Chapter 4
Feno Phena
Gaige led them into the mansion, acting like she belonged and desperately trying to not look around for security, but it seemed that no one had looked twice at them. Careful to avoid the water cascading down the steps, she pulled Artemis along, moving through the party, though a few times the smaller girl moved them away from something. Gaige knew what she was doing, it wasn't like she couldn't see the servers with their trays of glasses. The familiar thirst clawed at her throat, though something about the hand squeezing her arm made it lessen ever so slightly, so she was grateful to Artemis for trying.
They moved deeper into the building, the first that they'd entered in both of their trips to the planet and had to marvel at the architecture. The interior was made of the same white stone as the outside, the walls, the floor, even the ceiling. Decorating it were rich tapestries of something that neither girl could make out, they seemed to be more symbolic than pictorial, but made out of cloth spun from something that glittered like metals and jewels. They both felt that the place probably usually had carpets over the floor, but with the inch of water that they were sloshing through, they would've been taken up. Stairs curved up around the sides of the entryway, made with the same elegant, spindly design as the bridges outside. They walked under the stairs and past a fountain that was spilling onto the floor and found themselves in a wide-open room, with an orchestra of strange instruments playing off on one side. Opposite that was a table laden with strange foods and occupying the center of the room was a massive dance floor, where couples and in some cases, trios were dancing, all of it illuminated by a set of chandeliers that seemed to be made of glowing crystals growing from the ceiling.
Gaige set off across the wet floor, her mind unable to stop itself from going back to the Eridian ruin that they'd just explored. In fact, ever since they'd got to Feno Phena, she kept having flashbacks to it. She knew it was the fact that she was, once again, walking through water, though it wasn't as deep here.
Shaking that train of thought from her mind, she spotted her target and took a meandering path to her, not wanting to draw unwanted attention to either of them.
She slid up next to the woman, who was a few years older than Gaige, though she was desperately trying to hide that behind her makeup, and was wearing a nice dress, nothing as fancy as the rest of the party goers, but still nice enough to not stand out. Her bleached hair was coiled back in a different style then the last time Gaige had seen her, but it was unmistakably the same person.
"Well, well, Triana D'Moir." Gaige whispered, barely loud enough for the woman to hear. Her reaction was one of absolute shock and before she could say anything Gaige held up her hand "I'm betting that you don't want anyone to know you're here, so I figured this would be as good a chance as any to ask you some questions."
"Who are you? And what do you want with me?"
"Who I am isn't important at the moment, and as for what I want, I literally just said that. But suffice to say, I have no interest in why you're here or getting you thrown out."
The woman fixed the two of them with a shrewd look and after a moment asked "So what makes you think that I would have the answers that you want?"
"Cause you did the reporting on it."
"Kid, you might not know this, but reporters don't always know any more about what they're talking about than what they're fed. I mean, let's be honest, most reporters are just pretty faces that look good on the ECHO, spouting off whatever comes through their earpiece."
"Exactly, that's why I wanted to talk to you."
"And what makes you think that I am any different?"
"No one who just repeats what they're told would've tried to use that as a reason to get out of answering a few questions."
The woman gave a short snort of laughter and nodded "Well played. So, let me get this right, if I answer your questions, you don't get me thrown out? Doesn't seem like a very good deal to me, I mean, you've gotta give me something more."
"No, I don't."
"You know, I hate your kind the most."
"And what kind is that?"
"The kind that thinks they're entitled to getting the answers they want, just because they've caught someone somewhere they don't belong."
"Well, you might be right, but we all have our reasons. So, are you gonna talk, or are we done?"
"Fine, I've got a little time to kill before this all goes down. What did you want to know?"
"You did the reporting on the head of Holloway robotics, didn't you."
"You already said I did, so let's not waste each other's time."
"Fine, I want to know about his death."
"Why?"
"Let's just call them personal reasons and leave it at that."
"Whatever. So, what exactly did you want to know about his death? I mean, there are a lot of angles that you could be looking at it from." Catching the look on Gaige's face she continued "Like if you were his family, you'd be looking for one thing, a business rival, something else."
Gaige was about to open her mouth when a soft voice spoke next to her as Artemis spoke up "Stop fishing."
The other woman clicked her tongue in disappointment causing Gaige to catch on to what she'd been doing, using leading questions to try and figure out who they were and what they were after.
"Can't fault a girl for trying." She said with a shrug.
"But I can fault you for calling yourself a girl." Gaige heard the soft mutter.
"Enough stalling, tell us what happened to him after his arrest." Gaige fumed.
The woman sighed "Fine. Let's see, that was a few months ago, right?"
Gaige fixed her with a flat look that told her that they both knew that she knew the answer to that and to get on with it.
Triana shrugged and continued "He got arrested and then died, the end."
"Don't play games with me." Gaige snarled.
That was enough to get the woman to glance around, making sure that they weren't making a scene before whispering "Keep it down. Look, before I say anything, I need to know why you want to know about this. And no, I know that you don't want to say for some reason, but I can't budge on this."
