Chapter 23 – En Passant
Samsara's first several thoughts after the onset of panic proved useless, so she suppressed her instinct to analyze every angle of the situation until she could have another cup of tea. Though it could not calm her down completely, the smell and taste of hot peppermint eased her mind just enough to allow her to focus again, and focus was important to her if she was to have any chance of finding the rational way to respond to the new turn of events.
She reviewed what she knew. Jinling was gone. She had apparently gone in a hurry, as she did not even leave a note saying where she would be. That in itself would not be anything out of the ordinary if it did not appear that someone had stolen Samsara's gun from her desk, her computer may have been used without her permission, and Nimzovich had sent a threatening letter claiming to be coming for her. All told, things looked grim.
When she finished her tea, Samsara began to pace back and forth across the floor of the main room of the apartment. Pacing helped her think, or so she thought. If nothing else, it gave her frustration some outlet, freeing the rest of her mind to concentrate on her problems. Some of her best ideas had come to her while pacing.
The best she could come up with now, though, was to sit down and approach the problem methodically, and to Samsara that meant writing down everything she knew on a scrap of paper and looking for some common thread among the different parts. Fetching a few loose leaf sheets from her bedroom and a pencil from the pencil cup on the counter next to the microwave, she sat down at the dining table and scratched a barely legible title to her page: "Problem: Missing Jinling."
Underneath, she wrote down all of the clues she had: the letter, the computer issues, the missing weapon, the timing of her conference, and her scant knowledge of Nimzovich. After a brief pause, she drew a line between Jinling's name and the computer section.
Only Jinling would have the guts to break into her computer right in the middle of her apartment, right? She could understand someone else attempting to do so, but why would that happen locally? If Nimzovich had wanted to steal data on her projects, he would have attempted to access them remotely, and surely he never would have figured out her password system. Jinling might have.
Another moment and another thought passed, and Samsara drew another line between "computer issues" and "Nimzovich's letter." Why else would Jinling have been so careless as to let her break-in be discovered? Clearly, she left in a hurry, forgetting to shut the computer down properly, or perhaps intentionally leaving a clue indicate to her that something was wrong. That would mean someone unwelcome had been around, likely Nimzovich himself, and the visit had scared Jinling enough to raise the possibility in her mind that she would not be coming back. Soon, Samsara corrected herself. Jinling would not be coming back soon. But she would surely return eventually. Everything would work out in the end.
Samsara drew another line between the letter and the gun, and then another between the gun and Jinling. Had Nimzovich visited the apartment and had Jinling not trusted him, surely she would have thought to arm herself! While she knew something was amiss, explaining why she was careless with the computer, that also means she had time to think and to act on her thinking. And if she knew she was in danger, then she would have known better than to be unarmed.
This line of thought comforted Samsara somewhat. Yes, her friend was completely unaccounted for, and yes, she had been missing long enough for the situation to be suspicious, but Jinling was anything but a helpless damsel! She could handle herself in an emergency, and no matter what life threw at her, she could be confident that Jinling could outwit whoever her opponent might be. Even Nimzovich, as renowned as he might think he was in his field, would meet his match if he dared oppose someone approaching the heights of genius normally reserved for the Ashtears.
But something was still wrong. While Samsara's reconstruction of the scene fit fairly well with most of the clues she had uncovered, one question, one very important question, remained unanswered: why was Jinling gone? Two questions, maybe. Where did she go? Or could those be dissolved into one question? Samsara shook her head and tried to concentrate on forming an answer rather than reformulating the question. Why, with no sign of a struggle but definite signs of danger, would Jinling have left? Could it have something to do with why Nimzovich came in the first place?
"To test the prototype," Samsara recited, recalling the letter from Nimzovich. Which one, she wondered. Nimzovich was into robotics, after all, and she herself had made a few advances in the field that might have piqued his interest enough to cause him to drop by. His letter, however, indicated someone else's work. Jinling's, of course, and she only worked on…
Samsara jumped up from her seat and ran to her room to throw on whatever day clothes she could find, which turned out to be her black jogging shorts, a heavy brown long-sleeved undershirt, a lighter tunic with a solid leather belt to which she clipped a waist pack full of incidental travel items, a pair of sturdy leather boots, a protective helmet with a radio earpiece built into the side, and her work satchel. Not wanting to go defenseless, and with her gun stolen, she dug her work hammer out of her closet and slipped it into her satchel. Dressed, armed, and ready for action, Samsara made her way outside and ran to the subway.
On the way to her lab, she listened to her radio.
XXX
This is an EpicNews Radio Edition special report.
We are now receiving reports that management of the Chronos Dome has changed. A longstanding charge of corruption has come to light regarding Mayor Logan Kimble. The Mayor had been receiving bribes from interest groups looking to control a portion of the city budget, including money, cars, real estate, and company stock. Investigation into this scandal has been ongoing for several months, unbeknownst to the Mayor. When confronted with the charges this morning and the mounting evidence against him, he resigned, somewhat mysteriously. Historical precedent has been for besieged elected officials to fight charges like these, so some have been calling for a more detailed investigation into just what would prompt an immediate resignation.
