Gravewalkers: Marigold Cemetery

Gravewalkers

Book Eleven

Marigold Cemetery

Richard T. Schrader

Copyright © 2017 Richard T. Schrader

Copyright © 2022 Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved.

Contents

Girl Detective

Prayers by Night

Dreaming Butterfly

Exercises in Blasphemy

Extraterrestrial Highway

Carnival of the Animals

Cherries and Advice

Marigold Cemetery

Hell is Empty

Custer’s Revenge

Time and Tide

Reluctant Sinners

Madrina

Miskatonic Madhouse

Hold Monsters

Behind the Cowl

Chapter 1: Girl Detective

Alice appreciated having Bobby Bean to snuggle up against to keep warm. It was at that perfect hour, right at morning when she needed to get up for work, but she still had time to stay in bed and enjoy being comfortably lazy.

The air conditioning really blasted out an arctic blizzard in her parents’ apartment. Even with her pajamas and thick quilts, it was cold in her bedroom. Leaching the extra body heat from Bobby made her bed just right.

Having Bobby spend the night wasn’t any degree of problem, not while Critias and Carmen were still away in Nevada. They had gone there as part of a daring commando mission to capture the Boulder Dam.

Even though Alice was a deputy marshal herself, it was the kind of thing that was too much for her to handle. The operation had to depose its former owners, a bona fide army of unsavory evil survivor soldier types.

Aunt Jam had not come home at all that night because she had stayed at Tony Banjo’s apartment again. Pipkin shared Mandy’s room as was their usual arrangement.

The admiral’s son Hardik had stayed over late while they watched movies and just had fun. When he did finally leave, Hardik hadn’t bothered to lock the front door. He had grown up on an aircraft carrier where doorknobs and house keys weren’t a common concern.

If Alice had gotten out of bed a little earlier, she would have been up and getting ready for work when Marshal Juke quietly entered the apartment.

Commodore Tinny was a man of his word. His promise as a Governor of the Council was that he would provide the equipment and expertise necessary to open the heavyrail track from Jim’s city out to the Presidential bunker in Denver. He would also secure the deep water port in Texas that Fleet Admiral Rudel needed for the unloading of his ships.

Those trains and workers had arrived in the night and then made themselves at home out at Foragers’ Castle.

After he cleared decontamination, Juke followed his instructions from the Commodore. He was to seek out Colonel Flash at Critias’ apartment in King’s Tower, and then personally convey the Freemen Governor’s orders to her.

When Juke asked some of the G&P personnel for directions, they informed him that Critias and Carmen were not in the city. If he wanted to find Jam, they suggested that he try Tony Banjo’s apartment since she was probably staying there.

The guards also told Juke that Tony partied hard, and didn’t appreciate having strangers pounding on his door first thing in the morning. Their helpful advice was that if Juke went to Bobby Bean’s studio apartment first, he could have Tony’s newest crewmember deliver a message that Jam needed to come down for Freemen business. That would be less awkward than him beating on Tony’s door.

Juke thought that it was bad enough that Colonel Flash had not been at Foragers’ Castle waiting to supervise the arrival of their trains.

He considered calling her cellphone, but decided against it. Cellphones were a King Louie invention, and not the modus operandi of the Freemen community. In any event, Juke wanted his irritation to be fully blossomed and undiluted when he finally tracked her down.

She was off enjoying herself with a notorious gigolo as though Jim’s city was some kind of permanent vacation for her, and he didn’t like it. Jam was supposed to be representing her people, not living the good life on Fantasy Island.

Juke eventually discovered that Bobby Bean was not in his apartment.

A roving G&P woman noticed him rapping on the door. She suggested that he try Critias’ place instead. Everyone knew that Bean was in the habit of hanging out there with his girlfriend Alice.

The confounding maze of his adventure was really getting on Juke’s nerves. When he finally arrived at Critias’ door, still no closer to finding Jam, he just walked inside.

