Doctor Who_ Original Sin - Andy Lane [56]
The deep shelters. Her first taste of the real world that her family’s riches had managed to shield her from for all those years. Their money was old money, based on patents and stocks in the various corporations that had existed for centuries. Proud of their pure-bred African Xhosa heritage, they had refused to mix with ‘inferior’ humans – those whose genetic make-up was a melange of all the races of Earth. They had held themselves aloof, like gods.
Until the Wars came to Earth. Until they were forced to take refuge in the deep shelters. It was there that Forrester had made friends with other chil-dren, and learned by contrast with them how barren her own life had been.
Later, as she grew further apart from the lifestyle that her parents had chosen for her, Forrester had considered signing up for the Imperial Landsknechte.
Either that or the Order of Adjudicators. Anything to get away from home.
She had read the brochures, visited the Landsknecht information centre on Earth, even attended a week-long induction course on Purgatory itself. In the end, she had been put off by the calibre of the people she had met. Brainless morons in love with their weapons, the lot of them. The Adjudicators were a much more impressive bunch: intelligent people who cared about justice as 96
an abstract concept. That she liked. After two years training on Ponten IV, and another five acting as squire to a roving offworld Adjudicator, she had been recalled to Earth and paired with Martle. And that’s where it had all started to go wrong.
‘Nice here, isn’t it?’ she muttered, just for something to say.
A hovercar sped towards them, kicking up a plume of dust. It stopped close to the bottom of the ramp, and a man got out: a major, judging by the discreet insignia on his battle armour. He was big in all directions, and he had been beppled to resemble a four-armed blue elephant standing on its hind legs. As he approached, Forrester tried to work out what place he held in the Landsknechte. He didn’t harbour the usual uncaring, seen-it-all attitude that she had seen in Landsknechte personnel before. Instead, his expression was calm, benign and lazy. How had somebody so obviously an individual made it to the rank of colonel?
As he came to a stop before them, she re-evaluated him. Those eyes weren’t calm, benign and lazy. They were shrewd. Dangerous, even.
‘I am Provost-Major Beltempest,’ he said, ‘local security officer. Welcome to Purgatory.’
‘Adjudicators Forrester and Cwej,’ she said. ‘And we haven’t actually arrived yet.’
He smiled, and gestured them off the ramp.
‘Forgive me. My underlings can sometimes be slightly too literal in their interpretation of regulations. Now, all I was told was that you are here on official business. What can we do for you?’
Forrester took a sheet of plastic from her pocket and handed it to him. He glanced at the two faces upon it. It was impossible to tell from his expression whether he recognized them or not.
‘We are in pursuit of two suspects in connection with a murder on Earth,’
she said, and paused, hoping that he would say something. He just handed the plastic sheet back. ‘We have traced them to a craft which left Earth, bound for Purgatory,’ she continued.
He didn’t react. She tried again. ‘There is no evidence that they left this planet.’
Still nothing. His eyes twinkled merrily, his mouth went through all the motions of smiling, but it was all faked for her benefit.
She waited. Eventually, he spoke. ‘You realize,’ he said, ‘that the Order of Adjudicators has no jurisdiction over Landsknecht territory or property. We make and enforce our own laws.’
‘We are here,’ she said carefully, ‘in a spirit of cooperation and mutual regard.’
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‘Ah,’ he said. ‘Of course. Two very important-sounding and completely meaningless phrases.’
‘Protocol . . . ’ Forrester said, smiling slightly.
He smiled back. ‘Might I ask what you intend doing with these suspects, should they have actually arrived?’ he asked.
Forrester