The Last Case

Epilogue

So I missed the shuttle back to Earth.

Also, as it turns out, the shift in public opinion moves heavily back into a person’s favor if they save a kidnapped kid. Suddenly, what was an airtight suspension and deportation was turned into a simple slap on the wrist. I actually had mixed feelings about that. There’s something to be said for getting your flaws dramatically thrust into your face. It changed the way I view myself. I had resigned myself to punishment, and then in a matter of just a few days, it was all dissolved. Manish Arke, I’m sure, was partly responsible for that, though it was never confirmed.

I was back on duty, but I stayed away from the big cases for a few months. I needed some time to reboot. My apartment remained unpacked for a while. I thought that at any second the powers that be might change their mind and send me on my way. They didn’t, and eventually the boxes started to empty. My bedroom messed itself up again. The fridge started to fill back up with the essentials. And life slowly went back to normal.

Lead Inspector Nouvelle Seznec became Captain Seznec. As a boss, she was tough and fair. Greyson had high standards, but Nouvelle took that to a whole new level. The Hale Central Police was a for profit business, and under Nouvelle’s hand she was determined to make the force flourish.

Manish’s identity remained a secret, but word spread across the wire that the CEO of Mako Robotics decided to pass the torch onto another anonymous person. When a large company changes hands, even though no one knows exactly whose hands are involved, it is always big news. Maybe he was concerned that Cal Overhan might make his identity known. Or maybe he was just tired of the secrecy in general. He had a long term as CEO, but when it was time to go, it all moved very quickly.

I did explain to him the reasoning behind Cal’s plotting and he showed some remorse regarding the acquisition of the Nezler Corporation. Wei Nezler’s process, the Tetraxymine, was dangerous according to Manish. He saw the potential. It was hard not to see the potential. But he didn’t like the future that he saw in Nezler’s greedy eyes. He’d never had much trust for someone who was looking to create eternal life, which he thought was at the base of all of the talk of curing all disease and weeding out genetic imperfections. He buried the research, removed funding, and since Mako owned the patent for Teraxymine, he made sure no one else would ever have access to it. What he didn’t know, was that Cal and Wei had anything other than a working relationship. Cal was too under the radar when the company was acquired that the information was fully redacted by the time he began to rise in the legal division of Mako.

Manish, the public version, apparently decided that Mars might not be the best place to raise his family. He left for Earth three months after I brought his son back to him. I never heard from him again.

The Arke family was gone for only two days when there was a buzzing at my door. It was my day off and I wasn’t expecting company. I walked up to the door and slid it open. Lucy, fully reconstructed, and looking like nothing had happened to her. I wondered if she was patched together, or if it was an entirely new body.

“Inspector Rook,” said Lucy. “Manish left me behind.”

“Why do you suppose he did that?” I asked.

“Because he thought you could use my help.”

She was right. I didn’t know it at that point, but the Arke kidnapping was the last case before things in Hale started to get interesting.