Juke already knew that Critias and Carmen were away at the Boulder Dam. He understood that Alice had a reputation to upkeep as a deputy marshal, an underage one at that. Already irritated with Jam’s malfeasance, Juke fumed even more in the umbrage that Bean had no business being there at that time of the morning while Alice’s parents were away.

Hardik had left the outer hallway door unlocked. No one noticed when Juke walked right in and he still didn’t disturb anyone even as he started checking the bedroom doors.

He saw Mandy and Pipkin charmingly asleep in their beds. Mandy even had her teddy bear Virgil to keep her company.

Juke moved on to Alice’s room where he saw her snuggled up against Bobby Bean. He finally lost his temper in as much as he was able, in that he stepped up, grabbed Bean by his ankle, and then yanked him off the bed, pulling the quilts right along with him.

Alice’s suitably modest pajamas saved Bean from a savage beating on the spot. Juke indulged the possibility that Bean had not committed a capital offense with the girl. Rather than kill Bean with his bare hands, Juke none too gently dragged him out toward the living room instead.

Bean had been deeply asleep when Juke seized him. He had only recently been on the run for his life out on the streets, and had a near miss when one of Jinglebells’ elite ghouls had caught him by the leg. Juke awakening him in much the same way was a horrifying flashback experience. Bean’s first conscious thought was that ghouls had overrun the building and they were all about to die.

Alice screamed in frightful surprise after Bean howled out in alarm first. The sound of them both in distress caused Mandy to cry out in terror.

Pipkin instinctively rolled right out of her blankets to hit the floor. Her arm already reached beneath her bed to take ahold of the automatic combat shotgun that she kept there for just such an emergency.

If the apartment was not chaotic enough already, when Juke arrived back in the living room, dragging Bean by his ankle, wearing nothing but his boxer shorts, Yeti arrived at the front door along with riverboat Darla and Oleg.

Yeti had been about to take Darla to see Kevin’s control room where Jim and Fleet Admiral Rudel were going to have a morning teleconference with the new outpost at Boulder Dam.

The available rumor was that the mission out west had been a total success. Colonel Davis’ team had taken the dam undamaged, liberated the prisoners, killed the bad guys, and not lost any of his people in the process.

What remained was that the home base of their new enemy was the Area Fifty One of legend where the old government had stored crashed alien spaceships. In total, the control room would be an interesting thing to see and since Darla was an ambassador, they would not deny her the opportunity.

G&P radio chatter had informed Yeti that Juke was on his way up into the Tower to look for Jam, Bean, and Critias’ apartment.

Yeti had promised Carmen that he would keep an eye on her business while she was away. He postponed the control room pilgrimage to stop on the floor with Critias’ apartment first. Yeti would make sure everything was all right with Alice and Mandy.

Oleg lived in the Custom’s House where he took over Keith’s old apartment that was a perk for the Director of Civilian Armory. He headed up the Tower that morning with his G&P girlfriend Robyn. They were on their way to see his friend Borz and Borz’s wife Rachel at their Captain’s apartment. The four of them would go to breakfast together in Funland.

The patrolwoman Robyn was a member of Yeti’s East Airport squad, and he had defended her honor when one of the admiral’s mechanics spoke to her most inappropriately.

During their brief conversation in the elevator, Oleg learned that Yeti wanted to check up on the home of Critias. Since Critias and Yeti had shown him respect over the affront at the airport, Oleg volunteered to go along and in a small way perhaps repay the favor.

Bean finally realized who had him by the leg, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Juke was a large and dangerous man well beyond what Bean would be able to handle short of shooting him.

That was the moment that Yeti came up behind Juke and then grabbed him by the shoulder to make him stop manhandling Bean in Carmen’s apartment.

Not hesitating a moment, Juke elbowed Yeti in the face to shake him off. The blow wasn’t enough to knock Yeti down, but it certainly didn’t feel good. Yeti was not of a mind to hit anyone since he only wanted to break up the conflict and let everyone come to their senses.

