The restroom was empty, and Michelle decided to risk it. She slipped a small bottle from a pocket in her suit, popped open the top, and let a single purple pill drop into her hand. Briefly, she looked at it before she dropped it into her mouth, then she swallowed it down with a handful of water. She could stop at any time… But it was getting harder to think of stopping.
Turning, she rushed back to the door and out into the bright sunshine of a Sunday afternoon. She ran straight past Nava, who was watching the entire thing, hidden by an invisibility spell.
Now it was time to go see Courtney.
~~~
‘Can’t use it,’ Courtney said flatly.
‘But–’ Melissa began.
‘You didn’t see this, Melissa Connelly. That’s right, isn’t it?’
‘Well, no, I guess–’
‘So, what you’ve got is the word of a clanless schoolgirl against that of a Yamasaki Sonkei.’
Melissa’s face twisted into something which was about as angry as the girl ever got. ‘That’s just the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! Are you really that prejudiced that–’
‘She has a point, Mel,’ Nava said, cutting off the tirade. ‘It may be unfair and unjust, but my word isn’t enough evidence under the circumstances.’ Her eyes were on Courtney’s face, but the SSF captain was not budging. Which was what Nava had expected. ‘If I can get more evidence, can you act then, Courtney Martell? More physical evidence?’
Courtney nodded. ‘Get me something I can’t ignore and I’ll arrest her faster than you can blink.’
‘I can’t wait to see that. You’ll have your evidence tomorrow.’
235/4/5.
Courtney would not have approved. Nava was quite sure that the SSF captain would have viewed Nava’s method of obtaining the evidence they wanted as… well, criminal. Technically, it was, but that was not going to stop Nava from doing it. She was simply not going to capture the illegal bits.
For example, Nava had her ketcom portable unit waiting to video her search, but it was not turned on while she cracked the security on one of the service doors at the back of Michelle Yamasaki’s apartment building. It was not especially hard. She considered talking to Courtney about improving security, but then she would have to admit how she had got in, and there was always the point where she might need to do this again.
Once inside, with her invisibility spell working to keep her hidden, she went through to the lobby and turned on her ketcom’s recording program before heading for the elevator. Huh, rich girls got elevators; Nava’s building had stairs and that was it. Nava frowned on the way up to the fourth floor because she had never had that thought in Mitsuko’s building. Maybe her own prejudices were coming out.
She turned the recorder off again while she hacked her way into Michelle’s apartment, turning it on as the door slid aside. That would look… mostly natural. Now all she had to do was locate the drugs which she was sure were here. If Michelle had been improving since the early spring break, she had been on the stuff long enough that she was probably physically dependent on it. She would need daily doses to stave off increasing amounts of pain and, potentially, the loss of sorcerous power. That meant she was keeping the majority of her stash where she could easily get to it.
Now, where would a rich girl keep her stash of illegal drugs? Nava mentally kicked herself for the ‘rich girl’ thing. Where would someone like Michelle Yamasaki keep her stash of illegal drugs? Okay, so that actually did not sound much better.
Nava started for the main bedroom.
~~~
Courtney’s ketcom chimed, indicating the arrival of a message. She had a sort of special dispensation during council meetings because, when her ketcom got a message, it might be something which needed immediate attention. Darius still glared at her when she checked.
‘Uh, excuse me,’ Courtney said. ‘I need to check this. It could be important.’ She stood and moved to one side of the room before opening the full screen and then opening Nava’s message.
‘Sure,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I’m not sure this meeting is really getting us anywhere anyway.’
‘We need to come up with a way of dealing with this drug problem once and for all,’ Darius said. ‘It’s been going on for too long and we’ve made no inroads into it.’ His gaze shifted toward Courtney. ‘The SSF has entirely failed in its role as custodians in that respect.’
‘I don’t believe that’s fair. Tell me, Darius, how would you deal with the problem?’
‘We need to find the distributors and–’
‘How?’
Darius stalled and then tried for a strong rally. ‘We have to get the users to give up their distributors and work our way to the top.’
‘By what means?’
‘What do you mean? We ask them who–’
‘And they say they won’t tell you. What next? The school already applies the maximum censure possible for almost all users. Courtney has no say in that matter and neither do you. What’s your bargaining chip? Why should they agree to anything you ask?’
Darius, red-faced, was saved from having to come up with an answer by Courtney. ‘I’ve just had confirmation of something,’ she said as she retook her seat. ‘I’ll be conducting a search of a student’s apartment immediately after lessons end today. It’s possible that we may be able to apply some leverage to this particular student to get her to talk.’
‘Who?’ Mitsuko asked.
‘Michelle Yamasaki Sonkei.’
Mitsuko flinched. ‘You’re sure? Her family are… full of themselves.’
‘Precisely. I think they might be persuaded to get her to talk to keep things quiet.’
‘It’s hard to believe that someone like her would be using in the first place,’ Darius said. ‘You’d better be right about this.’
‘She’s using,’ Melissa said. ‘She’s shown sudden improvement in her aerobatics since the holiday. Her and–’
‘Let’s stick to the one we know for now,’ Courtney cut in. ‘And we’ll see how talkative she is when we have her
