Fraudulent Death, Draft 01, CH 21 (Patreon)

The lobby of the Revenue Bureau was teeming with activity, this male who was disputing his rating with a representative, that female who wanted to negotiate a higher survivor benefit on her dead mate. The one trying to claim she should be receiving the benefits, even if nobody had been found. No matter how fair a system was, there were always people unhappy with it, or errors that caused people difficulty. Fortunately, he didn’t have to bother with the lobby.

He swiped his ID to unlock the door and stepped into the machinery of the bureau. The people looking over the incidents the system flagged. The accountants who went over the system’s results because the people in charge still didn’t trust computers to be accurate. The programmers making sure the system was updated to the newest standard the government required.

Knowing the work required to accomplish that made Marlot happy he’d focused on his investigator career instead of making it his programing. He’d still be stuck back in Low Valley, dying with every second that passed. He stopped before the reception desk.

“RI Blackclaw, I need to speak with someone in regards to my case.”

“Is it about contesting that it’s yours?” the antelope asked.

“No, there’s anomalies with it and I’m hoping someone here has ideas about how I can handle it.”

“Consultant, got it.” She indicated a chair. “If you’ll have a seat, I’ll call someone.”

Marlot had just gotten comfortable in the chair when a fox offered him his hand. “RI Blackclaw, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Vlein, I’ll spare you my last name. My family’s originally from Arsbrugh and they never bothered getting it translated it and my father’s a traditionalist who used to flay me alive anything I’d just translate it. ‘Don’t you have any respect for your ancestors?’ he’d yell. I loved the work you did as part of the bringing down Ruxul. And this recent capture of that hunter? That was impressive. Did you know only one hunter in a hundred is captured? Most of the time they are killed in the process of the hunt.”

Marlot shook the male’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He decided to ignore the praise. Being singled out for Ruxul still made him uncomfortable, and the less attention paid to Nikal, the better. “You’ll be my consultant?”

“I will, although I’m not sure how I’ll help. A male like you surely doesn’t need any help.”

“You realize there was a lot of luck involved in both captures, right?”

“Luck’s just the result of being well prepared, my grandfather always said.” He motions for Marlot to accompany him.

“I take it your grandfather didn’t track people down for a living.”

“Worked in a meat processing plant until his death.”

“Really? That seems odd for a predator to do.”

The fox shrugged. “My grandfather wasn’t the most aggressive male in his generation, timid is how most people described him. Grandmother is who did the hunting for their cubs.” He opened the door to an office. “He handled the finances.”

The office was spacious, with the wall in a calming sky blue and the floor covered with a grass-green carpet. Pictures of foxes covered one wall, bookcases the other two. Vlein indicated the chair as he stepped around his desk, then looked Marlot up and down as he sat.

“I’m mated,” Marlot said, uncomfortable under the hungry gaze.

“Sorry, I was calculating how much meat is on your body. That’s my primary job here. Resolving dispute of over the allocation of meat.”

“I didn’t realize that was an issue. Wouldn’t the predator who takes down the prey get the meat?”

“The problem arises when more with teams of predators. In a city this size, a lot of them find it easier to hunt in packs. Especially with the younger ones. Then of course comes time to paying the tax and as with almost anything revolving around money, no one wants to be the one doing it. The system isn’t designed to take payment from multiple people yet. Something we’re working on. But you’re not here for that, are you? How can I help you?”

“I’m not certain if you’re the right person. My problem isn’t around meat allocation.”

The fox waved that aside. “That’s my job. I’ve sort of become the go-to male for things out of the ordinary. Within the system. The odds are whatever your problem is, I’ve dealt with it in some way before.”

“This one might be a first even for you. I’m investigating a body that seems to have been killed twice.”

The fox leaned back in his chair. “Ah, the walking dead.”

“Excuse me?”

“That’s what I call them. Still walking around even those the system things they’re dead.”

“So it’s happened before?”

The fox chuckled. “I told you, if you’ve experienced it, I’ve come across it.”

“Then why didn’t the agent know about it when I called?”

Vlein grew serious. “Because they don’t know. The reason I’m the one handling most of them is that for the system to work, people at large have to believe it’s infallible. If the general population realized the system could be manipulated in any way. We’d go back to the early days when ninety percent of the bureau’s budget was spent having RI’s walk the street, adding the fear of being caught cheating the system to any hunt a predator engaged in.”

