Chapter 29

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Basher didn’t have time to check Akemi’s latest surveillance footage until the morning after Faal’s visit to the embassy. He’d spent the rest of the day investigating the names of the Crosspoint who might provide a more detailed autopsy.

Akemi had standing orders to alert him if Claire left the café or saw anything that might pinpoint their position, but other than that, he just caught up on the highlights every few days.

It felt intrusive to watch from Claire’s glasses, but Basher just repeated, ‘surveillance video’ to himself whenever that feeling got too strong.

He often let Claire's pet out of the cage when Akemi was bringing him up to date. Since the first time his partner had brought the little animal into their office, they'd had a tacit agreement that whoever had time off would feed the little guy and give him some time to climb around. As often as not, after a brief and energetic fling around their desks, he'd settle into Basher's lap to be petted, purring softly like a very contented lemur/kitten.

Claire's serving dinner now. She's getting bolder with the guests, Akemi told him tonight.

Still no movement out of the café. I don't expect it, after that last incident.

“What incident?”

Akemi showed him a fast cut version of the previous few days, slowing down when Claire heard the Merith in the kitchen and hid under the bar.

Basher waved his hand. “This won’t help me find them, unless those Merith came into view. Just skip ahead.” He didn’t want to grossly invade Claire’s privacy unless he had to.

That thought went out of his head when he caught a glimpse of Sage taking Claire’s glasses off as Akemi skipped ahead. It looked like Sage was lying next to Claire in bed.

“Hang on,” he told Akemi. “What was going on there?”

Claire had a nightmare and Sage stayed with her while she fell back asleep.

His face must have shown exactly what he thought of that.

Nothing happened. Claire was dreaming of Faal and he was there. She probably just needed human contact.

“Except that ISN’T human contact.” Basher forced himself to wave Akemi on again. “Never mind. Keep going.”

It infuriated him to see Claire grow closer to the Rik. And this... it wasn’t even that Sage was Rik, though that was bad enough. Claire shouldn’t have any man in her bed while she was recovering from everything she’d been through. Basher had three sisters and he would beat the crap out of someone who took advantage of them while they were this vulnerable.

The rest of the videoconsisted mainly of Claire facing down the big, black Rik, the one called Athlete. Basher had to admit that he seemed to be a good teacher. Basher couldn't see Claire, as his view was only forward from her glasses, but based on Athlete's instructions, and the slow, steady increase in the confidence of Claire's movements, he was doing a good job.

Basher was grudgingly appreciative of his efforts. Now that Faal knew Claire was in Lower Selta, Basher felt an agonizing sense of dread. There was no doubt that Faal was looking for her, and based on his previous illegal activities - he probably did have very good contacts in Lower Selta. Would they know of an exclusive, invitation-only restaurant featuring humans? Maybe, maybe not. Lower Selta held roughly two million aliens - surely that was enough for Claire to remain anonymous for a few more weeks.

He just had to find them. If he could find them first, it could all end well. He could get the other Rik safely back in custody, and help Claire get somewhere that Faal could never reach her. After less than five interactions with Faal, Basher had decided that whatever Claire had done to get away from him was worth it. The Merith was arrogant, cruel, and clearly accustomed to absolute control of everyone around him.

If Faal did somehow find Claire, Basher was glad she might have a chance at defending herself.

You look tired.

"Hmm? Oh, probably because I am." Basher smiled wearily at Akemi. "Be glad you don't have to sit in on all this tedious investigation." After the discovery of the dead Rik his job became the steady slog of backtracking accounts and expenditures to try and trace their activities and connections. And too many of those trails dead ended on the Rik planet.

Um. Excuse me. All of my visual inputs are there. I'm more there than you are.

Basher laughed. "I hadn't thought of that. You’re getting the same data from Sam and Nat's glasses, plus my computer... I take it back - sucks to be you."

Yeah. It does.

Basher frowned slightly. It wasn't like Akemi to feel sorry for herself. He'd spent a fair amount of time talking to her the last few weeks, and she was usually remarkably upbeat for someone who didn't entirely exist. He didn’t feel comfortable asking about the dream he’d accidentally witnessed, and she usually didn’t refer to her own situation.

