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Alternity 2 - Chapter 9
Beka slowly turned around and as she expected Harkness was standing in the doorway. He was holding a pistol, the business end of which was pointed at a point midpoint between Tyr and her. Accompanying him were two men and a woman all wearing police uniforms and all looking completely out of their depth.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Captain Valentine. It's a small universe." Harkness was dressed in civilian attire rather than body armor but even so he still had his air of command about him. The pistol in his hand twitched a fraction towards Tyr and then towards her. "You, Nietzschean, put your hands behind your head. Captain, put your weapon on the floor, kick it towards me, and then take your friend's and do the same thing. Use your left hand when you do so."
"Do you really think you can take both of us out Kludge?" asked Tyr his hands still at his sides completely ignoring the uniformed officers. The way he accented Kludge made it obvious he was attempting to goad Harkness.
"You'll be too dead to notice if the captain gets me Uber," retorted Harkness obviously unaffected by the insult. "Now put your hands behind your head. NOW!"
As Tyr complied with the request, Beka could almost see the levels of testosterone rising in both men and decided she had best do something before the shooting started. The police officers were starting to reach for their weapons and frightened people with guns made Beka nervous. She was willing to bet that in a shoot out Tyr would come out the winner but she wouldn't want to bet more than she could afford to loose and she also knew Harkness well enough to know that he wouldn't shoot them once he had disarmed them. She slowly moved between the two men deliberately blocking Tyr's line of fire while removing her weapon from her holster and kicking it towards Harkness."
"No one is going to be shooting anyone, Tyr," she said. "Stand down and let me take your weapon." The last was an order and both men knew it. She ignored Tyr's scowl and removed his weapon kicking it towards Harkness. "Can we put our hands down now?" she asked once the weapons were under Harkness' control.
"Put them down but keep them where I can see them," ordered Harkness. "Jackson, Bennet, Nogales," Harkness began addressing the police officers accompanying him but still kept his eyes on Tyr, "secure the perimeter of the building don't let anyone other than the squad from the city enter the area and don't touch anything."
"It's been a while," said Beka in an effort to defuse the situation. "I take it Marentez decided he no longer needed your services?"
"You could say that," replied Harkness. Some of the tension had gone out of his voice and his pistol was back in his holster, but considering it was a power holster strapped to his forearm that didn't mean much. He could get of a round as quickly as he could point a finger. "Marentez'es buyers decided that if he couldn't prolong their lives one way he could in another." At Beka's puzzled look he continued. "Lykos uses organ transplants as well as regeneration techniques. Marentez' buyers used him for spare parts. The removed his skin, eyes, internal organs and blood. He was alive and conscious when they were doing it."
Beka had to fight to keep her stomach under control. Marentez had been slime but no one deserved to die like that. "So why are you here?" She asked in an attempt to change the subject.
"I still had some friends when I left the force," explained Harkness. "One of them settled here on Mohendjo Daro and is a Lieutenant on the force in Palmyra. After our encounter I contacted my friend. He couldn't get me on any of the local police forces with my record but he was able to help me become established as a private investigator here.
"Ok, that explains your presence here on Mohendjo Daro. But why are you here now." She pointed around the wrecked living room as she said here.
"Pure blind luck. I was at the Ninevah police HQ doing some work for a client when they received the report of the killing at the university. The local police generally don't have to deal with anything more serious than drunks and domestic disturbances. When something heavy goes down they call the Palmyra police for assistance. I volunteered myself to help out with the investigation until a Palmyra homicide squad arrives." The tone of his voice suddenly changed as he transformed back into a police officer questioning a suspect at the scene of a crime. "That explains my presence, now why are you here."
Beka very slowly reached into the breast pocket of her flightsuit and showed him the ID she had used in an attempt to impress the customs official. She had a feeling that Harkness would be even less impressed than the customs official. She was correct, he studied it for a moment then put it into the pocket of his shirt.