“Okay, but you know about them. So there’s a glitch in the system.”

Vlein shook his head. “We’ve gone over the system each time one was brought to our attention. As far as we can tell, they are caused by outside conditions.”

“Someone exploiting a flaw in the system?”

“No, not a flaw. They’re exploiting the way the system works itself.”

“But how?”

“You said it yourself. The person you’re investigating died twice. The system doesn’t care what happens to the body, so long as the tax is paid. The expectation is that they’re dead and will be eaten. But…” the fox looked at Marlot expectantly.

“The system doesn’t care if they aren’t.”

Vlein nodded.

“But why would anyone pay for a body they aren’t going to eat?” Marlot ask. “If you’re going to spend the money, you want to get something out of it.”

“I think that what they are getting out of it is labor.”

“You know who they are?” Marlot straightened. He hadn’t expected to get an actual answer to his problem.

“I know they’re criminals,” Vlein said, and Marlot deflated. Of course, they were criminals. “Organized crime, more specifically. I think this is some form of fraud they commit on the system, paying for a body that is worth little, then putting them to work in some fashion.” He pulled a form from a drawer and slid it toward Marlot. “That’s why I need you to fill this to the best of your ability as you investigate the body.”

“Paper?” Marlot stared at the fox, and he took it. “Wouldn’t it be easier to send it to my pad?” he looked it over.

“As I said, we need to keep this discreet. Right now, this market of fraudulent deaths is small, but if people realize it can be done. If corporations realized it. We’d have a giant problem on our hands.”

Marlot looked up from the form. “This is a productivity report. Hours worked, value of the work. How do you expect me to know about those when I don’t even know where the body lived?”

The fox smiled. “I have no doubt that a male like you can work it out.”

Marlot wanted to glare, but as unusual as this was, it was his job. He needed to find out where Mixcoat lived, where he’d worked. If it wasn’t tracked by the productivity system, getting exact numbers would be hard, but there was enough data to do estimations.

“How many cases of these fraudulent deaths have there been in, say, the last five years?”

“I’m aware of eight,” Vlein answered.

Eight wasn’t much, but it was a start. “Can I get the information you have on them?” he’d have to reconfigure his tracking program again. Get it to handle multiple data entry points, figure out some way to have it collect information on them from outside the system. That was going to be the tough one. The only way to function after ‘death’ was to keep away from anything that could record them.

“Do you have a way to use the information?” Vlein held a data slate.

“More like possible ideas. I won’t know if they’ll do my any good until I’ve tried them. How you found any kind of common element?”

“Various species, prey, and predators, if there’s one element that could be called common, is that they all had a spell of bad luck before their ‘death’.”

“You think the criminal elements orchestrate that?”

The fox shrugged. “If they did, I didn’t find any indications, but I’m not an investigator, so it’s possible I missed the obvious. If you do find that they did engineer it, I’d like to know. That is one crime we could get them on if we can prove it.” He handed the slate to Marlot. “You understand the nature of this information has to remain between us.”

“I do.” Marlot took the slate. “I’ll keep the details to myself as much as possible. And not provide context when I do have to mention them.” He looked at the sheet of paper. “You get I can’t promise anything about this, right? I’m looking for who left the body to rot this time. Once I find him, I can close the case.”

The fox smiled. “I’m confident a male as resourceful as you will find a way to complete most of this form in the process.”

Marlot was annoyed that Vlein seemed to have taken his measure so quickly. He wouldn’t be able to fill every box on the form, of that he was certain, but Marlot did intend to figure out as much as he could. 

He folded the paper and put it in his pocket. “I’ll keep you up to date.”

* * * * *

The knock made Marlot look up from the screen. The lines of code were blurring together. Hela’han stood in the doorway. “I’m heading home, Jesdan just pulled up.”

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He went back to the code. There had to be a way to get the multiple instances of identity to compare data as the program found them. He wrote more code.

* * * * *

He squinted at the screen and still couldn’t make out what was on it. He glanced at his pad and his eyes took a few seconds to focus enough he saw the time. Way too late. He rubbed his eyes, which didn’t help.

He saved his work. He could get back to it from home after eating.

He was outside, closing the door when the office pad rang. He debated getting it, but at this hour, when he shouldn’t even be in the office anyway, it couldn’t be urgent. He locked the office and headed home.