Odd Girl Out

"That's a little hard to tell," I said. "Both their sidearms are missing."

He hissed into the comm. "Wonderful," he said. "You're sure the contract pen was thrown into the second vic?"

"Reasonably sure," I said. "Lasari's wound has the slightly ragged edges of a thrown weapon."

"Which may mean only one of the Fillies is a walker," he suggested. "It would have been safer to send in a pair of them, if he had a pair to work with."

"Possibly," I said. "I wouldn't bet the mortgage on it, though. Anyway, our murderer then shoved the bodies back into the car, retrieved his pen and their guns, and left."

"Any thoughts as to motive?"

"Oh, yes," I said sourly. I leaned back into the car and used my handkerchief to pick up the document sitting on the center console's fax. "They have a warrant here for the arrest of one Frank Abram Donaldson. A new one, with all the proper legal bells and whistles in place."

"That's handy," McMicking said heavily. "I hope you haven't left any evidence behind."

"It's pretty impossible not to leave something behind these days," I said. "But I haven't left anything they'll find without a detailed scan and sift. Besides, the pen residue should pretty well prove the killer was Filiaelian."

"No, it only proves the killing weapon was Filiaelian," he countered. "You could easily have stolen it from one of these six upstanding citizens."

"There's that," I conceded. "On the other hand, I could argue that neither of these cops would have just let me walk up to them this way."

"Try persuading an arraignment judge of that," McMicking said. "This doesn't make any sense. First the Modhri gives you free rein to track down this Abomination, whatever it is. Then he tries to get you thrown in jail, and now he kills a pair of cops so that they can't throw you in jail? How schizoid is this Modhri, anyway?"

"As schizoid as only a million different mind segments can get," I said. "But in this case, that's not the problem. I think what we have here is two entirely different entities working at cross-purposes to each other."

"The Modhri and who else?"

"Veldrick," I said. "His only concern is to keep Frank Donaldson and Hardin Industries from taking his precious coral away from him. He's almost certainly the one who tried to get me arrested earlier, and probably the one who then pushed for this new warrant. It's the Modhri, through his Filly walkers, who killed the cops."

"But why?" McMicking persisted.

"Because he needs me free to persuade Rebekah to come out of hiding. Any progress on the water records yet?"

"Yes," he said. "There aren't any unexplained spikes."

I frowned. "None?"

"None," he confirmed. "Not with the six Fillies, not with anyone else."

"That's impossible," I insisted. "We know Veldrick gave away chunks of his coral."

"Maybe the Fillies just dumped the coral in their fish tanks," McMicking suggested. "The coral doesn't need the water to be flowing, does it?"

"Not over the short haul," I said. "But after a while it starts going dormant if it doesn't have flow or at least some tidal fluctuation. It's sure not going to be at its best and brightest sitting in a fish tank."

"Maybe it didn't need its best and brightest to track down a ten-year-old girl."

And then, suddenly, it hit me. "Or else it needed to be mobile," I said. "Do you have access to car purchase or rental records?"

"I've got the city's licensing data," he said. "Looks like …huh. All six Fillies have rental cars."

"Do you have the locations of their parking spot?"

"They don't have parking permits here," McMicking said. "But the cars do all have locators. Let me pull up a map for you."

I pulled out my reader and keyed for a download. "Ready when you are."

"Here it comes," he said. "You haven't explained yet why the Modhri wants Veldrick to pass around pieces of his coral. Assuming the Modhri has a reason."

"Absolutely," I said, looking at the city map he'd just sent. One glance at the current positions of the Fillies' cars was all I needed. "Take a look at the placement of the Fillies' cars. Remind you of anything?"

"You mean like your basic more-or-less circle?"

"Exactly," I said. "Now think back to the search and surveillance classes you took back in your Marine days."

There was another pause. "I'll be damned," he breathed. "A detector array?"

"Sure looks like one to me," I said. "And, you'll note, currently centered squarely on Karim's tavern."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning—I think—that our young friend Rebekah is a telepath," I said. "And that she's broadcasting on a frequency the Modhri can pick up."

"Wonderful," he growled. "And the Fillies? Just along to add cultural weight to the whole thing?"

"Or else it only works with a coral-plus-Filly combination," I said. "Probably Fillies genetically engineered nine ways from Sunday, come to think of it. There certainly would be no reason to drag in aliens from the other end of the galaxy if Halkan or Jurian walkers would work as well. Regardless, bottom line is that we need to eliminate or move either the coral or the Fillies before we can move Rebekah."

McMicking grunted. "The whole thing's crazy," he declared. "But that seems to be about par for this course. What's the plan?"

"Like I said, we have to take out the coral or the Fillies or both," I said. "And we might as well start with Veldrick's stash. Get yourself over to his house and figure out the best way in. I'll meet you there as soon as I can. Don't start the party without me."

"What about the bodies?"

I looked into the car. Ideally, I would have preferred to move the whole mess a few kilometers away from Rebekah's hiding place. But I didn't have the time or equipment to pull that off without leaving bits of my DNA everywhere. Not to mention the instant trouble I'd be in if someone caught me driving a car with two dead cops in it. "We leave them here," I told McMicking. "There's no time for anything else."

"All right," he said. "I'll see you soon. Watch yourself."

"You too."

I broke the connection and put my comm away. I started to close the door, then had a sudden thought. Reaching past Aksam, I forced my hand gingerly behind Officer Lasari's back.

The Glock they'd taken from me earlier was gone.

Gently closing the car door, I headed back down the alley. It was, I reflected, just as well that Bayta and I had had a good dinner. It looked like it was going to be a very long night.