"I'll keep this until we can get it checked out. Don't try leaving Mohendjo Daro until then.
"Where do you think you're going?" he barked at Tyr as the Nietzschean began to walk away.
"To see if I can determine what happened to the Professor. Since you are clearly busy with an important interrogation" replied Tyr sarcasm dripping with each word.
"I'll be with you in a moment," said Harkness once again totally unaffected by Tyr's attempts to goad him. "Don't touch anything. I don't want you contaminating the scene." He turned his attention back to Beka and tone of his voice changed becoming a bit less formal. "I heard that you were working with the High Guard but I would have never expected you to become a cop."
"We're not exactly normal police officers, " offered Beka.
"I sort of suspected that," he glanced at in the direction of the room Tyr had entered he spoke.
"Prejudiced against Nietzscheans?" Beka asked.
"No, prejudiced against his type."
It took Beka a moment for the implication to sink in. For some reason she felt the need to defend Tyr. "If I remember correctly you were his type once yourself," she said.
"Not really," answered Harkness. "When I killed someone it was either to defend myself or someone else and anyone I killed had a weapon in their hands when I did."
The words hit home and Beka didn't have an answer, however Harkness didn't press the attack. Instead he changed the subject. "How are the kids?" he asked.
The question took Beka by surprise, she didn't have any children then she realized he was referring to Trance and Harper. "They're married now, and have a little girl."
" Who does she take after, her mother or father?"
"Her mother." answered Beka, "right down to the tail."
"So you're a grandmother. Congratulations."
Tyr's voice coming from one of the back rooms saved Beka from making a comment about being a grandmother. "If you two are through reminiscing I found something you might be interested in."
Harkness and Beka walked to the room which turned out to be a bedroom and over to where the Nietzschean was standing. Tyr pointed to a couple of objects lying on the floor. One was some sort of white tube, it appeared to have been burnt at one end the other was some sort paper packet folded in half. It was lying flat on the floor the upper side was decorated with a stylized image of a black cat. Above the cat were the words 'Le Chat Noir'
"What are those?" asked Beka. She had seen enough of Harper's crime vids to know better than to touch the items.
"Don't touch," ordered Harkness. "That's a cigarette. It was undoubtedly dropped by one of the intruders."
"What's a cigarette and why do you think it was dropped by the intruder or intruders," questioned Beka
The private investigator took a moment to explain what a cigarette was, how they were making a comeback on Mohendjo Daro and that since Umbrites were very sensitive to nicotine it was unlikely the cigarette belonged to Venst
"Couldn't one of his friends have been here and smoked it?" asked Beka
"Would you willingly let someone fill your house with noxious fumes?" asked Harkness.
"I let Trance learn how to cook," replied Beka.
In spite of the seriousness of the situation Harkness smiled. "I see," he said. "Now I suggest that you two get out of here before the regular police arrive and start asking awkward questions. Try to stay out of trouble until I verify your IDs. I'll let my friend know the two of you are here and not to throw you in jail the moment he sees you. Do you have a place to stay yet?"
Beka shook her head no.
"When you find a place," continued Harkness, "contact me and let me know where it is. And I mean what I said about staying out of trouble. If your IDs check and you're who you say you are either my friend or I will contact you and let you know what we learned."
As Beka started toward the doorway she stopped in mid stride, something occurred to her. There was a question she had to ask Harkness.
"I had Harper do a sweep of the Maru after we dropped you and your cronies off on the drift," she said. "He found the bug."
"And," was Harkness' only response.
"You knew what we were planning didn't you?" asked Beka. Taking his silence for assent she continued. "You could have stopped us at any time but you didn't. Why?"
"Sometimes," said Harkness, "the best way to do the right thing is to do nothing at all."
"Still", pressed Beka, "you took an awful big chance. We could have killed you while you were unconscious."
"Less of a gamble than you might think," responded the private investigator. "The type of people who would kill an unconscious man wouldn't have decided to take the medicines to those kids on Tesla in the first place."
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