Tally Road Original Story- Chapter 4

"So, how did you do it then?"

Rairate and Boodins were back in their room- specifically, in the bathroom, where Boodins was chattering to Rai as the latter washed his paws in the sink.

"As I told you, normal Nerre claws are pointed but not edged, and are extremely dexterous. You've seen Nerre keypads?"

"The tiny things? Oh- your clawtips hit those tiny keys?"

"Rapidly, and in chords." said Rairate. "What you didn't know was that Hse-Nerre are invariably highly trained in vritere and fitted with physical implants..."

"Vritere?"

Rairate flashed a claw, which glinted with the metallic sheen of a razor's edge along the inside. "Claw-fighting. Dexterity, knowledge of anatomy- also an art similar to Estrai swordfighting, like no-contact wrestling. Some of us can outfight a Tompar in hand-to-hand combat, oh, say, one out of three."

"What happens the other two times?"

Rairate earflattened. "We die in agony, of course, what do you think? My point is that no other race can possibly do that at all. Anyway, that's what projectile weapons are for."

"But how did you do... what you did?"

"I told you- claw-fighting. Look," said Rairate, extruding a claw. "The inside edge is sharpened metal. We're used to having them, I just have to pay closer attention to that edge. It becomes second nature after a while. They can't be taken away from me, and if I reach out to hook something it can be cut through with the full pulling force of my arm, the way the claw angles out."

"Don't they get blunt? I've never seen you sharpen them."

"They can't- the metal is somewhat brittle, and the fracture lines are parallel to the blade edge. If you ever see tiny metal flakes around after I've used vritere, don't you touch them, you'll cut yourself."

Boodins hesitated. "The cop... didn't want to do anything..."

"You've never been on a Runge homeworld."

"But still..."

"No, listen." said Rairate. "That was not a problem. Our danger was a problem, but what I did was not. You don't know the way things are here."

"The cops don't care about killing people?"

"They have too much else to do- and, Boodins, that Runge was ready to hurt or kill us."

"He was ready to do something, anyway!" said Boodins, brightly. "He thought you were cute!"

"Please give it a rest, Boodins." said Rairate, tiredly. "Don't talk that way. Did you notice what the cop was there for?"

"No. Wait- wasn't he checking on that little flying drone?"

"Imagine how much longer it would have been if you'd called for help when that gang came into the loading dock."

Boodins' eyes widened. "Oh."

"Yes, 'oh'. The cops here cannot keep up with the demands made of them. Had I been a threat, they might have shot me. Instead, they got my name and took a picture of me, and by now they know where I am staying, where I come from, and they've updated that gang leader's data file."

"Will they send someone to bury him?"

Rairate made an expression of distaste. "That is the restaraunt's problem. They had a dumpster. If they aren't quick, it's possible it won't even be their problem. Some homeless Runge exist very near to starvation."

Boodins looked horrified. Rai added, "Yes, I know- nothing like back home on Restred. This is why you must stick close to me while you're here. Runge homeworlds aren't safe, Boodins. We're here to find Elistary, to catch Finn, we aren't here to sightsee."

"Then- what do we do now?"

"Well, right now, I'm wondering if it's useful to do all this legwork ourselves. It's true that there was no real consequence to killing that gang leader, but I'd like to avoid repeating that situation if I can. Runge worlds are just too uncontrolled. We can't go around asking questions without stirring up trouble- we need an agent."

"You mean, hiring someone?"

"Something like that..." said Rairate as he sat before the video screen- the picture of the live camera feed shrank to icon size in the corner of the screen as he prepared to make a call. "Anyhow, something at the employment office reminded me. There was a cop named Anzende. Unless I miss my guess, that would be Anzende Ndeschwin, and he frequently works with the Estrai detective Voustrets Laimontre."

"We can't afford him! ...can we?"

Rairate considered this. "No. However, Voustrets is very eccentric, and it's possible we may get some sort of clue from his reaction. We're new here, and he has lived on this world for twenty years." Rairate paused, and addressed Boodins seriously. "Ndeschwin is a working policeman, and our problem is not part of his jurisdiction. Laimontre has no obvious limit to his jurisdiction, but does not react predictably. Please let me do all the talking."

The little Nerre was already typing in a search query, which returned first the area that Ndeschwin worked in, and then a contact link. "I'm not going to try to contact Laimontre directly- one doesn't. Hopefully I can..."

