. We found a laser-hacked lock on one of Soun’s basement windows, which was probably the murderer’s point of entry. No security system, no dog, nobody else at the house—Soun’s divorced, and his kids are all grown up. From what we can tell, the hit was quick. They found him in his bedroom and shot him twice, chest and head, with an illegal energy gun. Based on the wounds and the type of weapon used, it was a professional hit. He didn’t even wake up.”

  Viktor closed his eyes in a silent moment. Antagonist or not, Soun had deserved better.

  “We canvassed the neighborhood, and nobody saw or heard anything, but the list on the body makes the motive pretty clear,” said Okoro. “Somebody wanted revenge on the department.”

  “Do we know who wrote the list?” Viktor asked.

  Okoro shook his head. “No, but we’re …”

  “Were there any DNA traces at the crime scene?”

  “Not so much as a skin cell. We’re …”

  “And the names on the list, are they …”

  “Ivanokoff.” Okoro glared at him. “Shut up until I’m done.”

  Viktor wanted to argue that these questions were important, but he remembered Commissioner Wen’s admonition to avoid making waves. He crossed his arms and nodded.

  Satisfied, Okoro went on to answer his next question anyway. “The names on the list all belong to people who worked or work in Org Crime. Soun, Ivanokoff, myself, and six others. I cross-referenced our employment dates in the department and found thirty-one cases where we all had some input. We then narrowed it down to cases where we were all heavily involved, and where no other currently-living officers played major parts in the investigation. We came up with six cases, all of them Uprising-related.”

  Though he wouldn’t admit it, Viktor was impressed. That was a lot of productivity for one day of work.

  “At the moment, we have two goals. One, figure out which case motivated the murder. Two, keep the rest of the officers on the list alive. You two.” He pointed to the first pair of officers in the circle. “Talk to everyone on the list about the six cases. See if they remember anything that could point us in the right direction. Also, check up on everybody mentioned in the case reports, and especially look for recent prison releases or status changes among Uprising members. There’s a reason this happened now, and not earlier. You two,” he said, indicating the other pair, “talk to Soun’s ex-wife, his kids, his friends, and everybody else in his life. Get alibis and look for other possible explanations. Even though the murder style has Uprising written all over it, it could still be a cover to throw us off. I’ll go over the six old cases and see if anything makes one of them stand out from the others as a possible motive. We’ll check back this afternoon. Any questions?”

  Everyone shook their heads, except Viktor, who started to speak. “I think …”

  “Good,” Okoro said. “Get to it.”

  The two teams headed out of the room, and Okoro turned to Viktor. “Now you can talk.”

  “I assume I am to be paired with you?”

  “That’s right.”

  “What made you think that would be a good idea?”

  “We both worked with Adwin Soun for a long time, and we’re both on the list. I thought if we went back over that time together, we might stand a better chance of figuring something out.”

  Viktor tucked his thumbs into his belt near his guns. “And it was not just so that you could keep me under your control?”

  Okoro looked away. “Look, I know we didn’t part on good terms.”

  “You did not have my back when you should have, and then Soun sent me to the Endurance to keep me out of the way. If that is the way things still are, I do not need to be here.”

  “Ivanokoff, I need you on the team. Your knowledge of the previous cases might prove helpful, and the division is low on manpower. I’m losing two of my people to another case tomorrow, so there’ll only be four of us left. That said, I’ll settle for three if you’re not going to pull your weight. You’re a decent investigator, Lieutenant, but if you’re too bitter to think objectively …”

  “I am not bitter.”

  “Good. Then let’s leave the past in the past and solve this murder. All right?” Okoro held out a hand.

  “Fine.” Viktor shook the man’s hand, though he made a point of showing off his tighter grip.

  “Who knows?” said Okoro once they let go. “Maybe this case will be the catalyst that lets you finally get off of that ship.”

  Several comments about the reason he was on the Endurance in the first place came to mind, but Viktor ignored them in the interest of not prolonging the conversation. Instead, he said, “You mentioned that you were on the list of targets. I thought Commissioner Wen assigned all of us a bodyguard.”

  “She did. Mine’s out on the floor. Some big guy from O&I. Where’s yours?”

  “She will arrive soon. If she has not done so already.” Viktor thought it entirely possible
that Areva had slipped into the room unnoticed and secluded herself behind a bookcase.