The elbow to Yeti’s face did infuriate Oleg, who would never back down from anyone, and frankly, would never have to show caution since he was quite possibly the most dangerous man alive.

In a brutal instant, Oleg dashed in, grabbed Juke by his arm, and when the marshal resisted, Oleg spun him about, flipped him right off his feet, and then slammed him down through the coffee table, which partly broke his fall as it exploded into collapsed wreckage.

Alice came out of her room at that point, screaming for them to stop; only no one did.

Juke wasn’t hurt or intimidated, and nearly steamed with rage over what Oleg did to him. He must have thought that Oleg would wait for him to get back up, or want to make some kind of fair fight about the whole affair.

Oleg was more of a mind to leap right in immediately, take the mounted dominant position on the ground, and then beat Juke unconscious with blows from his fists.

Everyone did freeze when Pipkin appeared and then audibly racked the slide on her Benelli semi-auto shotgun, which chambered its first shell. Pipkin was a Freemen herself, so she had the sense not to store the weapon loaded to the pipe and she could fight when the situation called for it. Juke was family to Pipkin, and as such, she was not about to let Oleg finish what he had started.

That’s enough! Pipkin verbally warned everyone, meaning it.

Oleg’s G&P girlfriend Robyn went for her cellphone so fast to call Stig and tell him about the whole mess, that Pipkin shifted the shotgun in her direction out of fear that the woman was going for her sidearm.

Enough already, Yeti sounded hurt as he waved at Pipkin to lower her unneeded weapon. He had to lean his head back so that the blood coming from his bleeding nose didn’t end up in Carmen’s new carpet.

That was Bean’s opportunity to jump up to his feet and act like he was entirely innocent. All it actually accomplished was to make him seem like he was some kind of idiot, standing there as he was in red and white boxer shorts.

Juke got up out of the wreckage of the coffee table and the scattered knickknacks that had been on it. In the process of brushing himself off, he checked to see that he hadn’t suffered any injuries.

He gave Pipkin an aggravated scowl as he demanded, Where is your mother? The Commodore said she was supposed to be living here and keeping an eye on the kids.

Juke’s gaze shifted to Bean when he said kids, to highlight the fact that the apartment was supposed to be closer to a romper room playground than a brothel where Foragers ran around in their underwear.

Pipkin scoffed with undisguised disgust as she lowered the shotgun, Where do you think she is? She is with that Banjo character, up in his sex pad apartment. If those three Samurai women are there too, I would not be at all surprised.

The mention of sex pad made Oleg realize what he had seen since he had entered the apartment and then his stern gaze landed on Bean. It now appeared that Oleg and Juke were on the same side in that they both wanted to give Bean a proper beating.

Quick thinking was a talent that Alice had in addition to being a keen observer. She said, Nothing happened here last night, nothing at all. I just didn’t want to be home alone without adult supervision.

Her excuse did in a way make it seem like Bean had been doing everyone a favor by babysitting. She also inadvertently made it appear that Jam was negligent in her duties and thereby caused the necessity in the first place.

Alice didn’t want to get Jam into any trouble. To change the topic, she said, I need to get ready for work. Jam will be back any moment to get ready too. I don’t want her to find all of you here.

She made a fine display of generous annoyance by adding, You have done enough damage already, thank you very much.

After that, she turned to march back into her room, hoping that no one was going to call her bluff. Before she closed her door to get dressed, her final comment was, Carmen is not going to be pleased that you have broken her stuff with your horsing around.

She needed only moments to throw off her pajamas and then pull on the bodysuit that went with her mechsuit boots, gauntlets, and helmet. She buckled on her pistol belt, grabbed her teslaflux carbine, and then headed out.

Mandy was in the kitchenette helping Darla put an icepack on Yeti’s nose.

