Coyote

[6] the mystery machine.

Moon Colonies News: In Callejon, Europa, the Central Bank of Europa was hacked but none of the credits were stolen. So far the authorities have no clue whether this was a warning or something did happen, they haven't figured it out yet. But they have reassured their customers that they are working with Hackers For Hire Authority to get to the bottom of this.

Detective J and Patrick sat on the same side of the bench in the galley, a metallic counter in front of them. The former faced forward while the latter the opposite direction, staring at the tap on the sink. Shelves full of utensils surrounded them, all cleaned by Dennis over the course of a few days.

"She's a hyena," Patrick said with folded arms, his eyes glued to the droplets of water leaking from the tap.

I know. "Dennis told me." Detective J leaned on the counter, his hands around a mug of herbal tea that filled the room with its earthly smell, motioning it clockwise and anticlockwise before blowing on it.

"How did he know?"

It's his job. "He asked his friends on Mars about her. I never thought I'd have a daughter, and she'd be a bounty hunter. Yet, here we are."

"Did she think we wouldn't find out?"

"I don't know."

"Is she here for nefarious reasons?"

How would I know? "I don't know." Detective J blew his tea before taking a sip, grimacing at its mud-like taste. Cybil had introduced it to him, claiming it would help calm his parasympathetic nervous system. Like always, she was right. "I think she's after something, but I don't have the time to figure out what it is. Be my eyes and ears and find out."

"Affirmative." Patrick saluted, even though the detective had instructed him many times not to do so. It must've been a programming issue, but J didn't have the funds to hire a technician to fix him.

"Did you go through the Monica Pauly case file?"

"Affirmative." The synth stood and walked around the counter, taking the seat opposite J. He tapped the screen of the datapad between them, and a holo-image of a black woman materialized: Monica Pauly.

An inextinguishable fire enclosed the detective's heart as he stared at the woman's smiling face, her youthful eyes reminding him of Oli, and what he would do if she met such a fate.

"Look at this." The synthetic swiped the image to the side, revealing another picture of the deceased walking hand-in-hand with a light-skinned woman in a red and black polyester uniform—common among beltan bartenders. Monica wore an oversized blouse with green and blue patterns, the same one her corpse had on. "The other woman is Victoria Paulson, daughter of Paulson and Florence David. She has been since missing around the same time as Monica's death."

J sipped on his tea. "Tell me more."

The synth brought up a holo-video and played it. Monica Pauly appeared on screen first, dressed in a tight, red mini-dress with black stockings and high heels, standing outside a brothel. A dark-skinned man and pale woman approached her and started arguing with her. After a few minutes of going back and forth, Monica Pauly showed them her middle fingers and entered the brothel. The two followed.

Patrick rewound the video and paused, zooming in on their faces. "I present to you, Paulson and Florence David. Victoria's parents."

"Victoria is biplanetarian?" J bit the brim of the mug after finishing the tea.

"Affirmative."

Victoria got her stubby nose and sharp violet eyes from her father, and round face and wide, thin-lipped mouth from her mother. "Where did you get this video?"

"From Long Hours Casino. I bribed the security guard to look the other way while I checked the footage, saying my boss' daughter was missing and I had to find her before he got back."

Detective J raised his brow. "Was the security guard a synth?"

"Affirmative."

In a world of greed and hate, machines had each others' back in fear humans would decide to enslave them again—something they promised they'd never let happen.

"Good work."

Patrick nodded.

J stood and headed for the exit, stopping by the threshold. "Set a course for Goldhand."

"Should I dock on the asteroid or Opus Station?"

There was a limited number of landing pads on an Opus Station, and Detective J didn't want to waste time by going there only to find it was at maximum capacity. Though expensive, Goldhand's dock never ran out of space. "The asteroid. You and Oli need to go shopping anyway."

"Understood."

J left the galley, heading to his room where he'd get a few hours of sleep before untangling the mess between The Davids and Monica.