The Hidden Treasure of Darfor

Sergeant Joval nodded a quick greeting to a fellow police officer as he made his way along the trans-path. The officer returned the acknowledgement with a silent nod and a smile and moments later was gone, already several metres behind Joval as he travelled in the opposite direction. The trans-paths were short for “transportation pathways” and they were a common sight in large buildings on Nexus One and most other heavily populated planets in the core systems as well. The pathways were grey in colour and plain in texture but had glowing pale green lines running along the sides. The pathways moved constantly with very little friction and at top speed they could propel a person forwards at quite some velocity. It was all done so well however that you rarely felt like you were moving at all. The pathways could split into sections and move at different speeds seamlessly – they always started slowly when you first stepped on them, moved faster when you were in the middle to cover more ground quicker and then slowed down again when they neared the end so as to ensure the user didn’t fall off when he or she was suddenly met with immobile flooring. Joval was on his way to a section of his police precinct’s building to make a private call. Soon after disembarking from the trans-path, he walked through a set of double doors and turned right. He made his way through several corridors before arriving at the room he sought. Joval pressed a nearby wall contact and the door slid open. The sergeant stepped through into the room beyond and the door automatically closed with a slight scratching sound ending with a loud hiss.

  I wish they would keep up to date with the maintenance in this building – the doors are awful and they’re not the only things which need attention, thought Joval as he entered a private cubicle and sealed the door.

  He sat down at the video terminal and switched it on. The screen flickered to life and displayed the words “Please state or type number or address to contact” in blocky red letters.

  ‘Call Taijar precinct police station,’ instructed Joval, the light of the video monitor reflected in his dark eyes.

  ‘Connected. With whom do you wish to speak?’ said the computer in a digitised, very artificial-sounding voice.

  ‘Put me through to Lieutenant Miriami.’

  ‘Done. Waiting for someone to answer the call request.’

  Around sixty seconds passed and the screen remained stubbornly blank. Joval was on the verge of giving up when suddenly the screen burst into life once more, displaying a female alien with a warm smile on her feathery features. She was relatively round, covered completely in feathers and, like Joval, had large, dark eyes. She wore the rank insignia of Lieutenant on a chain which hung around her neck like a huge, clunky necklace.

  ‘Well now, this is a surprise,’ the feathered alien purred in a warm voice.

  ‘A pleasant one, I hope?’ said Joval.

  ‘Of course!’ the Lieutenant replied, her smile growing even wider. ‘I haven’t heard from you in months and months. How is everything? How are you doing?’

  ‘I’m well, thank you Miriami. How is everything with you?’

  ‘Oh fine, fine. Still overworked and underappreciated, you know how it is. Still, everything considered I’m doing fine. Well, I’m doing a lot better than my friend Aralufia. You remember her, don’t you? Well, she’s just lost her job and feels down and so she’s leaning on me more than I’d like but I suppose you just have to be there for people when they need you most, right? Which reminds me of another thing that has happened-’

  ‘Miriami, I’m afraid this call is about business rather than pleasure,’ interjected Joval, aware that if he did not stop her talking he would be unable to get a word in edgeways for at least the next twenty minutes.

  She certainly enjoyed telling stories to anyone that would sit there and listen to her. The Lieutenant paused and looked at Joval through the screen.

  ‘Always so serious. You know Joval, it wouldn’t do you any harm to lighten up a bit. You work far too hard and you’re always thinking about work as well. It doesn’t do you any good at all. In fact, I once knew this one young officer who was a bit like you, and-’

  ‘Miriami, please,’ interrupted Joval with pleading eyes begging her to stop.

  Miriami sighed deeply and folded her feathery arms over her chest, making the necklace she wore bounce around and jingle.

  ‘All right, all right. I know I can talk too much sometimes and I also know when you have your serious face on. OK, spit it out. What is it?’

  Joval paused for a moment before saying, ‘I’m calling to ask you a favour. Quite a big favour actually.’

  Miriami said nothing but raised a thick eyebrow as she regarded the sergeant carefully.

  ‘Normally I like mystery and intrigue as much as the next girl but I sense I’m not going to like what you have to say,’ she said. ‘Go on.’

