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Gaea - Chapter 02

From Betamountain.org


Gaea

Chapter 2

by Baybelletrist



Mars City Police Department

7/29/2098, 0130

 

Ridley stared over his partner's shoulder at the blurred image on the screen of her handheld.

"That's the person who ran out of the building?" he asked. A passing night shift officer, coffee cup in hand, dodged neatly around him without looking up from her handheld.

The Mars City Police Department occupied five full floors at the base of one of the city's many high rises. "Holding and Interrogation take up most of two floors in the basement and subbasement, downstairs from Main," Ridley had said as they passed through the main security checkpoint at the front of the building. "Main is Booking, meeting rooms—"

"—the dog and pony show for the public," Lee cut in. "Data processing and the various department offices take up Second and Third. Main break room's on Two, gym, locker rooms and showers in Sub-one."

"This looks like one of the older buildings in this part of town," Zachary noted, glancing around at the scuffed floors and faded paint.

Lee cracked a cynical half-smile. "You don't expect the pols to build new government buildings and then let the cops move in, do you?" she asked.

They stood now in the main office area, where most of the rank and file had their workstations. Those few officers not out canvassing or on calls stood around them, listening. Looking at the image Brianna Lee held, Doc raised his hands in a shrug. "Best we could do with the video source we had. The resolution wasn't the best I could've hoped for. I even tried again on the flight out, but no dice." He slurped up the last of the soda he'd bought at a fast food joint en route from the spaceport and pitched the empty cup into a nearby recycler.

Lee shrugged. "We've got a base description: female, five-eight or so, dark hair. It's a start. We've got people canvassing right now."

"In the middle of the night," Doc noted, grinning. "That'll make us extra popular." 

Lee glanced at him. "We don't have to be popular, Ranger Hartford. We just have to arrest people who burn down large office buildings with other people inside." 

"We'd like to interview the man who took that video," Zach said. "Can you put us in touch with him?"

"We can do better," Lee said. "We caught him with a few grains of Glitter when we went for a follow-up visit, so he's got a room downstairs in the holding cells, courtesy of MCPD. You can talk to him anytime you want."

Zach stood. "Lead on."

As Ridley led the three Rangers toward the elevators, they heard Lee's voice. "Okay, people, back to work..."

"Yes, Captain," someone answered sarcastically. Ridley snorted.

"I'll run you downstairs, Captain," he said quietly to Zach. "But then I've got to finish up some paperwork and head home. Buzz me if you need anything."

"Thanks, Lieutenant," Zachary answered. They paused at the elevators, and he glanced around at his team.

"Niko, Goose, you're with me. Doc, head up to the data processing center and start reviewing the forensics reports. And have your programs run through the League databases. See if you find any significant matches. It's a long shot, but—"

"I know, Captain," Doc answered, smirking. "No drudge, no glory."

Niko groaned.

 

 

Louis Tulley was a tall, thin, sullen youth. He peered out at the Rangers from behind a screen of lank, dark blonde hair and mumbled, "Whaddaya want?"

Zach leaned both hands on the table. "You shot some video footage of the Widner Building burning down, Mr. Tulley. We'd like to talk about what you saw that night."

Tulley lowered his eyes again. "I dunno, man. Just some person, chick prob'ly, ran outta the fire and down the street. When I tried to take her pic, she, like, shone some bright light at me or somethin'. I couldn' see for a second and then when I looked again she was gone. That's it, man." He stared at the table, eyes occasionally turning toward Goose's large and intimidating presence.

Niko logged her handheld into the station net and brought up a copy of Doc's image on the interrogation room wall screen. "Can you help us refine this? Anything you could offer would be useful."

He squinted at the screen. "Like, you can't really see her face here, man. I think she was pretty young, like not even twenty maybe. But it was hard to see her face too much because of the, y'know, light." He wiggled his fingers suggestively.

"Light?" Zach asked. "You mean the field around her?"

Tulley nodded. "Shit, man, she ran outta burnin' building and she wasn't even singed. That's some slick tech I wouldn't mind playing with, man." He brightened slightly, gesturing restlessly with the hand that wasn't cuffed to the table.

"Planning on burning down any buildings?" Goose asked ominously from where he leaned against the wall. Tulley glanced nervously at him.

"No way, man, a'course not. Just, it'd be solid, y'know? You could, like, go run through fires 'n' sh—uh, stuff, an' not get burned. But I din't see that much of her face."

"Could you see anything about the shape of her face?" Niko pressed him. "Her nose or her chin?"

"Uhhh... well, like, her face was kinda like yours, I mean, not all round like my sister's ugly mug."

"An oval face? Or more angular?" Niko encouraged.

"I dunno, just not real round. An' her nose was just kinda, like, regular. Not big or anything. I guess maybe she was kinda pretty, but, y'know, it was hard to tell."

"What about her hair? We can see that it's dark. Could you tell any more about the color or the style?" she asked. Onscreen the image was shifting as the department AI's composite software interpolated Tulley's data.

"Not black," he said with certainty. "I don't think. It wasn't long like yours," and his eyes dropped to her waist for a moment, "but, like, it wasn't real short either. Sorta in between, I guess. It was in a ponytail, y'know, so I dunno for sure."

She pointed to the image onscreen. "Is this closer to the person you saw?"

