Jonah Levin’s Office, Geneva

Terra, Prefecture X

17 December 3134

One thing Jonah hated about getting around Geneva was the number of one-way streets. For some reason, they always seemed to be pointing him opposite the direction he wanted to travel.

That’s the way this investigation seemed to be going. He kept accumulating information telling him to look in one direction, when he’d prefer to look almost any other direction.

Maybe the problem was that he hadn’t thought through the data well enough. If he sat down, reviewed his notes and organized his thoughts, he might find something he’d missed, something that could point him in an entirely different direction.

He fervently hoped this would be the case.

Unlike most Paladins, Jonah could find privacy in his official offices. Even during the middle of the day they had an abandoned feel, as Jonah kept a minimal staff on hand—usually a single receptionist hired from a temp agency. He simply wasn’t on Terra enough to require permanent staffers, and he had no enthusiasm for finding temporary help when he was on-planet. The receptionist was stationed at the front of his suite, while his chamber was in the back. He could lock a marching band in his office and she wouldn’t hear them.

She politely said hello as he walked by, and he smiled, vowing to remember her name before he left Terra. He told her not to send through any visitors or callers.

“Even other Paladins?”

“Especially other Paladins,” Jonah said. He had even less time than usual for politics.

Jonah’s office resembled a prison cell with a very nice desk. When Jonah was appointed Paladin, the office maintenance staff had thrown a few items into this room (a picture of a sunset, a plastic plant and a matched set of blue marble bookends), and these remained the only decorative items. A single book of governmental rules and procedures sat between the bookends. The plain curtains turned the sunlight gray.

He opened the curtains at the touch of a switch, then locked the door behind him with his personal key code and set it to report the suite as unoccupied to all but the highest security inquiries. He then sat down at the desk, opened the portfolio he had been carrying, and took out all of the sheets of paper inside. Some of them represented his notes on the case; others were Burton Horn’s. He hadn’t looked at the dossiers Heather GioAvanti had forwarded to him yet, but Jonah doubted he would need them. What he had was bad enough.

He removed a datapad and a stylus from the desk drawer and began setting down the items one by one.

Fact. Steiner-Davion had been scheduled to give the opening address for the Paladins’ Electoral Conclave, but was killed the night before he could give it.

Fact. Henrik Morten, the lover of Victor’s nurse-housekeeper Elena Ruiz and a diplomatic troubleshooter with questionable ethics, encouraged Ruiz to pass along to him information about the late Paladin’s final project.

Fact. Gareth Sinclair was appointed Paladin after Victor died.

Fact. Victor was working on a document that named Gareth Sinclair, Melanie Vladistok, Lina Derius, Geoffrey Mallowes, and about a dozen Knights of the Sphere. Why their names were on the list, and what the numbers meant, was unclear at the moment.

Fact. Morten has been connected to numerous politicians, with an emphasis on those with Founder’s Movement sympathies. Of the Paladins, he has worked for McKinnon, Sorenson, and Sinclair. Victor Steiner-Davion was considered an antagonist by the Founder’s Movement.

Fact. Morten was spotted at a riot believed to have been instigated by the Kittery Renaissance.

Fact. Senator Melanie Vladistok was involved with Morten, and wanted to conceal the nature of her relationship.

Supposition. The politicians whose names appeared on Ruiz’s document were involved in something shady enough to arouse the suspicion, and significant enough to arouse the anger, of Steiner-Davion—who, in his long personal history, had experienced firsthand just about every kind of treachery and underhandedness the universe had to offer.

Supposition. Victor had intended to rip the lid off of whatever plot he had discovered, using his speech to the Paladins as the occasion. He likely thought this information would influence the election in some way.

Supposition. In the short run, Gareth Sinclair gained the most from the death of Victor, but there’s little chance he would have known he would be appointed Paladin in his place. The Founder’s Movement also gained politically, but it is difficult to imagine either McKinnon or Sorenson going so far as to kill Victor to reach their goals.

This wasn’t as helpful as Jonah had hoped. Any objective person looking at this information would know what the next step would be. He was hesitant to say that had a prime suspect, but he certainly had someone who needed to answer some hard questions.

The one anomaly was the Founder’s Movement connection. Sinclair, as far as Jonah knew, had never expressed any Founder’s Movement leanings. Of course, he’d just been made Paladin, and in his previous life as a Knight there might not have been much need to express political opinions. He could have kept them safely under wraps.

In the end, the Founder’s Movement connections might just be a coincidence. Morten could have hired killers to dispose of Victor while working for one client, while monitoring the Kittery Renaissance riot for another. His involvement in both was not proof that the two events were tied to the same client, or the same cause.

Jonah had walked into his office thinking there were two people he needed to speak with. His activity, unfortunately, hadn’t changed his mind.

He turned to the desk’s communications console and punched in the code to get a secure outside line. After a half-dozen rings, a voice at the other end of the phone line said, “Burton Horn.”

“It’s Jonah,” he said. “I don’t mean to sound impatient, but…”

“…but you are. I understand. I’ve got a bead on him, I think. Looks like he’s in town.”

“Can you reel him in?”

“I think so. You want me to handle the questioning?”

“I suppose. Though I’d like to meet this guy.”

“Meet?”

“He ordered Victor’s death. But I don’t think there’s time. It will probably be up to you.”

“Yeah,” Horn said. “Yeah, I understand. What rules are we following for the interrogation?”

Horn was dangling a considerable temptation in front of Jonah, and he felt almost disgusted enough to reach for it. But he couldn’t.

“Standard. By the book. We have to play this right.”

“I understand. What about your part?”

Jonah reviewed his notes. “I’ve been trying to find a way to avoid it.”

“And?”

“I can’t.”