Predator (Old Ironsides Book 3) Read online

  Sula’s green eyes snapped up to meet Nathan’s.

  ‘This some kind of joke?’ Rosaline demanded.

  ‘No joke,’ Nathan said, serious now, ‘you think the Director General of the CSS would invite you for a chat before this meeting if I weren’t serious?’

  Sula held his gaze for a long moment. ‘How?’

  Nathan closed his eyes and decided that there was no other way to say it other than to simply speak the truth. ‘I was Ground Zero for The Falling.’

  Sula reared back in her seat and dropped the photographs as though they were radioactive. Nathan could see the fear in her gaze as Rosaline almost got to her feet.

  ‘I’m clean,’ he said quickly to Rosaline, ‘we all are. That’s not why I’m here.’

  Sula remained rigid in her seat, her jaw working as though to find words.

  ‘How?’ she repeated.

  Nathan gathered his thoughts before he replied.

  ‘I was part of a mountaineering expedition that got caught out in a supercell storm. We were forced to overnight on a high peak in Colorado. My partner didn’t survive the night, and the low pressure system passed right overhead the mountain range we were on. I don’t understand or remember the full details of what happened that night, but doctors said that I ingested a form of microbe that exists only in earth’s high atmosphere and did not originate on this planet. The odd weather of the super cell storm brought the virus or whatever it was down low enough in the atmosphere while I was high enough on the mountain to come into contact with it, and I became infected.’ Nathan hesitated and looked Sula in the eye. ‘I died a few months later.’

  Rosaline leaned forward in her seat. ‘You died a few months later?’

  Nathan nodded. ‘I was cryogenically preserved but I had to wait a while before science caught up enough to cure the disease, the plague.’

  Sula peered at him. ‘When did you die?’

  Nathan took another breath. ‘I was pronounced dead in the year 2016.’

  Sula stared at Nathan for a long moment. ‘So you’re a Holosap now? How come you can hold your coffee?’

  Nathan smiled, relieved that in the 25th Century such a bizarre tale was not so hard to swallow given all of the technological advances that had been made. He glanced out of the shop window and saw among the crowds a glowing, humanoid figure walking down the street. Holosap was short for Holo sapiens, a new species of human conceived when the great plague, The Falling, had decimated mankind and it had seemed that only by evolving into digital form could humanity survive. A mixture of holographic technology and “freespace” data storage, there were around ten thousand or so holosaps still in existence, many of them nearly as old as Nathan. Mostly they comprised individuals who had died or chosen to abandon their bodies during The Falling, in favour of a holographic existence to await a cure, who for one reason or another were unable to return to their bodies due to malfunctions in cryostasis capsules or damage to body tissues and organs. A few however decided by choice to stay as they were, preferring life as an immortal computer program, because, as one famous holosap had once said: “You can’t catch a plague if you’re not actually alive.”

  ‘No, I’m not a holosap,’ he replied finally. ‘I was cryogenically frozen to preserve the original specimen of the plague in the hopes of finding a cure. Ultimately the cure was found but by then I had been long forgotten. It was only recently that I was thawed out and revived, then cured at the same time.’

  Rosaline seemed to relax a little in her seat, but she was still keeping her distance from him. She glanced at his detective’s shield hanging around his neck.

  ‘And now you’re a cop? How’d that work out?’

  ‘I was a detective in Denver, Colorado in 2016,’ Nathan explained. ‘Once I’d settled in here in the present, it seemed a natural choice and the New Washington Department offered me a place. Detective Foxx is my partner.’

  Sula and Rosaline glanced out of the shop windows to the cruiser parked on the far side of the square, Kaylin Foxx visible inside watching the traffic with a bored expression. The teenager looked back at Nathan and then she suddenly gasped and leaned forward, all mention of the plague forgotten.

  ‘We are related,’ she realized. ‘That’s why we’re here.’

  Nathan nodded.

  ‘I’m your great, great, great, great grandfather,’ he replied, and managed a brief smile. ‘Which makes me kind of great.’

  Sula stared at him and then sank back into her chair as though absorbing everything that she had heard.

  ‘I don’t know if this is the coolest thing ever to happen or the creepiest,’ she said finally.

  ‘Can we go with the coolest?’

  ‘You’re like, four hundred years old?’ Rosaline said.