  “Someone from the Endurance?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh.” Okoro made a face.

  “She is good.”

  “Right. I believe you.” Before Viktor could call Okoro out on the obvious lie, he changed the subject. “We should begin looking at those cases. Take a seat. We’re going to be here for a while.”

  * * *

  Nothing popped out as they pored over the old investigations. Neither of the other two teams turned up anything either. This didn’t surprise anyone, given the sheer amount of information to sift through. At the end of the day, Viktor bid farewell to the others—well, he grunted in their general direction as he left the floor—and headed back to the ship to continue working on his own.

  The parking lot was still half empty as he crossed to the Endurance. Even at night, most of the UELE’s hover cars stayed out on patrol, and its spaceships always had too much work to do to sit around idle on the ground. Dispatch stationed most of the fleet near Earth, Mars, and Venus, though a dozen or so ships took care of the area around Jupiter and the asteroid belt. One or two made it out to Saturn and Uranus, which each had a few populated moons and space stations, and the Endurance was the only one ever assigned all the way out to Neptune’s unpopulated orbit. During a good month the crew would hand out one speeding citation and check up on a handful of college students who’d gone out that far in order to party.

  A murder investigation was far more interesting, and Viktor’s thoughts delved into the case as he walked through the parking lot. Industrial floodlights illuminated the area, and a brick wall protected it from the surrounding streets, but Viktor could still hear the traffic on Market and Park and see the skyscrapers stretching upward. It was too bright to see the stars, though.

  He’d climbed two of the stairs to the airlock when Areva appeared from behind one of the ship’s landing struts. “Hey.”

  “Hello. Where were you today? I did not see you in there.”

  “I moved around a bit. Under desks, in unoccupied rooms. I found a stack of old equipment in one of the corners where I could see the whole floor, so I spent some time there. Don’t worry; I had your back.”

  “I was not worried.”

  Any further conversation they might have had ceased when someone screamed on the other side of the parking lot wall. The two officers exchanged a quick look and then ran toward the sound.

  “Two and a half meters,” Areva said as they arrived at the wall. “Can you boost me?”

  Viktor folded his hands and held them out to make a platform for her. She climbed up onto his shoulders and lifted herself onto the top of the wall. She turned to offer him a hand, but he jumped and grabbed the ledge, then pulled himself up under his own power. They both dropped down to the other side of the wall and looked around for the source of the screaming.

  It came from a young woman standing under a rain shelter across the street. Based on her casual attire and the city map in her hands, she was a tourist, and she was alone.

  Viktor waited for a break in the traffic before sprinting over, followed closely by Areva. He unfolded his pocket computer and activated his police badge, then held it out for the woman to see. “What happened?”

  She glanced down at his badge and then back up at his face, probably making sure he matched the photo on his ID. Most people didn’t look beyond that before trusting the officer in front of them. “H-he had a gun!” she said. She pointed toward the wall of the police lot.

  “Who did?”

  “The man who was there a minute ago. He ran when I screamed, but he totally had a gun attached to his belt!”

  “Carrying a gun is not a crime.” Viktor suppressed a sigh. This was probably just another easily spooked student on her first trip alone in the big city. He’d worked traffic in Median for several years, and this sort of thing happened on a regular basis.

  “But it was an e-gun! You know, the kind that can blow up a building, like in the movies?”

  “Energy handguns cannot actually do that,” Viktor said, but he felt a rise of alarm.

  E-guns cost a lot to produce, so they were rare, and they were difficult to maintain, so few people owned one. (Viktor was part of the exception—he had three.) But their accuracy and longevity made them a favorite of snipers and contract killers, and they were illegal to carry on the street in Median.

  Adwin Soun’s murderer had used an e-gun. Now, two days later, someone with a similar weapon showed up just a few blocks away. Viktor thought that an unlikely coincidence.

  He stepped under the rain shelter, where he presented slightly less of a target, and looked to see if Areva had picked up the significance of what the woman said. Areva had ducked behind a nearby trashcan, but her eyes were wide. She nodded to Viktor and put her hand on her service weapon. Her wary eyes scanned the area.

  Viktor turned back to the woman. “How do you know it was an energy weapon?”

  “I saw the bubble thingy on the front.”

  “The energy focus?”