"Why not?"
"Look, you made a mistake earlier. I'm not a reporter, I'm an investigative journalist, and yes, I looked into the Holloway case, and no, I'm not telling you any more about it until I know why you need to know." She looked at the two of them and the flat glares she was getting in return, so she added "I don't really care what your reasons are, but I'm not about to turn over all my hard work to some ECHOnet casters so they can have a scoop or anything like that."
"Don't worry, we won't tell anyone what you tell us, and we're certainly not ECHO-casters. We need to know for personal reasons, that's all I can say, cause, like you, I'm not gonna be your next headline or whatever, so just tell us what happened."
Triana stared at her for a good moment and then said "Fine, but we should move away from the hors d'oeuvres table before we continue."
A minute later, they'd made their way around the room and were leaning against the wall in an out of the way spot when Triana continued "Right, so I'm going out on a limb here and trusting you. As we talked about, a couple of months ago, there was a fight at the Metro Link Plaza, apparently it was some kind of gun battle and there were a couple of mech suits involved, but that wasn't really my beat, so I didn't look into it too much at the time. The important thing was that the head of Holloway robotics was involved, and more importantly, that he got arrested on charges of attempted murder and suspected industrial espionage, which you already knew.
"Well, as you can imagine, he went to jail. And this time, there was no bail, no getting out. Apparently some rather important people were taking the second charge rather seriously. So, he gets to spend the night in jail, but when morning comes around, he's dead and that's where things get interesting.
"See, there were supposed to be a number of guards on duty, not to mention a dozen or so police bots, but none of them went into that area of the jail for two hours. And before you ask, no security footage, not just from the station, but the surrounding blocks as well. It was like they all were rebooted at the same time, which raised a lot of questions, but there weren't a lot of answers.
"For starters, it seemed that no one wanted to look into what had happened. They were all more interested in trying to figure out a way of making it so that it wasn't their fault. They went as far as to forge some records so that it showed that he'd been transferred before he died."
"Why?"
"Huh?"
"Why go that far? I mean, what did it matter if he died there?"
"You really are new to this aren't you? It mattered for two reasons. First, it looks bad to have one of your prisoners die, maybe not everywhere, but on a planet like this, it casts you and your entire department in a bad light. Which leads to the second, FePhe is a peaceful planet, mostly supported by tourists and who wants to go to a planet where prisoners are dying mysterious deaths?"
"FePhe?"
"It's local slang for the planet, you know, Feno Phena, FePhe. Anyway, if you want answers, don't interrupt. Like I was saying, they covered it up, which is also when my part comes to an end. All our investigation into Holloway ended and we did the broadcast announcing that he'd died of apparent suicide."
"Wait, didn't you say you were an investigative journalist? How could you just drop it like that?"
"Your naivete is so cute. That's the way things are. It's not worth the time to do an investigation if no one is going to air it, besides journalists and politicians have to play nice together, we both have to look out for the best interests of the planet, so any story that could hurt us gets scrapped. Nothing wrong with that, it's normal that we watch out for each other. Plus, if we kill a worthless story that no one's interested in, the next time we have something we like, we get to chase it."
"Wow." Gaige said, clearly not impressed. "So should you be talking to us?"
"There's no reason not to, no one here cares about that story anymore."
"But wait, if you're owed by them, why're you sneaking in?"
"Why waste a perfectly good favor if you don't have to?"
"Makes sense, so back to what we were talking about, who verified that he was dead?"
"The coroner."
"Was he the only one?"
"I'm not following?"
"I mean, did anyone else check to see if Holloway was dead? Like the guards that found him."
"Not that I know of."
"So, it was only the word of the coroner that said that he was dead?"
"Yes. What are you getting at?"
"Were there any changes with the coroner afterwards? Like was he spending more money or anything like that?"
"Well, he retired."
"So, the one person that had stated that Holloway was dead, retired immediately afterwards? And no one thought that it was suspicious?"
"Why would we, he was old."
"And where is he now?"
"Dead, bad heart."
"Aw come on." Gaige said a bit loud, prompting Artemis to grab her arm and softly shake her head.
"Sorry. It's just that, well, the one person that checked to see if Holloway was dead, retires and then dies immediately after, it gets me a bit upset." She sighed "So what did the autopsy turn up?"
"There wasn't one."
"What? Why not?"
"Coroner said it was suicide and that was that. Besides, the family apparently said they didn't want one and took the body."
"Who's family?"
"Holloway's."
"He didn't have any family. Well, not immediate ones at least, do you know what relation to him they were, or at least claimed to be?"
"No, what difference does it make?"
"What diff...are you..." Gaige felt the hand on her arm tighten again and took a deep breath "It matters because a man, in prison, dies when nobody is watching, gets that death verified by one person, who then dies after retiring, had his body picked up by a nonexistent family member, and you wanna know what difference that makes?"
"You almost talk like you think he's still alive."
"Well what proof do you have that he isn't?" Gaige replied, looking a bit crazy.
"The reports say he's dead."
"Some investigator." Gaige grumbled "Come on, let's get outta here."
