Demon's Revenge (High Demon 5)

"Did they pick up Maris' comp-vid when the investigation was done?" Ry asked as we listened to one of Maris' coworkers say that Lethia, Maris' sister, had talked constantly about a vacation to Stellar Winds. In business for fifteen years, Stellar Winds was a social planetoid where singles could meet other singles and young couples could go to party. Mostly that's what it was—one continuous party.

The planetoid held one large city, with every business constantly serving drinks. Nothing ever closed, there, and if you weren't drinking, you could lounge around a pool at your hotel, get massages, book a mate-finding class, sign up to meet others with mutual interests or play any number of popular games, physical or mental. Everybody knew, though, that Stellar Winds was the place to go if you were looking for sex.

Brothels aboppsBrothelunded across Stellar Winds, catering to any whim. Elegant dining was also offered there and many of the best master cooks now worked for restaurants on Stellar Winds. They were paid outrageous amounts for their work, too. Fes had lost two assistants and Radolf one that way.

"Wonder why her sister didn't go to Stellar Winds with her," Ry muttered as we listened to the secretary prattle on about Maris and Lethia.

"Maris' records say that she had a lover," I offered, still listening to the interview. "He was interviewed, too, and he said that he couldn't believe that Maris would do anything like this. He said that Lethia was Maris' best friend and confidant, besides being her sister."

"So, nothing in the records about the laser pistol used?"

"Not much. No identifying numbers or anything. It looked to be contraband from the old Campiaan Alliance." That's how everybody referred to it, now. There was the Campiaan Alliance, the one Teeg formed twenty-five years earlier, and the old Campiaan Alliance, referring to the scattering of nearly lawless worlds where strength and power ruled by force.

Plenty of older weapons found their way into both the Campiaan and Reth Alliances from many of those worlds. The ASD and CSD both worked toward eliminating them, but there was still plenty to be had if you had the right connections and the proper amount of non-identifying credits. The trouble was, Maris had neither of those things. Not that anyone knew of, anyway.

"And Maris' lover worked for?" Ry was prompting me.

"He's in lower-level management at one of Schuul Enterprises' many small electronics plants. I think they make sensors for home security alarms. He's so clean he squeaks when he walks, Mr. Faldin Bierla is."

The truth was, nearly half of Quezlos' population worked for some subsidiary of Schuul Enterprises or other. Quezlos, as the capital city of Surnath, boasted a teeming population of fifteen million. High rises rose far into the sky, filled with living quarters or multitudes of businesses. The largest and tallest, of course, belonged exclusively to Schuul Enterprises and all their business operations were located there.

On the recorded vid, Bel's questioning was thorough, and he didn't look much different from the last time I'd seen him. Mandil's population lived around two hundred twenty years, but their wizards lived around five times that long. Something about the power they held did that for them. Bel, according to the records, was barely three hundred. He had many turns left, if he still lived. I found myself sighing and worrying for my old friend again as I watched him on the vid.

I rushed to brush my teeth before we went out the door to visit Pripps Electronics. Nirif greeted us, and this time it was my turn to exude charm as much as I could, although I didn't have Ry's talent for it. Nirif didn't seem to mind, he wanted to fawn anyway. He was such a sweet young man, I didn't mind. And now he was fatherless and that got him an extra bit of sympathy. He also had a vid copy of the interviews Bel had done. I wanted to hug him for that.

Nirif produced vid-images of Jaske, too, something the legal firm hadn’t done for us. Jaske worked as a supervisor on the assembly line. Mostly he supervised the employees who monitored assembly robots, and those employees were the ones he'd killed. Nirif was correct; Jaske had nearly wiped out the entire day shift that Pripps employed. Ry and I questioned the employees again, asking for any additional information. We got a bit more, just as we'd done at Abinger's Legal Firmours Legal.

"Here, the owner wanted to give these to you, they're prototypes of something we're developing," Nirif smiled and handed two packages to Ry and me.

"What's this?" I smiled at Nirif. I hadn't expected a gift.

"We're trying our hand at comp-vids," he said. "We're not ready to compete with Schuul, don’t worry about that," he smiled. He'd seen Ry's and my comp-vids already. He knew who'd made them. "These are geared toward the ones who like to play games. The software helps with puzzles and such." He tapped the box I held in my hand. Schuul comp-vids were capable of loading any game imaginable, but none of them helped with the puzzles and such. You had to figure that out for yourself or buy additional programming that helped a little.

"Thanks," I said, waving at Nirif as we walked out the door. Ry and I slipped the information chip into our reader as soon as we made it back to our hotel, and settled in to watch as Bel interviewed Pripps employees. Turns out Jaske's mother worked for Schuul Enterprises. Still not a surprise. I was surprised that more of the employees didn't have a spouse or sibling working for Dantel Schuul in some capacity.

"Want to interview Maris' lover and Jaske's mother tomorrow?" Ry sighed as we shut off the comp-vid-images later. It was long past dinner and we'd have to find something to eat somewhere. Neither of us wanted sandwiches again.

"Sure. Bel talked to both of them, I know," I nodded. "Feel like that meal I promised to cook for you? I haven't gotten good fish in a long time."

"Where are you cooking?" Ry asked.

"How about going to Dee's? We can eat in the kitchen. If Radolf complains, I think I can take him." Ry grinned at me and folded us to Dee's.

"Reah, what's this I hear that you left Kifirin for good?" Radolf was hovering. He was still my mate, he just didn't feel up to having sex with a female and probably wouldn't for the next ninety-odd turns. Ilvan had come for a day off and was helping Radolf around the kitchen.

"You heard correctly," I said, pulling yaris fish from Radolf's industrial fridge and setting about preparing it for Ry and me.

"Are you sure that's wise, cutting yourself off like that?" Radolf fretted. I didn't point out that he'd done the same thing when he'd renounced his Karathian citizenship, just as Ry and I had.