Inquisitor by Mitchell Hogan

Author:Mitchell Hogan [Hogan, Mitchell]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Space Exploration, Space Opera, Galactic Empire, Alien Invasion, Inquisitor, Colonization, Science Fiction, Exploration, Adventure, First Contact
Amazon: B00Z8XDKGK
Published: 2015-06-12T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Angel shuffled along the street, a long coat keeping the cold out and preventing casual observers from noticing her weapon. She wore a set of shaded eyeglasses large enough to cover the gauze over her eyes. Even though it was night, many people wore them to dim the constant glare of advertising signs, especially in Cerberus’s entertainment district, which was active all day and night. Indeed, it looked to be busier at night, for some reason. Food stalls and knickknack shops lined the streets and narrow lanes. The sounds of the crowd were almost deafening, when they were mostly what she had to go on to determine her surroundings. The basic details her implants were able to provide barely kept her from bumping into people when she walked, though the images were sharper once Charlotte had tinkered with them. Even so, she had trouble believing she was where she was, and not in some sick simulation.

The aromas wafting from the coals of barbecue vendors made it feel more real: heavily spiced meats, though what the local meats tasted like, she had no idea. Line and circle people lounged in doorways and on corners. Likely illicit dealers, from the pungent smell of weedsticks, so brazen and obvious Angel knew the local law enforcers were corrupt. The occasional figure shorter than the others ran through the crowd—children, dodging past people, far too young to be up so late.

On Angel’s wrist, Charlotte’s bracelet tingled, indicating she was approaching their target. She moved to the side of the road and leaned against a wall. She adopted the droopy-headed pose of someone accessing their implants on full stream. In reality, she was scanning the street as best she could. In one hand she held a disposable cup, and she periodically sipped at her tea.

The problem facing the Inquisitors was that if one turned rogue, they knew how the system worked. And that system was easily manipulated, security taken for granted by the corporations, who had a hold on the general population. Their main threat came from other corporations, industrial espionage, and intellectual property theft. But when you’d spent years investigating how a few individuals had been able to take on the corporations and almost get away with it, you gained a fair bit of useful knowledge.

Angel finished the dregs of her tea and paused.

[There’s a waste container beside you. The box with the hole in the top.]

Of course. She popped the cup into the container, keeping her focus on the target: Senior President Crissalt of the Bank of the People. A minor corporation that took advantage of colonists and pioneers who naively signed over a percentage of all future profits for cash and resources now, in order for them to be able to start a new life. It was more like the People of the Bank as, all too often, the company ended up owning everything as their clients’ debts mounted. It was a business practice that had been ancient when man first took to the stars.

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