13 Degrees of Separation (54 page)

That
thought hit and resonated through him. He winced, remembering what he'd said to
the humans.

No,
this was the mark of a predator of another kind, a sick one who needed killing.
“Come on, let's go call it in,” he said. “And then listen to them try to pin
this on me,” he grumbled.

“Or
me,” the human said with a sigh.

Chapter 6

A game
warden arrived 2 hours later, just as the golden sun began to set. It was quite
a scene with the trees and such, but it was spoiled by the nervous warden who
confiscated their weapons and then sat on them through the night. Nohar fumed,
hungry and angry over the treatment, but resigned to it. In the morning the
area became a 3 ring circus as investigators drove up the narrow trails. When
the trail ended they had to come in on foot, many of the city slickers of
course got lost. Magnum was asked to fly them in but he spread his hands and
said he was out of fuel. He had to show the game warden in order for them to
get them off his back.

It took
all day, and endless interviews to get the situation sorted out. Nohar and
Magnum were separated several times, and monitored when they were put together.
Finally, almost reluctantly their weapons and ID's were given back to them and
they were allowed to leave.

They
got back to the city near sunset. Magnum dropped Nohar off at the city limits
and then headed to his estate. “Must be nice,” Nohar said, climbing out of the
car.

“Yeah
well, not mine. A media mogul owns it. I'm a security consultant on the estate.
He only uses it for big shindigs,” the human PI said.

“Ah,
wants a house sitter. Still, nice,” Nohar said, slamming the door. “I'm going
to do some more research in my files,” he said.

“I
think that would be wise,” Magnum said, bobbing a nod. “I'll look you up in a
day or two. I need to put some face time in at the estate. I left Zeus and
Apollo in charge. Hopefully the two Neodobermans haven't had a party.”

“Ah,
well,” Nohar snorted stepping back. “While the boss is away...”

Magnum
laughed and waved a hand as he lifted off. Nohar turned away from the dust and
debris the machine kicked up and then dusted himself off with his good hand.
“Great,” he grumbled, “he couldn't even drop me off near a damn bus stop,” he
muttered, orienting himself and then hiking in to the city.

On his
way he stopped at a news stand and picked up a paper. He scanned it quickly and
then tucked it under his arm. He let his implant computer process the text and
then read it to him.

When it
started he was immediately annoyed at the paper, the bankruptcy of a hydrogen
dirigible company after lawsuits from an accident last year was the front page
leading article, not the damn serial killer.

Then
again, maybe it was a good thing he mused. He was fairly certain it was a Neo
now, most likely a bear or cat. It could be a human masquerading as one, that
had happened several times before, but he doubted it. No, the killer was too
good, and the lack of finger prints...

The
forensics people could easily overlook hairs from a Neo too, mixing them up
with the Neo victim. Which said all sorts of things about the both the cops and
the killer. The killer may know this, and may be counting on it. From what he'd
overheard from the cops talking, the kills in the tunnel were at least a year
old, maybe older.

He kept
an eye on his situational awareness as the light faded. Some of the streets
were barely lit. No one bothered him though, he was a Neo tiger. Even a local
pink gang wasn't stupid enough to tangle with him.

Nearly
an hour after he was dropped off he arrived at his intended destination. “Home
sweet home,” he muttered, trudging into the lobby of the hotel.

Immediately
the Siamese looked up and waved to him. He sighed and came over. The cat at the
desk silently passed him a message to call Solaximara immediately. Figures, he
thought and then frowned. He wanted an update, he got that, but how did the
damn neolion know where he was?

“Can I
call here or...”

The cat
snorted softly, flicked her ears and then put a phone up onto the counter. It
tinkled as the bells inside were rattled. “The call will be charged to your
room,” she warned.

“That's
fine. I'm calling collect,” he said. It was a black plastic phone, old, and
attached to the wall by a cord. He used a pen to turn the rotary dial. When he
heard it ringing he sighed, trying to relax. The cat didn't move very far off,
but she at least pretended to read her magazine.

“This
is the Carlton, to whom do I ask is calling?” a voice asked.

From
the timber it sounded human. Nohar shrugged. “Nohar Yellow Tiger for
Solaximara,” he said.

“I see.
He's been expecting your call. One moment,” the male voice said and then he was
put on hold. He reached up and groomed his whiskers and waited. Carlton... that
was a club in Landing, he thought. An exclusive club, which sounded
interesting. Apparently the Neo was moving up in the world if he could get in
there. Of course he could be a guest of someone.

There
was a click and then a raspy voice. “This is Solaximara. It's about time you
checked in Nohar, I was starting to get concerned.”

“You
and me both, you sent me into a snake pit. It's bad.” He took fifteen minutes
to explain situation, the cops, the mounting bodies... all of it.

The red
Neo listened but didn't ask any questions or interrupt until he was finished.
He laid out his conclusions simply. The Neo didn't like his conclusions one bit
however, so Nohar admitted it was currently based on circumstantial evidence.

“This
is bad, very bad. A Neo serial killer...”

“I'm
more worried about the deaths. This has been going on for a long time, and up
until the killer started to escalate and come out into the open no one
noticed.”

“But
still..”

“Sir,
did you understand me? 200 deaths confirmed this year alone.” Nohar saw the
Siamese twitch her shoulders as her ears went flat in shock.

“That
many?”

“That's
just the ones we've been able to confirm sir, just the confirmed dead! There
are dozens more missing. The killer has been smart up until a month ago, he
staged them all to look like accidents or suicides. Now something has changed.
His blood lust has taken over.” The red Neo was very unhappy about how many
deaths.

