“Thirty blocks, the entire regional section had no monitoring or cameras?” Drick took a deep intake of breath and let it out quickly, “that’s a heck of a lot. Was there a power disruption?”
“Not in that area last night. We had a couple of small outages on the fringes, but you always get them there, mostly the corps penalising people for late payment. But Yee On Kline is a central sector. Power stays steady for the wealthy, even if it is the lower levels that are affected.”
“So what’s the reason for the lack of monitoring?”
“There hasn’t been one given as yet,” Hooper read some script from their eye once more, “looks like a request has been placed for all information and the bots are doing a standard search across businesses and vehicles to see if any of them have footage. But nothing yet.”
“Did you get the bots to check the vehicle auto-upload, most of the fleet vehicles have tracking on central servers.”
“Wow, you know, we never thought of that even though it has been a standard practice for half a millennia. Sure we did. But the system was down for the whole area and that includes all the relays.”
“That’s might odd, or is it mighty convenient.”
“Smells like trouble to me. I told you to drop this one. Too many complications.”
“Sure, can I get a copy of the witnesses, you must have some of those. Also maybe a list of any vehicles that went in or out of the same area as the reported collisions, say thirty minutes either side of them.”
“Sure, you want anything else? A nice meal, a personal servant to wash dishes, do the laundry and clean your backside, maybe?”
“That’d be nice, save me the effort. So can you get me those or do you want me to beg?”
“I can get them, I just don’t know why I should. You know this is looking to be a heap of effort for likely little to no reward.”
“Yeah. I know. But there is something about this that makes me interested. I guess I can never resist intrigue. Do Yee On Kline control the power and services in that district?”
“Yes, but not directly. The monitoring, cameras and traffic control are managed by Volstron Services, but they are almost completely owned by a hedge fund which is a Yee On Kline managed organisation, they are principle share holders.”
“Well Volstron Services might be able to tell me a little more about why the monitoring system was down. I assume you’ll bounce that list onto my personal net?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“And I want the K tag, Marsh, assigned to me for full investigation, I will fire the paperwork to Krennar. Make sure you inform your enlightened superiors so they don’t move Marsh to someone else. I want them here and I want to be informed of any questions, investigations or analysis related to them.”
“Damn, Krennar, really? You still working with that bloodthirsty critter? Okay, I have already had the K tag assigned to you and placed in holding, I will make sure your leech gets whatever access they need.”
“Thanks Hooper, I owe you. Oh, and throw me that triple death I will do it on my way off base. No sense in not earning a little credit.” Drick started moving towards the exit that led to the shuttle lounge, “Rack up a few on my tab at the Tanz.” Drick smiled and flicked a three fingered salute, “later Hooper,” they said walking through the doorway.
