Alternity 2 Chapter

Alternity 2 - Chapter 14

"Well well well," said O'Riley "Maybe we should see what Mr Drummond was so determined we didn't see." So saying he stepped into the room Beka and Harkness close behind him. He room was spartanly furnished containing nothing more than a metal desk, a chair , and a set of shelves behind the desk. There was a combination computer/communicator sitting on the desk. The shelves were bare except for a single flexie. O' Riley went over to the flexie and began to examine it while Harkness began opening the desk drawers. "Now this is interesting," said Harkness as he removed something out of one of the drawers. "Not a very flattering image of you though Captain Valentine." The private investigator was holding a series of two dimensional images of Beka and Tyr. The ones of Beka showed here in a formal evening gown.

Beka took the pictures from Harkness. "More interesting than you know," she said. "I can't tell from the background where this image was taken but the last time I wore that outfit I was on Mobius.."

"That does raise some interesting questions," agreed Tyr as he took the picture from Beka. "It would appear that one of our allies is playing a double game. It also suggests that while we were looking for Drummond he was looking for us. I would like to take a copy of this," he held up the image of Beka, "with us when we return to the Andromeda. Perhaps Andromeda will be able to identify where the image was taken which might help determine who our mole is"

"That can be arranged" said O'Riley. He turned his attention to Harkness who was opening the other drawers in the desk "Find any thing else Mike?"

"Just this." the private investigator pulled a metal box out of the desk's lower drawer. "I don't know what's in it, but what ever it is Drummond doesn't want anyone else to take a look at it. It's equipped with a biometric lock, and an electronic passkey lock. If Drummond went to all that effort to keep anyone from opening the box I wouldn't be surprised if it has a self destruct mechanism as well. I think we had best leave this to the Palmyra lab."

"Ok with me," said O' Riley as he took the box from Harkness and handed it to the woman Tyr had terrified earlier. "Unfortunately while this secret room is all very interesting there's nothing here to help us out with our problem. Where are Drummond and Professor Venst and what does the professor know that's so important that people are willing to kill to get the information?"

"Or kill to keep it from being disseminated," added Harkness. "Zachariah, we really need to find Venst before Drummond does."

Before O'Riley could answer the other uniformed police officer walked into the concealed office. "Lieutenant," he said, "the Captain just called. She says the lab team's on the way. They should be here within a few minutes. She also says next time she wants to contact you she expects you to have your communicator turned on."

"Thanks Kelso. I''ll meet them outside. I want you and Nogales to stay here. Mike, take our guests back to their hotel. The two of you," he gave Beka and Tyr pointed looks, "stay put when Mike drops you off and don't generate any more bodies for me to have to do the paperwork on."

Beka and Tyr clambered into the back of Harkness' car. Tyr gave a small grunt of discomfort as he sat down. Beka suspected that Tyr had sustained a cracked rib during his fight with Drummond but was too stubborn to admit that he had been injured. Harkness started his vehicle but didn't head back in the direction of the hotel.

"Didn't the Lieutenant tell you to take us back to the hotel," asked Beka.

"He did," replied Harkness somewhat absently as he maneuvered the car through the traffic. Like Tyr he preferred to keep his vehicle in manual mode. "But he didn't say I had to take you directly there."

"So where are we going?" asked Tyr.

"Back to Venst's office on the campus The fact the Than was tortured and Venst's house was ransacked tells me that Drummond doesn't have whatever it is he's is looking for, and that he doesn't know where Venst is either". He paused for a brief interval than continued "When most people are on the run they go someplace they feel comfortable, safe. I want to take a look at the professor's office. Maybe there'll be something there that'll give us a clue as to where he went."

Not surprisingly Venst's office was deserted. The only security was a couple of pieces of tape attached to the entrance with the words "Do Not Enter" printed on them, which Harkness promptly took down. Beka gave a disgusted look at the chaos in the professor's office when she entered. Apparently the police had taken the earlier ransacking as a challenge to their abilities to create chaos, and had risen admirably to the occasion. "This place looks even worse than Harper's workshop," she said.

Harkness shrugged. "The local police don't get many chances to do this sort of thing you know. I suppose they get overenthusiastic when they do have the opportunity. Let's get started maybe we'll turn up something they overlooked."

It was Tyr who discovered the clue. It was a three dimensional graphic of Venst in outdoor clothes attached to a polished slap of wood. Along with the graphic there were a pair of feathers and some sort of small hard objects. "This looks like something your girl would pick up," Tyr said to Beka.

"It does look like a souvenir from a vacation," agreed Beka. "Do any of these look familiar to you?" she asked Harkness taking the slab of wood from Tyr and handing him the slab of wood.

Harkness took the slab of wood from Beka and examined it."Those look like bristlecone seeds," said Harkness. "They're a common tree on the non Vedraformed segments of the planet."

" If they're local," said Beka, "then maybe someone in the university can determine where on the planet they came from. Lets see if they have a biologist here."

Not only was there a biologist present but he recognized the souvenir. "I helped him mount the feathers," he explained. "The professor had returned from a vacation in the Ctesiphon forest and asked for me to help him prepare the feathers so they could be mounted. He visits there often. I think he has a vacation home there."

"That sounds just like the sort of place a person might go to if he was on the run," said Beka. "How do we get to the forest?"

"We're going to need more than just somewhere in the Ctesiphon forest for a location," said Harkness putting up a hand in a 'stop' gesture. "The park covers just over ten thousand square kilometers and there are quite a number of cabins and vacation homes in it. We need to narrow down the search area a bit before we go charging off."

"How do we do that" asked Tyr as he took the slab from Harkness.

"The Bureau of Revenue should have the data," explained Harkness. "He'll have had to pay taxes on the property if he owns it. We can't access their data but Zachariah can from his office. I'll give him a call and tell him what we found." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his personal communicator, punched in a access code and began to speak. The model was equipped with a privacy shield, Beka could see his lips moving but couldn't hear what he was saying. After a moment a look of surprise came over the private investigator's face and he put his communicator back in his pocket. "We need to get over to Zachariah’s office," he said. "They opened the box. There was an encoded memory chip in it. The lab boys are working on that as we speak. but maybe more importantly a courier from the Mobius High Guard base just landed at the spaceport. They have an eyes only message for the two of you. There's a secure communicator at the station and you can access the message from there. Lets go"

He strode out of the biologist's office without looking backwards to see if the other two were following him. Beka didn't know if she should be pleased or annoyed. She liked a man who took charge but she wasn't sure if she liked it when he was taking charge of her.

Chapter 13

Chapter 15