Chapter 1 WINE FOR THE BELLY

 

I’m Admiral Clay Stone and I’m in command of the Omni Fleet Academy.

There are only two kinds of people in the world.

There are those who look inward to their own power and wealth.

There are those who look outward to the betterment of humankind and the joy that freedom and sharing can bring.

The natural order of things will place the inward focused people in control of the world, while the outward focused people will serve in the Peace Corps and donate their time to soup kitchens and food pantries.

I make no moral judgments here. I only say that to say this, I’m not welcomed in the world of power and high-end economics. It’s this dynamic that has fostered the BODSO Corporate wars. Omni Fleet is more than an Academy. Just as MIT does R&D and Harvard does biotechnical ventures to the rainforests of Brazil, we venture in Research and Development, and exploration to the stars.

Things have been rocky here at the Academy since I graduated from their Starfleet Section. My career has been meteoric in its upward climb.

Our situation includes immersion in the corporate wars with BODSO Corporation, who will stop at nothing to gain the upper hand in procuring government contracts.

As with any war, the fatalities have been nothing short of astronomical.

Collateral damage nearly cost the lives of my infant son Beryl and me, along with my wife Mandy.

The Board of Directors of BODSO Corporation was formerly the Board of Directors here at Omni Fleet, until I fired them all for their callous human rights violations.

My life and the lives of my family are at risk here.

So far, our dreams and our infant son have combined to save us.

It has been a long and hard day.

Mandy and I go back to the apartment and, after tucking little Beryl in for the night, we go off to bed.

It’s crazy, I know. Mandy and I do not just have the same dreams. We are in the same nightmare dream talking and sharing the experience together.

In our dreams, our Director of Security, Max is a spy assigned to assassinate us.

We have been watching Max in an effort to determine whether the dream is true. We have found no evidence. Max has been loyal in every situation.

We dream again, as we have countless times lately, that our Director of Security, Max is a spy.

BODSO tells Max to give us the poisoned bottle of Old Earth Vintage Wine. He takes the bottle.

We do not sleep long. We dream of Max and that confounded bottle of Old Earth Vintage Wine.

Mandy and I both awake in a start.

Beryl is standing at the foot of the bed as he has so many times before when these dreams occur.

Beryl silently turns and goes back to his room.

There is a soft gong and someone is requesting to enter our quarters.

I open the door and find Max standing there.

Max says, “Happy anniversary. I brought you a little something to help you celebrate.”

He hands me a bottle. It’s a bottle of Old Earth Vintage Wine.

Beryl appears in the hall next to us saying, “Bad man!”

Mandy takes the bottle and I say, “Thank you, Max. We’re going to enjoy it very much.”

When Max has gone, we just sit and look at one another for a long time before speaking.

Mandy says, “We don’t know yet whether or not this is laced with cyanide. We should have it checked out in the lab.”

I ponder aloud, “Even if we find it’s laced with cyanide, how sure are we, that Max knew it?”

Mandy starts to become aggravated.

Mandy says, “Before you start to rationalize that Max is innocent, why not find out if a crime is in the works here.”

I let out a big sigh.

I respond, “Your right, honey. I’m assuming the wine is poison and that Max is a pawn in the game of corporate espionage.

“Put the wine in the kitchen cabinet and we can have it tested in the morning.”

It’s off to bed because we have an early morning. The Lab opens at Seven o’clock.

Mandy and I dream again. This is a strange one. Why are Mandy and I opening the kitchen cabinet to look inside?

It’s three o’clock in the morning and we hear a noise in the living room. We are both still in the bed.

Rising up from my slumber, I gather my automatic pistol and walk to the living room in time to see Beryl.

He says, “Bad man. Kill you.”

I take the bottle from him and say, “We know it’s bad. We need to keep it and have it tested.”

He asks, “Tested?”

I pull him close to me and give him a hug.

Beryl says, “OK. I love you. I was afraid.”

After we tuck him in, I ask Mandy, “Is it me, or are Beryl’s speech patterns getting more complex?”

Mandy says, “He is developing so fast. I thought it was normal. Nine months old, and he is beginning to form three word sentences. I will have to look into that. He seems to be maturing faster than most children.”

Morning will come, but slowly. We are so eager to resolve the question of the wine that the anticipation seems to make the night drag on forever.

Morning does come.

Mandy and I stand at the door to the lab holding the suspect bottle of wine.

Doctor Melbourne arrives at six fifty AM to unlock the door. As I turn to give Doctor Melbourne the wine, I see Max standing right beside him.

Mandy says, “Max, what a pleasant surprise. I was about to call you and ask you to meet us here.

We are not sure if this is the same bottle you gave us, or the one we already had.

