Fraudulent Death, Draft 01, CH 40 (Patreon)

Marlot showed his ID to the guard and was allowed through onto the academy grounds. Unlike his last visit, he has to walk to the administration center, which lets him get more of a sense of the students and they mill around him, talking, young predators being casual with young prey groups seated by trees, studying and relaxing. In the distance, a small tent with someone speaking to a crowd.

He couldn’t hear what they said, but recognized the colors of the anti-predation political party. It was their time to waste. As far as Marlot was concerned, politics would never change nature.

The second set of names was what brought Marlot to the academy. Joren had matched a third of them with students. He had refused to get their records because he didn’t want to cause the academy problems. The others had been busy and by then Marlot had needed the air. Being in a room with three prey had become a distraction.

Closer to the administration building, by the athletic one, they had exercise machines outside, and a crowd watched the males and females using them. Some of the watchers were too old to be students, possibly teachers, but Marlot suspected a few were prowlers, looking for their next plaything.

The thought made him wonder how Telima was doing. It had been months now since Aiden, learning he’d only been a toy for her sexual enjoyment. Since Marlot had nearly ruined the young male by telling him about the unborn cub. That was enough to kill any desire to go check on the jackal. He had to still hate him for it.

Inside the administration building, he showed his ID, and an adviser led him to an office.

“How can I help you, RI Blackclaw?” the black panther asked, typing on the keyboard, then waiting.

That was the question. In his hurry to get here, Marlot hadn’t even thought of that, too busy with what it would mean for the criminal organization to be picking cubs out of the academy. It wasn’t like this had anything to do with his body anymore.

“I’ve been tasked by the Revenue Bureau to look into an anomaly, and that’s led me to you with a list of students I’d like information on.”

“Shouldn’t that be the enforcer’s job?”

“Normally, but I uncovered the anomaly, so my reward is to have to work that case.”

The panther chuckled. “Good to know good work is rewarded the same everywhere. Can you pad me the list?”

Marlot handed the adviser the printout with the student’s name and received a tilted ear in return before the panther began entering the names.

Marlot had an electronic copy stored on an older pad Harik had handed him before he left.

“This thing is disconnected from everything. As for as you’re concerned, it’s scent-blind, deaf, and dumb.”

“Like my sister,” Afirna had offered.

“You are not to connected it to anything, am I clear?” the mouse had continued. “Most definitely not your pad. We can’t know what malicious apps they installed on it without running it through an extensive scrub. If you need to move information from one to the other, you use slates, and you run it through every scrub you can think of, if you can’t think of enough of them I will give you my collection.”

Marlot could have handed a slate with the names to the panther, but at some point, the slate would have come back with more information on it and he would have had to take out the pad Harik had handed him. The old, bulky, ugly thing of a pad. Marlot appreciated that older meant easier to secure these days, but if he could help it, he’d rather no one knew he used it.

“You certainly know how to pick them,” the panther commented as he typed and read.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve looked at eight of the names already and they are not our brightest students.”

“Predator or prey?”

“A mix, heavier on prey.”

“So destined for menial work and low tax rating?”

“If they clean up their act. If not, it’s going to be a cage complex within a few years of reaching adulthood. Two of them have already been arrested for narcotics distribution.”

“Nip?”

“Nip, cacao, pardinalin.” He indicated the screen. “This one, Or’dindak smoothscale was removed from the academy after she almost killed a teacher.” He continued typing. “It looks like you somehow unearth the academy’s very own organized crime ring. Selling test results, distributing sex video to underage students, why is he still here?” the panther mused. “Each has had talks with the enforcers at least once.” He stared at the screen. “Why did this one have so much money on him?”

Money mule, Marlot thought. Every group needed at least one. Taking the payments owed, giving what was needed to conduct business. The larger the organization, the more they had to spread the risk, but within the closed environment of the academy, there would be a lack of trustworthy people for the position.

“You called it an organized crime ring. Do you know who they are affiliated with? They can’t be independent from one of the outside groups.”

