****
I waited in
an interview room. It was a drab room
with bare concrete block walls, generic carpeting, and a stout metal table bolted to the
floor. Everything in the room was
standard colony grade equipment. There
was actually a company, in Armstrong I believe, that sold kits. They provided a cargo container of
fittings, a set of blueprints, and directions
on how to fab and assemble the simple parts.
It was an
economical way that meant one only had to pay to ship out what could not be
built locally. It did mean that many
municipal buildings out here followed the same drab functional lines.
That said, governmental buildings on earth also followed
the same lines.
I
straightened my shoulders and folded my hands on the table. This was a
civilized place at least. I had time to
get medical attention, make a couple calls, see that Camille was squared away
and then wait with a supply of water and a bowl of some type of dried fruit.
I had
worked on colonies where the proper response to an incident was to go back to
the office, fort up, and then make delicate inquiries as to the level of bribes
the constables and town councilmen were expecting.
Waiting
seemed to be a part of civilization.
It gave me
more time to think and clear my head. I
would have slept but despite the post adrenalin crash my apprehension as
up. Might have been for the best, a recording
of me soundly sleeping before being interviewed might be suspicious.
The door
opened and a stout, strong man with a trimmed beard stepped in. He wore dark blue pants, a buttoned own
shirt, and a long dark grey coat. A badge was on the left side of his belt; his
gun on the right.
"Marshal
Vallhun." I nodded my head.
"Victoria."
He took the seat across from me and took out a battered department issue
tablet. It was an older model that had
been specifically hobbled in its capabilities to provide, at least the attempt
of, a secure provenance of any evidentiary data. "You gave quite the statement."
"We
were attacked." I took a sip of
water.
"Yes
you two really faced some nasty figures," he put the tablet down. "Between you and me, you and your friend
did a lot to clean up this city. Almost a shame you let two of them run away.
If I were in your shoes I'm not sure I could have held back."
I gave a
polite note. If he were there he would have had a duty to pursue a fleeing
suspect. He would also have qualified
immunity protecting his actions. He
would also not be immediately talking with an investigator about his use of
force.
"Thank you Marshal. You have my full cooperation, once my legal counsel arrives." I gave
him a business-like smile.
He nodded "I've just got a few basic
questions." He paged through the tablet. "Camille said the first perp
was 30 feet away and that he shot first.
But he only shot her seven times.
Does that sound right to you?"
I folded my
hands. Even for me, the urge to help, to
answer a person's question, especially an authority figure's questions was
strong. However, I was familiar with
these tactics. Moreso, I knew Camille would be even more recalcitrant than
I. But most importantly, Camille would
never use "feet", when she
learned human units she learned metric.
"Well, we'll have quite the conversation once my
attorney shows up. I'm sure we can get things straightened up."
Vallhun
sighed. "Ma'am, I've have a busy
night."
I thought
that was a bit churlish given I was the one who had to use lethal force against
multiple deadly opponents.
He turned
the tablet off. Or at least he blanked the display. "A drunk sailor in a
brothel hit a girl. She bit him in a tender place. He drew a gun started
shooting and, the other girls tore him
apart. at least that's what the girls
say, conveniently there's no recording
devices allowed on premises and they do a sweep of any visitors."
I sipped
some water.
"A drug
shack on the north side of the island burned down we pulled out three bodies,
and we're not sure if it was the owners covering their tracks, and it burned
too fast for them, rivals taking them out, or a local arsonist having fun."
"Busy
night?" I asked letting my mind think on the future. If I presumed my legal representation would
get this sorted out, the next few weeks were going to have a mess of extra
workload as even a justified use of
lethal force could be quite expensive and time consuming.
I would also
have to go to my replacement weapons, as my nicest holster and gun were now
evidence. Longer term, I doubted Hans
had only one lickspittle remaining. I further doubted that he would hop on the
next submarine off-world.
"Above
average," he dryly noted. "Two bodies were found floating in the harbor."
I did not
respond to that. Bodies in the harbor
was a regrettably common thing. Like
Camille and I had hypothesized, someone could get the occasional source of meat
in this city simply enough. It was if
someone tried to get a regular supply that it would get noticed.
" A
poor suicidal girl tied back her wings and jumped off the observatory railing on the summit of the
island's peak, but the tie off didn't go
well and her wings came undone. Retarded her fall just enough that she didn't
die clean. It looks like a suicide case, but the girl's mothers said she wasn't
acting strange and there's no record of her having suicidal statements."
"And
compared to that a bar brawl that spilled out and with one guy with a crushed
neck and the other shot in the stomach is normal. The guy shot in the stomach
claims it was self defense but camera take's not so clear."
He gave me
a grim smile. "And then there's
your escapade. A high ranking company
girl, who she filed the intent for personal
protection beforehand. Who ended up
accosted and killing half a dozen known low-lifes. So, I'd really like to be able to put one of
tonight's cases to bed early."
The marshal
flicked the screen to his tablet back on. "That way I can get to the cases
where the actual items are dead and not being suck in my interview rooms."
He had been
understating things, that was a very busy night for Mooring. Vallhun and his men did have a jurisdiction
of about half a million souls. Violence was not uncommon out here, but that was more like the overnight toll of
a city on Earth, or one of the Inner Colonies,
cities that were two orders of magnitude larger.
I leaned
in, and gave a bright smile. "In that case Sir, you will certainly have my
full cooperation."
Vallhun looked
up, waited for a beat. "Once your
attorney shows up?" he asked morosely.
I ate some
of the dried fruit. "As you say."
****
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