Caitlyn Morcos Page 12

  She nodded once, but her eyes never left Smith’s face.

  Morcos opened the door and a gentle puff of air ruffled her hair. The sound of Smith’s breathing, soft and slow, filled her ears. Gentle beeping and the occasional whirl of something mechanical faded into the background as Morcos sat next to her friend.

  “Heya Krissy. How’re you doing?”

  Smith, predictably, said nothing.

  “The doctors tell me you’re on the mend, although they’re still uncertain about the leg.” Morcos glanced at the limb under the sheets. “I was going to tell them that the leg on its own would be a better marshal than most people, but I wasn’t sure they’d appreciate the joke.”

  Morcos leaned forward, brushing a strand of Smith’s hair away from her forehead. Her skin was cool and speckled with sweat.

  “Case is going okay, I guess, although I just had a major lead die on me.” Morcos paused, and thought for a long moment. “Actually, it’s not going great, now that I think about it, but I’m doing the best I can. We all are.”

  She placed her hand gently on Smith’s.

  “I could really use your help, Krissy. I’ve never been in command before, and these people are all expecting me to work miracles.” She took a deep breath, blinking away the sudden itchiness in her eyes. “I don’t know if I can do this… but what choice do I have? I gotta try.”

  For the briefest instant, Smith’s hand twitched. Just the most minute, tiniest of movements.

  Morcos stared at their hands, hers on top of Smith’s, the fingers lightly curled. She had probably imagined the movement.

  Thirty minutes later, Morcos stood, adjusted her cap, and nodded down to Smith on the bed. “Good talk, Marshal. I’ll see you as soon as I have some more time.”

  She turned on her heel and marched out of the hospital.

  Chapter 16: Good Mornings

  It felt like Morcos had barely closed her eyes before her datapad started buzzing at her. Annoyed that she had forgotten to turn off the alarm, she whacked her open palm down on the device, hoping to mute it without having to open her eyes.

  “Good morning, Marshal.”

  Morcos sat upright, eyes wide open. Her datapad showed a bemused-looking St. Clair, one eyebrow raised.

  “Sir! Sorry. I thought you were my alarm. I may have forgotten we were still on the station for a minute. Apologies.”

  “No worries, Marshal. Normally I would route my call through your deputies and they’d give you the opportunity to prepare for our chat, but this time I figured it was better to go straight to the source.”

  Morcos grew somber at the tone in St. Clair’s voice. “What is it, sir?”

  St. Clair sighed. “You’re aware of the Free Mars protesters in front of the drydocks, yes?”

  Morcos nodded. The group had been there ever since the explosion on the Judicator, and had lost none of its fervour. They had almost become part of the background as she left the Courageous. “I’ve noticed them. Hard to miss.”

  “Well, somehow they caught wind of the arrest of Deputy Haley. They think you’ve put her on the Courageous so that she won’t be charged.”

  “That is partially true, sir.” Morcos nodded. “I mean, her only crime thus far is shooting me, and I don’t want to press charges on that just yet.”

  “You misunderstand, Marshal. They think you’re keeping her from being arrested for the murder of Deputy Hendor. That you, as an anti-Free-Martian or whatever the heck they’re calling people who don’t support their ridiculous claims, discovered that she was guilty of the bombing and are now attempting to ferry her away to safety.”

  “Ah.” Morcos nodded, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them. “Is this a problem?”

  “Well, is that what you’re doing?”

  “Not at all, sir. I know that Haley is innocent of placing the bomb itself. But she is being used by somebody for some reason.” Morcos paused, then pushed ahead. “I just don’t think she’s aware of it.”

  “I thought as much myself. She’s a good copper, that one.” St. Clair’s jaw clenched. “A little lacking in imagination, no question, and a bit rash, but a good cop.” St. Clair looked over at a second datapad as he continued to speak. “The crowd is getting too big for the constables you have outside the drydock to handle, at least not safely. It looks like you’ve made some friends at the constabulary, though, since there’s already a second squad that’s volunteered to help out.”