  ‘And not a gray hair in sight.’

  ‘How come we still talk the same language?’ Sula asked.

  ‘It’s a bit different, but not so much has changed really,’ Nathan said, ‘and the medicine has sure changed for the better.’

  ‘And worse,’ Sula pointed out. ‘The Ayleeans, the enhanced criminals, drugs, black market ID chips and optical implants.’

  ‘There’s still a lot of crime out there,’ Nathan conceded. ‘Like I said, not everything’s changed so much.’

  Sula watched him again for a long time. Nathan felt as though he was being assessed, which in many ways he guessed he was. He sat patiently and waited for Sula to speak but it was her mother who broke the silence.

  ‘Why have you come to us with this?’ she asked.

  ‘You’re my only living relatives,’ Nathan replied, ‘yourself and Sula here. Well, actually there was another called Arwin Minter, but he turned out to be a criminal and then he became a dead end, literally.’

  Sula’s lips curled up at one end in a smile. ‘You’ve got a strange sense of humor.’

  ‘I need one,’ Nathan replied. ‘Anyway, I just wanted to reach out and say hi, y’know? I don’t have any family here and I lost mine…’ He broke off for a moment. ‘I’m not looking to be a big part of anybody’s lives or anything, you didn’t sign up for this. I don’t know, I just felt that it was the right thing to do now that things have settled down for me a bit.’

  Sula’s eyes narrowed.

  ‘My mom’s not looking for a boyfriend, y’know?’

  Rosaline’s eyes flicked to her daughter’s in surprise as Nathan panicked.

  ‘What? Oh, no, it’s not… I’m not… I didn’t mean it like…’

  Sula’s smile cut through Nathan’s defense and he recognized the mischievous twinkle in her eyes once again, although this time the nostalgic pain in the corners of his eyes was a little less potent than before.

  ‘Take it easy,’ she said. ‘I’m just bustin’ your chops, okay Mister Cop?’

  Nathan relaxed and forced an awkward smile onto his face. ‘Sure.’

  ‘So,’ Rosaline said, ‘now what? You think that we all go out to dinner and play happy families?’

  ‘I don’t know, I guess all of that’s up to you.’

  Sula looked down at the photographs, of Angela and Amira. Her mother looked at them again also.

  ‘This is a bit of a shock, detective.’

  ‘It’s Nathan.’

  ‘We’re going to need some time,’ Rosaline added, ‘to think about all of this. We don’t want somebody else getting involved already, okay?’

  ‘I’ll be in touch,’ Sula said, ignoring her mother.

  ‘You’ll do no such thing!’

  Sula rolled her eyes. ‘Mom, I’m not a kid anymore okay?’

  ‘That’s exactly what you are young lady and we don’t know this…,’ Rosaline glanced at Nathan: ‘Gentleman.’

  ‘It’s Nathan, really, and I don’t want to cause any trouble here, okay?’

  ‘You’re not,’ Sula said as she smiled sweetly at her mother. ‘Right, mom?’

  Rosaline peered at Nathan but said nothing. Nathan watched Sula, and he figured that he must have be
en wearing a puppy dog look because Sula chuckled and patted his forearm with one hand.

  ‘I promise I’ll be in touch, okay?’

  Nathan chuckled, shook his head. ‘Sure, sorry, I just…’

  ‘I know,’ Sula said softly.

  ‘Are all teenagers this grown up in the 25th Century?’

  ‘No, they’re not,’ Rosaline murmured. ‘That’s what worries me.’

  ‘Oh, come on mom,’ Sula groaned. ‘What harm can it do?’

  Before Rosaline could reply Nathan’s optical implant flashed and he saw a ghostly image of Foxx appear genie like before him.

  ‘We’ve got a homicide,’ she said, her disembodied voice clear in his ear. ‘Sorry, we gotta move.’

  ‘Duty calls?’ Sula asked.

  ‘I got to go,’ Nathan said as they stood. ‘Can I give you my contact details?’

  ‘Sure,’ Sula replied as she looked up at him, ignoring her mother’s silent glare. ‘Long as you don’t mind me being out of touch for a while?’

  ‘Why, where are you going?’ Nathan asked as they walked outside onto the sidewalk and into a faint drizzle falling in rainbow hues around them.

