Salind woke instantly and with crawling horror suffusing him. It was the middle of the night so Argus must have woken him with a betawave stim. He still wanted coffee though. He still had a hangover from the drug and still occasionally heard fingernails scratching against glass.
‘What is it? You know I’ve had a tiring day,’ he said, sitting upright on the futon.
Geoff is on his way round to pick you up. His message is: ‘Remember the hack-and-slash job?’ There is also an untraced message: ‘Cremation complete, will join you shortly.’
‘Yes,’ Salind hissed, standing and heading for the hotel minibar. He took out an Instacup, pulled the tab on it, and by the time he had dressed the beverage was hot. Taking it with him he quickly left his hotel. Standing on the pavement under a leaden sky backlit by green moonlight, he sipped coffee until the hydrocar pulled up.
‘Give me bad news or good news, but give me news,’ he said as he got in beside Geoff.
‘It’s news, whether it’s bad or good is something for you to decide,’ said the staffer. ‘Oh, here, I have something for you.’
Salind took the small container Geoff handed him, clicked out a pill and swallowed it with a mouthful of coffee. He tossed the empty cup out of the window.
‘Tell me.’
‘We’re going to the Groves. Our trusty police force have found Merril Torson.’
‘How?. .’
‘Oh the usual way when the Tronad wants to make a point.’
They had nailed her to a banoak. The treels were in her clothing, peeking from holes in her arms and stomach. A knot of intestines hung from one such hole. Floodlights, and the red and green flashing lights on the squad cars, cast the scene in a lurid glow. The uniformed cops stood by their cars drinking tea from small flasks while awaiting senior officers.
‘She was a hack,’ said Salind. ‘But this is excessive punishment.’
‘The Tronad don’t know the meaning of the word excess,’ said Geoff, as they both stepped out onto the gravel.
‘So this is how they hit people?’ Salind gazed slowly from side to side, making sure Argus was getting everything here and transmitting it.
‘This was how traitors were killed by the underground before the civil war, and it’s now how the Tronad kill people when they want to make a point. The holes were made by whoever nailed her there. The treels have to be pushed inside before they try to feed. They just keep grinding away and pushing through in search of banoak flesh. She probably died when one of them hit an artery. It can take anything from ten minutes to an hour.’
‘You’re very well informed.’
‘We all are here. This is what happens to you if you go piss-off the Tronad. This is why very few people will turn out to vote next Moonday.’
They moved away from the car and closer to the crucified reporter. Salind felt sorry for Merril and a little sad, but nothing more than that. She wouldn’t have suffered. Were they so primitive here they didn’t realize she could have shut off the pain with her aug?
‘Alright there. Keep back,’ said one of the uniformed cops as he strolled over.
Salind turned to him. ‘What’s happened here, officer?’
‘You got eyes ain’t you?’
‘A murder I take it. I think you should be aware that I know the victim.’
‘Who don’t? We know whose toes she stepped on,’ said the cop, turning to inspect the corpse.
‘So we can be expecting an arrest soon then?’ said Salind.
The cop snorted then glanced over as another car pulled up. ‘Yeah, there’ll be an arrest.
Some other toe-stepper’ll get shat on. And here comes the biggest shitter of ‘em all.’
Salind also watched as Callus and two of his thugs climbed from the car. Behind the car a van pulled up. He supposed that this must be Banjer’s equivalent of a medical examiner or some such. He started to move in their direction, but Geoff caught hold of his shoulder.
‘Not a good idea. Best to just watch,’ he said.
‘I only want to ask a reasonable question or two,’ said Salind.
‘Don’t,’ said Geoff. ‘Callus is never in his best mood when he’s clearing up after Soper. It won’t just be a slap next time. It’ll be a stiletto in your back followed by polite enquiries after your health for the benefit of your aug recording.’
Salind desisted. He turned to the uniformed cop. ‘You realize her augmentation will have recorded everything she saw?’
The cop glanced at him and shook his head. ‘That won’t be much then.’
The man walked back to join his companions. On closer inspection Salind saw Merril’s eyes had been gouged out. A treel worked its way out of one socket. Salind took out his pill container, clicked out a pill, and swallowed it dry.
From the van, two overalled figures bearing a stretcher approached the banoak. They conducted no forensic examination of the area, no careful search for evidence. After they deposited the stretcher on the ground, one of them took a crowbar from his belt and levered out the nails pinning the corpse to the tree. When it slid to the ground the two rolled it in a plastic sheet then passed a heating unit over this wrapping to shrink and seal it. As they carried the neat parcel back to the van Salind could still see treels moving about inside. While they loaded into the van he noted Callus spot him and start walking over with his thugs and two uniformed policemen in tow.
‘We better be leaving,’ said Geoff.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Salind.
‘I’ve warned you. That’s all I can do.’
‘Fine,’ said Salind, but he did step back to put himself up against the car.
Callus came up before him and his two thugs moved round to either side of the inspector.
They stood with their hands clasped before them. Salind had seen that pose before from other people who served the same purpose on other worlds — immediate testicle protection.
‘Well, well, Mr Salind, what do you have to say for yourself?’
Salind was momentarily distracted from replying, for another car had pulled up. The third plain-clothes cop who stepped out seemed familiar. Someone in the Tronad probably — someone about whom Salind had read a file. Was this one of Soper’s associates? He looked the part — a shaven-headed thug with slightly more muscle than necessary.
‘Sorry. . what?’
Callus went on, ‘I suppose it was professional jealousy that made you do it.’
‘Oh shit,’ said Geoff.
Callus glanced at him. ‘I imagine your accomplice will be able to tell us.’
‘You have got to be kidding,’ said Salind.
‘I’ll need your aug for evidence of course.’
Now the two thugs moved up on either side of Salind.
‘My aug is internal and backs up to the Tarjen AI every four minutes. It doesn’t retain a recording itself, but that backed-up information will prove I was nothing to do with this.’
Shit, get me some help out here. This fucker is going to kill me.