“I have just received the formal judgement from His Majesty, Emperor Trajan,” he announced. “For all eight surviving conspirators, the verdict is guilty on all counts. For enforcer Joseph Hennig, who cooperated in exchange for a plea-bargain, the sentence is life in prison at hard labor, with the possibility of parole to be determined by the Emperor not later than twenty-five years from now. For the rest, the sentence is execution by firing squad, save for Mr. Carr, who shall be executed by lethal injection due to his mental state. The sentences shall be carried out tomorrow, beginning at noon, and each conspirator shall be executed in turn, without blindfold, in full view of the others. The executions are to be carried on special VR channels, and to be shown onscreen in the temporary New Headquarters building.”
In the lockups, each member of the conspiracy – except for Carr, who no longer cared – ‘heard’ the sentence read in VR, and they shuddered in dread.
New Beginnings
The next day, ‘Temporary New Headquarters’ was extremely quiet.
Midmorning, a statement came down from the Palace under Imperial header. It read as follows:
Be it known to all:
Any future attempts to corrupt the Imperial Police of Emperor Trajan and his successors shall be taken immediately as treasonous, and will be met with all appropriate force; the Imperial Police are sworn to serve the Throne and no other, and the Throne will not stand for its corruption or diversion to the personal interests of those who would pervert it.
There will never again be an opportunity for the Imperial Police to turn against the Throne.
Trajan Imp.
“And that’s the final word,” Carter declared in a VR all-hands meeting to announce the statement.
Nobody else had anything further to add.
Shortly thereafter, once matters were starting to settle down a little but before the executions were scheduled to take place, Peabody knocked on the doorframe of Ashton’s office.
“Sir?”
Ashton looked up. “Oh, hey, come on in, Peabody,” he said. “Close the door if you need to.”
Peabody entered and closed the door, then took one of the visitor chairs.
“What’s up?” Ashton asked.
“Nothing much,” Peabody admitted. “Just thought I’d tag up after everything. You going over to watch the executions?”
“Yeah,” Ashton said. “Lee Carter and I will head on over, meet up with Maia and Cal, and watch. You wanna come along? You were one of the targets, too, in the end. You’re welcome to head over with us.”
“I’ve been debating that,” Peabody said, thoughtful. “I sort of don’t want to, but I sort of feel like it might be a good closure for the past, and opening the door to my new life. Which, by the way, looks like fulfilling my dream, that I told you about.”
“Oh really? Do tell.” Ashton grinned, and Peabody laughed.
“Well, I’ve all but moved in with Emily already,” Peabody grinned sheepishly. “She told me flat-out, she wasn’t gonna let me get away this time. She wants to meet you and your wife, by the way. She hopes maybe you’ll both come to dinner at, um, at ‘our’ place, sometime soon.” He paused, then added, “Not until after this whole conspiracy shit is well down the tubes, though. She totally understands that, and she wants to make sure she doesn’t interfere.”
“Okay, sure. That’s doable. So you’re commuting from the edge of the city?”
“More or less, yeah. There’s a commuter station just a short distance from her house; she picked her place for its easy commute into the city to see her publishers.”
“Aha! That works.”
“Yeah, it does, pretty damn well. And… I think we’re both happier than we’ve been in a long, long time.”
“That’s great,” Ashton said, gently enthusing. “I’m happy for you, Peabody.”
“Thank you. That’s… another thing,” Peabody began, hesitant. “I know this is the office, so business relationship and all, but… I thought I’d like to invite you to call me Winston, or just Win, when we’re off-duty. If you want to.” He shrugged. “I know there’s a fair difference in our ages and backgrounds, but you’re somebody I think I’d like to get to know better, if you’re good with that.”
“I think I’m good with that,” Ashton decided. “And to that end, when we’re off-duty, my friends call me Nick.”
“Excellent.” Peabody smiled, then extended his hand. “Pleased to get to know you, Nick.”
“Likewise, Win,” Ashton said, taking his hand and shaking. “Oh, and since we’re not really off duty, I have some news for you.”
“Oh?’
“Yes. Lee was very impressed with the way you handled things, and how you were willing to infiltrate the ‘oldies’ conspiracy and provide information, including recordings of the meetings, even at the risk to yourself. You were an investigator, level 2. You are now level 3. Keep it up, and you’ll make detective inside a year.”
Peabody’s eyebrows shot up.
“You’re kidding,” he said in surprise.
“Nope. I told you in the beginning, I wanted to grease the skids for you, and if you’d work with me, I’d work with you. Lee sees that, sees that you were willing to work with me, sees that you respected us all enough to risk your own neck for us, and he’s more than pleased. To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if he comes back and decides that you fully earned the double-bump to detective.”
“Whoa.”
“In which case, if he trusts you that much, you’re welcome to this office,” Ashton added.
“No,” Peabody said, firm but quiet. “No, I don’t think I want this office for a good, long time yet. There might be too much temptation associated with it, and I like the way my life is headed right now, without it.”
Ashton nodded, impressed. “Well, I guess that means I’m stuck with it a while longer, then.”
They laughed.
They were still chatting when Carter
