Poor guy, Entoryua couldn’t help feeling sorry for any victim of racial discrimination, even if it happened to be Kite.
Entoryua said he would quit the police force if he ever felt that underappreciated. Kite responded that he needed no one’s approval more than his own.
The inspector grunted, and tried to stop himself from asking the question that followed. “And you find that fulfilling?”
“Of course,” answered Kite instantly, as if from rote.
“Inspector, this is Police Chief Kyua,” said a voice in Entoryua’s earpiece.
“Go ahead, Kyua.”
“We’ve got a lead on two suspicious persons in the area of Rimzeil Mansion.”
“Why are you telling me? Enter it in the Datykirl!”
“The problem, Inspector, is that they’ve already left.”
“They escaped?” Entoryua exclaimed with no effort to mask his displeasure.
“No,” countered Kyua, “they were gone when we got here.”
“What makes them so suspicious?”
“It was a man and a woman using fake names.”
“Hmm.” Entoryua wasn’t sold yet. True, they were looking for a man and a woman, but they really didn’t have a lot to go on. A lot of men and women used fake names while making the kinds of trips they didn’t want their families to know about. “What names did they give?”
“Lena and Jinto Sai.”
“Unusual. What did they look like?”
“An employee tells us they looked extremely young, and ‘acted really weird’. “
“Weirdoes, huh?”
“Apparently, they were mostly holed up in their room the whole time. The employee says she never saw the female leave the room.”
“Let me get this straight. Two young people, a man and a woman, check into a hotel with fake names then spend an awful lot of time in the room. You’re right — I’ve never heard of anything like that in my life,” teased Entoryua.
“There’s more. The employee said the woman wore a man’s hat, which she never took off.”
The Inspector looked at Kite, who listened intently. The three goons who reported the stolen car said the woman wore a man’s hat.
“Tell me they got a look at her face.”
“Yeah — thin face, black eyes, fairly tan. Pretty good-looking, they say.”
“A world-class beauty?”
“And apparently a terrible tipper.”
“You don’t say.” Now, the police chief had Entoryua’s interest. That was strange behavior — a gratuity went a long way in getting hotel staff to help keep a low profile.
“Send me an image recording of this couple,” directed Entoryua.
Kyua informed him that there weren’t any image recordings — the director of the hotel had deleted them as soon as the guests left. Entoryua reminded Kyua that it was illegal to keep the image recordings for less than a year after a guest’s departure. Fully aware of the law, Kyua did not understand why Entoryua was telling him this when it was the hotel director who had made the infraction.
“The director is suspect,” Kite announced. “Was he ever previously accused of sheltering an Abh?”
Entoryua shrugged. “It’s possible. Kyua, give me the name and citizen number of the Inn’s director.”
“You got it.”
And just like that, Kyua transmitted the data to the command car’s computer crystal. Accessing the police database, Entoryua brought up all the information he could find on the hotel director.
“Strange.” Entoryua stared at the screen. “This man is a member of the Independence Party.”
“What’s that?” inquired Kite.
“It’s a political party that, in accordance with its name, advocates the rejection of the Fapyut and secession from the Frybar.”
“It’s a secret society?”
“No, it’s a legitimate political party. They’ve got a headquarters and parliamentary seats and all that.”
“That kind of political party exists?”
“Yeah. I thought you guys would know about them — they’re right up your alley.”
“You’re telling me anti-Empire political parties are… legal?”
“Yes. Everyone is represented. It’s not a crime to oppose Frybar rule. They’ll never rise to be Seif Sos, though, because the Fapyut would never allow it.”
“Of course. It’s all a ruse!” scoffed Kite. “They’re still just operating within the framework of the Frybar. It’s pseudo-resistance.”
“You’re not the only one who thinks so; the Independence Party has never won a major election. Consequently, its constituents always get frustrated and split off. There must be forty different offshoot factions. Hmm… looks like the director of the hotel is allied with the Anti-Empire Clasbul Front.” Entoryua retrieved some data on the group. “Crap. We don’t have a lot of info on these guys. It says they planned to occupy the Arnej about twenty years ago, but then they all got arrested and have kept out of trouble ever since.”
“What exactly do these factions do?”
“Not a hell of a lot.” Especially compared to what you guys are doing, Entoryua added mentally. “Sometimes, they’ll set the Loebeje’s plantation on fire, blow up the Labule’s Banzorl Ludorlt, stuff like that. But when they break the law,” Entoryua smiled proudly, “we keep them in check. We try to keep an eye on them and their supporters to prevent crimes. As far as I know, though, the Labule’s never made any attempt to regulate the Independence Party or its offshoots.”
“That doesn’t make sense. They must have done something. Maybe the Abh don’t know about them.”
“Well, anything’s possible. But the Independence Party isn’t an underground resistance — they’re in plain sight.”
As Kite stuttered and searched for words, Kyua interrupted. “Inspector, what do we do?”
“Oops, I almost forgot. Um, detain that director.”
“Take him to the station?”
“No, no. We can’t arrest him just for violating the Travel Inn Law. Just ask him if he’ll wait around and cooperate with us. If he leaves, though, have someone keep tabs on him. He hasn’t made any calls, has he?”
“Not since we got here.”
“Good. Keep it that way. And tell him that the occupation army will cover any damages this causes his inn.”
“Any truth to that?” Kyua chuckled.
“Hey — if he never gets paid, at least we’re not the bad guys. We’re on our way.”
“Ten-four.”
“Over and out.”
Leaning over the front seat, Entoryua addressed the driver of the command car. “Rimzeil Mansion, please.”
The idle engine roared to life as the car began to move.
Looking troubled as he gazed out at the passing scenery, Entoryua eventually spoke. “Although your superiors gave you the order to not arrest them, they’re not in charge of our local police department. So until the end, we’re going to do everything we can to nab these car thieves.”
“Good.” Kite smiled. “Do you really think the hotel director could be hiding the Abh?”
“Anything’s possible.”
“It doesn’t add up, though, if he’s a member of the Independence Party.”
“Stranger things have happened.”
“You don’t think the political party is just a front, do you?”
“A front for what?”
“An underground group that helps Frybar citizens escape in times like this,” Kite suggested with building enthusiasm. “They’re diabolical enough to implant a group like that, if they had the foresight to anticipate our liberation.”
“I didn’t realize you were a conspiracy theorist,” Entoryua said indifferently.
“Well, what other explanation could there possibly be for a member of the Independence Party hiding an Abh?”
“The Abh are really unobtrusive. Members of the radical organizations are always complaining that they’re not oppressed enough.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“I agree. I don’t understand why they would ever want to pick a fight with the Frybar, which doesn’t care enough about this planet to get involved in the first place.”
“If the Frybar doesn’t care about planets, why does it conquer them?”
“Because they want to keep us out of their domain-space.”
“There must be more to it,” Kite said.
“What else could it possibly be?” implored Entoryua playfully.
Looking at the mobile terminal on his hip, Kite announced that they would have to return to the discussion later. He attached an accessory that was able to read Imperial-made memory sheets (Jeish).
“May I have the Jeish with the investigation data, please?” he requested.
“Here you go.”
“I’m adding the possibility that the Independence Party is a front.”
“There’s really no possibility of that,” pointed out the inspector.
“That works out better for us,” Kite said.
“How’s that?”
“The Military Police won’t understand your local matters. They’ll investigate the most conspicuous target. If I send this information, they’ll be too busy checking out the Independence Party to get in the way of us arresting the Abh.”