Penumbrials Ch. 02

Terry chuckled. 'I'm glad you know how to handle that thing so well.'

They boarded Diafanis and went on their way fast. Adalet sat back in her pilot's seat when they had reached altitude and set course to a quiet part of the country. 'Damn! I was hoping we had a new lead. And you were so sure about that Chuck, Terry.'

'I think I still am.' Terry said while she plugged a card reader into a spare tablet.

Adalet looked back. 'What do you mean?'

Terry held up a card the size of a thumbnail. 'He pushed this into my hand when he stood behind me in the café.' She slid the card in the reader and pulled up the contents on the tablet. 'There's a lot on this thing, and a text file in the root.'

She opened it and grinned. 'Listen to this. Hey Terry, when you read this you have escaped the trap as I expected. I had confidence you guys would be able to. I'm going to stay on the inside and see what's going on as long as I can. In the meantime you have here what information I said I had, and I included source code with instructions of the AI we're developing at the company. It's just a start and we don't have the hardware to take full advantage of it but I guess you do and can put it to good use. Good luck and I hope to see you again.'

'He tricked us all.' Adalet said.

'He was always good at that. And now he should have a better reputation among the bad guys.'

Dormin smiled a little. 'Good infiltration tactic.'

'He suggests to take a look at a firm on the feline world first. Some big trader.'

'All right. We'll disappear from this world for a bit to hide our trail.'

***

'What can you tell?' asked Dormin of Terry during the shift into the parallel Earth dimension where felines, canines, and birds became the dominant species.

'According to Chuck's info, the trader's name is Hummin Lefoy and he's the founder and sole owner of what's now named Dimtrade. It has always been a mediocre company, no great losses but no great profits either, until recently where it snatched lucrative deals in various goods ranging from kid's toys to specialised medical equipment. There still were minor failures and losses but they're insignificant to the profit the company made. Hummin said in a local news interview it was his good business sense with a little luck.'

'That made him suspicious?' Adalet asked from her pilot seat.

'Chuck overheard the name during a conversation between two managers of the company he works for now. He looked into it and the sudden unexplained rise in highly profitable deals was unnatural.'

Adalet hummed. 'No word on official inquiries?'

'Only one which wasn't mandatory but Hummin cooperated in full. Ismene is searching for anything related to the company and him.'

'How will we handle this?'

'We'll have to wait until Ismene comes up with something. In the meantime she found an industrial lot with a large enough hangar that's been unused for a long time. We can hide this ship in there and it's not too far outside the city.'

'Nice.' said Dormin. 'How about we pose as investees interested in exploiting the place?'

Terry supplied Ismene with a new search. 'I think it'll be a good cover and allow us to move around with a legitimate purpose. Ismene is searching on it.'

Dormin leaned back into his seat. 'See if you have some business books to brush up on our knowledge. I'm sure Adalet and you can pose easily as investees but make mine a book for dummies.'

Terry chuckled. 'All right.'

***

'Miss Alvarez?'

Adalet turned around towards the ginger feline female in black skirt suit. 'Elena Alvarez, yes.'

The feline extended her hand. 'Minous Petrese, Ginbank Real Estate. Pleased to meet you.'

Adalet shook her hand and gestured at Terry and Dormin. 'My partner Fatizza Vernont and our secretary Dominic Jones.'

Minous shook their hands. 'I'll give you a brief tour, and any questions I can't answer right away I'll make a note of to look up.'

Adalet smiled and nodded. 'Excellent.'

Minous unlocked the door to the walled in court and the small office building close to the entrance, guided them through the office and supplementary facilities, and ended inside the spacious hangar. Terry took a few photos. 'We noticed the property has been for sale for a long time. I figured it wouldn't take so long to sell.'

Minous's ears barely twitched down. 'There's been some interest before but unfortunately nothing ending in a sale.'

'Comparing it to other places we looked at, you also seem to ask a break even price.'

Minous's business smile faltered and she sighed. 'True. We were duped into buying this without confirmation on secondary costs that were due for this property. And if we don't sell quickly we'll have to sell it at a loss.'

Dormin hummed. 'No way to turn back the sale?'

She shook her head. 'Since everything's in the contract it'll be too long and costly to fight it in court.'

Adalet looked up at the roof. 'We'd like to have access for a while to let specialists and architects determine if and what kind of changes we'd need to make for using this as a manufacturing workshop.'

Minous nodded. 'No problem. I'll leave the keys with you and you can take your time in the next couple of weeks.'

Adalet smiled. 'Excellent again.'

***

'Ismene couldn't get much from infiltrating Dimtrade's network, just generic documents.' said Terry later after Ourania parked Diafanis inside the hangar. 'But it looks like there's a piece of the network puzzle missing. The server has had contact with more clients than there are visible on the network and it doesn't look like it's Hummin working from home.'

'Outside interference?' asked Dormin.

'Not the usual malicious kind.' Terry looked up from her tablet. 'I'd like to have a look around there to see if there aren't any disconnected devices being used.'

'How do you want to get in there?'

She stretched her fingers. 'I'm thinking old fashioned burglary. Their alarm system's old so it should pose no problem.'

Dormin chuckled. 'Only interesting hardware could be a problem.'