Never mind me. I'm tired too. :-)

Watch this kick here ... Ouch, right?

They watched Claire's foot try to smack Athlete's gloved hand and then the video suddenly tumble to the side as she lost her balance and fell over. He could hear Claire's laughter about it, and he might have laughed too, had he not also had to watch Sage giving her a hand up. His hand slid up to her shoulder and squeezed lightly.

“You’re doing fine. I told you.”

Claire laughed again. "I’d be better if you stopped watching us practice, you're making me nervous.”

Basher grimaced. Claire had no idea how many people were watching. He gestured curtly for Akemi to stop the video. He knew Akemi could see him through the camera in his screen.

“We’ve got more important things to do this morning,” Basher explained, trying to curb his bad mood. “Did you have time to requisition the data we talked about last night?”

“Yeah, of course.” She pulled up the raw files.

While they waited for the “coroner’s report,” as Basher decided to think of it, he’d asked Akemi to see if she could search the Seltan databases prior to the attack to see if or when the Rik had begun spending money here. He’d also asked her to check ship docking logs for the port to see if their IDs showed up.

Basher slowly scanned the data. “You want to summarize for me?” he asked Akemi. He wouldn’t have asked her that a week ago, but the more he interacted with her the more impressed he was with her capabilities. At this point he would trust her summary as much as his own, and it would save him several hours of reading tiny text badly translated to English by his Spo computer.

 “Good news: they were here before the attack and it’s pretty conclusive they came directly from their own planet. We have ship ID’s for four of them, and the others could have come under ‘misc. crew.’ Bad news: I just got back the coroner’s report, and we’re getting into deep political waters now.”

Basher began to look it over while Akemi summarized.

“Looks like the Crosspoint confirmed trace amounts of explosive residue in some of the deeper tissues. If we continue to pursue the investigation and requisition records from the Rik planet, we are all but accusing them of the attack. They could make that claim, anyway. I sure don’t have the authority to do that, and I don’t think you do either. If we go much further, this will threaten the validity of the Human/Rik treaty.”

Basher whistled. He’d known that was where the investigation was headed, but he hadn’t expected it to escalate this quickly. Sam was not going to be happy. He still seemed to think the Rik treaty was worth preserving, and even that the Rik were innocent, which it was becoming increasingly clear wasn’t true.

When Basher laid the case out to Sam that afternoon, he wasn’t surprised at Sam’s frustration.

“Look, I believed from the beginning that the Rik were probably guilty,” Basher admitted. “But you’ve seen the same evidence I have. Do you honestly think I should offer a different report to the Coalition Committee?”

He and Sam were alone in his office. Basher’s partner was checking out another Rik sighting, and Nat was catching up on sleep in her room.

“The evidence is too clear,” Sam argued. “The Rik are smarter than that. If they went to the trouble to secretly sabotage the space station, they would cover their tracks better than this.”

“Like they covered their tracks when they tried to invade Earth?” Basher countered. “They’re not geniuses, Sam. They make mistakes and breed traitors and overreach their capabilities. Tell me how this contradicts any of that.”

“I suppose that’s possible…” Sam sighed sharply. “In any case, I understand that you need to file the report as is. They’ll probably send one of the committee to handle the negotiations with the Rik. Probably Senator Fontley, with my luck.”

Basher wondered again how much Sam resented that he had no authority in the new government. He’d had quite the fall from his previous status.

Sam smiled unexpectedly, as if he guessed Basher’s thoughts. “No, acquit me. I may be an arrogant teenager, but I truly don’t want to be in charge of the world. I had a little taste of that and apparently I didn’t do a very good job.”

Basher made an equivocal noise and Sam actually laughed. “It’s okay. I already know how much you dislike my treaty with the Rik, you’ve never hidden it. I appreciate that you’ve given me the benefit of the doubt anyway.”

Basher grinned. “Then I’ll admit that you’re not nearly as arrogant a teenager as I was at your age.”

“Don’t be too sure about that!” Sam laughed. “Senator Fontley will be only too happy to tell you what a conceited little upstart I am.”

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