I was hoping my fear came across as sorrow and earnestness.
The mob didn’t cheer, but I could see the direct effect of my words. It was tough to be bloodthirsty in the memory of a purported man of peace.
Rendrae’s eyes were twinkling. He loved news. Any news. He would take notes and print an editorial on doomsday.
“What do you think this means for the Totki’s chance in the election, since Su Dival was their choice for Governor?” he asked.
I cursed by accident and heard my cusswords reverberate on the loudspeakers.
“I am certain he would have made an excellent Governor with his qualities.”
“Did that mean you endorsed him?” Rendrae prodded.
I did my best to control my temper. I couldn’t believe Rendrae was trying to cook up a juicy story when we were across the street from a mob that was a shade away from violence.
There was a long-ass pause as I stood in front of those thousands of “mourners.” My breathing could be heard over the loudspeakers.
“Yes. I endorsed him. Though I had not come out officially yet.”
If a city could gasp, Belvaille gasped.
Even the unflappable Rendrae was startled.
“Then does that mean you endorse the Totki alternate?” he asked.
“I don’t know who that is. I endorsed a person, not an ethnicity. I will have to see who they put forward as a candidate and learn his position on issues. But my first priority is to find those responsible for this heinous crime.”
The spears were lowered.
The mob was now just a big crowd.
I had successfully neutered the riot and all it took was endorsing a dead jerk.
CHAPTER 15
We were in a large room, packed with Totki, who weren’t even pretending to hide the fact they were carrying firearms.
In the center of the room was an open coffin in which the remains of Su Dival were placed.
Belvaille didn’t have a coroner. If someone was dead, they were dead. You generally didn’t need anyone to tell you they were dead.
We had a difficult enough time taking care of our living people, so anyone with even a shred of medical training got work as a doctor.
But I had my Stair Boys drag a surgeon down from the main hospital and I immediately appointed him High Investigative Coroner of Belvaille.
He did not want the job.
He was a young lad with a bright future who was examining the corpse from the most notorious murder in decades while surrounded by hundreds of armed men.
All of it was unnecessary of course.
I knew who had killed the Totki leader.
Su Dival had eight puncture wounds on his chest, right above his heart. The punctures were small and perfectly symmetrical. They formed two intersecting plusses.
Even if the punctures didn’t exactly match the ones on the legs of some Ank I knew, I couldn’t think of many people who could fire eight projectiles with such accuracy other than a four-armed combat battlesuit.
The Coroner looked at me beseechingly. It was clear he didn’t want to make a misstep and was hoping for guidance. It seemed I had appointed the right man.
“So, doctor, what was the cause of death?” I asked loudly.
He reached out to the body.
“Numerous—”
“Do not touch!” Hong yelled, and guns were pointed at the poor Coroner, who almost died himself.
“Sorry. Numerous perforations in the chest resulted in severe heart trauma,” he said.
“Hmm,” I said, putting my hand to my lips and furrowing my brow for theatrics, “so you’re saying he was shot in the heart?”
“Well, I can’t confirm that. I don’t know what caused the perforations. This isn’t my area of specialty.”
“But probably shot,” I nudged.
“He may have been…”
“If you had to say whether he was shot or not shot, what would you say?” I coaxed.
The Coroner blinked at me a while.
“Shot.”
A great murmur went up from the gathered Totki.
“It is confirmed by our Coroner that the esteemed Su Dival has been murdered,” I said.
The Coroner clearly wanted nothing to do with that diagnosis or anything here.
“We know that. We can see,” Hong said. “Who do it? It Olmarr!”
I spun on him.
“How do you know?”
“They always do—”
“How do you know?” I repeated. “A great man was murdered and you want to go out and murder on his behalf without proof? Would he have wanted that?”
I pointed to the coffin, knowing Su Dival probably would have wanted that, but that Hong wouldn’t slander him so.
Of course, I couldn’t tell them it was 19-10 because it sounded like crap. I mean, there’s nothing I would like more than for the Totki to be hunting a dimension-walking assassin they couldn’t see. Maybe I wouldn’t have to do it then. No, they wouldn’t believe me. I certainly wouldn’t believe me if I hadn’t seen him already.
“They kill us! We kill more!” Hong yelled.
“Listen to me. Listen carefully. You have lost your leader. You are angry. But you have an election coming. Whoever did this wants you to go wild and attack. That’s their plan. You won’t win anything. Do you think you’re going to shoot and stab everyone on this station? There are five million people on Belvaille! How many Totki are there?”
They were listening. Hong scowled.
“You have sympathy now. He can still win you the election,” I said, motioning to Su Dival. “He can still achieve your Totki independence. Don’t throw away what he worked for.”
I really hoped most of them didn’t know Su Dival very well. Then again, it was a lot easier to attribute good deeds to a person when he wasn’t sitting up and contradicting you.
If I got the Totki interested in the election that was great. I didn’t rate their chances very high of getting anyone elected. They looked weird, they talked weird, they were xenophobic, and they tended to stab everything. But giving them a hobby other than going on an ethnic rampage was a noble cause.
“You find them. We kill them,” Hong said, angling his bladed spear at me.
I let him get the last word because I knew he would get it no matter what. He wasn’t going to let me end on a big uplifting speech.
I pulled the Coroner out and back to my waiting Stair Boys.
CHAPTER 16
“How’s recruiting coming along?” I asked.
MTB, Valia, and a few of my sergeants were sitting in my living room.
“Not so good, Boss. We’ve lost about twenty-three Kommilaire since last week,” MTB answered.
“Lost them? Where’d they go?”
“I figure half joined the Olmarr Republic and half joined the Order. And half probably just got scared,” he said, showing off his math skills.
“So we’re actually losing men?”
“Yeah. We’re not going to get anyone unless you lower the requirements.”
“Are you joking? Now is the worst time for that. I’m not personally worried about getting shot, but with the way things are, do you really want to be questioning the loyalty of the guy standing behind you?”
“At least someone would be there,” he said.
“Fine, lower the requirements. But tell them we do drug testing and have a lie detector built by Delovoa.”
“Do we have those?” Valia asked, surprised.
“Don’t be silly. Who would need a drug test? And someone would have killed Delovoa if he ever designed a lie detector on Belvaille,” I answered.
“Do you know who murdered Su Dival?” Valia asked.
“Same guy that shot the Ank, 19-10,” I said.
“Do you know why he or she did it?” she asked.