  “Yeah, that thing. I took a self-defense class one time, and they said to watch out for those.”

  “And this man, what was he doing?”

  The woman pointed to the wall again. “Just standing there. He was watching the main street, so maybe he was looking for someone.”

  “Or listening for someone,” Viktor said. He and Areva had been talking on the other side of that wall just before the woman screamed. Perhaps the killer listened in, trying to gauge their position so he could take a shot. Knowing that he could be in the crosshairs at that very moment, Viktor spoke with more intensity. “Did you see which way he went?”

  “Yeah, over there.” The woman pointed toward Market Street.

  “Can you describe him?”

  “No, I didn’t notice his face. But I think he had a gray jacket on. Like a windbreaker, maybe?”

  Viktor nodded. “It is a start. Would you be willing to look at some photos to see if one of them is the man you saw?”

  “What, you know who this guy is?” the woman asked.

  “No, but we have some suspicions.” Viktor didn’t want to tell her about the probable Uprising connection. Discussion of crime organizations tended to spook people, and he really needed her to look at the images of known Uprising members to see if she could identify any of them. An ID could narrow down which of the six cases provided the impetus for the murder and the list.

  The woman hesitated for a moment between the fear of getting involved and the excitement of helping the police catch a criminal. Excitement won. “Sure, I can do that.”

  “Thank you.” Viktor beckoned to Areva, who reluctantly emerged from her hiding place. “This is Lieutenant Praphasat. She will take you to UELE headquarters.” With that, he started walking toward Market Street.

  “Wait, I will?” asked Areva. “Where are you going?”

  “To see if I can find him first,” Viktor called over his shoulder.

  He knew it was unwise to go out alone, but the chance of identifying the killer, and maybe even collaring him, made the risk worth it. He patted his sides and felt the reassuring presence of Dickens and Dante, which steeled his resolve. He’d just look around to see if he could spot the man, and then he’d return to headquarters.

  He rounded the corner onto Market and scanned the passersby for any sign of Mr. Gray Jacket. This time of evening saw most people eating dinner or preparing for the nightlife, so few pedestrians populated the streets. He passed a few businesspeople heading to the hover train and gave directions to a group of tourists who had gotten lost, but saw no sign of his target.

  He had just decided to head back to headquarters to see if Areva and the woman had found anything when a sudden movement in one of the side streets caught his eye. He turned his head fully and saw a man sprinting away while tucking something into the back of his belt.

  He wore a gray jacket.

  Viktor
took off after the man, dodging hover cars as he darted across the road. “Stop!” he yelled. “UELE!”

  The fleeing man didn’t obey, and instead rounded a corner to head down an alleyway. Viktor followed, his heavy footfalls pounding the pavement as he built up momentum. He took the turn wide so he didn’t lose any speed, but came to an abrupt halt as he entered the alley.

  The man was gone.

  Viktor jogged ahead and searched for places the man could have made another turn and escaped, but all of the connecting streets were deserted. He looked upward, in case his suspect had somehow climbed the side of a building, but saw no sign of him. He’d either entered one of the buildings through the back doors that faced the alley, or he’d taken a side street and evaded Viktor’s view. In either case, he left no way to pick up the trail.

  A chill began creeping up Viktor’s back as he looked down the empty roads. The assassin could also have lured him here for an easy kill. After all, he was next on the list, and if this man did in fact work for the Uprising, he had enough experience with law enforcement to predict how Viktor would behave. Viktor shivered, though it was a warm night, and turned to head back to headquarters.

  On the way, he tapped his intercom earpiece. “Page Areva.”

  “Paging Lieutenant Praphasat,” the earpiece’s voice responded.

  A few seconds later, Areva answered the page. “Viktor, are you all right?”

  “I am fine. I saw the man in the gray jacket, but I have lost him. Tell Okoro to have people canvass the area around Aldan Avenue, between forty-seventh and forty-eighth. That is where I last saw the suspect.”

  Areva cleared her throat. “You can tell him yourself. He wants you to report back in right away.”

  “He is upset?”

  “Probably.”

  Viktor grumbled a curse. This was not his day. “Then I will see you in a few minutes.”

  * * *

  Okoro met Viktor at the entrance to the Org Crime division floor. “You chased a suspect without calling it in? A suspect who is probably trying to kill you? Are you out of your mind?”