  ‘Induction course for the fleet,’ she replied. ‘I’m hoping to follow my father’s footsteps and join up.’

  ‘Wow,’ Nathan said, suddenly concerned. ‘You sure that’s a good idea, the fleet can be a dangerous place?’

  ‘Remember that not getting too involved thing?’ Rosaline piped up.

  Nathan mentally pulled back. ‘Yeah, right. Sorry.’

  Sula smiled again. ‘It’s okay. I think it’s kind of cute you’re already trying to look out for us. Gotta go, ‘morrow!’

  And with that she was gone, rushing away into the crowds in a flash of blonde hair and lengthy stride. Nathan stared after her and then belatedly raised his hand to wave.

  ‘Morrow!’

  Rosaline moved to stand before Nathan, and although her face was pinched with anger he knew instinctively that her concern was for her daughter.

  ‘You know about what happened to her father, right?’

  Nathan nodded and said nothing.

  ‘She’s all I’ve got,’ Rosaline said, ‘and we only just got our lives together again. Don’t start coming around here screwing things up, understood detective?’

  ‘Understood, and it’s Nathan.’

  Rosaline turned without another word and stalked away into the crowds. He watched her until she was out of sight, and then yelped as a squad cruiser hovered into view inches from his right leg.

  ‘Hey, grandpa!’ Nathan turned as he saw the cruiser’s gull wing doors open and Foxx beckoning him inside. ‘You wanna get the hell back to work here?’

  ***

  IV

  South Two

  ‘What the hell are we doing up here, it’s not our jurisdiction?’

  Foxx guided the squad cruiser through the towering blocks a hundred feet off the deck, weaving smoothly between the traffic streaming in uniform flying lanes around the Belt. Sunlight flared through the vast ray shielding above them, the shadows of massive support beams drifting by rhythmically overhead.

  ‘Chief of police called us in,’ she replied to Nathan. ‘Vasquez and Allen are already there.’

  ‘Wow, I didn’t know North Four cops were in such demand.’

  From his seat Nathan could look down on the spires of buildings passing by below, the streets teeming with citizens demarked by the glowing blue rings of hard light umbrellas shimmering through the veils of rain spilling from the atmosphere. Above, the metal sky of the upper rim was interspersed with periodic shafts of brilliant sunlight from huge observation panels that revealed a dizzying view of earth and the sun outside the station, along with the far side of the Belt dominated by North Four’s dark streets.

  ‘The victim worked on North Four as part of a street team counselling drug addicts near Phoenix Heights,’ Foxx explained as she flew the cruiser. ‘Local PD think that she might have been targeted as part of her anti narcotics work.’

  ‘Gang slaying?’ Nathan guessed.

  ‘That’s what they’re thinking, due to the unusual nature of the crime.’

  ‘Unusual how?’

  Foxx shrugged but said nothing as she descended toward the southern quarter. Already Nathan had noticed the dark, dank buildings of the northern quarter give way to the more aesthetically pleasing financial district and urban south side. Like any city there were wealthy areas and there were slums, and nowhere was the line more clearly demarked than in the orbital stations. New Washington, New Chicago, New Los Angeles and others all carried the burden of social decline in their vast populations, most of whom had never visited their home world in their lives. Earth’s surface was now a haven for the super wealthy, the elite.

  ‘There they are.’

  Foxx pointed to where a flashing red icon on the hard light windscreen hovered over a pair of police cruisers that had landed in a narrow street off 25th and West San Antonio. Foxx descended carefully through the traffic and hit her landing lights, a small group of uniformed officers and detectives stepping back as the cruiser descended onto its landing pads near the crime scene, the thrusters blowing rippling veils of vapor off the damp street as it touched down.

  Nathan climbed out as the cruiser’s engines whined down and with Foxx he walked to the crime scene, marked as ever with glowing hard light barriers to keep out curious members of the public. He could see the overlooking apartment buildings surrounding them, faces within watching the activity in the street below.

  Waiting for them were two detectives attached to Kaylin’s Anti Drug Unit; Lieutenant Jay Allen and Lieutenant Emilio Vasquez. Jay was a career officer who had joined the force from high school in New Chicago, while Vasquez was a former CSS Marine who had switched to law enforcement for the better pay and the increased chance of picking up hot dates due to his uniform. The pair could not have been more different, and duly were inseparable partners with five long years’ service behind them in the unit.

