"Certainly."
She leaned back in her chair. What about the other Spacer contingents? Of the Fifty Spacer Worlds, about a dozen had sizeable enclaves on Earth, the largest-after Aurora and Solaria-being Acrisia, Pallena, and Saon. Of the rest, only a few tourists or the one-off official on short term business. All tolled, there were perhaps sixteen or seventeen thousand Spacers residing on Earth, soon to be fewer. How were their governments reacting?
Ariel scrolled down her list, searching for calls from the other embassies. Nothing. That did not mean much, though, since they would more likely deal directly with Setaris's office.
But that could change now.
What is it they think I can do? she wondered.
She had not told Setaris about Mia. Not that she had intended to, but now it seemed like a very shrewd decision on her part.
If I have the authority Setaris tells me I have, she thought, then why not use it?
She touched the intercom. "Hofton, find out who is heading the investigation and get me the code."
Twelve
The agent-in-charge did not return her call. Over the course of the day, Ariel sent a request to speak to him three times, but Agent Cupra either had received none of them or was refusing to respond.
She had been surprised to learn that Special Service had taken over the investigation. Something like this should have been a TBI matter, but the Terran Bureau of Investigation had been shut out of it. In a way it made sense-it had been a Special Service failure in the first place, a smear on their reputation at best, a reason to turn the entire Service upside down and inside out in a search for blame at worst, so they would be strongly motivated to solve the matter. Nevertheless, Earthers tended to be traditional, and tradition alone would dictate that the TBI run the investigation.
She scrolled down the lists Hofton had gotten for her. Casualties, survivors, relatives, addresses-Mia was the only member of Eliton's security team who had lived. Officially, though, she was now listed as deceased.
Twenty-one dead, thirty-three wounded, not counting all those who had suffered injuries among the spectators during the stampede to escape the gallery. Humadros and most of her staff, Eliton and his two aides-those were the costliest diplomatically.
Bogard had given her the name of the agent at the med center. Ariel had Hofton find his code.
Agent Sathen was a thin-faced man with deeply-recessed blue eyes and a short growth of dark brown hair that seemed to hug his scalp like a helmet.
"Yes?"
"Agent Sathen, I'm Ariel Burgess, from the Calvin Institute."
"Yes?" Nothing but professional, impersonal, with no hint that he would willingly tell her anything.
Ariel drew a breath. "I'm calling in regards to Mia Daventri." Seeing his expression change to uncertainty, she made a decision then how to approach this. "I was a friend of hers."
Sathen stared at her for a few moments, then slowly nodded. The set of his jaw relaxed. "How can I help you?"
"Tell me what happened."
"As a friend or as a Spacer official?"
"Both. I understand she originally came in for medical treatment in company with a robot."
"I'm no longer part of the investigation."
"I understand that, Agent Sathen. I'm interested in the part you were involved with."
"As a friend?"
Ariel bit back her impatience. "I-" She stopped. Of course, she realized, this is being recorded. "As a friend. I met Mia on Kopernik Station when I first came to Earth."
Sathen nodded. "I see. Well, there isn't much to tell. I and my partner received the call to accompany an injured agent to the clinic and to stay with her till she regained consciousness. The ambulance beat us there. When we arrived, the medics had already put her in a room and started her on regeneration treatments. They couldn't get the robot to leave, though. It didn't interfere with them, but none of them were too happy with its presence."
"What robot was this?"
"That special one attached to Eliton's security team. Bogard."
"I see. Weren't you able to recover it?"
"It wouldn't accept commands. Agent Daventri had evidently given it a priority to protect her and it wouldn't accept any other direction until she released it."
"That sounds like you understand something about robots, Agent."
"I don't understand a thing about them. That's what Mr. A very explained to me."
Ariel's eyes widened slightly. "Derec Avery?"
Sathen nodded. "From the Phylaxis Group, yes. He showed up about five or six hours after Agent Daventri was admitted. Even he couldn't get it to move and, as I understand it, he built the thing."
"That is odd, but… go on, Agent Sathen. What happened?"
"Well, Mr. A very told us to leave it alone and to call him when Agent Daventri regained consciousness. Then later we were recalled. After we left the clinic, Agent Daventri's room was destroyed, with her and the robot."
"Why were you recalled?"
"Reassignment. My partner and I were to be attached to Vice Senator Taprin's security team. That won't take effect, though, till tomorrow. When the explosion occurred, we went back to the clinic. There was… nothing left." Sathen's mouth flexed. "Another agent was killed, too."
"In the explosion?"
"No."
When he did not elaborate, Ariel asked, "Any evidence who did it?"
"None. The monitors in the entire clinic went down right before the blast."
"Isn't it a little unusual to be recalled before an assignment is complete?"
"Yes, Ms. Burgess, it is. But then everything about this is unusual, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is." Ariel paused. "Did you know Mia?"
"Not well. She seemed like a good agent."
"May I ask who recalled you?"
"It came through our general dispatch. Normally, another team would relieve us. I thought-well, it didn't happen. An oversight."
"I didn't think Special Service made mistakes."
Sathen's expression hardened. "We don't. Is that all, Ms. Burgess?"
"Unless you can think of anything more. "
"I can't think of anything I left out."
"Thank you for your time, then, Agent Sathen."
The screen blanked. Ariel entered the code for Agent Cupra once more and again got a recording that Cupra was unavailable, please leave name and code.
No forensics… Ariel thought.
She called up the staff registry for the clinic in which Mia was "killed" and found the head nurse that had been on duty that night.
"My shift ended at ten," Nurse Carther explained. "But I was there when the injured agent and that -thing -came in. Dr. Jaley oversaw treatment. He just ignored it, the robot. I couldn't, but I didn't have to be in there with it."
"When did the other agents arrive?" Ariel asked.
"A few minutes after we got the biomonitors connected. Agent Sathen and Agent… um, Vetter. They ran security checks on all of us. Agent Sathen was upset that he couldn't get the robot to leave. Then a man from the Phylaxis Group showed up and he couldn't get it out of there, either. After he left, the other two agents arrived. My shift ended about twenty minutes later and I left."
"Who was your replacement?"
"It was supposed to be Karl Funil, but he called in sick. I'm not sure who was called in then."
"So your relief hadn't shown up when you left? Isn't that irregular?"
"Most of the clinic functions are automated," Carther explained. "If someone isn't there for ten minutes, it's not a problem. The physician-in-charge was there. I could check if you like, see who was called in, but more than likely it was a temp. We draw from a couple of hospital resource pools for emergencies."
Ariel considered for a few moments. That night would have been filled with emergencies. "No, that's all right. What other agents showed up?"
"Two more Special Service people. I don't know what was said, but Agent Sathen was pretty angry with them. I heard yelling."
"They were still there when you left?"