time. A lot of crooks were about to get caught.
Johansen came in with First Tracker in tow. I took some time to fill them in on the findings and set them to tracing our runner. The sweepers were already at work in the bay by the time I left. I tubed back to the office and got the paperwork under way. I'd only been at my desk half an hour when the screen chimed. I punched the call through. It was Suze.
'Hi, am I interrupting anything?'
I smiled. 'Big exciting things, but I'm glad you called anyway.'
'Why don't you knock off early and tell me about them?' Her smile was rich in promises.
'I really shouldn't…” I looked at my long list of to-do’s “… but what the hell.” Any excuse to dodge paperwork. A twelve-hour delay wouldn't make much difference in the course of the investigation. I was just sending preliminary reports anyway. Most of the information I needed wouldn't be back from the field lab until tomorrow.
'Great, your apt, thirty minutes. I'll order dinner.'
'Sold.' She punched off and I stored my work in progress.
Suze was waiting at the door when I got to my apt. I thumbed the plate and kissed her. We went in and I unslung my patrol pack and hung it on a hook by the door. She looked at it with curiosity.
'You carry a gun?'
'It's just a stunner.'
'Does that have anything to do with your big exciting happenings?'
'Not a whole lot as it turns out. We closed down an Isolationist smuggling operation in an abandoned container bay today. And we know who killed Miranda.'
'Who?'
'The Isolationists.' I paused, then shut up. I'd been about to tell her about their organlegging operation, but there was no need to upset her.
She didn't notice my hesitation. 'Catch anyone?'
'Not yet, but we will. We got a big pile of stolen drugs and about a billion in counterfeit krona as well.'
She whistled. 'That is big and exciting.'
I grinned, still very pleased with the success. 'I have to convince the management that I'm earning my pay.'
'You won't get fired this week anyway.' She reached past me and took my pack off the wall. 'What else do you carry?'
'Just what you'd expect. Comm unit, binders, medkit, beltcomp, shockrod, that sort of thing.'
She opened the pouch and examined the medkit. It was ARM issue on Earth, more advanced than what was given out here. 'You're ready for anything, aren't you?'
'As much as I can be.'
She took out the binders, simple double circlets of stainless steel-very low tech. She locked one cuff to her right wrist.
'Anything at all?'
She held out her arms towards me, wrists together. Her eyes were high voltage arcs. She wore a look of invitation and defiance-'I dare you.'
I walked over and gently took her hands. Her gaze didn't waver. Without breaking eye contact, I lifted the other cuff and closed it around her left wrist. The lock is usually inaudible. This time the click sounded like a gunshot.
She parted her lips. I pulled her arms over her head and kissed her fervently, pulling her pliant body hard against mine. Eventually, I picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. My apt is on the. 8G level and she was as light as a feather in my arms.
The screen chimed, though I had it set for privacy, dragging me out of a deep sleep. Priority call. I punched it through and got the Goldskin dispatcher. Emergency. Johansen had arrested a suspect and shots had been fired. She was hit-no word on her condition yet-and the suspect was fleeing. The Goldskins were in pursuit but weren't pressing their quarry. He had a strakkaker and was moving along a pedestrian promenade. They didn't want to provoke a firefight.
I didn't blame them. I punched the dispatcher into audio only and patched in security surveillance. They'd be following him on the monitors. The screen showed a crowded arcade from halfway up one wall. A surging disturbance in the throng marked the escaper. He was a dark-haired Wunderlander, running awkwardly in the low G, brandishing his weapon and screaming. People were desperately scrambling out of his way. As I watched, a startled kzin leapt straight up and grabbed a light fixture on the ceiling fifty feet overhead. The fugitive jerked his gun up to cover the sudden motion but didn't fire. Between his panic and lack of coordination, it was a miracle he hadn't already emptied the strakkaker into the crowd. One hint of pursuit and he'd do just that. The Goldskins had made the right choice. Let him run, exhaust himself and then hole up somewhere. Even if he took hostages and wound up killing them all it would be no worse than a shootout down on that floor. Hopefully, it would turn out much better.
Hopefully.
Suze came up behind me, rubbing sleep from her eyes and looking very fetching with her hair tousled into a fiery halo and wearing an oversized jump-shirt from my wardrobe.
'What's going on?'
I spoke quickly. 'We've got a runner. Tammy tagged a suspect from the container bay bust and got shot.'
The dispatcher was still waiting for instructions. I split the screen and punched up Control's map. I got a floating 3D planview of the arcade and the levels around it. The fugitive was a tiny red ball on the. 3G level, heading down-axis. Gold spheres marked the cops positioned around his route, moving to get ahead of him but staying out of the way. As long as he didn't open fire they'd stay there. Clusters of blue-marked med teams held in readiness. Control had sealed the pressure doors behind him but not ahead. Any route he chose was fine with them as long as it was off that arcade. I zoomed the map out and punched up a history trace. A red line showed his path. He was panicked but he wasn't running blindly. He was going straight down-axis, moving in every time he had a chance. He was heading for the low-G industrial zone near Tigertown.
Heading for the down-axis hub.
I told the dispatcher as much and blanked the screen. Suze was looking over my shoulder and I nearly knocked her over as I got up to grab my clothes. I threw them on in record time and grabbed my patrol pack. At the door I paused long enough to kiss her good-bye.
'Back soon.'
She grabbed me with surprising strength, kissed me hard and whispered fiercely in my ear. 'Don't let him live.'
'What?' I said, taken aback, not understanding.
'Don't let him live. If he's caught, there'll be a trial. He's an Isolationist, they can buy the court or blackmail it or break him out. He'll get away. It's not right, after what they did to that girl.' Her gaze was intense, burning blue. 'If he's shot while escaping…”She let her voice trail off.
She didn't need to say more. I kissed her fiercely and left.
Control had a tube car ready and held on standby. I jumped in, thumbed the plate and the door slid shut. The route panel was already set for the down-axis hub. The dispatcher obligingly shunted everyone else out of my way and I made the thirty-kilometer trip in record time. On the way, I thought about Suze's plea. An armed and dangerous fugitive killed while fleeing arrest. There would be no questions if I ordered shoot to kill. We'd lose the chance to interrogate him of course, but he wouldn't evade justice-and it would be justice. Even if he wasn't an Isolationist with blood on his hands, he'd proved murderous intent by shooting Johansen.