  Morcos smiled. “That’s good to hear.”

  St. Clair nodded. “But I don’t need to tell you that the number of Martians on this station outnumber the number of constables by a fair margin. These people are scared, Marshal. They already think the Interplanetary Government is out to get them, and now you’re hiding a suspected assassin on board your ship.” St. Clair raised his hands to forestall the protest Morcos was about to voice. “I trust you, Marshal. I do. I just need you to be aware that this is a delicate situation we’re working with. The sooner you can bring this to a close, the better it will be for everyone.”

  “Thank you, sir. How long do you think I have?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Sir, you wouldn’t be calling me if you didn’t already know that you’re going to have to hand over Haley to the constables within some time frame.” Morcos narrowed her eyes. “I’d rather know the kind of constraints I’m going to be working under.”

  St. Clair gave a brief nod. “Very well. The legal representative of the Free Mars movement approached the constabulary earlier today. We’re stalling, needing to get a judge to sign the right papers and then get those papers signed by me, but that will still only take about two days. Three tops. I hate to put you under more pressure, Marshal Morcos… but you are running out of time.”

  Morcos nodded. “Thank you for your candor, sir. I’d better get back to it.”

  “Before I let you go, Marshal,” St. Clair looked uncomfortable for a moment. “How is Smith doing?”

  “The same, sir. I went to see her yesterday, and she’s stable but still out.” Morcos felt a cold pressure on her heart. “She’ll pull through, sir.”

  “I’m sure she will, Morcos.” St. Clair nodded and saluted on screen. “Good luck.”

  Morcos sat staring at her datapad for a long moment after the feed went dead. She needed results faster than she was getting them.

  “Alright people, I need options. Ideas. Give me everything you’ve got and we’ll see if any stick.”

  Morcos leaned forward over the briefing table, her brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed as she concentrated. Her deputies all appeared in equal states of unrest and confusion.

  “Tracked down that hover.” Di Mercurio reported. “No useful data inside, of course. It’s a government issued vehicle, but one that was decommissioned some time ago. Purchased during a government auction.” She looked down at her datapad for a moment before continuing. “Last reports put it in the hands of a small gang on the lower docking ports. The majority of the gang was arrested in a drug bust and the hover disappeared after that. Damage to the vehicle was extensive but not crippling.”

  “Where did you find it?”

  Di Mercurio shrugged. “A few hundred meters from the firefight, behind a set of warehouses on a loading path. It was discovered after an automated walker was forced to detour around it and somebody was sent to investigate why.”

  “No cameras in the area, I assume?” Chatterji sighed as she asked. Di Mercurio shook her head.

  “No, our shooter was smart enough to avoid that.”

  “Okay, what else?” Morcos nodded to Kobayashi. “Eddie?”

  “Nothing useful on the datapad. It was hard-wired to wipe if Schnider died, which he did, and it did. The few scraps I’ve been able to recover show that he arrived on station a few days before the bombing, and that he did so without going through the usual hoops one needs to jump through to get on Scorpii: no records of him at any immigration or security checkpoint. Probably mea
ns he came in on a freighter.”

  “Do we have anything on him from before he showed up here?” Morcos asked hopefully.

  “Only that the name ‘Jeong Schnider’ didn’t exist, as far as we can tell, before a few days ago. No records whatsoever. I’ll know more when we get the autopsy back, since they should be able to DNA-trace whoever he actually was without too much difficulty.”

  “How long does that usually take out here?”

  “A week, sometimes two.” Kobayashi shrugged helplessly. “I can ask them to put it under priority, but it still takes time. There’s always a backlog of work at the forensics labs.”

  “We don’t have that kind of time,” Morcos sighed. “Okay, anything else?”

  After a few heartbeats of silence, Chatterji spoke up.

  “Maybe we’re looking at this from the wrong side, Marshal.”

  “What’re you thinking?”

  Chatterji leaned forwards. “We’ve been examining this bombing as an attack on the Marshal Service, right?”