Pipkin was in her room getting dressed for joining the Freemen in Foragers’ Castle.

Everyone else had thankfully departed.

Without looking, Mandy told her sister, Bobby said he would call you later.

I’m sorry about this, Alice told Yeti on her way past them as she headed toward the front door. Are you going to be ok?

It’s not broken, Darla said pleasantly as she held the ice on Yeti’s nose while he sat in a kitchen chair with his head leaned way back.

If anything, Yeti taking a hit while trying to responsibly break up the immature squabbling of everyone else only made him more appealing. Darla liked a strong man, but not one who did stupid things to show his machismo. It was men with more aggression than brains that had brought her riverboat hotel community to ruin.

Once Alice was out of the apartment, she went straight to the elevator and then took it up to Tony Banjo’s floor. Before long, she pounded her gauntleted fist on Tony’s door.

Right away, the door opened. Jam stood there on one foot trying to put on her other shoe. She had on her walk of shame dress that she had left the apartment in the night before.

Behind her in the room, Alice saw two of the Japanese foragers who worked for Fleet Admiral Rudel. They wore short silk robes in primary colors and floral patterns. A moment later, the third ambassador walked through the view only she was stark naked.

A forest of empty liquor bottles were all about the place. Tony had a very nice apartment, but it was currently a disheveled mess from some wild party they had thrown. He did have good reason to celebrate, having survived his truck fire and accompanying ghoul riot.

Bad as it all appeared, Alice didn’t feel it was her place to make it any of her business.

I’m running late, Jam said as she came out and then closed the door behind her.

I know, Alice agreed somberly. The tone was enough to get Jam’s attention. That was when Alice spilled the beans, Juke came by looking for you.

He found Bobby in my room and he didn’t like it. Yeti came by to check on us and Juke hit him in the nose. That Russian friend of Borz was with Yeti and he threw Juke through the coffee table. It is a total loss. Any moment now, I will be getting the call. I’m probably in a lot of trouble.

Juke is here? Jam didn’t disguise her sudden dreadful realization, I wasn’t expecting them so soon. The Commodore didn’t call me. She took a moment to consider that because it was significant, No one did.

Jam put her hand on Alice’s shoulder to urge her along in the direction of the elevator, We both might be in trouble. I better get back downstairs and dressed for work.

The call did come just as Alice had expected. About the time that Jam came out of Critias’ apartment dressed for duty, Alice got a text message on her helmet HUD that the officers wanted her at Kevin’s control room.

Jam glanced down at her cellphone because she had received a similar message.

Kevin’s control room had a conference table where the officers sat for their breakfast while they also held a morning business meeting.

Fleet Admiral Rudel was there with Commander Carys. Jim and Jessica were there as was Kevin, Fat Jack, and Headshot Sally.

Sea Captain Esteban Marino was at the meeting too, but he was currently across the room at one of the stations having a mildly flirtatious conversation with the female technician seated there.

Not seeing Juke or Bobby Bean was a relief to Alice. She feared that everyone was only waiting to roast her over what had happened in the apartment that morning.

As they came in, Jim pressed the button on a teleconference module that was on the breakfast table. He said, She is here now, Commodore, if you would like to begin.

Commodore Tinny’s voice came over the speakers from where he was at his Camelot base. Good morning, Samantha, he said to welcome Jam.

Colonel Flash instantly realized that the Commodore would not be calling her by her full first name unless he was disappointed in her performance. It didn’t help that Jam wasn’t even sure what he was displeased about.

She hadn’t been properly on top of things to know that the new Freemen crews were going to arrive that morning. Jim’s people must have known to expect them. If Jam had been at Foragers’ Castle just making herself useful, she would have gotten all the information required.

Jam responded simply by saying, Good morning to you, Commodore.

The Commodore spoke from the speakers again, We are on the eve of the great adventure. Thanks to Jim, we have our new home at Camelot. It is the admiral’s people that need a home now and we have the skills required to make that Denver base available to them.

