There had been a politically dangerous
document given to Sramox, the regional governor, for safekeeping. I was not told
what was in the document and knew better than to ask. The messenger had
delivered it and seen Sramox place it in his office safe. There was an
unexpected need for the document later in Qafte's diurnal cycle (again, do not
ask). A messenger was sent, but when Sramox opened the safe it was empty.
Sramox was tall, bulky, and very
loosely humanoid. He had leathery skin and a square head; everything about him
seemed square. "There were guards posted and viewers recording on every
possible entrance to my residence," he stated. "There were also
viewers observing the guards. None of them left their posts."
"So who was in the residence
during the critical time?" I asked.
"A small number of people were there
to register complaints against the government. I find it useful to let them
cool their heels a while before going down. It makes them more amiable. I had
not yet summoned the guards in preparation to going down when the messenger
came."
"What do they have to say for
themselves?"
"They say they were all
together there almost the whole time and no one left the audience hall. I think
one of them did it and the rest are covering for them. If we examine them by
torture, we will probably get the whole story out of them."
"No," I replied, as matter-of-factly
as I could manage. "We are more interested in finding the document than
merely producing a culprit. Torture reveals, but it can also distort. I do not
want to end up going down a false trail. Was there anyone else in the
residence?"
"No, everything is robotized,
and I do most of my business by viewer. I make the complainers come in person
because it tends to intimidate them. I have a crew that comes in every morning to
service the machines and restock the food. But they were not there during the
time involved."
"Were there no viewers watching
the audience hall?'
"Those viewers and the ones
into the residence proper were somehow disabled. There were also five small
holes in the safe the culprit may have used to open it. I have our best
engineers investigating both of these."
“I need to send a message to Charlie,
my computer tech. Then sent in the complainers in the order they entered the
building."
The first was Omarno, a thin, red-furred humanoid whose land had been taken for a government project. He had arrived
about a quarter of an hour before the others. He said he had seen no one leave the
audience hall, and nothing I could say would shake him from that.
The next was Pazget, who came to
protest a husband who had been put to death on what she maintained was a false
charge. She was a vaguely octopus-shaped being with a multitude of
tentacles. She said she had gone once to use the facilities whose only entrance
opened into the hall, but neither she nor anyone else had actually exited the
hall.
Then came Zorfel, a small arboreal
nocturnal who wore tinted goggles to shield his eyes from the light of day. He
claimed that the Empire was unfair to nocturnals, who were treated as second
class citizens. Under pressure, he admitted to sleeping through most of his time
waiting in the hall. The others confirmed his story. He tried to engage me in
his cause, but I told him that as a government employee, I must refuse.
Dimegate was a large jellyfish-like
creature who needed all his tentacles on the floor to move about. He had come
to protest his entire clan vanishing. The local authorities had been
indifferent. So he was taking his case to the governor. He was very suspicious
of the other people in the room and had kept a close eye on them. I was forced to
dismiss most of his deductions regarding the others, but he confirmed that no one
had left the hall.
The last was Yuaretoun, a birdlike
being with wings that would only fly short distances. She was a businesswoman,
who was hoping to bribe the governor into giving her a title to land that was not
really hers. This was, of course, my interpretation of a much more evasive
presentation. She also spent a lot of time trying to pump me for names of high
government connections, which I labored to convince her I had none of.
Shortly after that Charlie got back
to me. I made the necessary preparations and went to meet with Sramox.
"Well, have you discovered anything?" he asked.
"Yes, I have," I replied,
"I am putting you under arrest on suspicion of stealing government
documents. I have a search warrant here for your residence." I had
surrounded myself with investigators loyal to Terra rather than Sramox, and
they quickly took him into custody. The document was found in another safe in
his private office.
"He was the obvious suspect,
but he tried to act like he was above suspicion," I explained to my
superiors. "And if I had let him proceed with the torture, he would
probably have found someone else to blame. He was the obvious one with access
to the residential area and the safe. The holes he drilled were simply a blind.
Also, who better than he to sabotage the viewers on the inside of the building.
He was deeply in debt from playing video gambling games, not to mention from
females and intoxicants. We have evidence of his meeting with Viris, the Kompar
representative. His biggest problem was circumstances. If someone had not
wanted the document back so quickly, there would have been a large number of
people who had been in and out of the residence to pin it on. As it was, there
were only the complainers, and four of them supported the others' stories. But he
still had to try to convince us that one of them was guilty."
I would lose no sleep over the
conviction of Sramox. I wondered what traits he had showed on his test so that he had been
made governor. Were they the same traits that caused him to turn traitor? I
had read once that what a government wants is not always what is best for the
government. This is too commonly true.
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