A Fraudulent Death, Draft 02, CH 40 (Patreon)

Marlot showed his ID to the guard and was allowed onto the academy grounds. Unlike his last visit, because he’d had to take transit this time, he walked to the administrative center and got a sense of the students as they milled about. They talked, young predators and prey, in groups seated at tables, or on the ground, by trees. Some had their pads before them, probably studying, while others simply relaxed. In the distance, a small tent was up and had a crowd before it.

He couldn’t hear what the people said, but the tent’s colors were that of the anti-predation political party, red and white, representing the blood predator spilled and the innocent lives taken, according to them. A waste of time, as far as Marlot was concerned. Politics would never change nature.

Marlot entered the administration building and sniffed the air, thinking he’d scented Trembor, which made no sense. His lion wasn’t working yet, so he’d have no reason to come here. He was early for his meeting, so sat in the uncomfortable chair before the office door and looked over the names on his list.

Joren was the one who’d made the connection between a fourth of the names on the list that had IDs. They had turned out to be students at the academy. The hare had refused to hack into those records because he wouldn’t cause that institution problems under any circumstances. The others had been busy with their own side of the research, and as Marlot had looked at the wall of code, he’d decided he needed a change. He’d called the administration to schedule a meeting from a public kiosk, and here he was.

A jackal walked by, and Marlot wondered how Telima was doing. It had been months since Aiden and finding out he’d been nothing more than a sex toy for her. When Dohrma had given him the task, in his last meeting with her, of making a list of the people he had wronged in his hurry to get what he wanted, Marlot had considered including the jackal in it. But had dismissed it. Telima had to hate him for the way Marlot had dumped the existence of the jackal’s dead baby on him, which had resulted in the confrontation between Aiden’s two lovers.

The door opened and a black panther led a squirrel out. “If they do it again, come talk to me immediately, don’t wait a week.”

Marlot stood, talking out his ID.

“RI Blackclaw?” the adviser asked, motioning to his office. “How can I help you?” He looked at the ID and returned it before sitting behind the desk with only a computer on it. The rest of the office was just as bare. No attempt to make the room inviting.

“Thank you for seeing me, Mister Stalk. I’ve been tasked by the Revenue Bureau with looking into some anomalies,” Marlot answered, sitting. He’d considered how to explain his involvement while revealing as little as he could on the trip here. “And it’s led me here. I need information on some of the students.”

The panther frowned. “Shouldn’t that be something for the enforcers to deal with?”

“Normally it would be, but the RB wants it to keep this quiet until we have a better idea of what’s going on. And enforcers on the academy grounds tend to cause a ruckus.” Marlot took the printout from his jacket and the adviser raised an eyebrow.

“Did the Bureau go back in time?” the panther looked over the names on the page, then he typed.

“I was asked to keep this investigation as low tech as possible,” Marlot said. “I wasn’t told why. And I know better to question my orders.”

He’d wanted to use a slate, but Harik had been adamant against it. There was no way to know what kind of programs were roaming on the academy’s network. They couldn’t afford the security that did any good.

“Well, you know how to pick them,” the adviser said, making a mark next to another name and typing more. Numbers, as far as Marlot could tell, but he didn’t know what it meant.

“What do you mean?”

“I know two of the names on your list since I’ve had the privilege of being their adviser,” the panther replied with a roll of the eyes. “The others are of the same caliber. Not our brightest students, nor hardest workers.”

“So menial workers who might not live particularly long. Predator or prey?” What would be their appeal to criminals?

“I’m not through your list, but the mix looks heavier on the prey side.”

“Do they have anything that might make them stand out? Are they stronger than the average? Have a knack for something the academy doesn’t recognize as a rating criteria?” Marlot had driven his adviser back in Low Valley insane with his hacking. The programming part of it applied to his rating, when he worked on the program the system recognized as valid because they had a basis to evaluate them, but when the only way to judge how good his work was, was to unleash them against a firewall… at least as a student he hadn’t gotten a criminal record.

“Does being trouble makers count?” the panther asked. “Maybe being fast-tracked to a cage? Two of them already have criminal records for narcotics distribution.”

“Nip?” Marlot asked, since it was quasi-legal these days.

“Nip, cacao, Pardinalin.” He tapped a name on the list. “This one, Or’dindak Smoothscales, was removed from the academy two months ago after she attacked a teacher.” He typed again. “Accusation of possession with intent to sell, but that’s just internally at this point. If it happens again, we’ll be letting the enforcers know. This one is on probation after she was caught with recordings of underage sex. We couldn’t prove it was hers or that it hadn’t been put on her pad without her knowledge.” He read silently. “Why is this male still here? That should have gotten him removed.” He shook his head in disbelief. “This is looking like you’ve come across the academy’s very own organized crime. She sold test results. This one was expulsed for distributing sex vid to underage students.” He stared. “Why did this one had that much money on him when he was arrested? Who carries physical money anymore?”

Money mule, was Marlot’s immediate thought. Every group needed at least one to ensure the money was easy to move. The individuals did their transactions, in physical money because anything else was too easy to trace and even amateurs had seen enough vids to know better. Then they handed it to the mule.

