The Body

Cathay    

Solaris City

Solaris VII

10 April 3061 

                    At least it wasn't raining. That was a change. Detective Nicky Vale walked down the cold alley that had been roped off by Cathay regional police. Ordinarily a body in Cathay wouldn't be in her jurisdiction, so she was confused when she got the call that there was a murder scene she needed to attend. The morning dew and a low fog did not add to the appeal of the location. 

                    She made her way past several uniformed Cathay Police officers, and spotted the body where the forensics team from the Solaris City Police Department were gathered. She glanced over the scene and spotted what appeared to be the Cathay detective on the scene. She made her way over to the man, an older man she judged to be probably in his fifties, with thinning hair and drinking a cup of coffee.

                    "Detective Nicky Vale, SCPD. You guys tossed this one our way?"

                    The man took a long sip of his coffee before answering. "Captain Miles Chang, Cathay PD. We wouldn't normally call you guys for something like this, but the victim's ID says he's a MechWarrior. Gaming stuff goes to you guys."

                    Nicky frowned. Ordinarily, a murder in Cathay would be handled by the Cathay Police, but for some unknown reason, these guys were looking to pawn the body off onto her and her Solaris City Police Department crew. It must have been her lucky day. She didn't particularly want the case, but it had been thrown her way, and now she would have to deal with it. 

                    "What are the details?"

                    Again, Captain Chang took a long sip of his coffee before answering. "The victim is one Mitchell Avellar. A small time freelance MechWarrior who was on the payroll of some subsidiary of Ceres Arms. Apparently he was some kind of test pilot or something for them. No record of note, no ties to any of the major organized crime syndicates or anything like that. Just a MechJock getting a paycheck from a corp running their tests here at the games. Took two slugs to the back of the head. Nothing on him but his ID, a few L-bills, and a set of keys. No phone or noteputer that we found."

                    "I assume no witnesses?"

                    "Correct. Nobody saw or reported anything last night when he got whacked. It was only this morning that the body was discovered and they called us. Not much to go on. It's a clean kill. Probably professional, but nothing that sets off any alarms or anything. The guy probably just saw the wrong thing or said the wrong thing to the wrong people, became a liability, and that was that. I don't see any other angle here."

                    It made sense. There was nothing to indicate that the MechWarrior was into any kind of drugs or crime. She pulled up his bio on her phone, and as the Captain had said, there were no red flags. He was a native Solaran who had fought mostly in the Reaches, nothing bigtime. He had no next of kin listed, didn't seem to be in a relationship of any kind. Everything was a dead end.

                    Just her luck that Nicky got stuck with this case. There really was little to go on. She would have to interview the employers, see what kind of vibes they gave off, but that was about all she could come up with. 

                    She made her way over to the body, and confirmed details with the forensics team. Everything seemed to be in order. There were few physical clues. The man had been shot twice, there were apparently no shell casings, so the perpetrator had cleaned up after themselves. 

                    She mad her way to the corporate headquarters of Red Dragon Industries, a Solaris subsidiary of Ceres Arms. These guys were small time, nothing like the full on corporation. They were obviously doing some work under the radar. 

                    She was ushered into the office of a Teng Shen, the head of Red Dragon. The office was small and was decorated in traditional Capellen style. The two security guards who had ushered her to the office vanished, leaving her alone with Shen.

                    "What can I do for you, detective?"

                    "We found the body of one of your employees murdered in an alley down in the lower quarter. A mister Mitchell Avellar."

                    Shen nodded. "Yes, he was one of our test pilots that ran matches in the Reaches arenas mostly. Very sad news."

                    "Was he working on anything that potentially could have gotten him killed?"

                    "Shen waved his hand dismissively. "He was working on a project of ours, sensitive corporate trade secrets, you understand. But he was simply a test pilot, he was not knowledgeable in any area of research or anything that would compromise him to a competitor or a foreign agent. I can't see his death being in any way connected with his work. Perhaps something in his personal life?"

                    "Perhaps. I'll have to dig into that. I'll need access to his personnel file."

                    "Of course. We will provide you with any details that you need. We wish to see his killer brought to justice, and will assist in any way that we can. I will have the appropriate files transferred to your office by the end of the day. Is there anything else that we may provide to help you in your cause?"

                    She nodded. "If I think of anything, I'll let you know. Thank you for your cooperation Mister Shen."

                    True to his word, Shen had the personnel files transferred to the SCPD before the day was done. Just as he had said, there was nothing alarming in the man's file that would set off any red flags. The file was likely to be a dead end. 

                    But someone had killed him, and they had a reason for doing so. She couldn't see it at the moment, but she would do her best to uncover it. She had never worked around the games before on a case, so this was uncharted territory. 

                    Without any obvious signs of espionage involved, she would have to build a picture from the ground up. Step one would be to interview whoever replaced Avellar at his job. Jobs fighting in the games were a limited quantity, and the next man up had as good a motive as any from where she stood. She dug around the gaming circuit news to find the name of the MechJock that replaced Avellar in whatever his next fight was. It turned out that the fight was an Urbie Derby out in the reaches, and his replacement was a green behind the ears nobody on the gaming world. It was as good a place to start as any. The MechWarrior was a Liao citizen named Lin Ming. Nicky would have to have a crack at her.