"Police, sector 53 dash 212, Ndeschwin speaking."

"Yes, hello, I wonder if you can help us?"

"Well, I hope so, but what do you need? Are you reporting a crime?"

"In a sense, yes." said Rairate. On the screen, the wolf's ears perked.

"Mind telling me what you mean by 'in a sense', there?"

"Perhaps I phrased that badly- I and my companion are investigating a kidnapping, but it occurred on Restred."

"Are you in hot pursuit?" asked Ndeschwin. "Let me have some identification before we go any farther."

"No, no, let me explain..." said Rairate, ruffled at the misunderstanding, but this only made matters worse. The wolf cop bristled, and snapped, "I'm going to stop asking in a moment. ID, now!"

"I am Rairate Tais, and this is Boodins Earncy. I am Hse-Nerre and he is an advisor, and we are trying to find a kidnapper."

Anzende Ndeschwin was not impressed by this, but the little Nerre's automatic courtesy seemed to calm him. "I have five kidnappers in my active files. Why are you asking me about one that happened in another damn star system?" While he spoke, he tapped in the names and cross-referenced them.

"We believe the kidnapper fled here. He had contacts on this world."

"Uh-huh. You know who it is. Why didn't you turn the matter over to us immediately?"

Rairate was taken aback- having been hired to do the job, it hadn't occurred to him to work closely with the police and let them do it. He narrowly avoided saying 'you're too busy', and instead managed, "We weren't sure it was in your jurisdiction."

"It's not." said the Runge cop. "However..." and he typed busily, looking offscreen, "you're in sector 54 and that means YOU are in my extended jurisdiction, and... hey, isn't that nice! You just killed a guy."

Boodins wasn't able to stay quiet at that. "They let us go! And it was a bad guy, so doesn't that turn out to be good?"

Ndeschwin looked very sour. "You think so? Who's telling you that, your friend who killed him? For your information, the guy was a real problem, but your attitude isn't helping us any."

Boodins gulped, but didn't get a chance to say anything else- Rairate was already speaking, with that unshakable courtesy. "We were asked for our names, and allowed to go. If this was not sufficent, sir, then please explain our further obligation, and you have my word as Hse-Nerre that we will honor it."

The wolf looked sharply at him, through the screen. "True? I mean, True Nerre?"

That got through- Rai's ears laid back, very slightly. "No, sir. False. But sincere."

Ndeschwin watched him for a moment, and then nodded. "I knew that. I wanted to see how you'd take it... my apology for reminding you."

Rairate did not nod, just waited for the wolf cop to continue without acknowledging the remark. The cop seemed to understand this- Nerre who had fallen from grace against their will were known to be sensitive about it. At the same time, Ndeschwin took a moment to size up the diminutive assassin further. When he spoke, it was with authority.

"Here's your obligation, Rairate Tais. You're coming in for questioning. There's too much happening around you to ignore- there's a pattern of disruption of security monitors, there's reports of a possible Tompar agent in the area, and your confederate running the computer searches has dropped out of sight after the fraud alerts propagated- we have some questions about that, too. You're not under arrest, I'm just saying that now would be a good time to come and talk to us. Today would be good. We haven't been tucked into bed yet, so there's plenty of time."

The cop signed off, and the videoscreen returned to the image of the room's security camera, still with the incorrect timestamp. Then, there was a quiet whirring and the device began printing out address information, in the generic datascreen format- Ndeschwin had punched in his location and told the machine to generate directions and print them on hard-copy. The paper was very cheap. Rairate glanced over the directions, knowing how laughably useless datascreen directions could be, but these ones seemed pretty straightforward. It helped that the destination was walking distance- vehicle traffic tended to get nightmarish on Runge homeworlds.

Rairate looked at Boodins, who looked back with equal perplexity. The little cat shrugged.

"We wanted to talk to Laimontre. This cop is known to be close to Laimontre. Let's go, we'll answer whatever they like. Viez."

"Vyay? What's that mean?"

"Going limp. Idiomatic. What it means to you right now, Boodins, is this: come along, we're going to happily do whatever this cop asks, and maybe he can help us in turn."

With that, Rairate opened the door to the outside, and very nearly walked into Dene Tieschtet, who stood with one hand up, about to knock.

She stammered, and Rairate understood one of the cop's remarks then.

"Our confederate, I presume?"