I must confess, even if we have the talent and machinery to accomplish so epic a task, we do not have all the manpower necessary for so grand and dangerous an undertaking.

In light of how important this all is to my fellow Governors, I am certain they won’t deny your requests for able personnel. Time being of the essence such as it is, hurricane season weather could postpone completion until well into next year.

Jam asked the Commodore, Did you have anyone in mind in particular?

Just use your discretion, the Commodore advised pleasantly.

We Freemen know everything about trains and their related matters. I’m putting you in command of the southern track expedition. The connection between Jim’s city and the admiral’s fleet will be useful even before we open the track to Denver and make it available.

Start by finding yourself a capable security commander to lead any boots you have to put on the ground. I have Ray on loan to Colonel Davis right now, but even when he is free, he will be helping open the western route.

Lacking him, you are going to need someone with first rate engineering talents. You have been at Jim’s community for long enough now to know everyone available for you to choose from.

After a pause the Commodore repeated for the benefit of the other Governors, This operation is critically important and must be completed before the winter weather makes the iron too cold to handle. I am sure that Jim and the admiral will be open to most any sacrifice to guarantee you safe and expedient success.

Texas? Jam nearly gulped the name so that it got all the magnitude it deserved as an enormous, dangerous, and important undertaking.

It took her a moment longer to decode everything that the Commodore had said and then fully realize the profitable opportunity that Tinny had artfully crafted for their Freemen community, if she did her part in capitalizing on it.

In light of the unscrupulous profiteering she took part in, Jam didn’t let her eyes fall directly on the officers at the table. She didn’t want to witness any of their hostile reactions to her usurpative appropriations as she made her crew requisitions.

I would need Critias to serve as my ground operations commander, Jam said in a tone that bespoke hesitant but simple honesty, and I think Carmen would be ideal in the role of my team’s field engineer.

Ray is already on good terms with their umm, giant. If Cutter is not going out west with Ray, I could use his assistance too. He would be a huge help, if only with all the heavy lifting.

A platoon of their G&P would provide some much needed extra firepower, if that would be possible and this mission really is as time critical as you say.

Well, the Commodore sounded pleased. That should give you what you need for safely undertaking the operation.

I am sending Juke to lead the other team heading west. If possible, Special Agent Shield and her assistant Mister Romeo would join them. Everyone has heard about their extraordinary talent for moving outdoors safely. Some have said that none are better.

Because Fleet Admiral Rudel was the primary beneficiary of the train operations and none of the people or equipment involved was his own, the whole matter sounded most excellent to his sensibilities.

Rudel even added, Commander Critias did tell me that Special Agent Shield and Romeo were second to none in what they call gravewalking. We all have to work close to the infected, but no one can safely get as close as they do without triggering a riot.

Jack disguised his alarm that Jam had finally put herself in a position to steal away Critias and Carmen from his community. It was not too hard to believe that by the time the railway missions were over, they would feel more at home with the Freemen than they did in Jim’s city.

Critias and Carmen are away in Nevada, Jack said in a tone that suggested it was unfortunately impossible for them to leave on Jam’s train.

We are committed to helping open Denver, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still have problems of our own that require expert attention.

After a pause he added, Besides, they have children to care for. They won’t just abandon Alice and Mandy while they go off for weeks on end.

I wasn’t suggesting leaving them behind, the Commodore said about the girls as though he had prepared his thoughts on the matter long before this meeting.

They would be safe enough working aboard the train and learn some valuable trade skills as well. They could continue their schooling by video conference with no more inconvenience than we have here.

We can all agree that Jim’s community is not the best place for impressionable children anyway. If last night is any indication, Alice, Mandy, and Pipkin would benefit from some time away from the morally ambiguous atmosphere that Jim’s community enjoys so liberally.