An interim executive officer has been chosen from the City Council and will be instated immediately into the position of Acting Mayor until a more permanent selection can be made. Citizens are urged to treat the Acting Mayor as a full-ranking public official with all the authority normally reserved for an elected Mayor.
The new Acting Mayor is Councilman Fredrick Vanderkam, of the university district. Vanderkam, a former computer science student at Balthasar University, has vowed to run a mayoral office clean of all corruption and decadence. He will be giving his first press conference at 10:00 this morning. Stay with EpicNews Radio Edition for a live broadcast of the new Acting Mayor's first address to the Chronos Dome.
Again, Mayor Kimble has resigned and replaced by Acting Mayor Fredrick Vanderkam. This has been a special report of EpicNews Radio Edition. Further bulletins as events warrant.
XXX
Politics bored Samsara even at the best of times. The reports of the scandal at City Hall did little to draw her mind away from the more immediate concern of whether or not Nimzovich had somehow gotten into her laboratory. City officials and corruption charges had been in the news for as long as she could remember, and they had never affected her before, so why should the latest newsflash have any relevance for her now, other than as a distraction?
Samsara chided herself for letting her mind wander, and she practically jumped off the subway as soon as she reached her destination. She emerged into the hubbub of a district amidst upheaval. News of the new management in the local government had apparently spread to the throngs of students who frequented the district for its coffee shops and entertainment venues, and a few of them had started an impromptu protest against either the old mayor or the new acting mayor. Samsara actually could not tell which; all that was obvious from observing the rioting students was that they were angry at someone in government, or perhaps at everyone in government, or perhaps at the institution of government itself, and they were taking their anger out on the poor ears of anyone within shouting distance. A few members of the police force held the larger clusters of students at bay with clear plastic shields and robotic police drone robots, so the area never really descended into total chaos. What instability there was still worried Samsara enough that she quickened her pace in an attempt to get to her lab as soon as she could.
She did not make it all the way before she was stopped by a protester shoving a hastily printed leaflet in her face and demanding to know why she had not joined the students.
"Acting Mayor Vanderkam is a crook and a liar!" he shouted at Samsara.
Resisting the urge to retort that everyone at City Hall is likely a crook and a liar to some degree or other, Samsara ignored him and tried to walk past. The protester, looking a bit hurt by her indifference, stepped in front of her and threw another leaflet at her head, apparently expecting her to catch it or read it as it fell to the ground.
"Wherever you are going is not as important as what we are doing here!" he insisted. "Did you know that Vanderkam never graduated from college, despite claiming to? He never offered proof of his diploma even when confronted. Some of our sources even suspect he never even provided valid residency documentation. Doesn't that concern you, or are you not a concerned citizen?"
Samsara tried again, in vain, to get around the protester, and again he blocked her.
"This is only the first step to complete ruin for the city we know and love. Please, listen and get involved. It's our only chance!"
Samsara sighed and stopped moving. "Look," she said, "I am in a hurry to meet my friend, and I do not wish to keep her waiting. Although I seriously doubt today's news will affect me at all, I will take one of your leaflets if you will just let me pass. Please?"
The protester thought this over for a second, then he smiled and nodded, handing her a slip of pink paper with a political screed printed on it. "Here you go, young lady. I hope you take the time to read it. I really do. This is a more serious matter than you seem to think it is, and we can only win this fight by changing one mind at a time."
Samsara snorted. "I'm sure that's completely true and not at all biased in favor of your preferred political party. Now, would you please let me pass so I can go to work?"
"Work? You said you were going to see a friend!"
"I'm going to see a friend at work. We work together."
The protester had no response for this, so Samsara stuffed the leaflet into her satchel, stepped around the dumbfounded guy, and hurried off before she could be bothered by anyone else on her way.
When she finally arrived at her building, she dug her card out and ran it through the scanner, and she hurried through the laboratory door. Inside, she flipped on the light and looked around. Her heart sank.
The room was nearly the same as it usually was after a workless weekend, but for two key differences. One was a puddle of what looked like dried blood in the middle of the floor near the front door. The other was the timeship Golden Days, which was missing.
Samsara fought back the urge to curse out loud. Instead, she stomped her right foot as hard as she could against the cement floor, her boot making a clapping sound that reverberated throughout the room. Her anger not mollified, she reached into her bag, pulled out her hammer, and smashed it against the nearest wall, repeatedly, until the recoil made her hands numb and she dropped the hammer to the floor.
Sinking to her knees, she huffed and puffed and spat a few unladylike phrases into the gloomy emptiness around her until she finally caught her breath.
What now? she asked herself.