The Ripple in Space-Time: Free City Book 1 (The Free City Series) by S F Chapman Read Free Book Online

later, two leery
young beat cops led the battered and bruised Julian Korbus out of the wreaked
bar in handcuffs.
    “ Is there anything else before we go, Inspector?” the
Sergeant asked.
    Ryo stared angrily at the tattooed
barkeeper standing defiantly behind the bar, “ Yeah, shutdown
this dump and lock up the bartender for impeding a felony investigation. ”
    “ It won ’ t do much good, I ’ m sorry to say, ” the officer shook his head, “ she ’ ll be serving swill here again by Happy Hour. ”
    “ I ’ m counting on that, ” Ryo rubbed his aching shoulder, “ hopefully the word will get out
that the Inquisitor's Office isn ’ t screwing around in this
matter. ”
    • • •
    Hours later, after finally getting
through to Free City, Ryo recounted the interrogation at the Dublin Lockup to
Helga.
    “ You were right, Boss, ” a dull throbbing headache
reminded him of the harrowing day, “ Mr. Korbus just received ten
thousand Units from two pirates as a payoff for destroying the lunar orbit
traffic records for the day of the blast.”
    “Pirates?” Helga stared broodingly
at him from the screen. “ Why would pirates risk capture
to wipe out some routine administrative records? I ’ ll have Jackson check on the traffic data in the morning. Were the
Dublin Authorities able to extract the names of the guys? ”
    “ Yes, ” Ryo was still uneasy about the
grilling techniques used by the locals, “ Olin Gristle and Bosco
Kremerling. Apparently Korbus was cellmates with Kremerling in the Outer
Reaches Penitentiary. I have no idea about Gristle. ”
    “ OK, I expect you and your two assistants back here sometime
tomorrow. ”

11. News Item: Bold hijacking near Saturn Dateline: 11th of June, 2445; Io Research Station, The
Asteroid Belt and Jupiter Colonies
    Reports continue to filter in to
the Io Research Station about the unprecedented and bold hijacking of the
immense robotic space tanker Xenon Lightning 54 as it crossed the orbit
of Saturn en route to the huge Kuiper Gas Refinement Facility yesterday.
    Refinement Facility Officials
noted that the unarmed Xenon Lightning 54 is currently the most valuable
vessel ever seized by outlaws, worth an astonishing 3.5 trillion Standard
Units.
    Imperial Warlord Dimitri Verhovnyi
denounced the brazen crime from the Outer Reaches Palace on Titan this morning.
    Io Research Station Astronomers
have been unable to detect the telltale ion trails from the missing craft,
leading some to speculate that the pirates may have covered their escape by
towing the stolen vessel rather than operating its monstrous ion drive engines.
    As of this morning, no ransom
demands have been received by Refinement Facility Officials. Warlord Syndicate
Underwriters have warned that they will pay no more than the customary ransom of
1.75 million Standard Units to recover the vessel.
    There are currently no clues as to
the location of the mammoth tanker or the identities of the hijackers.

12. Free City University Keira stopped and stared down yet
another long nondescript corridor. “ Why are we wandering around Free
City University today? ” she asked Ryo with some
annoyance.
    “ Well, ” the old Investigator rubbed his
chin for several seconds before pointing down the hallway to the left, “ Lev seems to think that even though the lunar traffic control
information was destroyed, we may still be able to discover something about
what happened on the day of the blast. ”
    “ Why would the University have that information? ”
    Ryo shook his head, “ I have no idea, but the case has been stalled since we got back from
Dublin over a week ago, so any leads would help. ”
    Keira tugged on his arm, “ Are you sure we ’ re on the right floor? I swear
that we ’ ve gone past this same spot at least once before. ”
    “ He said door 1272 in the basement of the School of Advanced
Physics, so it could be anywhere around here. Let ’ s go down a
floor and see what we can find.”
    Seventeen