Out of the Black - Lee Doty [12]
He could play this game. He continued to poke away at the calculator with a gravely determined look on his face. He was working on multiplying the powers of ten now.
Fifteen more seconds passed... twent. Wing had plenty of numbers left.
"What is it, detective?" she finally gave up.
Victory! "Oh! Hi!" Ping said with real enthusiasm. Counter-annoyance was a blast. "I didn't hear you pick up! I was just preparing a report on a particularly grim case."
She grunted.
He continued, "I've got ten to thirteen corpses and only two working tablets between the lot of them..."
"Ten to thirteen?" the judge interrupted.
"How many potatoes in a bowl of stew?" Ping asked with a conspiratorial look.
"What does that mean, detective?" Her voice was a drone encumbered with scorn.
"Lots of pieces. Not sure how many they add up to yet- forensics will be able to give a more accurate number after DNA-typing the remains. I need warrant keys for the two tablets so I can continue..."
"And you think these tablets' owners are dead? I wouldn't want to inadvertently violate his or her freedom to..."
"Definitely." he attempted to knock her from the soapbox before she got settled in.
"Are you really so sure?" she looked more annoyed. She was quicker in her next attempt. "Without evidence of death or compelling public interest, I can't authorize such an invasion of their fundamental freedom to privacy..." there it was. "I mean, you don't even have a clear account of who's dead yet."
"Sure we do... all of them." He attached a photo of the corpse in the back seat to the outbound data stream and saw her flinch. He used his stylus to indicate the area of the corpse where the tablet was found. "It was here." He said, tapping on the image and transmitting the marker.
The judge's eyes moved to her tablet with its replica of the image and annotations, then retreated back toward the camera.
"What if it's not his tablet?" she said, voice weary.
He pretended to think about that carefully while he reinforced his outer appearance of calm helpfulness. Pretending to carefully check, as if he hadn't already, he tried multiplying a few numbers on the calculator application. "Hmm... The tablet's registry says the owner is a Dr. Ivo Lutine. The Uni found on the body was Dr. Lutine's..." dramatic pause while he multiplied some more numbers, then he put on a face of excited discovery. "Yep, the Uni's vascular scan matches the hand on the seat over there- ", he touched the image again, indicating a spot on the seat maybe 40 centimeters from the rest of the body. "...it was Dr. Lutine's! And since the hand looks like it fits on the arm over here..." He cut an image of the arm and used his stylus to try to fit it together with the picture of the hand, sharing the process through the link.
"And now you need a warrant key." She interrupted, as satisfied as the petulant ever get.
Ping nodded. "I think time is of the essence here."
"And why is that?" she said in the attitude of infinite patience.
"We've got a cross between a mob hit, a military operation, and ritual killing," he said in the attitude of infinite helpfulness. "Two risks: these guys are crazy enough to strike again quickly, or they are professional enough to vanish into the ether. Either way, we need to move quickly."
"And the warrant key is crucial to this 'quick' movement?" She said with a thoughtful finger on her chin.
One, two, three, four, slow inhale, five, six, seven, keep smiling, eight, nine, ten. Exhale and... "Yes, absolutely crucial."
She paused again. He thought it was more an assertion of conversational control than time for her to weigh facts. Finally, she spoke. "Okay, I'll authorize one key for Mr. Lushion's tablet..."
"Two keys, Judge." he cut in ever so reasonably- he would definitely need to hit the gym for a good long while before he would be able to sleep tonight. "We've got two bodies in the same car." He attached an image of the driver's