We already had a bottle of Old Earth Vintage Wine in our cupboard when you came by.”

I added, “The original bottle was poisoned by a saboteur. He is dead now, and we were going to destroy the bottle of wine. Now we are not sure which is which.”

Max says, “Why didn’t you bring both bottles?”

Mandy says, “We are pretty sure the one you gave us is in the cooler now. Why open two bottles? That would make ruining your wonderful gift a certainty, right? We can have the one in the cooler tonight if this one is bad.”

Max looks at a loss for words.

He stands there a moment and says, “I have compelling duties elsewhere. Please, excuse me.”

Doctor Melbourne takes the bottle and says, “I will schedule testing on this today. You should be getting a full report tomorrow morning.”

I say, “I want this tested right now. I will expect a full report by noon.”

Doctor Melbourne says, “Yes, sir. I will have it by noon today.”

Mandy says, “Major Morgan will pick up the report personally. You are to tell no one anything about the testing.

Do not tell Max that you are doing the test this morning and if he asks for the results, tell him it hasn’t been tested yet.”

Doctor Melbourne looks at us with a puzzled expression.

He says, “Yes, sir.”

Mandy and I call Major Morgan, “We need to have a meeting right away.”

I say, “We won’t tell him about Beryl and his spooky habit of being at the foot of the bed when we awake.”

Mandy says, “Beryl’s presence may be a coincidence caused by sounds we make during sleep. We do not want to implicate him. There is too much danger surrounding this situation.”

The Major is at our doorstep within minutes.

Mandy and I fill him in on the dreams and the wine. We bring him up to date on how Max appeared at the lab when we visited Doctor Melbourne.

We also tell him our cover story about having two bottles and not being sure which is which.

Max just sits there and finally says, “Max is my boss. You are Max’s boss.

“This puts me in a difficult situation. If Max is innocent, my career is screwed.”

He wrings his hands looking disturbed.

He says, “I can do anything you say, but please, be mindful of my situation. I’m caught between two powerful forces, and no matter which one is right, I’m in the wrong.”

I say, “Major. No matter what happens, Mandy and I have your back. You saved our butts so many times I cannot count them. Do you really think I would throw you under the bus?”

The Major says, “Sorry. For a moment there, I was a little bit nuts. It being my boss and all, I’m feeling a little awkward.”

Mandy says, “Just bear in mind that for the duration of this investigation, he is nothing more than a suspect.”

We have breakfast and Major Morgan goes down to the lab later to get the report.

He finds the lab door open and inside he sees Doctor Melbourne face down on the floor. The Doctor is dead, struck from behind; and strangled with an electrical cord.

A search of the lab fails to uncover the bottle of wine or the report. The evidence was obviously the target of this crime.

Realizing that this is a total waste of time, I get on the communicator and order Max to come to my office immediately.

Max does not come to my office.

I say, “I realize that this will leave the ship vulnerable for a short time. I hereby order all security personnel, no matter what they are doing, to report to the central conference room.”

The meeting starts once all of the Security Personnel are present and accounted for.

“I say, “Max is fired. He is no longer our Director of Security Services. Major Morgan is now our Director of Security Services.

“I order a search for Max and upon locating him, I want him arrested and held.”

The search for Max begins.

Things at Omni Fleet are more difficult than they are on the ship. On the ship, there is nowhere to go. You can run but you cannot hide.

Here at Omni Fleet, you can always leave the Academy grounds and run, especially if you are on the Board of Directors.

As an Omni Fleet command level Director, you are free to come and go as you please.

We sealed off all of the security gates in and out of the campus immediately upon the discovery of the body. How long it has been since the murder has yet to be determined.

Over the next two days, nothing is happening with regard to locating the whereabouts of Max. He has seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Just as we lower the alert status of the search to simply keeping an eye out for him, the trash disposal company comes to service our twice-weekly dumpster collection. Everything stops.

My communicator announces a call from Major Morgan who tells me, “Clay, you had better come to the back of the chow hall. We found Max.

Mandy and I arrive and see a large black plastic garbage bag on the ground with just a hand sticking out of it.

The wrist has a watch on it and I can see that the watch belongs to Max.

Security says, “We ran the fingerprints. it’s definitely Max. We haven’t touched anything else. We do not want to disturb the crime scene.

As with local custom, the local authorities do not get involved in corporate crimes. We call in our Detective Agents along with our Pathology, Forensics, and Body Disposal Unit.

We minimize the expense to the Stockholders by always cremating the body. There is no service unless the next of kin want to bear the expense.

Admiral Avery as part of the corporate cost cutting strategy put the rule in place.

The corporation rationalizes, “What is a dead human body after all? it’s nothing more than organs, meat and bone. The person has departed.

