Chapter 9

"Right," said Brown as he sat himself down in the interview room again. "Round two."

Angie had consulted with Rasmussen for a thankfully short period before summoning Brown and Kostopoulos back. The two groups now faced each other.

Angie's face was sour, but Rasmussen was back to his formerly smug self. "Mister Rasmussen has information that will exonerate him and incriminate another party," the young woman said.

Brown gestured with an open palm. "Well, let's hear it."

Angie sighed. "Mr. Rasmussen would like to… negotiate a deal for this information."

Brown and Kostopoulos exchanged a weary look. He had done this before. "What sort of deal?" Brown asked.

Angie consulted her notes. "Mr. Rasmussen would request that his past crimes are expunged and he is granted the freedom to leave the base - once the lockdown has ended, of course."

"Absolutely not," Kostopoulos said firmly. "He is our chief suspect in Reena Bird's murder. If he had information to the contrary, then he should give it freely, or he'll find himself under arrest."

"I would remind you, Colonel, that all evidence against Mr. Rasmussen is purely speculative, in regards to the murder in question," said Angie with an almost physical reluctance. "His past crimes are minor in comparison, and completely unrelated, and you have no proof that his prototype transporter was used in the murder of Ms. Bird."

Brown lightly tapped Kostopoulos' shoulder and nodded to the door. "Excuse us a moment," he said to Angie.

Once alone in the corridor, Kostopoulos gave him an incredulous look.

"You're not seriously considering that deal, are you, Commander?"

He sighed. "We don't have much else to go on. And there's a deadline looming. We don't have to accept the exact terms, but we need all the help we can get."

Kostopoulos was still tense, but relented. "You're the lead on this. Shouldn't we run it by Commodore North first though?"

Brown didn't fancy the idea of adding any further delays. "I don't see why. I'm in charge of base security. You're the highest-ranking law enforcement officer here. It's purely our decision."

Kostopoulos gave a lopsided grin. She knew, as well as he did, that it was shaky logic, but she nodded. They could deal with the fallout later.

When they returned to their seats in the interview room, Brown spoke first.

"Here are the terms we are prepared to accept: In exchange for his information, and only if said information leads us to the killer, we are willing to let Mr. Rasmussen go free in spite of his past crimes. We do not have the power to expunge his full criminal record, so this is as good as it gets. Also, any crimes he commits between now and leaving the planet will be a different matter.

"We'll also need to keep him detained until we can verify if his information is accurate."

"One moment, Commander," said Angie. She and Rasmussen leaned away and spoke in soft whispers to each other.

"Mr. Rasmussen is prepared to accept those terms," said Angie a moment later, "with one alteration: If his information is accurate, he is to go free regardless of whether or not said information leads to the capture of the genuine killer.

"Mr. Rasmussen has no way of knowing who the killer is, only that his information raises suspicions on another party, therefore it would be unreasonable to expect such insight from him."

Brown exhaled slowly. "Fine. Agreed." The interviews were recorded, and they all knew this would constitute a verbal contract. "Now, spill."

Angie looked to Rasmussen and nodded. The scrawny conman broke his silence.

"You couldn't find my transporter prototype because it doesn't exist."

Brown scowled. "I saw you use it at the expo."

Rasmussen smirked. "You ever hear of the Mechanical Turk?"

"We don't have time for games," Brown said loudly.

Rasmussen was unintimated. "The Turk was an eighteenth century 'automaton' that could play chess. It astounded crowds across Europe - a man-machine that could think and move of its own accord! Of course, it turned out to be a fraud. There was a person inside, watching the game and manipulating the machinery as needed. But I always thought the scam itself was ingenious."

Growing impatient, Brown shrugged. "So, what? You're saying your site-to-site transporter was just smoke and mirrors?"

Rasmussen bobbed his head from side to side. "Eh, pretty much. You remember the podiums I used in my demonstration? I beamed the apple from one podium to the other?"

Brown nodded.

"If your engineers examine those podiums, they'll find holo-projectors inside. The apple, as well as the STST prototype, were merely holographic illusions all along." Rasmussen beamed, proud of his deception.

Brown sat back and rubbed his temples. "That's why we couldn't find the prototype…"

"It's also why I couldn't possibly have beamed anything into Ms. Bird's heart," Rasmussen added. "And you were wrong: She didn't confront me. She just kept asking questions about the STST, and I gave her the usual spiel and deflections. She probably would have figured it out eventually, but I thought I might be able to wrangle something out of her company first."

Rasmussen held up a hand to cut off any protests. "But, I appreciate that there's no proof of that. Except, of course, for the fact that I could easily have left the base well before Ms. Bird's body was found."

This scratched at an itch in Brown's mind. Departure logs showed that, in fact, no one had left the base since before Bird's murder. Why would the killer stick around? Were they planning to strike again, just like on Mars and Heliopolis?

He came back to the situation at hand.

"Alright. You said you also had information that would incriminate someone else?"

Rasmussen leaned forward conspiratorially.

"When I arrived for my meeting with Ms. Bird… that Vulcan-looking girl was leaving Bird's quarters…"

"T'Ves?" Brown said.

Rasmussen nodded. "She was in tears. Something had broken that cold, logical exterior.

"And Reena Bird was apologising to her."

Brown and Kostopoulos now shared a look of wary determination.

They needed to speak with T'Ves again.