“I just called it that because they’re all criminals. I’m not sure they’re even affiliated with one another.”

“So that’s all of them?”

“I’m just looking quickly now, and yeah, each had either a criminal annotation from the enforcers because of something they were caught doing off-campus or at least one from campus security, like this one for sexually propositioning her adviser. Not illegal, but also not permitted.” When he stopped typing, he looked at the list and underlined a name. “This is the only one without any crimes in the system. She’s either an anomaly or your list knows something we don’t.”

“Thirty-eight students,” Marlot whispered.

“On a campus of nearly four thousand, it isn’t many.”

“It’s still too many.” And that Hardir had included them as part of six pages of names Joren hadn’t been able to establish why they were there had to mean something. Were they potential walking dead? People whose behavior would undoubtedly lead to financial trouble? It didn’t feel right. The few other names Joren had managed to identify on the list were reasonably comfortable in the middle productivity range.

“I’m guessing you keep an archive of previous students, right?”

“Of course.”

Reluctantly, Marlot took the old pad out of his jacket and inserted a slate. “Do you have access to it?”

“I’d need to request permission. We keep it for statistical reasons.”

“To establish the academy’s productivity,” Marlot said, transferring the full six pages to the slate. “I’m aware no one can avoid being rated, even an institution as vital as the academy.” He handed the slate to the panther, who was looking at the brick of a pad Marlot held. He’d just been identified as some ancestor unable to keep up with the times, he was sure of it. He suppressed the need to take his other pad out because then he’d have to explain why he had two of them. “This the full list where those thirty-eight came from. Can you run it against your archive, if I can get a sense of who they were as students, maybe the list will start making sense.”

The adviser inserted the slate in his computer. “That is a lot of names. I’m going to have to get permission before I can give you that much information on previous students.”

“I understand, any idea how long it might take?”

“If you can give me more information on why you’re looking into them, it’ll speed up getting the authorization, but after that, I’ll still have to pull each name, and go over the records to ensure there isn’t anything confidential that isn’t covered by your investigation. That’s on top of my other duties.”

Marlot gave the panther Vlein’s contact information. “He will be able to provide you with all the details you need. He’s in charge of the investigation.”

“It’s still going to take a while.”

“I understand.” Marlot put the old pad away and stood. “You have my contact, let me know when you’re done and I’ll pick up the slate.”

“I can message you the results.”

“I’d rather you don’t. Also don’t discuss details with anyone.”

“You’re sounding paranoid now.”

Marlot smiled. “I’d preferred to think of myself as cautious. Those names are only a small part of what I’ve come across.”

“I see.”

“I’m simply asking that you use a good dose of caution as you do this.”

“I will.”

Marlot left and was standing by the bus stop when his real pad buzzed. What did Ezk’Eriel want? He didn’t have any meat waiting there.

“Ezk’Eriel, how are you doing?”

“I’m good, but I have that mink you sent to me here and we need to talk about this.”

“Mink? I’m sorry, what are you talking about?”

The hyena was silent. “You did send me a mink a few weeks ago, right? He showed up with a message from you saying to feed him, that you’d have the body in here before he’d gone through it.”

Marlot sighed. “Yeah, sorry, I forgot. Has he gone through all of it yet?”

“Well, considering I never saw the body, I can’t tell you, I just figured you were good for it.”

“I am. Has he been making unreasonable requests about it?”

“He hadn’t, he’d been happy asking for less than he should have been, until now. He’s here asking to get the rest of the meat. If you want me to give him that, I’m going to have to see a body so I can calculate how much that is.”

Marlot considered it. Getting Ezk’Eriel to see the wolf’s body wouldn’t be a problem, but why would the mink want all that was left? “I’m going to head to your store now, try to make sure he stays, tell him that I need to be there to confirm it if that will work.”

“I don’t think he’s going anywhere without his meat, so yeah, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“See you in a bit.”

Marlot brought up the transit site and looked for the fastest route to the meat preparation store. Then he was running to reach a different stop before that bus arrived.