“We choose not to regard the body meat as food, so we dispose of it.”

I’m looking at possible changes that would treat the body more respectfully.

The Finance Department is not receptive to the change because their budgets do not allow for nonproductive spending.

The Director of Finance addresses the Board, “Money is the life-blood of the company. By doing an investigation into the cause of death and finding those to blame, we are already hemorrhaging money.

“We are going beyond the point of corporate necessity already. The carcass of the deceased can serve no purpose aside from evidence.

“Enough is enough. We should eliminate the killer and the victim in the most financially efficient manner.”

I argue, “God would want every person to be treated as a sacred entity, not flushed down the toilet like some dead goldfish.”

The Director of Finance says, “If this is a moral issue, then let the church take care of it.”

The Board of Directors takes a vote. The old body disposal policy remains in force.

Mandy and I return to our quarters where we are devastated by the callousness of the corporation.

I say in despair, “Even though we fired the old Board of Directors and either hired or appointed all new, the finance community has destroyed the moral fabric of our society.

“It all started long ago, around the turn of the century, from 1999 to 2000.

“We only notice it because our mothers were from the old school and raised us in the absence of our fathers.”

Mandy says, “Clay, enough about that. You are always working on the company’s needs. We have a few problems of our own.”

I snap out of it and say, “Sorry, honey. I just seem to go down that rat-hole every time I see it again.

“We do have problems of our own.

“Beryl seems to be somewhat odd in a lot of ways.

“Then there are our dreams that are shared by both of us. I have never heard of two people sharing a dream to the extent that they interacted in it the way we do.”

Mandy says, “Interesting how the warnings in the dreams are spot-on, while the details seem to be off.”

I ask, “What do you mean?”

Mandy clarifies, “Max is supposed to be our killer. If he is the killer, why is he dead?

“What happened to the wine and the report?

“We seem to have another assassin, but why did they kill Max?”

I say, “There is a lot to be explained here. You can bet on one thing. This is all going to connect back to BODSO Corporation somehow.”

Mandy says, “The frightening thing here is that it isn’t all about money. They want you dead, Clay.

“If it comes right down to it, they will start losing patience and just attack you head on.

“I’m afraid for Beryl. If he is in the way, they won’t hesitate to take him out along with you.”

I say, “It’s obvious that whether Max succeeded or failed, he knew too much to be allowed to be captured and questioned.

“They would have had to kill him either way.”

Mandy says, “So we are right back where we started. There is a killer or killers in our midst and we have no clue as to their identity.”

I add, “If it happened as it did in our dream, then they don’t even care about the lives of their own people.

“If it did not happen as it did in our dream, then our dreams are not only giving us a warning, they are then hastening to add to the confusion.”

Major Morgan appears at our door.

Mandy says, “Major! Glad to see you. I’m becoming concerned for Beryl’s safety.”

The Major says, “I’m becoming concerned for all of you. I have appointed four guards to stay with you and monitor your security.

“These men have been with me from the beginning and I can trust them.”

Beryl comes in from his room, points to one of the men and says, “No!”

I tell the Major, “Not him. Stick around and we will have a private meeting. There are a couple of things I want to go over.”

The Major dismisses the guard rejected by Beryl.

Alone with the Major, I tell him, “We were avoiding telling you this, but there is something weird going on here and so far it has saved our lives more than once.

I tell him, “We have had dreams. We did not just have dreams. We shared dreams. They were between Mandy and I.

“We awake and recall our conversations while we slept.

“We recall seeing and hearing the exact same things.

“Then there is always Beryl standing at the foot of the bed when we awake.

“When he points to anyone and says ‘bad’ you can bet they are up to something.”

“The Major laughs and says, “OK. You both talk in your sleep.

“You wake up Beryl and he comes in and stands at the foot of your bed.

“Then you wake up and then he goes back to bed. Is that about it?”

Beryl enters the room and walks up to the Major.

Beryl says, “They listen.”

The Major says, “What?”

Beryl says, “They listen.”

Beryl point at the front of Major Morgan’s uniform. He points at the second button down and says, “They listen.”

The Major looks down at the button and says, “It looks a little thicker than the others. It looks a little darker too.

He grips the button and yanks. It pops off and, held in the Major’s hand does not look quite right.

The major drops it on the floor and stomps on it. The button breaks open to reveal microelectronic circuits on the inside.

Beryl turns and leaves the room.

All the color has drained from the Major’s face. He just sits there and looks to be in shock. I have never seen him quite that effected before by anything.

He says, “This is how the enemy seems to know everything. The bugged my clothes and who knows what else.

“What’s worse, they heard everything just now. We have a completely new ballgame. Now they perceive Beryl as a threat.