  Joval avoided her gaze and began to fidget with his fingers. Even after all this time away from her, she still had a way of cutting through his defences like a blowtorch cutting through an ice-cube.

  ‘I was wondering if you could do a background check on somebody for me. Your precinct has access to more data than mine does.’

  ‘Is that the only reason you called me on a secure com link? That kind of request can be submitted electronically and dealt with by the automatic computer system.’

  Joval smiled – it was useless trying to keep anything from this woman.

  ‘You know, you really are wasted spending your time sitting behind a desk, Miriami. You should be in the field coordinating ops – your detective skills are still as sharp as ever.’

  ‘Resorting to flattery now are you, Sergeant?’ said Miriami as she tried and failed to stop her lips from curving into a smile.

  ‘No, ma’am. I only ever speak the truth.’

  ‘If that is so, you can drop the act. Tell me why you’re asking me to do this.’

  ‘All right, I’ll tell you. I have a potential lead in a narcotics bust and the name that keeps cropping up is Mr Vallan.’ Joval paused for a second to let that sink in. ‘The weird thing is, my boss was extremely intent on me solving as many cases as I could, including this narcotics case. Then after I mentioned Mr Vallan’s name, he suddenly changed his mind and told me to drop it.’

  ‘Hmm, that is rather strange,’ commented Miriami as she leaned back in her chair with her arms still folded. ‘So I assume the reason you are asking me for help is because your boss explicitly gave you a direct order to stop pursuing the case?’

  Joval couldn’t help but wish that she was on the case with him – with her incredible skills he was certain they would be able to crack the whole case in mere days.

  ‘You assume correctly.’

  ‘Hmm,’ Miriami repeated, lost in thought. Eventually, she said, ‘Well, there are many people in my precinct who have tried, and failed I might add, to bring down that slimy little man for many crimes in the past. He always seems to be one step ahead of us in our investigations and any piece of evidence that we could use to press charges always seems to go missing...’

  Joval’s eyes lit up.

  ‘Does that mean...’

  Miriami unfolded her arms and grinned.

  ‘All right, I’ll help you look into this. I can’t promise any results, but I’ll see what I can turn up in our database.’

  Joval beamed back at her.

  ‘Just...one more thing...’

  ‘Don’t worry. Of course I will keep all this off the record until I have some solid evidence to present to the higher-ups.’

  Joval breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘Thank you, Miriami. I really appreciate what you’re doing for me.’

  ‘In that case then, you can show your appreciation by buying me dinner sometime. It’s been far too long since we last saw each other.’

  Joval wasn’t quite sure whether to be excited by this proposal or to simply feel awkward because of it. In any event, he was just happy that he was getting somewhere with his investigation.

  He smiled broadly and said, ‘Sure thing, Miriami, I’ll buy you dinner
. But I get to pick the place.’

  The Lieutenant smiled back.

  ‘You’ve got yourself a deal, Sergeant Joval. Oh, just one more thing before you go.’

  ‘What is it?’ asked Joval, his hand hovering over the “end transmission” button.

  ‘Who was it who told you to stop pursuing the investigation?’

  ‘Lieutenant Tuk.’

  ‘Tuk, eh? I’ve met him a couple of times at interdepartmental meetings. Never liked him much.’

  Joval’s brow creased in slight confusion.

  ‘Hold on, you’re not doing what I think you’re doing are you?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Do you think that Tuk has something to do with all this? Are you going to investigate him as well?’

  ‘Like I said already, I can’t promise any concrete evidence or anything but it certainly warrants looking into. It certainly is highly unusual behaviour for a Lieutenant in the Galactic Police to tell one of their subordinates to stop investigating a case, especially when they have just found a potential lead.’

  Miriami looked off screen to her left, then quickly said, ‘I’m sorry but I have to go now. I’ll be in touch.’

  The screen turned black and went back to its default setting with blocky red letters on it. Joval leaned back in his chair, thinking about what had just happened. He had never particularly liked lieutenant Tuk either but he had never suspected him of impropriety. After a few minutes gathering his thoughts, Joval switched off the monitor, exited the private cubicle and headed back to the main precinct building to continue with his work.

  Chapter 21