Doctor Who_ Original Sin - Andy Lane [32]
‘I know I’m new here,’ he said, switching the chair off in disgust, ‘but does this sort of thing happen on a regular basis, or am I just privileged?’
Forrester remembered the times when Rashid had supported her, despite the innumerable rules and regulations of Adjudicator life. The times when Forrester had shot first and asked questions afterwards, used the mind probe a bit too freely or arrested innocent citizens by mistake. The sorts of thing that any eager young Adjudicator did.
‘I’ve never known Rashid to back down under pressure,’ she said finally, shaking her head in disbelief ‘She’s always supported her people before. Goddess, this one must be really important.’
Cwej nodded. ‘I’ve had a thought,’ he said. ‘If the mind probe record has been faked, then the old bird we pulled in is innocent.’
‘The old bird?’ Forrester had the impression that a blush was spreading beneath the golden pelt.
‘The lady. The underdweller.’
‘Hah! We’ll make an opinionated, bigoted Adjudicator of you yet!’ He just looked at her, and smiled slightly. She found herself smiling back. ‘So, how do you work out that she’s innocent, then?’
‘It stands to reason. If somebody wants us to believe that she’s guilty, she must be innocent.’
‘Philosophically flawed . . .
‘. . . But street-true.’
She raised her eyebrows at him. That kid was getting to be a smart-arse.
‘So what are we saying?’ she said. ‘That every one of these spur-of-the-moment murders is actually an assassination in disguise, covered up by the Order of Adjudicators?’
He shook his head uncertainly. The way the light caught his golden fur distracted her momentarily. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Too many people involved for that.
For some reason, it’s just this murder. Just this one murder.’
‘So why was the low-life bumped off?’ she challenged.
Cwej leaned forward insistently. ‘To prevent us questioning her any further.
Somewhere inside her underdweller skull, she knew who drugged her and who carried out the murder. She saw them. The chances are we could have dug a clue out of her mind. With her dead, and the mind probe record faked, we were supposed to accept the whole thing, fins, fuselage and retro-tubes.’
‘But you spotted that the record was faked . . . ’
His gaze was sombre. ‘Yeah, and got us thrown off the case.’
Forrester pounded the desk again. ‘It’s so damned unfair!’
56
Cwej winced. ‘Unfair?’
Something in his tone made her look up. ‘You think it’s more than that?’
‘Think about it,’ he said. ‘Doesn’t it strike you as a little bit suspicious that somebody tries to sell us a set-up and then, when we look like penetrating their little game, they pull us off the case?’
Forrester felt a tiny cold bud begin to flower in her gut. ‘Paranoia,’ she said dismissively, but even she could tell that she was unconvinced.
‘Is it?’ he asked. ‘When we brought the body in, I asked for a tissue-type check to be run.’
‘Tissue-type?’ She tried to read his fresh, innocent face for clues, but it was like reading a blank sheet of paper. ‘But the bot said that the mollusc was unidentified. No biochip.’
Cwej grinned.
‘Wrong murderer . . . ’ he said.
‘. . . And wrong victim,’ Forrester finished. She felt a sudden desire to forget everything, to get up and walk over to the refectory raft and have a couple of beers with the guys.
No, she thought. That’s not the way Martle would have played it.
‘Let’s check,’ she said. ‘The results might be in by now.’
Cwej grinned.
It only took a few moments for Cwej to link with centcomp and type in the query. Forrester watched impatiently as he ran his finger down a list of information that only he could see.
‘We’re in luck,’ he breathed. ‘The tests are complete.’
‘And?’ Forrester didn’t know why she was holding her breath, but she was.
‘And we’ve got an ID for the victim.’
‘How can you do that without a biochip?’
‘He had a biochip.’ Cwej quickly scanned