  Morcos nodded. “Due to our original time constraints, and those imposed now by the Free Mars people, it was the only reasonable assumption to start with.”

  “Right, right.” Chatterji nodded. “But, by extension, we assumed that this was an attack on either Marshal Smith or one of her deputies… or the lot of them together.” Chatterji pointed at Morcos. “What if this was supposed to be an attack on you?”

  “How do you figure?”

  “Well, it’s worth considering at least.” Chatterji leaned back. “After all, any reasonable person would assume that the higher ranked marshal, or in this case the one with a better reputation and record, would take the newer, faster, more powerful ship.”

  “And the one with better chairs.” Morcos added to a few chuckles from the deputies. “Okay, I can see that. But how does that change things?”

  “Well, for starters, why did the men that were in the store open fire at you?” Kobayashi asked, suddenly catching on to the thread Chatterji had laid out. “They could’ve just played dumb, or sent you somewhere completely unrelated to where Schnider actually went. But you say they opened fire the moment you were through the door.”

  Di Mercurio nodded in agreement. “Good point. Okay, so she was their target, and they weren’t trying to stall you. This moves us away from Haley being a viable bomber, though. I still don’t trust her.”

  “Schnider confessed to planting the bomb,” Morcos admitted to raised eyebrows and looks of surprise. Morcos rubbed her chin with her left hand. “As for Haley, I have a hunch she honestly thought that shooting me was somehow better for either me, her, or the Service. Although I haven’t put together why she would think such a ridiculous thing yet.”

  Di Mercurio shrugged. “Call me old fashioned. She shot you, I don’t trust her.”

  Morcos smiled. “Well, I’m glad you feel that way. I suppose somebody on this boat had better be concerned about people shooting me.”

  Di Mercurio smiled.

  “Okay, so if the Marshal was the target, why kill Schnider?” Kobayashi asked.

  “Well, just because the target has changed doesn’t mean that the people who hired Schnider have,” pointed out Chatterji. “They still want to remain free to strike at you again. You’re safe here on the ship due to the constables constantly sitting outside the drydock, though.”

  “About that,” Morcos said, leaning forward again. “Do we think the Free Mars people had something to do with this? Could an extremist have ordered the bomb themselves in order to rile up sympathy for their cause?”

  Kobayashi pursed his lips as he thought. “It’s not impossible, I suppose.” He shrugged. “Not typical, though. They tend to be loud but non-violent. And if you were the intended target, then it wouldn’t make any sense. Hendor was assigned to Smith’s crew.”

  Morcos leaned forward. “But why was Hendor assigned to Kristen’s crew?”

  Di Mercurio shrugged. “Well, technically we weren’t assigned to either of you, we were assigned to… ah!” She sat forward.

  “Exactly!” Morcos nodded. “You were assigned to the ships. Makes sense, you would need to know how the vessels you were assigned to worked, after all! So Hendor was, from an outsider’s perspective, assigned to ‘my’ ship, or the vessel I was most likely going to be assigned to.”

  “Okay, so that would make it possible that you were the assigned target and that Hendor was needed to rile up the Free Mars people.” Di Mercurio sighed. “This doesn’t get us any closer to a suspect, though… does it?”

  “It may.” Morcos rubbed her chin again. “But I don’t like the direction it’s leading us. Our bomber had to know who was assigned to which ship in order for our current supposition to work. And who had that information?”

  There was a moment of silence as the realization slowly sunk into the deputies.

  “We’re all thinking it.” Morcos said. “I’m just going to say it: it had to be somebody at Headquarters.”

  The silence stretched out again.

  “Well.” Morcos sighed. “Okay, let’s assume that somebody at Headquarters is either a leak or our attacker. How do we confirm this?”

  “Hey…” Di Mercurio leaned forward after a moment. “You said that Haley seemed to think she was doing something in the best interests of the Service. Maybe she received word from somebody in HQ? Or orders? That might point us straight to the leak. Or somebody who knows who they are, at least!”

  Morcos nodded. “If I can get Haley to open up about her source, it might do at that, too. Okay, I’m going to go talk to her.”