As though on cue, the door opened. Juke came into the control room along with Oleg, Yeti, and Darla. Bean came in last behind Pipkin, Wolf, and Tony Banjo. Yeti had tape on his nose that didn’t do much other than help hide the bruise on his face.

I’m here, Juke said aloud for the benefit of Commodore Tinny.

You did the right thing calling me immediately, the Commodore answered. I am deeply troubled by what happened. Only moments ago, I was telling the other Governors about my plan for you to lead the westward rail mission.

Now, it seems that you may not be up to so challenging a responsibility. What reason could you possibly have for starting a brawl with Jim’s people?

I am at fault for hitting their patrolman, Juke confessed sounding genuinely regretful. When he grabbed me from behind it more or less just happened on instinct. I didn’t injure their Forager, even though I was well within my rights to do so. I only dragged him out into the main room after I discovered him in bed with one of Pipkin’s friends.

I had gone into the apartment trying to find Jam. I knew the parents were away in Nevada. I assumed she would be there keeping an eye on the kids. She wasn’t there and neither was anyone else suitable for chaperoning them. I believe that I am correct to assume, King Louie’s Foragers are not supposed to be spending their nights in children’s bedrooms.

Nothing happened, Alice pleaded sincerely. I know that it looks bad to someone who doesn’t know us, but Bobby and I are just friends. It was all perfectly innocent.

Juke turned to glance back at Bean and then growled. He considered appearances to be a worthwhile boundary in of itself.

Jack thought it might help to take some of the heat off of Bean and undermine Jam’s position at the same time. He asked her, You were not home last night, Colonel Flash?

She was at my place, Tony answered for her. I had a party last night and she stayed over.

Fleet Admiral Rudel asked, Akako, Yumi, and Rai are not still rooming with you?

Them too, Tony confirmed it unperturbed.

Sounds cozy, Juke grumbled with distaste.

Sounds sleazy, Pipkin snapped off about it, clearly displeased with her mother’s scandalous conduct.

Commodore Tinny asked, Samantha, you left the girls in the care of that man? Was it your recommendation that he also spend the night in her bed?

Carmen and Critias allow Alice extraordinary latitude, Jam offered as her explanation. She is a member of the Council’s own Marshal Service. Honoring promises to her own friends and family are the least of the commitments in trust that you ask of her.

We trust her to keep her word. I have to assume that all of you do as well, since you trust her with riskier responsibilities than a platonic friendship with a young man she is tentatively engaged to marry.

Queen Jessica spoke up, We expect our marshals to conduct themselves as examples to everyone else. It is unacceptable that anyone could come along later, and then cite the example that they only did what marshals do.

She turned her gaze to Bean to command, The next time the two of you will share the same bed, will be your wedding night. Is that perfectly clear?

Perfectly, Bean repeated the word gratefully, since it appeared that his one punishment for his crime was chastisement and that would be the end of it.

The Commodore spoke again, The guardsman that Juke inadvertently injured during what was in large part a family squabble among Freemen, has our sincerest apology.

Since it is our way to make amends with more than words, I would like Jim to give you thirty gold tokens from the Freemen bank account as recompense for your inconvenience.

Thank you, Commodore, sir, Yeti replied. I will deposit it in the G&P widowing fund. I do not hold a grudge and I wouldn’t like any of the other patrolmen to take it the wrong way either. Thirty shifts of hot zone combat pay is a generous sum for a bloody nose.

With that out of the way, the Commodore said, I presume that the admiral and Jim are in agreement then? How soon do you expect to have the situation in Nevada resolved and your officers back in your city for other duties?

Entirely sensible, said the admiral in approval. I will make plans to get our supply barges underway back to the fleet. Everything will be in readiness when her train arrives in Texas.

Jim said nothing and concealed his thoughts, aside from a subtle glance over at Alice. It was not incriminating, rather more a knowing look where Jim shared an understanding with her.

