Nemesis

They landed on a tree-lined transit pad just within the walls of the Consortium’s compound. In a definite attempt to stand out from the more typical Iestan architectural styles of the other great manses in the area, the Eurotas house was modelled on the Cygnus school of design, reminiscent of many reunification-era colony palaces from the early decades of the Great Crusade. It was an open, summery building, full of courtyards and cupolas, with fountains and small pocket gardens that were at odds with the cool pre-winter chill of the day.

The two reeves were barely to the foot of the coleopter’s drop-ramp when they were met by a narrow woman in the bottle-green and silver of the rogue trader’s livery. Standing behind her at a discreet distance were two men in the same garb, but both of them were twice her body mass with faces hidden behind the blank glares of info-visors. Yosef saw no weapons visible on them, but he knew they had to be carrying. One of the many tenets of the Consortium’s corporate sovereignty throughout the Taebian Sector allowed Eurotas to ignore planetside laws the Void Baron considered to be detrimental to his business, and that included Iestan weapon statutes.

The woman spoke before Yosef could open his mouth, firmly determined to set the rules of the impromptu visit immediately. ‘My name is Bellah Gorospe, I’m a Consortium liaison executive. We’ll need to make this quick,’ she told him, with a fake smile. ‘I’m afraid I have an important meeting to attend very shortly.’ The woman had the kind of silken Ultima accent that automatically categorised her as non-native.

‘Of course,’ Yosef said smoothly. ‘This won’t take long. The Sentine require access to the Consortium’s database of passenger and crew manifests for incoming starships to Iesta Veracrux.’

Gorospe blinked. She was actually startled by the directness of his demand, and didn’t say no straight away. ‘Which ship?’

‘All of them,’ Daig added, following his lead.

The automatic denial that she was trained to give came next. ‘That’s impossible. That data is proprietary material under ownership of the Eurotas Trade Consortium. It cannot be released to any local jurisdictional bodies.’ Gorospe said the word local as if it rhymed with irrelevant. ‘If you have a specific request regarding any data pertaining to Iestan citizens, I may be able to accommodate you. Otherwise, I’m afraid not.’ She started to turn away.

‘Did you know Cirsun Latigue?’ said Yosef.

That brought the woman to a halt. She covered her hesitation well. ‘Yes. We had cause to work together on occasion.’ Gorospe’s lips thinned. ‘Is that pertinent?’

‘We’re investigating the possibility that whoever murdered him is following a vendetta against employees of Baron Eurotas.’ That was an outright lie, but it got Yosef the response he wanted. The woman blinked, and she was clearly wondering if she could be next. The reeve had no doubt that by now everyone in the compound, no matter if they were supposed to know or not, knew exactly how horribly Latigue had died. ‘We believe the killer may have arrived on planet aboard a Eurotas-operated vessel,’ he added.

If the murderer was from another planet, then that was undeniable; the Consortium ran every inter-system ship that came to Iesta Veracrux, and as a part of Imperial transit law, all travellers were required to submit to cursory medical checks in order to prevent the spread of any potential biosphere-specific contagions from world to world. That data would exist in the Consortium’s records.

Gorospe was uncertain how to proceed. Her plan to dismiss the Sentine officers and return to whatever her other tasks were had crumbled. Yosef imagined that she was now thinking of a way to deal with this by invoking some higher authority. ‘Sanctioned Consortium security operatives will be arriving in fifty hours. I suggest you return at that time and make your request to them.’

‘It wasn’t a request,’ Yosef told her. ‘And given the frequency of the murders to date, there could be two, perhaps even three more deaths before then.’ He kept his voice level. ‘I think that even the Baron himself would agree that time is of the essence.’

‘The Baron is coming here,’ Gorospe noted, in an absent, distant manner that seemed to be half disbelief.

‘I’m sure he would want as much done as possible towards dealing with this unfortunate circumstance,’ said Daig. ‘And quickly.’

She glanced back at Yosef. ‘Please tell me again what it is that you need, reeve?’

He resisted the urge to smile and instead offered her the data-slate. ‘There’s an unidentified blood trace listed here. I require it to be cross-referenced with the Consortium’s database for any matches.’

Gorospe took the slate and her practised smile reappeared. ‘The Consortium will of course do anything possible to assist the Sentine in the pursuit of their lawful duties. Please wait here.’ She walked swiftly away, leaving the two silent men standing watch.