Wilson Port, Tewanta - 3307-03-27 15:11
Captain Mila O'Brien sat in her office reviewing a report on the murders in Butler Robotics, along with an earlier murder in Cromwell Ward, that was linked to them. She had read over the report a few times and some things didn't seem to make sense. The detectives investigating the case were certain that they had identified the perpetrator and that the individual was no longer on the station. However, there was nothing in the report that seemed to back up that confidence. She had a meeting the following morning with senior management and she was sure that would be the first thing they would ask about. Knowing the authors of the report, detectives Freamon and Geldof, it was probably correct, but the details were important. She was waiting for the two detectives to arrive back from a trip out New Holborn ward where they were interviewing an informant about an onionhead smuggling operation.
Her door chimed. It opened and detectives Freamon and Geldof walked in. Detective Freamon looked curious, slightly concerned, and much more tense than his normal laid back self. Detective Geldof looked grumpy and distracted. Frak, she thought to herself: their informant delivered something juicy. No time to make this a nice friendly chat then. She'll need to make it a focused meeting because these two will be impatient.
"Brendan, Imelda, have seat. Thanks for coming at short notice. I need a few more details on your report on the Butler Robotics incident for a management meeting tomorrow morning."
"Sure thing boss", said detective Freamon, as he sat down.
"Though, we've put every frakking detail we can into the report,", said detective Geldof, "so I am not sure this meeting will be much help."
"Well there is the matter of how you identified the suspect. You say in the report that, 'The suspect has been identified as Dimitri Faber, a cyborg mercenary.', and that's it. Management will want to know how that was determined."
"They'll have details on that from the BPIA report.", said detective Freamon.
"What?", said the captain.
"A BPIA agent identified the suspect from the footage that was captured at Butler Robotics."
"And they are certain they have identified the right individual?"
"The agent in question was William18 and he knows the suspect personally.", said detective Geldof, "He fought against him in the civil wars in the Messi system. Dimitri Faber was colonel in the army of HIP 65049 Faith, a sadistic killer, and a frakking war criminal. He's personally been linked to the deaths of about five thousand civilians, through a mixture of plasma straffing settlements and delivering nerve agents into station and settlement air circulation systems. He's not an easy person to forget. And obviously that can't go into a public report."
"Operational capabilities of BPIA and the identities of BPIA agents. You know the way it is!", said detective Freamon.
"Frak me! That brings me to my second question, though. How are you sure that a dangerous killer like that is off the station?"
"We had started to find clues as to his movements from our informant network and from the camera malfunction patterns. That dried up after an emergency escape hatch malfunction", said detective Geldof. "We matched that to some suspicious ship flight patterns around the station at the time and we suspect that the frakking asshole was picked up by one of those ships and transpaorted to another system."
"But couldn't he have just slipped out of your net?", asked the captain.
"He did! He left the station.", replied detective Freamon.
"Besides, we have very motivated and knowledgeable informants.", added detective Geldof.
"Which informants would these be?"
"Are you sure you want to know?", asked detective Freamon.
"Yes, I think. Yes! I need to know for the briefing tomorrow, in case management decide to dig into it.", replied the captain.
"Okay.", responded detective Freamon, as he drew a deep breath. "We attended the funeral services of the victims at Butler Robotics. Afterwards we were approached by friends of Mick Kelly, the shop floor supervisor at Butler Robotics with an offer to gather information."
"And we are not the type of detective to pass up on some good informants", said detective Geldof, "even if it involves more leg work!"
"Anyhow,", continued detective Freamon, bridging over his partners unsubtle jab at some other detectives in the department, "it turns out Mick Kelly used to be a member of the resistance movement, when Official Tewanta Order were in control here, and his old comrades in arms still had a loose network operating on the station. Once we let them know who and what to look for, they got to it with gusto."
"Woah! Hold up! You are telling me that there is a ready-to-go terrorist network on the station?"
"We did ask if you were sure you wanted to know! Besides, they haven't launched any terrorist attacks since OTO lost control. There's nothing much we could arrest them for, other than some petty crimes. They are much more useful as informants."
"And that is why we didn't make the frakking case explicit in the report. Plausible frakking deniability!", added detective Geldof. "They haven't seen anything since that escape hatch 'malfunction', which also coincided with a rash of camera malfunctions near the hatch in question. It is really unlikely that Dimitri Faber is still in Wilson Port. BPIA are following up leads on ships that were near the station at the time."
"Frak me! You two will be the death of me! Won't BPIA be interested in this little network of 'freedom fighters'?"
"Oh, they know already! A few of them were trained by Agent Watanabe during the Occupation.", replied detective Freamon.
"Okay.", replied the captain, dumbfounded. "Speaking of informants, what did you learn today?"
"Yeah! This is frakking odd.", replied detective Geldof. "Apparently, there's a rumour of a black market in reactor core regulators starting up. Something we need to get ahead of before it becomes a problem."
"Something completely new? Is it something senior management needs to know about?"
"Probably.", replied detective Freamon. "We'll add details to the file in the new case file system. BPIA and System Security have been alerted already."
"Okay. I guess you need to get back to it.", the captain said resignedly, as visions of awkward management briefings spun through her head.