Of the other people in the room, it was Alice who quite naturally came to the realization that Commodore Tinny was not merely some adorable codger like a sweet Saint Nicholas. Tinny was very much a shrewd leader and a worthy adversary for the other Governors.

The Freemen wanted Critias and Carmen, and they were going to take Alice and Mandy too. Commodore Tinny had already maneuvered the admiral’s urgency for progress to his favor and even if Jim was against the idea, it was possible that the situation was such that Jim simply had no other choice but to comply.

His potential reasons for refusal would be too thin, the benefits of his compliance too obvious, and the urgent insistence of the other two Governors were not something he could casually disregard.

None of that took into account that Critias had already requested permission to take Carmen to Texas with Jam and Jim had promised to help him accomplish it with whatever assistance they desired.

Kevin spoke up, By transferring fuel from the Hercules transport plane that Colonel Hiram captured, they could return home in the Greyhound. We are confident that their Groom Lake base will have extensive fuel storage reserves. Once the colonel has taken that over, refueling will not be an issue of concern.

The male android added, Carmen’s information about them having nuclear weaponry attached to long range cruise drones has turned out to be true. I have already fully infiltrated their computer network, along with all the drones interacting with that system.

Even if I hadn’t already changed all the arming codes on their bombs, missiles, and the drones, it appears that their leaders kept those codes secure in their sole possession, and they all died when a Predator drone we commandeered fired its Hellfire missile into their Stryker command vehicle. In conjunction with the exploding ammunition and burning fuel, the vehicle and all its contents are totally obliterated.

Their drones of nuclear mass destruction are exotic prototypes. Essentially they are pilotless scaled-down flying wings that carry tactical fission warheads.

At this point, it is no longer possible for them to launch any of those aerial vehicles or to detonate the warheads. According to previous understandings, they are now the property of King Louie until such time as he chooses to transfer them into the possession of anyone else.

Fleet Admiral Rudel harrumphed at that last part, Do you really think it is prudent to make yourself a nuclear power, Jim? I have professionals who are capable of handling such things.

That is business for another day, Jim answered noncommittally. Neither of us has forgotten about the Maltese Pirates who are still out there. If the situation warrants it, we may just nuke their main bases and be done with them.

For now, Nevada is a mission orchestrated by my community and the rewards are also mine to dispense with as I see fit. Carmen also said that the man they captured mentioned that they were aware of where your fleet is waiting in the gulf and that it would have been one of their targets.

So while admittedly you are eager to get this railway work underway, I expect you to be doubly ambitious to have Critias and Carmen complete their operation of capturing Groom Lake. If we have overlooked some detail in all of this, we would not want those people lashing out against your ships in a last ditch expression of extreme revenge.

The admiral nodded resolutely with that wisdom from young Jim, Your people have done an excellent job so far and I don’t want to distract them with my problems.

Until your people have that Groom Lake situation officially locked down, I would prefer they stay where they are. Colonel Davis has my total confidence and I defer to his onsite expertise.

Doctor Clara came into the control room just then with her assistant Mandy in tow, which got everyone’s attention. Clara was her usual self; impeccable in her manicured dress without being overly showy, but neither was she ever cheap.

Her expression was her customary passive cunning, not unlike Sally Headshot in that they had the same zero tolerance for the tedious formalities of other people that always seemed to somehow be holding them back from more practical efficiency.

Even Clara’s first words conveyed the same saddled attitude, You summoned me, my King?

Jim told his table, Excuse me for just a moment.

He turned his full attention to Doctor Clara, I received a report this morning from housekeeping.

When Grace had her people sanitize the medical center, they did a regular inventory. The numbers do not match up. Several cases of medical supplies appear to have gone missing.

Clara was a brilliant woman by every standard. She leaped to an educated guess, The only thing we have worth stealing by the case would be oxycodone.

Being no fool either, Jim skipped right past confirming her guess by asking, You wouldn’t happen to know where it has gone?

