Star Law: A Marshal Cole Series

Chapter 27 (c)

Gunter Volks' head still rung. Even after Doc Kripisov prescribed an analgesic, it only numbed the feeling. The mandated rest had helped his body but his mind was still wrestling with everything that happened. He had killed men in combat but as a police and security officer he had never done so. It wasn't the death so much that he was bothered by but the instinct that led him to shoot. He believed in his heart he did the right thing but it wasn't something he could explain to himself or others.

The psi aspects of what was happening on his watch were so troubling that he questioned if he was equipped to investigate. Still, out of professional pride as well deep seated feelings about Marshal Cole, he was going to plod along. So far the cordon they had placed around Goroshenko's cabin had not netted the suspect. The man had been tipped off and it irked the security chief that the system was likely compromised.

Before taking the rest period Volks had asked Champion to run a purge of security systems insofar as what was left of them. The AI was gone and the system was by-passed like a Christmas tree with the off-site computer set up by Boz. What Champion found was that everything in the main system was clear but that some active and passive monitoring was being done on regular ship communications. It was a clever set up because ship security officers and crew were being monitored through secondary means. As soon as the bugs were detected, they self destructed. There was no way to tell who planted the devices or where they sent the information.

It was what Volks expected. It was useless to be angry at this point. He could handle this type of breach better than the psi aspect. At least with surveillance devices, he could counter by discovering them, tracking them, destroying them or blocking them altogether. With psi, he believed his own thoughts could betray him.

Volks sniffed the air. There was still the smell of acrid smoke in the security office. He wondered how long scrubbers would have to work before it was gone. It was just reminder that they'd suffered an attack and their Artificial Intelligence CICI had been destroyed along with all their security records.

It was quiet in the security office. Champion was still getting some rest as ordered and there was nothing to report from his teams in the field. The investigation was going nowhere on his end. Whenever this happened in the past, he'd come at it sideways.

It helped to remember what the possible motivations of the suspects were. Avoiding arrest for the murder of Aubrey Chase Chen topped the list. This was the likely reason for all the surveillance in the security system. Despite psi talent, the ability didn't seem to extend to all seeing and all knowing. For that he was thankful.

The other dynamic that seemed to be in place was two rival factions. The handing over of information on Orion Ruskovich was evidence of that. The Marshal was right to say it revealed competing interests but not the reason why. The information in the girl's dossier dropped at security's doorstep was not to be trusted save for the fact that she appeared to have some of the same psi powers as Goroshenko. Were they linked? Same faction, different ones?

Both the girl and Goroshenko had gone to ground. Even before CICI had been torched, the girl was but a ghost. Had she started the fire? The engineering department had no explanation for it. Spontaneous combustion was what they concluded and it had them spooked.

Volks believed that overpowering need to know what security was doing within the investigation was vulnerability in the suspects. With that mind, he placed security monitoring on his own offices and officers radiating outwards. In short, it was cameras, motion detectors and computer analysis to see who was watching the watchers. If all active monitoring was thwarted, would it draw out a suspect intent on seeing what was happening for themselves?

The communications blackout due to the Adder Cloud was to last another few days. There would be just a day till they reached orbit around Hawks. Barely enough time to get the background information needed to crack the case especially with passengers disembarking; some beyond Commonwealth laws.

Marshal Cole's camera inside Aubrey Chase Chen's cabin had given the investigation a solid lead. And it had mostly worked because it was unexpected. Taking inspiration from that, Volks placed surveillance in new places that were not near any of the pre-existing monitoring. One of the cameras he was looking at in live feed was one aimed outward from the Security Office and Purser's Desk.

Regular cameras were aimed down the corridors but there was some shops, dining and eating area immediately across that were not continuously monitored. Too much data even for AI was too difficult to sort for context. Volks watched the live feed for a bit longer. Nothing jumped out at him. It was not uncommon to have the same people show up at the same place day in and day out. A couple with an infant would show up every morning before strolling the Promenade. A young lady bought coffee at the same time every day before heading to the gym.

There were a few people that warranted an extra look and he would follow them on video surveillance but each time, it didn't pan out. Today there was one man outside the offices that caught his interest. Hello there he thought to himself. The man felt familiar. His behaviour was not outwardly suspicious. He was turned away from the front entrance of the Purser's office and reading. However, from his seat he could observe plenty in a reflective shop window. This would be standard tradecraft surveillance if that in fact was what it was.

Volks wanted to be sure he wasn't just spinning his wheels. He did face recognition and identified the passenger as Roberto Diaz. There were no red flags raised with his ID; business consultant and legitimate reasons for travel according to the documents. Still, there was something there. Something twigged in his memory about where he might have seen the man before.

He scrolled back his own footage and came upon a time several hours earlier when Miguel, Boz and Tilston-Horn were exiting the security office. Sure enough Diaz was there again. But this time he got up and followed.

Got you thought Volks with a smile.