Defend the Legation by Mike Shepherd

Author:Mike Shepherd [Shepherd, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642110364
Publisher: KL & MM Books
Published: 2020-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

23

Unfortunately, as Gramma Trouble listened to the agent's report, it was painfully clear that he had much to report on what he'd done to prove this or that. However, it provided painfully little information about the kidnapping. What he'd found out about the actual kidnappers could have fit in a thimble.

A very small one.

Every powered vehicle that entered the Imperial Palace grounds was supposed to be searched and have its license logged. The ledger, a paper and pen affair, also recorded the time the rig either entered or left as well as both the signature of the guard and the driver.

This system was struggling under the pressure of so many truckloads of food being routed through the Palace precincts. If the side of the truck advertised a provender, the guards no longer searched its contents but noted down the license number and time.

The delivery dock at the Human Embassy had a computerized system that recorded the same things and much more. From it, they could determine when a truck arrived and when it left.

It was the easy part. Also, the information could be accessed through a nice neat database.

The Iteeche Imperial Guard's paperwork was not nearly as nice and neat. The average sergeant or junior officer's handwriting was bad at best and when hurried, it got worse. The license number was recorded in a nearly illegible scrawl. The signatures were mere lines, if not something like an X from drivers who could not sign their names.

After the Human investigators visited two guard gate houses and struggled to copy data over to their commlink, they gave up and just took pictures of the required pages. One of Nelly's kids had to run the entire log through a high-end image recognition program. Agent Foile's computer, Sherlock, built up a database on each person who wrote in the log. Only after they had a completely analyzed collection of every jot and tittle, could the computer overlay one number with another and determine which number was which.

In Human Standard, it was often hard to figure out if a hand-scrawled one was a seven. Similarly, a five that lost its top could be mistaken for a three. If a zero acquired a tail for any reason, it could be a six or a nine, with the opposite just as likely.

There was a reason why Humans used their commlinks for so many things.

The Iteeche numerical system held the same potential to confuse when hastily slapped down on paper by a Guardsman who was tired after a long shift. The database showed how a lieutenant's numbers deteriorated as the watch wore on.

In some cases, they had to resort to the driver's wildly scribbled signature to figure out the license number. Oh, and then there were the transposed numbers.

The two gates beside the Legation District recorded the passage of the trucks out of the grounds. In most cases, they arrived at the loading dock very soon after. The trucks that took an inordinate amount of time were kicked out of the system for further examination.

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