The doctor’s expression was such stone that actual rock would have given more away. To complete her point, she replied, Your sense of humor is lost on me.

If your next ludicrous suggestion is that Mandy was behind the theft, I don’t believe that to be the case either. Like myself, she would never get involved in such petty nefariousness.

We both have quite privileged positions in this wonderful community. As for myself, I have grown quite attached to my head, and would never risk it over something as pedestrian as drug dealing.

My thoughts exactly, Jim agreed with her behind a totally real pleasant smile.

Clara understood him perfectly. He believed she would never lower herself to such petty villainy, especially because the severity of her punishment would be on the side of extreme.

Jim had never forgotten her collaboration with the President during his reign of madness in Denver. Clara would live a life of angelic honesty and goodwill toward men, or Jim would have her burned alive.

It seems that we have a bit of a mystery then, Jim commented to all present. While Critias and Carmen are away along with Verloc, the only marshal available would be Juke. I’m not sure his skills would be ideal for solving a crime such as this, especially since he is not that familiar with the people of our city.

Jim looked to Alice, Are you capable of taking this on? The theft of essential medical supplies is a serious matter. Such treason to our community could carry rather severe punishments, doubly so if the guilty hold positions of considerable responsibility.

As proof that she was up to the challenge, Alice said to Jim, I was the one who found those pills in the quarantine field hospital inside the hotel beside Radio City. I know which pills you are talking about.

At the time, I learned that they are powerful painkillers. I was to keep them locked up because people would feel tempted to abuse them for the purposes of getting high.

That being true, I do not believe they qualify as essential medical supplies. Whoever took them, almost certainly thought that when they did it.

I also know that not everyone was thrilled about your decisions to approve all the drinking, drug use, and Red Door trade that is going on in the city. You are partly responsible. I don’t think it is at all fair to call this crime an act of treason.

She has a point, Jack agreed with her logic.

Jim saw no reason to haggle over those trivialities immediately. He told Alice, I am not asking you to line people up and give them a firing squad. Find out who took the pills and if possible, recover all that are left. They took a lot of them, far too many to have used them all up. Once you have solved this, we can talk about what to do with them.

When Alice just stood there with nothing to say, Jim added, You can start right now if you like.

Juke told Alice, If you plan to confront anyone, let me know so I can back you up. I don’t want you getting hurt if they get rough about it.

Or you can call me, Oleg offered in his thick accent. It might be someone tough that he couldn’t handle. It was his deliberate jab at Juke reckoning their brief brawl in Carmen’s apartment.

Thank you, both, Alice replied. I will keep you in mind for help if the need comes up.

Actually solving the crime was something that Alice had not worked out yet.

She knew that Grace’s decontamination staff had scrubbed down the medical center already, so there wouldn’t be much in the way of physical evidence.

There were the security cameras around the city, but if those could solve the crime, Kevin would have done that himself. Besides, whoever took the pills would know about the cameras and gone about it in an inconspicuous way.

Alice felt certain that the way to solve the mystery was with smart thinking rather than with leg work. She headed for Funland as she thought about the problem. Since it was morning and she was hungry, Alice figured that she may as well have a good breakfast.

As she walked, Alice used her helmet HUD to tell her about oxycodone. It gave her a bunch of chemical diagrams that she couldn’t comprehend, but imagined Carmen would tell her that she should learn.

Even if Alice was not educated enough to understand something, Carmen had taught her that smart person things existed at all because they were useful if you took the time to understand them.

Her database did have a warning section that explained that the drug was addictive and that at least in the place where the helmet came from, it was a controlled contraband.

From there she found something interesting.

Among the clusters of red eyes on her helmet, two of them were spectroscopic lasers. According to what she read, people who took oxycodone would exude traces of it from their sweat and urine along with something called metabolites, sort of the byproducts from having it in their body.

Her helmet came right out and offered