To: 
From: "Jay  P Hailey" 
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com


Title:Water Dictatorship
Author: Jay P. Hailey (JayPHailey{at}tic1.net) Series: Vista City
Part: 10/11
Rating [PG]

"What do you want, Detective?"  Marlowe's voice was calm and
reasonable sounding.

"Well, I wanted to let you know that Randi had a safe deposit box in
Seattle."  Angelo said.  "She left some things in there that I
think bear discussion."

"What's there to discuss?"  Marlowe said.

"Well, let's try Shane Chee's virus, for starters."  Angelo said.

"Mr. Chee no longer programs viruses.  I pay him to protect my
systems, not destroy them." Marlowe huffed.

"Well, that's interesting, because this virus only attacks Geos based
systems.  It's very clever."

"Again Detective, What do you want?"  Marlowe's voice was thin.

"I want to speak with you in private, Sir."  Angelo pushed.

"Hmmm."  Marlowe named a manufacturing plant in Torrance. 
"Be there at midnight, come alone.  We'll talk."  Marlowe hung
up.

-*-

On a deserted street in Torrance,  Uhura young sat waiting.  Uhura had a
camcorder and a shogun microphone trained on Angelo, who sat in his car in
the middle of a deserted parking lot. They had been waiting for an hour.

"This might be them,"  Uhura said to herself  A black car slid
past and kept going.  "Or not."

They waited for another hour.  Then Angelo waved her off and they began to
drive back to the Century Hilton.

-*-

On the way back to the hotel an LAPD Patrol car popped it's pursuit lights
and pulled Uhura over.

"May I see your license and proof of insurance, ?"  The LAPD
patrolman asked.  Uhura dug out her papers and assured herself they were
all in good order before handing them to the patrolman.

The patrolman took the papers and walked forward to where Angelo was
stopped.  "Are you with this person?"  He asked, pointing back
towards Uhura's car.

Angelo put on his best stupid look.  "No.  I thought you were pulling
me over, Officer.  Hey. if it's them that you pulled over can I go?"

The patrolman considered it, briefly. The book said focus on one thing at a
time.  Don't let yourself get distracted during a traffic stop.  "Yes,
Sir. You're free to go.  Have a nice night."

Angelo pulled away from the scene.

-*-

"That's interesting.  Why would a cop from some podunk town up north
be staking out a manufacturing plant in Torrance?"  One patrolman
asked.  The anonymous warning was odd enough, but it was accurate.

"New message.  Downtown wants us to bring her in."  His partner read.

The patrolman blew out a breath.  "Oh, this is going to be a fur ball
before we get done."

They arrested Uhura and took her straight to the downtown headquarters.

-*-

Angelo got off his cell phone with Moody as he arrived at the Century
Hilton.  Things were looking bad.  Now Moody had to get legal
representation for Uhura.  There was no way this was going to stay out of
sight of the elected chief of the VCPD.  His political capital would be
harmed by the scandal, and he'd take it out on Moody and the SIS.  Angelo
sighed.  Maybe being a civilian detective wouldn't be that bad.

Angelo walked into his room and face first into a gun.

"Angelo Mancuso?"  A quiet voice asked.

"Um... who are you?"  Angelo's hands were frozen at his side. 
Even the slightest move could get him shot.

"That's not your concern right now, Detective.  Your concern is to do
everything we say the moment we say it, calmly."  The calm man spoke
with quiet authority.  He was short and bland looking.  His business suit
came off the rack and was generic.  There was nothing to mark the man apart
from the millions of yuppie scum businessmen who roamed L.A..

Angelo's legs began to shake.  His guts felt like jello.  He took a deep breath.

"Don't make me do anything rash, Detective.  Neither one of us would
enjoy that."  The small man moved forwards.  Angelo realized that he
was being covered by a blandly handsome woman cut from the same yuppie
mold.  Her gun was a generic 9mm automatic and it never wavered.  The man
patted him down and came up with Angelo's weapon, his cell-phone and the
microphone that radioed Angelo's conversations to a recording device in
Uhura's car.

"Help."  Angelo said at the mike.

The man's gun twitched up under Angelo's nose.  "None of that
Detective. Besides, your partner still hasn't arrived."

Angelo sighed and raised his hands.