“One way or the other, we have to find out who these people are.”

Chapter 2 WHAT OF BERYL

I say, “Who was the security guard that Beryl called a bad man?”

The Major says, “Yes, I had planned to start there. He is not just a security guard. He is also my Aid. His name is Sergeant Conklin.

Conklin has been in my service for years. I would trust him with my life. it’s hard to believe that he could have turned against me for love or money.”

Mandy asks, “Who takes care of your uniforms?”

The Major says, “Conklin takes my uniforms to the Base Laundry in bags.”

Mandy says, “I will investigate the Base Laundry and get back to you with how things are done there.

I need you to get a handle on who is behind these murders. Now that Beryl is at risk, I want some answers, and soon.”

I offer what I think is a helpful suggestion, “I realize that Conklin is your trusted Aid, so why don’t I have someone else question him?

“If he is innocent, your relationship with him won’t be put in jeopardy.”

The Major asks, “You would do that for me?”

I say, “Major, I would do anything for you. Let’s find out who is behind all this besides BODSO Corporation.”

Mandy and I spend a quiet evening and then a quiet night. We sleep without strange dreams and awake fresh the next morning.

Mandy keeps her appointment at the Base Laundry where she gets the grand tour. I’m hoping she can learn something about the people and the processes there.

We have Conklin in the briefing room and we are questioning him. He is not under duress and he is not evasive in his answers. I’m wondering where the button bug from the Major’s uniform came from.

I did manage to get a small piece of the thread from the button. When the Major ripped it off, he almost lost all of the thread.

Mandy took the thread with her to the Base Laundry tour.

When Mandy returns, she says, “The clothes come in in their laundry bags. No one looks at them. They go out to the central cleaning facility where they are dry-cleaned.

“They come back on hangars. They are each sorted on the rack alpha-numerically. They use the laundry marks, but not the owner’s name. No one knows who owns which uniform.

“They go through a detailing room where they are checked for rips, stains or missing buttons.

“This is where any missing buttons get sewed on. I checked the thread the detailers use. The thread sample you gave me is not the same.

“No one knows who owns a uniform until it leaves the detailing room and gets hung up on the outgoing rack.

“Only then is the laundry mark linked to the name of the owner and a ticket is printed and attached.

“The bug was put on after the garment was picked up from the laundry”.

Sergeant Conklin is looking guiltier than ever because he is the one who picks up the uniforms.

I look down at my feet because I hate to say it.

I say, “Time to have a sterner chat with Conklin. He is the only one to handle your uniform after it left the laundry.”

The Major’s expression takes on a glum look.

He says, “OK. Go ahead.”

I call in the top interrogations expert from the Major’s team and fill her in on the situation.

Margret says, “Leave him to me. I can wring anything out of anyone and throw away the peel.”

We set up an interrogation room on the top floor where people do not pass through. It helps to keep the noise isolated.

The top floor has no interior walls. it’s open expanse for the entire floor. There is one open bed-looking frame in the middle. The frame is an uncomfortable looking wrought-iron affair. There is electrical equipment beside the frame and a roll around tray with shiny silver surgical tools on it.

On the side is an array of chairs arranged for about thirty spectators. Each row is elevated like bleachers so everyone has a clear view.

As the elevator doors open, Sergeant Conklin pulls back in horror. He is dragged bodily and sobbing to the frame and stripped naked.

He is strapped in on his back with his posterior raised high and open in the air. He starts to vomit.

I’m starting to feel sick to my stomach.

The seats are filling to capacity with young men and women being trained in the art of information gathering. They seem unaffected by the sight and sound of a man about to be savagely tortured.

This kind of session usually lasts until the subject is dead. The subject will be revived using CPR, heart drugs and shock. The process will continue again. it’s not over until the subject is dead and cannot be revived again.

I begin to wretch and quickly go to the elevator and press the down button.

If Beryl’s safety were not in question, I would have ordered it stopped immediately.

I can only imagine what has gone on all night while Mandy and I slept.

The next morning brings the disappointing news that Sergeant Conklin does not know anything. They return him to us alive. He is a quivering mass. He is dressed, but not in uniform.

Interrogator Margo says, “He will do anything you tell him to. He is alive, just as you asked, but I would give him a week to recover if you want him to appear normal.

The major says, “Guess I’m stuck shining my own shoes and taking care of my uniforms for a week. In the meantime someone else will have to clean my quarters and cook for me.”

The Major takes Sergeant Conklin back with him. You can see how angry the Major is about having us inconvenience him

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: Robert Stetson
Bildmaterialien: Robert Stetson
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 21.12.2013
ISBN: 978-3-7309-7076-8

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