Before she turned, Artemis looked at Triana and said "Well, thanks for the info. But I gotta ask, I know we said earlier that we didn't care why you're here, but, well, why are you?"
"Suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you." She replied looking around "Apparently Kinzy Kincade is going to be here tonight."
"Who?"
"Seriously? She's a pretty big deal in the pop world right now. Sure, she's kinda a local idol, but she's getting major attention, word is that she's even in talks to be on the next Digby Vermouth album. Anyway, she's apparently trying to make a more mature impression so she's going to be here in a rather revealing outfit."
"Wait." Gaige spoke up "Wouldn't putting that out there hurt her career and thereby the planet?"
"Eh, only if I report it." She responded with a sparkle in her eye as if to say 'If I keep this to myself, who knows what I can get for it later'.
"Whatever, have fun with that." Gaige said, hooking Artemis's arm "Let's go."
They made their way out, being careful to not slip on the stairs and made their way into the crowd. As they wove their way through, Gaige started muttering just loud enough that Artemis could hear her over the din "Of all the irresponsible...This planet is something else, I mean, I understand about tourism being important to them, but covering up a prisoner escape like that, and yes, I'm going off the assumption that Holloway's still alive, but how can they not have questioned it? I mean, all those things just happening to line up like that? Inconceivable."
Instead of getting a response, she felt the arm she'd looped through tightening ever so slightly, before the hissed back reply came to her "Don't look now, but we've got company."
Gaige immediately started turning, only to be elbowed in the side "I said, don't look. Lean in here like you're whispering something in my ear."
Gaige did as she'd been asked and as soon as she was close to the other girl's ear, she heard "Over my shoulder, at your, uh, eleven?"
Following the instruction, Gaige shifted her focus ever so slightly and after a moment, spotted what she was supposed to, a floating bot with the familiar profile of the Holloway Robotics model.
"What's that doing here?"
"Donno, but there's at least a dozen more of them." Came the reply.
"Let's move, slowly, and see if they follow."
They resumed meandering through the crowd, but the robots at the fringe didn't seem to be following them. Gaige kept as surreptitious an eye on them as she could, the floating torsos painted with the black and white of the police, one or two of them in bright firefighter red, but they just kept floating, scanning the crowd for something.
"Those weren't there earlier, were they?" She whispered.
"You think I wouldn't 'ave pointed 'em out if they were?"
"OK, point. But what're they doing here?"
"Seriously?"
"Yes, fine, they're looking for us, but how'd they know we'd be here?"
"Think about it, after their attack failed on us, this would be the likely place for us to go, I mean, all they had to do was follow the same train of thought as I did and they'd get here. But why hasn't anyone else noticed them?"
"My chance to say it, but seriously? Think about it for a minute, those things have been everywhere for what, the last five, six years? And longer in some places, so everyone's gotten used to seeing them, so much so that they just fade into the background."
"Right, just like Holloway said."
"Exactly, add to that the fact that they've only been gone for a few months and who's gonna notice them?
"Add in the amount of alcohol around here and I get it. Oh, sorry about that by the way."
"What now?"
"The alcohol. I mean, with you, and all that, I should've remembered, should've planned around it, so I'm sorry."
"Hey, you kept me away from it, don't think I didn't notice. And yes, I want a drink, so badly it hurts in fact, but as long as you're here, I can get through this. Plus, it's not your fault. None of it. It was my problem that brought us into confrontation with Holloway. It was my mistakes that led me to being dependent on the booze. It was me. Each and every time. The only thing that's your fault, is giving me a reason to not screw up again, so don't be sorry."
"Uh..." Artemis blushed.
"Right, we should get moving." Gaige said, picking up on the other girl's discomfort.
They started down the path, weaving between people. Artemis kept her eyes on the bots as they went, but to her surprise and relief, they didn't move.
"Doesn't seem like they spotted us."
"Oh come on, why do you always do this?" Gaige groaned, turning to her.
"Don't stop." Artemis said, pulling her arm.
They continued on and to Gaige's amazement, the bots didn't move to follow. As she tried not to look at them, she heard a soft whisper next to her, glancing down, she spotted Artemis seeming to be looking ahead as she said "If they're from the same group, how'd they get one's that'd fit in so well?"
"Might've just activated ones that were already on the planet, or they might have finished these up just to send them to keep an eye on populated areas."
"Makes sense."
They kept walking, going back over the bridge and into the densely packed throng of revelers, causing Gaige to let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.
"So," She said a little louder than before "Where're we going next?"
"Not here." Came the soft, hissed reply. Following the other girl's eyes, she spotted another bot floating in an alley, near the top of the third floor.
"Shit, are they everywhere?"
"Could be, but I don't think it's spotted us yet. Having said that, we should still be careful to not say anything that they could overhear."
"You think they could hear anything over this din?"
"Maybe, maybe not, but if they're recording everything and someone filters through later, we could be in trouble."
"I hate when you make sense."
"I know, let's get outta here before I have to make any more."
"You know, that almost worked."