The man finished patting Angelo down.  He was very thorough and didn't miss
anything.  Angelo's back-up weapons and everything of possible use was
taken away.  The man and woman were both wearing nylon gloves.  They were
cheap gloves designed to mimic leather driving gloves.  The cheap suits and
the cheap gloves were intended to be burned after the hit.  That and a good
scrub down afterward would destroy most of the forensic evidence of
Angelo's death.  In cases like these. evidence was not the strong suit. 
The people involved were the key.  Crack them and you crack the case.  If
no one cracks, then no one pays for the murder.

Angelo's brain had split once again into two parts.  The detached, clinic
part of his brain was cataloging facts.  These were professional hit people
and he'd stumbled into their trap like a damned amateur.  The emotional
part of Angelo's brain, the part that really felt like him alternated
between desperate hope and despair.  Maybe something would break right.  He
had to stay alert and be prepared to take advantage of anything.  There
probably wouldn't be anything.  These people were good at what they did.

After making sure that Angelo was disarmed and not transmitting, they put
his personal  possessions in a cheap briefcase and ushered him outside.
Angelo knew that he could make enough of a scene to draw attention.  Then
they'd shoot him and try to slip away. They'd probably succeed, too.  It's
hard to catch people right off the crime scene.  You had to run them down
and out think them.  So Angelo could exchange his life for severe
inconvenience on the part of his captors.  It didn't look like a good
bargain.

They walked though the lobby quickly and yet blandly.  More business people
on the way to a meeting in some office somewhere.  No one gave the a second
glance.  Out into the garage.  An older generic BMW waited for them.  It
sounded bad.  Probably recovered from a wrecking yard and given just enough
of a work over to make it run one last time.  It only had to look good
enough to escape notice.  Unfortunately for Angelo,  L.A. was lousy with
aging German sport sedans.  No one noticed.  They got in, the woman
driving, Angelo in the front passenger seat, and the man covering from the
rear seat. They drove out of the hotel and towards the freeway.

-*-

"Where's Angelo?"  Captain Brown shouted.

"Don't yell at me.  Where's my lawyer?"  Uhura shot back.

"I don't even know if you're charged with anything yet.  Just tell me
where that idiot Angelo is!"  Brown tried to restrain himself.

"Why should I tell you?"  Uhura asked.  If Angelo could trust
this man he wouldn't have needed her for back up in L.A.

"Because I'm the cop around here!  Investigating crimes is my job! 
That's why!"

"Has there been a crime committed?"  Uhura asked sweetly.

"I'm not stupid, I can read a post mortem report as well as anyone. 
Just tell me what you and Angelo were doing here before it gets ugly!"
 Brown returned to yelling.  He could smell a big lawsuit and a ruined
murder case circling him like a buzzard.

"I don't know.  The patrolmen let him go."  Uhura admitted.

"Damn!"  Brown cursed.  He stomped out of the interrogation room.
 "Get me Souza and Mangar!"

The door shut.  "Hey, wait!"  Uhura yelled.  it was too late. the
interrogation room was locked from the outside.

A few minutes later, a tall man with sandy brown hair and a blond woman
with a dancer's figure came in.

"Um, Ms. Young?  I'm Detective Anderson, and this is Detective
Franks."  The man introduced.

"Pleased to meet you."  Uhura said automatically.

"Is your first name Uhura?"  Franks asked.

"Yes," Uhura said tiredly.  "Like in Star Trek.  My parents
are Trekkies."

"Interesting."  Franks said.

"You have a badge from the Vista City Police Department.   Is that right?"
Anderson asked.

"Yes.  I'm with them."  Uhura said.

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe you."  Anderson said.  "You
couldn't make the height and weight requirements to be an Officer."

Uhura sighed.  "Technically the badge is a courtesy.  I needed it to
examine computer evidence on the crime scene."

"Computer evidence?"  Franks asked.

"I'm an expert in the field.  I run the Vista City Police system and I
also examine left over Computer records at crime scenes."  Uhura said.

"What got you involved in this case?"  Anderson asked. 
"Angelo couldn't find anyone else willing to back him up?"

"We suspect that Marlowe and Chee destroyed our system."  Uhura admitted.

"Destroyed?  What does that mean?"  Anderson said.

Uhura told him about the anti-Geos virus that invaded the VCPD system.

"Hmp.  There's vandalism."  Franks said.

"Is there any concrete evidence that it was Marlowe and Chee?" 
Anderson asked.

"None.  There's some circumstantial evidence, but..." Uhura shrugged.

"Would Judge James grant us a search warrant based on that?" 
Anderson asked Franks.

"Let's talk to him and see."  Franks said.  "It's only two
in the morning."


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