“You called them organized crime,” Marlot said. “Do you know who they might be affiliated with? I can’t imagine something within the academy happening independently of the city’s organizations.”

The panther stared at him in disbelief. “The academy would never let something like that get their claws in here. I should have called them disorganized crime more than anything else.”

Marlot nodded. Now he knew the appeal. They were either purposely or accidentally being groomed. “Are they all involved in that disorganized ring?”

The adviser snorted. “By that definition, they can’t be working together, but, as far as I can tell, yes, they all have had runnings with the enforcers or are on the way to one.” He underlined one name. “Except her. I’m not finding anything in the system that would lead me to think she’s caused troubles.” He looked at Marlot. “Do you know something I don’t?”

Marlot shook his head. “Thirty-eight students.” This time he shook it in disbelief.

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

“It’s still too many.”

Had Hardir included them because they were all there was, or were they only those he knew about? And what about other pages? When he left, no one had found any common denominators yet. The suspicion was they were people the organization was monitoring because they were likely candidates, but some were securely in the middle productivity range. Of course, the organization might know things about their behavior his friends hadn’t sniffed out yet.

But they hadn’t looked at where they’d come from to reach where they were. Marlot eyed the list on the desk as he reached for the slate in his pocket. Stalk was right. The most likely place these people would end up was as a meal or in a cage. But the also ‘most likely’ place someone whose tax was paid should end up is in someone’s stomach, not forced into servitude.

“I’m guessing the academy keeps an archive of previous students?” He eyed the slate. Harik didn’t know he’d made a copy of the digitized list. Which didn’t matter, so long as he didn’t have to reinsert it into the mouse’s computers. At that point, Marlot might end up being the first predator eaten by a mouse.

“Of course.” The panther eyed the slate curiously.

“Is it something you can access?”

“I need to request permission. Technically, it isn’t publicly accessible.”

Marlot handed him the slate. “This contains the full list those students were pulled from. I’d like you to run it against the archive. I’m looking to find out what they were like as students.

The adviser inserted the slate. “That’s a lot of names. I can’t run that many of them without proper justification.”

“It’s a Revenue Bureau investigation.”

“I appreciate that, but for something this extensive, I’m going to need more than your word. You understand that regardless of that, I can’t just hand over everything. Someone is going to have to go over each student’s files and remove what isn’t relevant to your investigation.”

Marlot wrote Vlein’s number on the printout. “He’s in charge of the investigation. He’ll give you everything you need. But I’d like it if you did the searching and cleaning up. I want to minimize how many people are involved.”

“Then you’re going to have to wait longer.”

“I understand.” Marlot stood. “Vlein can give you my contact information, but it’ll go to my message center. I’m having issues with my pad at the moment.”

The panther looked at the printout suspiciously. “Sure, I’ll send the results there.”

“I’d rather you don’t. Just tell me when you want to meet.”

“Now you’re sounding paranoid.”

Marlot smiled. “I just think of it as being cautious. There’s more to this than what I’ve told you.”

“I see.” The adviser looked from the screen to the page on his desk.

“Good.” Marlot left, looking at the students, now on alert for anyone acting suspiciously. But then again, they were students. Wasn’t half their day spent sneaking away to do more interesting things than study?

He signed out at the gate, and he turned his pad on as he reached the transit stop to check for messages. Everything except the call he’d just missed from Ezk’Eriel was work-related. Why would the hyena call him? He didn’t have meat waiting there. He looked around and couldn’t see a kiosk. Could this wait?

He called back. “Ezk’Eriel, sorry I didn’t pick up, I was in a meeting.” He chastised himself mentally for the lie. It wasn’t like he needed to explain himself.

“It’s that mink, we need to talk about this.”

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

The hyena didn’t immediately answer. “You did send me a mink a few weeks ago, right? He had a message from you saying to feed him. That you’d have the body here before he’d gone through what it’s worth.”

“Right.” Marlot sighed. “Sorry, I forgot about him in the middle of all this. Has he gone through all of it yet?”

“Considering I only have your numbers to go by, and that I never trust what a client tells me, I have no idea. I’m not doubting you, Marlot, I know you’re good for it.

“Okay, then, is this about him making unreasonable requests?”

“He hadn’t.” The hyena hesitated. “Actually, until now, he’d been taking less than he should, considering how undernourished he looks. He’s here right now, demanding I give him the rest of the meat he’s owed. I’m willing to give it to him, I’ll even go on your word, but I’d prefer to see the body myself so I can calculate and—”

“Wait. Why is he asking for all of it?”

“He didn’t say, and I’m not exactly in a position to demand reasons. I’m just calling so you can tell me how you want me to proceed.”

Marlot looked at the transit map. “Keep him there.” He needed a different stop. “I’m heading there now. Tell him I have to be there to confirm the transaction if you have to.”

Ezk’Eriel chuckled. “I don’t think he’s going anywhere without his meat.”

“I’ll be there as fast as I can.” He was already running to reach the stop he needed.

Posted using PostyBirb