BattleTech by Philip A. Lee

Author:Philip A. Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs

27

DUCAL GUARD HEADQUARTERS

ATREUS CITY, ATREUS

FREE WORLDS LEAGUE

22 MARCH 3148

“None of this makes any sense,” Wil Kirkland said over the shoulder of Agent Huli Jing, who was poring through screen after screen of data points to see what they were overlooking. “Taken separately, sure. But together? Nothing lines up.”

Danai Liao-Centrella had been true to her word in providing personnel from the Maskirovka, the Capellan Confederation’s intelligence arm, to aid the investigation into Jessica’s assassination. Wil never thought he’d see the day that a trio of Mask agents would willfully work alongside SAFE agents, especially to solve a problem of this magnitude. He didn’t fully trust Huli Jing or her two partners, Agents Bashe and Jiangshi, but little could be said about that, for their assistance had already uncovered verifiable data that SAFE and law enforcement had missed in their initial sweep of the crime scene and the Valentini residence.

Wil was duly impressed. This cooperation was already paying dividends.

“Then what about these?” Huli Jing tapped a fingernail on a few line items on her monitor: various chemical traces of the accelerant used in the deadly bombs that had brought down the manor. “Do these suggest a local source of origin?”

Wil crossed his arms. “As best we can tell. I think it would’ve been difficult for Valentini to obtain any bomb-making ingredients produced off-world. Any supplies he brought from his homeworld of Clipperton would’ve likely been confiscated upon his arrival, so he would’ve been buying whatever he could find nearby. But that still doesn’t account for the lack of bomb-making residue at any of his known residences.”

Through a fringe of straight black hair, Huli Jing looked at him over her shoulder in a way that was not quite a glare, but it made Wil’s stomach squirm. “Forget Valentini for a second, General.” A tiny smirk of self-satisfaction lifted her crimson lips. “If the bombs were indeed assembled on Oriente, and we have found no conclusive evidence that Valentini made them, and we take Valentini’s dying confession at face value, that brings us to two possible conclusions. One, Valentini assembled the bombs in a place we do not know yet about. Two, Valentini was not acting alone.”

“Agreed.” Wil thought back to that body-cam footage of Valentini’s dying moments, that panicked look in the eyes. “But if Valentini was not acting alone, is it possible his dying words were coerced?”

Huli Jing nodded. “He may have been brainwashed or under duress. But conspiracy theories like that are much harder to prove. Evidence that Valentini had one or more willing partners would be easier to find, I believe.”

“Okay,” Wil said. “So for the sake of argument, let’s assume Valentini assembled the explosives somewhere else. Then we’re looking at a needle-in-a-haystack situation. It might be easier to track down potential coconspirators than to waste time trying to find where the bombs were made.”

“Agreed,” Huli Jing said. “From the nature of the incident and what we already know, we can guess that at least one or more of Valentini’s compatriots had physical access to Halas Manor.

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