  ‘Hey Ironsides,’ Vasquez chortled as they approached. ‘What’s with the momma in the coffee shop?’

  ‘Have you been following me?’ Nathan asked.

  ‘We’ve been lookin’ out for you,’ right Jay?’

  ‘Watching your back,’ Detective Allen agreed with a somber nod. ‘Putting your concerns before ours. Riding shotgun. Watching your as…’

  ‘As far as I remember I’m a grown man who can look after himself,’ Nathan pointed out.

  ‘Your memory’s not that hot,’ Vasquez replied.

  ‘Guys, I don’t need you behind me all the time okay? Foxx had my back.’

  The two detectives glanced at each other and shrugged. Despite their covert observation of his morning meeting Nathan was grateful that the two of them were around. Both men knew what Nathan had been through and how much he had lost.

  ‘Yo, Foxx? You wipe your feet before you got out of that cruiser?’

  Detective Foxx strode through the barrier with a grin on her face as a tall, black detective shook her hand. Nathan followed with Vasquez and Allen, all of their implanted ID chips automatically recognized by the barriers.

  ‘Emmanuel,’ she greeted him. ‘What brings you to let us dirty northerners set foot on your pampered little manor?’

  ‘Needs must,’ Emmanuel replied as he shook Nathan’s hand. ‘Lieutenant Emmanuel Stone.’

  ‘Nathan Ironside, what happened here?’

  ‘Homicide,’ Stone replied as he gestured behind him to a dark stain on the street, partially washed away by recent rainfall.

  ‘There’s no body,’ Vasquez observed.

  ‘He’s a keen eye, isn’t he?’ Emmanuel winked at Nathan with a brilliant white smile.

  ‘Doesn’t miss a trick,’ Nathan confirmed. ‘What’s the story? We don’t usually get pulled up here.’

  ‘That’s the rub,’ Emmanuel replied as his smile melted away and his eyes turned dark. ‘The vic’ worked your patch by day, liv
ed here by night. Normally we’d just inform your precinct and get uniforms on the canvassing from your side, but the scene just doesn’t sit right.’

  ‘Where’s the body?’ Foxx pressed.

  Emmanuel jabbed a thumb up into the air.

  Nathan looked up, to where the high rises reached up toward a steel gray sky of upper rim panelling and brilliant white lighting, uniform rows of illumination demarking the interior wall of the Rim above them. To the right, atop one of the apartment blocks, Nathan saw two figures looking down at them that he identified as uniformed officers guarding a second scene.

  ‘The victim was a jumper?’ Foxx asked in confusion.

  ‘No,’ Detective Allen said as he looked down at the blood stained street. ‘Not enough blood for that.’

  ‘That’s right,’ Emmanuel replied. ‘The body was moved up there after death, and here’s the thing. The apartment is securely locked at night. All of the residents have alibied out and none of the internal surveillance caught anything out of the ordinary. Yet this victim supposedly died here in the street and then wound up sixty feet in the air on the roof of that building.’

  Foxx craned her neck up and looked at the rooftop. ‘Could’ve been dumped there from a cruiser.’

  ‘Or we could be looking at two different crimes,’ Nathan pointed out.

  ‘Bloodwork’s already been done,’ Emmanuel said. ‘The victim definitely bled here, and that’s what doesn’t make any sense. There’s not enough blood.’

  ‘We already established that,’ Foxx said, ‘the victim didn’t jump.’

  ‘That’s not what I mean,’ Emmanuel replied. ‘You haven’t seen the vic’ yet.’

  Foxx and Nathan exchanged glances as Emmanuel waved for them to follow him into the apartment building. They travelled in silence in an elevator to the top floor and then up a staircase and out onto the roof of the building.

  Although they were only fifty or so feet above street level, Nathan could already feel a lightness in his belly as the force of gravity was reduced. The closer one moved to the station’s hub, the lower the centrifugal force acting on a body of mass became, which was why aerial traffic and elevated landing pads made sense as less thrust was needed to take off. High above them the central hub and spaceport experienced permanent zero gravity, facilitating the landing and departure of spacecraft entering New Washington or leaving for earth or the solar system’s various colonies and bases.