Anselm nodded thoughtfully as he raised the gull wing doors of the Eliica, considering the palatial home that was sitting up above them on the gentle slope. Anywhere else in the world it would be considered a resplendent home because of its looks, opulent and rich, because it was simply, a large home. Here, however, large homes were the standard and he was under the distinct impression that this home was rich because its owners could afford to flaunt the local energy concerns and pay whatever it cost to run despite its lesser design traits.
People were funny things.
“Let me do the talking,” Gwen told him as they walked up, “You don’t know the locals.”
Anselm just nodded, following her up the path that was laid with stone that Anselm thought had to have been imported. When they reached the door Gwen found the buzzer and rang it once, letting it buzz for several seconds before stopping. They settled back and waited until footsteps from inside could be heard approaching, and when the door opened Anselm recognized the young woman as the driver of the car in the photo.
“Debra Jones” Gwen asked crisply.
“Yes” The young brunette looked between the two people at her door, confused. “Who are you”
“Inspector Dougal, Police.” Gwendolyn replied, flipping out her badge. “This is Inspector Gunnar.”
“Ok.” The woman said, still confused. “Did something happen”
“That depends on how you look at it, Miss Jones.” Gwen said, handing her a copy of the photo she’d recovered from the traffic database. “Is this you driving”
She looked at the photo, and then grimaced. “Yeah. That’s me.”
“Were you aware of the speed limit in that area, Ma’am” Gwen asked sternly.
Her eyes widened, protest instantly flying to her lips, “Oh hey, come on.everyone does it!”
“Ma’am, this isn’t about everyone.” Gwen told her, “I’m going to have to write you up.”
The young woman looked ill, “My dad is going to kill me! He lives in Sydney, and it’s not the same thing out there. Come on, please cut me some slack.I’ll take it easy from now on, I swear!”
Gwen eyed the young woman for a moment, actually tempted to go ahead and write the ticket despite the fact that the woman was playing right into her hands. She hated whiners. “Ma’am, I can maybe let you off with a warning. It’s still going on the books though, so if we catch you again.”
“Thank you!” The young woman gushed instantly, her expression pitifully grateful.
Anselm managed to keep a straight face as Gwen played the woman, setting her up so that she’d give up the information they’d really come from and, if all went well, wouldn’t even realize she had.
“I need to know a few things for my report.” Gwen sighed, pulling out her portable and flipping it open.
“Anything.” The young woman hugged herself, looking between Gwen and the imposing silence Anselm projected.
“First, how long have you been driving”
“Four years.”
“And who was with you at the time of this picture”
“What Does that matter” The brunette looked worried again.
“I’m afraid it does.”
“Look.my Dad’s not going to see this, right”
Gwen shook her head, “Not unless you’re caught breaking the law again.”
Debra grimaced, but nodded. “That’s Raoul Seerman.he’s hooked in with, you know, the thermies.”
Anselm listened as Gwen walked the girl through the rest of the questions, burying the last one in a group of others they hoped, but only paid peripheral attention to the answers. He was already into the Interpol database and doing a search for Raoul Seerman. Gwen wrapped up the interview with a warning for the girl, which she would listen to, if Anselm was any judge of character. The poor girl was shaking by the time they turned to walk away.
“She’s scared to death of her daddy finding out.” Gwen shook her head as they headed back to the car.
Anselm shrugged, “That’s how some people are. Notice how she didn’t want her dad to learn she was out with `Raoul’”
Gwen crooked her lips, nodding. “Yeah. Bad boy complex.”
“If only she knew how bad.”
On the small airfield Kamir smiled, spreading his arms as he greeted Ron Somer with a warm call. “Ron, my friend! How’s it going!”
Ron Somer turned, smiling as he saw Kamir approaching with arms wide. He reciprocated, and the two men clasped briefly, patting each other on the back, “Hey man, what’s up”
“I got good news, man. I can get you a flight, if you’re still interested”
“Really Hell yes!” Ron grinned.
“Really.” Kamir told the eager young man, clapping him on the back again. “Today’s your lucky day man.”
Ron Somer grinned enthusiastically in response.
He couldn’t agree more.
“Tell me about these `Thermies’” Anselm asked as Gwen drove them back toward the city.
His portable, even with its connection to Interpol’s central database, didn’t have anything on Raoul Seerman, which was explained by the fact that he didn’t exist. Raoul didn’t show up in any of the criminal databases that Gwen had access to from her car, either, so they were going to go to her office to access some of the other databases that were available only through special request.
“They’re thrill seekers,” Gwen shrugged, “Always doing something stupid. I ran one of them down a couple weeks ago for violating the airspace of the strip while a plane was coming in. He’d been challenged by a friend to play chicken with a plane. He won. Damned near caused an accident out on the strip.”
Anselm grimaced, shaking his head. “It’s funny, I never seem to run out of human insanity to observe in this line of work.”
“Join the club,” Gwen laughed, whipping the Eliica around some animal or something that had crawled into the road. “Around here it’s always something. The fringe Eco-Activist types are often into extreme sports and all sort of weird stuff.”
Anselm raised an eyebrow, and looked over at her. “Oh”
“Hell yeah, I’ve had to go out on calls dealing with everything from drag racing stolen Eliica cars around town, to this one guy who decided he was going to free climb the tower.”
“You’re kidding me,” Anselm looked over, shocked at the idea.
Free climbing a relatively smooth tower one kilometer straight up It was nuts.
“Fraid not. We had to get in with a helicopter and pull him off the tower at around five hundred feet.” She told him, “The guy was using the construction ridges they put in to allow for flex in order to fire pitons into the wall. After we got him down it took the tower custodians another four months to repair the damage.”
“Ouch.” Anselm laughed.
“You have no idea,” she said as she pulled the Eliica over into the lot of the Police Department Head Quarters. “We’re here.”
“So we are.”
“You got your gear all checked out”
“Got it!” Ron nodded eagerly, checking his gear a second time.
Like ninety nine percent of thrill seekers and daredevil times, the ones who lived, Ron was very nearly obsessive-compulsive about the state of the gear he used. It all had to be in perfect working order before he would risk his body on it. Everything he had been loaned and had rented checked out perfectly, so he turned his attention to his local guide, listening carefully to the instructions the expert had to give him.
“Okay man,” Kamir told him with a friendly smile. “When you get into the updraft you ride it up until you hit fifteen thousand feet. Got that Make sure you suck on your oxygen or you’ll pass out, right”