“I can
use that, use the deaths, the neglect the cops did in not looking into it...”
Nohar gritted his teeth when the neolion said that. He hated it when someone
tried to spin something to their own ends. He should be used to it by now, but
he still hated it.

“I'm
more concerned for the people involved. He started out killing children sir.
Neo children,” Nohar emphasized, seeing the female turn, eyes slitted and very
wide. She was now frightened and he couldn't blame her. One hand protectively
cradled her womb. He frowned and turned away.

There
was a long pause as the Neo digested that. “That is unsettling,” Solaximara
finally said.

“Very,
one of my problems is that the cops are too busy either overlooking everything
or trying to pin it on me. I've had to twice eliminate myself as a suspect
here. That's getting old and it's wasting time. We need to focus on the killer,
bring him to justice or put him down. I vote put the bastard down,” he growled,
ears going flat.

“Him,
so you have a suspect?” the red Neo demanded over the phone.

Nohar
closed his good eye for a moment and took a deep breath. Then he let it out.
“Most serial killers are male. In this case, based on the forensics, it's a
Neo, either a cat or a bear, I'm not sure which right now and the cops aren't
talking.”

“That
figures,” Solaximara growled.

“Yeah
well, I'm having all I can do to keep off the suspect list. I overheard one of
them call me a bird dog since I keep flushing out the bodies. I don't know if I
should be annoyed or what. I  did point out that I'm doing their job.”

“Bet
they didn't like that,” the red Neo murmured. Nohar glanced to the cat girl
behind the desk and then snorted softly.

“Yes,
you could say that.”

“All
right, keep me posted Nohar, I've got some things to attend to so don't call
back here though,” the neolion growled and then hung up. Nohar looked at the
phone in amusement and then handed it to the cat girl.

“Tough
to do when I don't even have your number jack ass,” Nohar muttered turning and
walking out of the lobby. He wanted to get clean and get some down time.
Sleeping in the bush with a couple of nervous humans and being kept up all day
was annoying. He could go another day or so without food, he needed to lose
weight, but he did need to unwind.

...*...*...*...*...

The
next morning he went out despite the morning mist to get a paper. He snorted at
the front page headline. It was about the local balloon festival, complete with
a picture under it, the entire story taking up the whole front page. He was
amused, usually the event was in the summer, apparently someone had tried to
make it seasonal in order to drum up more tourism for the area. The balloons
were having problems though, the weather was still a bit stormy and there wasn't
enough warm air to get the balloons aloft. Also some balloons had been poorly
made or had issues with the hydrogen burners and tanks exploding. Last year two
had done just that, killing over 19 people.

He
should be more cynical, he thought, after all, he'd found a dozen or so bodies
some cannibal had eaten out in the woods, but no, the paper buried the story on
A5. He was starting to wonder if that was on purpose. If the cops were smart
they'd do it to keep from tainting a jury pool. But it could also be someone in
the mayor's office wanting to keep the public in the dark about a predator on
the loose so it wouldn't drive the tourists away.

Or it
could be both factors and a disinterest in the media. He knew his client didn't
want the attention, he too wanted it all swept under the rug. Fine, he was
starting to not like the spot light in this situation either.

...*...*...*...*...

Magnum
met him in the lobby. He got up and folded his paper. Nohar nodded to him and
handed the Neocat behind the counter another pair of gold coins. She nodded
silently. “You ready?” Magnum asked.

“Yeah.”

“We
need to get you a shirt like mine. It'll breathe easier than that duster you
are wearing. Look better too,” Magnum said, pretending to eye him.

Nohar
snorted, flicking his good ear. “Pass,” he said. “Any more leads?”

“Nary a
thing,” Magnum sighed. “We've been neglecting things,” he said as they both
turned away.

“We?”
Nohar asked. He'd long since given up shaking the human. The way this mission
was shaking up, it was going to be a hairy one. He could use the back up.
Besides, a local knew the ins and outs of the area, knew the bodies, and
conversely they knew him. A pink could get in where he a Neotiger couldn't.

“Yeah,”
Magnum said, shrugging as they turned away from the desk. “We've been
neglecting the word on the street.”

“Okay,”
Nohar nodded. “You are right. I just got here. What is it?” he asked, looking
at the human as they paused outside the lobby door.

“Well,”
Magnum took his glasses out, checked them and then put them on. “Here's the
thin, I can't get into Morey town. I don't have the look.”

“Which
I do,” Nohar replied, eyes narrowed. He like every other Neo hated being
labeled a Morey or a Moreau. It was the equivalent of calling a black human a
nigger, demeaning and racial in the extreme.

“Yeah,
so, I was thinking, I hit em high, I'll check my contacts with the police like
good ole Bobby, and my girl in the ME's office, you hit em low...”

“In the
slums. Joy,” Nohar sighed.

“Know
where you are going?” Magnum asked.

“Not a
clue,” Nohar admitted. He'd scanned some maps in the library, but they had been
a decade out of date.

“Outer
edge of town. The water district north near the wharves.”

“Okay.”

“Say,
you know why we're here? Why this is called Ring City?”

“Gee, I
dunno, the big crater rings off the coast?” Nohar asked sarcastically.

“Oh,”
Magnum's face fell. “So you do know that much. The real reason is at the center
of them. See, some guy got it into his head to go after the rocks that were
used to jump start the terraforming on this planet.”

“Yeah?”
Nohar asked, fighting his disinterest. He knew the planet had gotten its' start
with asteroid and comet terraforming before someone had come in to thicken and
transform the planet with nano air converters and biota seeding. Back in their
time a terraforming company could flip a planet from Mars class to Earth or
near enough in under a century. Quicker if they didn't have to move the planet
or alter its' pitch. Epsilon had a 24 degree pitch so they'd left that alone.