  Chapter 17: Leaky Ships

  The brig on the Courageous was designed with four cells, each capable of holding two prisoners comfortably for long periods of time, since it was always somewhat uncertain how long it would take a marshal vessel to reach either a space station or transfer the prisoner to a dedicated jailship. There was also room for twelve additional prisoners in cryosleep capsules inset into one wall, but those were generally reserved for extreme cases and were rarely even included in modern marshal starships. Of course, the Courageous was not a modern vessel by at least a handful of years.

  Haley was sprawled out on a bunk that lowered down from the left side of her cell. The entire cell front was a single piece of reinforced transparent armour with uniformly spread holes at the top and bottom for air circulation and sound. Newer ships sometimes used shields for the cells, but Morcos always thought it was a particular step of stupidity that your cell walls depended on the power from the fusion drive not being interrupted by anything: these older, but more physical walls were far safer in her opinion.

  Other than the lowered bunk, a small washroom area at the back of the cell, and the food dispenser enclosure in the right wall, the cell was empty aside from the single occupant. Haley had her arm thrown over her face, shielding her eyes from the harsh overhead lights.

  Morcos approached the cell, keeping her eyes on the ragged looking deputy within. Haley didn’t hear her approach, and so she stood outside the cell, leaning against the glass wall, for a long moment, listening to the quiet breathing of Haley on the bunk. The deputy’s body shook as she clenched and relaxed her hands slowly.

  Morcos silently walked back to the entrance of the brig. She coughed loudly and stomped down the corridor, putting a stern look on her face.

  Haley was sitting upright in her bunk, her face slightly puffy and red but otherwise she looked defiant and proud. Her back was straight, and she looked out at Morcos somewhat impassively.

  “Haley.” Morcos nodded at Haley as she leaned up against the glass wall. “Good to see you’re awake again.”

  Haley shrugged. “You weren’t kidding about those stunners hurting. I feel like I was hit in the head with an iron bar that was strapped to a bigger iron bar swung by a bear.”

  Morcos chuckled. “Hey, my arm still stings. You’re not getting any sympathy from me on that count, deputy.”

  “Am I?”

  “
Getting sympathy?” Morcos thought for a moment. “Well, a little I suppose, since I could just toss you over to the constables and be done with you.”

  “No, ma’am, am I still a deputy.” Haley’s eyes filled with tears for a moment, but she blinked them away quickly. “I mean, I did shoot you.”

  “Yeah, you did.” Morcos nodded. “Why did you do that, exactly?”

  “It’s… it’s hard to explain, marshal.” Haley sighed and leaned back, her head softly touching the wall behind her. “I received orders. Well, not ‘orders’, per say, but a suggestion from headquarters that it might be in everyone’s best interests.”

  “From headquarters?” Despite expecting it, it still was a shock to hear out loud.

  Haley nodded. “You can check my datapad. It’s still there. Just a friendly suggestion that if I wanted to clear my name and do the Service a favour, it would behoove everyone that Jeong be arrested by me, and not by you.”

  “Arrested? I thought you went to kill the guy!” Morcos said.

  Haley recoiled slightly, a look of disgust on her face. “Marshal! I know I haven’t done much to prove it, but I am a good officer. I would never shoot somebody without cause!” She shuddered slightly. “That guy in the fish store was the first time I’ve ever shot anyone, and I didn’t even kill him. When Schnider bolted for the transport, I was trying to hit him in the leg, keep him from running.”

  Morcos nodded, remembering how shaken up Haley had seemed after their firefight in the store. “Okay, so you went to arrest the guy. Why keep me out of it?”

  “I dunno, Cait… marshal.” She shrugged. “The gist of the message was that it would help clear my name, and suggested distracting you in some way. I panicked when we got close to the docks. I needed you gone, but what excuse could I come up with to collar the bomber on my own?”

  “You could’ve asked.” Morcos said with a wry smile. “Beats shooting me with my own gun.”

  Haley shook her head. “The message was pretty clear that you should be kept in the dark as much as possible.”