Untouchable (LGBT - SciFi - Romance)

Chapter 30

Private Jae Lee went in search of Max Lang and found him in the infirmary, having his head injury checked out. Luckily, it appeared that although being kidnapped was hardly to be recommended, at least no further damage had been done. He was just refastening his uniform, having being given the all clear, when Lee arrived. Lee let his gaze drop to the vanishing glimpse of bare chest and wished he had arrived a few moments earlier. He watched as Lang jumped smoothly down from the examination table and looked enquiringly at him.

"Got time for a cup of coffee?" asked Lee with a friendly smile. He was fairly certain Lang was an om, after all he'd seen him kiss Alan Stewart with his own eyes, but he wanted to check out his relationship with the Lieutenant before he made any move. Although he was attracted by Max, had been highly amused by the cheeky kiss he had dared to plant on the Lieutenant, the last thing he wanted was to cause any trouble on his new ship.

Max took a second look at the young man in front of him. He was the one who had been with Alan when he rescued them. He had a smooth black cap of hair and his evidently Asian heritage had given his eyes an unusual almond shape, rather exotic. He was definitely not his usual type, being considerably shorter than himself and of slight build, but he liked his smile, it reached all the way to his eyes. Maybe it was time to diversify. He smiled back, "Sure."

XXX

Robin Lang was on his way to Capella. Not only did he want to see for himself that Max had safely survived the kidnap attempt, but he had an appointment to keep with Captain Martinez.

When Max had been kidnapped, he had called Martinez. He had made a full disclosure, told him what had really happened the night he found the tall man's body at the Sahara, or at least, what had happened from the point of their meeting onwards, the information he had forced out of him, even the fact that he had shot him with his stunner and accidently killed him. But he hadn't said anything about their personal history, simply implying that they had met by chance, that he had been hanging out in the Club in the hope the other man would return there.

Captain Martinez had found himself in a difficult situation. Not only was Captain Lang of equal rank in the patrol, but he was the Chief of Police of Huan and about ten years older. He had bitten his tongue and counted to ten before responding to the confession. His first reaction, 'What the fuck did you think you were doing?' would hardly be diplomatic.

Instead he responded reasonably, he thought, asking, "How could he be expected to do his job if half the facts were kept from him? Surely Captain Lang, as a fellow law enforcer should have been the first to realise that?"

At the time, he had simply taken down the key points from him, on the understanding that Captain Lang would come and see him personally to make a full statement as soon as was feasible. Then he had received the call from the Qatar about the nanobots in Michael Banner's body and everything had taken off. It was only later, when the kidnappers had been captured and the victims rescued, that he had time to reflect on what Lang had told him. It hadn't taken him long to see the holes in Lang's story. He sat wondering whether he needed to refer the case to Headquarters, to Colonel Young or another senior officer. In the end he decided to talk to Lang first, he could always call for assistance later if he decided he needed it.

Capella housed two branches of the patrol. One was the Aurigan Space Patrol Command Centre, more commonly referred to as Patrol Headquarters, the overseeing body for all law enforcement in the Aurigan system. This was the organisation which co-ordinated interstellar crime fighting and also acted as the internal monitor for the behaviour of the Patrol itself. Additionally, the building was home to the local branch of the Patrol, responsible for law and order on Capella station. Captain Martinez was currently the officer in charge of the local office.

Lieutenant Stewart arranged for the nine prisoners from the space yacht to be transported to Patrol HQ in two separate groups. Considering the attempt that had been already been made to kill them by blowing up their ship, he was more than half expecting another attack and arranged for extra guards from Capella to meet them at the Qatar. The men were loaded into two hovervans, usually used to transport trade goods, and took different routes to their destination. Stewart accompanied Ser Fanshaw personally in a plain looking hovercar, with Asimov and Hussein from the Qatar as backup in case of trouble.

Perhaps the news that everyone had been rescued from the yacht had not yet reached Pearce, but in any case, the prisoners reached Patrol Headquarters without incident. Martinez was quick to put each man in a separate booth with an officer to record as much information as they could get. He was hopeful that, knowing they had been targeted by their employer would encourage most of the men to be more forthcoming, destroy any loyalty they might have felt. Costa had already applied to be a Patrol witness and he thought one or two of the other men might take the same path.

Unfortunately, none of them knew very much about their employer, most having been recruited by Costa for this particular job. Costa knew a little more but perhaps the most interesting thing was what he told them about Bari Fanshaw.

"Was Ser Fanshaw involved in the kidnapping?" Martinez asked.

"You're kidding! Fanshaw? He's hardly a man of action! Spends all his time in front of a console. No, he wasn't part of the kidnapping, he was just along for the ride. Mr Pearce asked us to take him along, make it look like a genuine trip."

"Why Fanshaw?" Martinez was curious.

"He works for him." Costa explained, then added, almost as a throw-away line, "As an accountant I mean. At the time, I thought it was some sort of payoff, you know, a reward for services rendered!" He laughed harshly. "I guess it was at that! Just not quite the reward he would have been expecting!"

Suddenly, the whole event took a twist. Perhaps eliminating Fanshaw had been the main purpose behind the attempted explosion. Lang and Banner just an extra bonus to re-establish Pearce's reputation for winning at all costs, and to intimidate Captain Lang, punish him for resisting.

Martinez decided it was time to talk to Colonel Young.