The Last Martians

Vigilante Justice Part 14

Linda's plan was working better than she could ever hope for. The women wanted a suspect, and they found it easy to believe a male terrorist organisation was behind the assassination of the Foster sisters. Petra, as the new commander of the secret police, now called the Wasps, personally led the investigation. She chose Christie to assist her. The young woman had very little investigative experience, so Petra did not expect she would identify anything of importance. But the young blonde was out to prove herself. When they arrived at the Foster sister's dome, she immediately went to the retina reader. Petra allowed her to do this, hoping she would find the retina file she planted in the memory. But the young investigator did not jump to conclusions when she found the six retina data files. She double checked all six saved data files with the city's database and quickly eliminated the data of the three sisters, the police override retina file and the retina file of the housekeeper who found the bodies. After identifying the sixth retina data file as that of Albert Klopper, she noted down his current address. But something did not make sense to her. Somebody wiped the history of people entering the dome.

'Commander.'

'Yes.'

'Something is wrong. I found the file of a man who should not have access to the dome.'

'Good. Find his address so we can arrest him.'

'I have, but something does not make sense.'

'What.'

'If he was the assassin, why did he delete the entry history, but not his retina file.'

'Perhaps he got spooked and had to leave before he could finish.'

'Yes, but he would not delete the history before deleting his retina file. Otherwise it would show up in the history and he would have to delete the history again.'

'He was obviously under stress and did not think clearly. He is our man. Get backup so we can arrest him.'

Christie was still not convinced, but she did not want to argue with her superior. While she contacted the secret police base, Petra contacted the news station, informing them of the imminent arrest. Twenty minutes later, twenty members of the Wasps and a news crew arrived at the dome where Albert Klopper stayed. The old scientist looked confused when he opened the door to find police officers and a news crew outside.

'May I help you?'

'Albert Klopper?' Petra had seen his picture on the city database, but asking him his name made this more dramatic for the live news coverage.

'Yes?' Albert was clearly stressing now.

'You are under arrest for the murder of The Three.'

One of the Wasps stepped forward and cuffed him before she took him back inside. The rest of the Wasps and the news crew followed them. Once inside, they cuffed the other three men staying there, before the officers searched the house. Petra waited patiently in the living room with the men and the news crew until her officers finished the search. All reported that they found nothing of interest.

'Have you checked their computer?'

The Foster sisters had supplied each dome where the two-hundred chosen men stayed with a computer, partly to keep them occupied, but mostly to spy on them. They ensured each computer had spyware installed, sending data back to the secret police. Petra had hacked into the computer earlier and had planted a folder with documents about the Alpha Dogs. The four men were relaxed until the officer scanning through the computer opened these documents. They looked at each other with suspicion. All four had heard about the Alpha Dogs on the news, and all four were now suspicious of the other three.