He squinted. "Yeah, I think so, only... her face was, like, more bony, a little, and her hair wasn't that dark, I don't think." He watched as the changes were applied. "Yeah, man, that's kinda like her, I guess. Y'know, it was kinda dark an' hard to tell." Niko routed the new image to Doc's workstation.

Tulley stirred. "Am I in a lotta trouble, ma'am?" he asked Niko suddenly. "My lawyer din't want me to talk to you, but, y'know, if it was just about this person I din't care. But that lady cop, the little one, she said I was busted big time. So, like, am I gonna go to jail?"

Niko glanced over at Zach. "Well, that's not really in our jurisdiction, Mr. Tulley," she answered gently. "You'd have to ask the officer in charge of your case if they're planning to pursue charges. But it won't hurt your case that you helped us here today. I'm very grateful for your input." She smiled. Tulley peered at her from behind the hair and smiled back cautiously.

"So, like, is that it?" he asked.

"Yes," Zach answered. "Thank you, Mr. Tulley. Try and stay out of trouble, will you?"

"Yessir," the young man answered, retreating behind his hair. The Rangers filed out of the interrogation room.

Niko's passing generated hoots from occupants of the various holding cells, louder and more raucous than they'd been on the trip down. One especially bold youth swaggered up to the front of the cell and called, "Hey, baby, got plans for tonight?"

In a blur of motion Goose had the perp's shirt in his fist. "Yeah, she does," he snarled, squashing the youth's face against the bars. "She's got target practice. You wanna volunteer, asshole?"

"Gooseman," snapped Zach. Goose dropped the boy, who scrambled on hands and knees to the back of his cell. The Rangers left the holding area in dead silence.

Niko studied the image on her handheld screen as they took an elevator up to the data processing and records center—which, in contrast to most of the rest of the building, offered fairly modern amenities. The three Rangers passed by several banks of high-capacity data storage units, lights flickering as information flowed through. The data storage area gave way to workstations in star-shaped groups, where technicians and AIs answered queries and pulled files, and then finally to cubicles where a few officers did specialized data processing. The Rangers turned one more corner in the maze and reached the cubicle temporarily assigned to Doc.

"Doc!" Niko called. The hacker turned from his workstation, eyebrows raised inquiringly. "Did you get the composite I sent up?"

His teeth flashed in a grin that lacked some of its usual wattage. "It just got here a minute ago. It's good to have. Sorting through this many dossiers was giving my tweakers fits. You should just hear the griping."

Doc switched his workstation screen over to the new image.

"Not a bad job, Ms. Niko," he noted, rubbing his stomach absently. "The tweakers are doing a high-speed data sort. Bring it up on screen, guys, and while we're at it—when we get results, I'll have you flash 'em to the officers on the canvassing squad."

"Right, Doc!" Pathfinder squeaked.

The four Rangers watched as images flickered by, faster than the human eye could process. A small, holographic hourglass floated above the CDU, counting down the time remaining in the search. As the sand slid silently downward, Doc's forehead creased in a frown. He rubbed his stomach again, and an uncomfortable expression flitted across his face. "Man! What do they put in the burgers around here?"

"Mine tasted fine," Goose said with an innocent smile. "You sure it was the burger? I'd have guessed going back for that second order of onion rings. Or maybe it was the—"

"Knock it off, my Goose man." Doc looked queasy. "It's not nice to make fun of the sick and dying, you know. And you're the last person who should be poking at other people's choice of food! You won't catch me eating anchovy paste."

Niko bit her lip to keep back a sputter of laughter and rummaged in one of the pockets attached to her belt. "Here, Doc," she said, and held out an antacid. He took it with a grateful smile.

Less than three minutes later, Doc's programs flashed out of the workstation.

"No go, Doc," Pathfinder squeaked. "She ain't in here. Not even close."

Zach shook his head. "No criminal record. At least we've got a better image to work with. Doc, what did you find from the forensics report?"

"They're still working on the exact cause of the fire," Doc replied. "There were marks from stunner bolts on the walls, but those don't generally start fires. They've located the flashpoint; it looks like it started in the basement, in or near the main air conditioning unit, and then spread through the vent system. Fine way to move a fire, I must say. They've also figured out why the fire suppression system didn't come up. The network trunk was lying on the floor across the room from where schematics say it should've been."

Goose tensed. "Something ripped it off the wall?"

"Looks like," Doc affirmed, "but considering the whole place is pretty much wrecked, they're having a hard time pinning down what. They're still working over the evidence they brought back from the site. They said they'd get back to me if anything earth-shattering came up."

Zach consulted his wrist chrono. "It's 0215. The sun won't be up for a few hours yet. Guess we've got time to catch up on some of those overdue reports." He bent a stern eye on Niko and Goose, though the effect was somewhat diminished by the half-smile that quirked the corners of his mouth. Doc escaped meeting Zach's gaze by the simple expedient of keeping his own eyes fixed on his screen, but Niko saw the hacker's shoulders hunch under the weight of his captain's stare.

Niko groaned under her breath.

"Uh, Captain, I was thinking about checking out the shooting range—" Goose took a casual step away from his teammates.

"Oh, no you don't!" Doc exclaimed. "If I have to suffer through filling out reports, so do you!"

"Get to work, you three," Zachary said. "Once morning shift starts coming in, we can brief them and then go take a look at what's left of that building."