Starbase Human by Kristine Kathryn Rusch Read Free Book Online Page A

murder.
    “Where did it happen?” Deshin asked.
    “We don’t know that either,” the detective said.
    Deshin snapped, “Then how do you know she’s dead?”
    Again, that slight change in the detective’s face. Apparently he had finally hit on the correct question.
    “Because workers found her in a waste crate in a warehouse outside the dome.”
    “Outside the dome…?” That didn’t make sense to him. Sonja hadn’t even owned an environmental suit. She had hated them with a passion. “She died outside the dome?”
    “I didn’t say that, Mr. Deshin,” the detective said.
    He let out a breath. “Look, Detective, I’m cooperating here, but you need to work with me. I saw Sonja this morning, eliminated her position, and watched her leave my office. Then I went to work. I haven’t gone out of the building all day.”
    “But your people have,” the detective said.
    Deshin felt a thin thread of fury, and he suppressed it. Everyone assumed that his people murdered other people according to some whim. That simply was not true.
    “Detective,” he said calmly. “If I wanted Sonja dead, why would I terminate her employment this morning?”
    “I have only your word for that,” the detective said. “Unless you give me the footage.”
    “And I have only your word that she’s dead,” he said.
    The detective pressed her hands together, then separated them. A hologram appeared between them—a young woman, looking as if she had fallen asleep in a meadow. Until he looked closely, and saw that the “meadow” was bits of food, and the young woman’s eyes were open and filmy.
    It was Sonja.
    “My God,” he said.
    “If you give me the footage,” the detective said, “and it confirms what you say, then you’ll be in the clear. If you wait, then we’re going to assume it was doctored.”
    Deshin glared at her. The detective was good—and she was right. The longer he waited, the less credibility he would have.
    “I’m going to consult with my attorneys,” he said. “If they believe that this information has use to you and it doesn’t cause me any legal liabilities, then you will receive it from them within the hour.”
    The detective crossed her arms. “I suggest that you send it to me now. I will promise you that I will not look at anything until you or your attorneys say that I can.”
    It was an odd compromise, but one that would protect him. If she believed he would doctor the footage, then having the footage in her possession wouldn’t harm him.
    But he didn’t know the laws on something this arcane.
    “How’s this, Detective,” Deshin said. “My staff will give you a chip with the information on it. You may not put the chip into any device or watch it until I’ve consulted with my attorneys. You will wait here while I do so.”
    “Seems fine to me,” the detective said. “I’ve got all the time in the world.”

 
     
     
     
    SEVEN
     
     
    SHE DIDN’T HAVE all the time in the world, of course. DeRicci was probably getting all kinds of messages on her links from Lake and Gumiela and Brodeur and everyone else, telling her she was stupid or needed or something.
    She didn’t care. She certainly wasn’t going to turn her links back on. She was close to something.
    She had actually surprised the Great Luc Deshin, Criminal Mastermind.
    He pivoted, and moved three steps away from her. He was clearly contacting someone on his links, but using private encoded links.
    He was a much more formidable man than she had expected. She had never stood up close to him before. He was taller, broader, and more animated. His eyes were warm, and he had a charm that she hadn’t expected.
    It made sense, of course. The man had run a large group of people, and convinced them to continually break the law.
    And he never got caught, which meant that he had charmed his way out in one fashion or another.
    Hell, he’d even charmed her, just a minute ago. This claim he’d made about following the rules—she