She grinned at him. 'But this time you're on my side.'

***

The area around the collection of one and two storey offices was quiet in the night. An occasional car passed on the main road at the edge of the office park and the only other sounds were of the insects and small animals living in the night and the soft hum from cooling equipment. Terry and Dormin made no sound as they approached the low building housing Dimtrade from the back. Dressed in black and keeping to the shadows, they went up to the backdoor where Terry used her lock picking skills to unlock it.

Silently they slipped inside and she hurried over to the beeping alarm terminal and popped off the numeric pad cover, attached several clips, and let her handheld run through the code combinations.

A few seconds later the alarm turned green and the beeping stopped. 'We're good.' she said.

'All right.' said Dormin. 'I'll take the left side, you the right.'

She nodded and they split up to search for possible hidden or disconnected computers.

Dormin noticed the lack of dust around one cardboard box at a bottom shelf in Hummin's office. He pulled the box marked spare parts from the shelf and emptied it of various cables, parts of chairs, and metal braces. The box felt too heavy as he lifted it and he noticed a small hole at the bottom. Using a bent piece of wire he lifted it to reveal a small laptop. 'I think I found it.' he said through his communicator.

Terry examined it after she came to him, pulled the drive from the laptop, plugged it into an adapter connected to her handheld, and waited for the decryption to quickly finish thanks to a flaw in the operating system used on the laptop. 'Looks like it indeed. A ledger and documentation about transfers of suspiciously innocent goods to companies that I know do illegal trade.'

'Copy?'

'Almost done.'

Dormin didn't like the feeling in his gut and peeked outside from the gap between window blinds and the window frame. The street seemed as empty as before but he was relieved to hear Terry say the copy was done. They returned everything exactly as they found it and hurried to the backdoor. Terry waited for Dormin's signal to activate the alarm again while he peeked outside. The street at the back seemed clear and he stepped outside. The gun aimed at his head by a grey feline with black stripes on her cheeks in matching dark grey skirt suit froze him on the spot. 'Step outside real slow.' she said. 'Both of you.'

***

'Where did they come from!?' Adalet said when uniformed felines gathered around the Dimtrade's office earlier and activated her communicator. 'Guys, you're surrounded!' The other side kept silent. 'Do you hear me!?'

Ourania checked her monitors. 'They've set up a radio block! We can't reach them!'

Adalet slapped her hand on the console. 'Shit!' When Dormin stepped outside and she had to watch the feline pointing her gun at him, she slapped her hand once more. 'Ah, shit!'

Ourania moved next to her. 'What do we do? Try to snatch them?'

Adalet leaned back hard in her chair. 'We can't do that. It'll only make things dangerous and we don't want local police forces on our tail.'

'Can't you do something as a detective?'

Adalet pondered. 'Maybe I can.'

***

The feline stepped self assured into the interrogation room and placed the laptop Terry and he had found on the steel table in front of him. 'Looking for this?' she said with a smirk.

Dormin looked at the laptop, then at her.

'You didn't break in there just to grab the snack fund jar or snatch a computer or two.' she said and stared hard at him. 'You were after something more valuable with your gadgets, and it coincidentally happened when we're about to dig deeper into the deals at Dimtrade.' She leaned forward on the table. 'You might as well tell us now who you work for since we'll find out anyway. Not many humans on our world and certainly not sneaking around at night. Easy to recognise by others here.'

Dormin looked at her and it took just a moment before she swayed her grey and black striped tail in irritation. He wondered how similar Earth cats and this feline species were in body language.

'Seems your friend's more cooperative and willing to make deal.'

This amused him and he smiled a little at her. 'That nonsense doesn't even hold up in a TV series.'

She straightened herself and folded her arms. 'Really? So you're an expert at this then. Mind telling me your name so I don't have to wait to look up your credentials in your human dimension?'

'I'll wait to see what you come up with.'

'Illegal trading in components for weapons and classified technology is a costly business. You'll be dragged along with the rest and looking at a long time in a small room with sparse furniture.'

Dormin leaned back in his chair. 'I'm a fan of simplistic lifestyle. No clutter, easy to keep clean.'

'You should have stayed clean from the start, then you wouldn't be here.' she said and took the laptop as she left.

***

Terry chuckled. 'Do I look like a nerd to you?' she said and gestured at the handheld and gadgets on the table. 'I just get this stuff and instructions on how to use them. Don't ask me to explain what all that hacking business is about.'

The feline held up the handheld. 'We found encrypted files on this. What's the password?'

Terry shrugged. 'How would I know?'

The feline sighed. 'You do realise prison is worse for women than men, right? And that you're facing a long sentence?' She tapped on the laptop. 'You'd better tell us what's on this thing and why they want it.'

Terry sat back and held up her cuffed hands. 'I don't know! They just ask me to do things and I do them!'

'Who does!?'

'People who ask for my help! I don't ask for their names, just their money!'

The feline stared at her, then took a deep breath and left with the laptop and gadgets.

***

'Fenia?' asked an officer as he leaned into the feline's office the next day. 'There's someone here to see you. A human detective.'

Fenia pricked up her ears. 'A human?'

He nodded. 'I left her at the water fountain.'

Fenia nodded. 'I'll be right over.'

Fenia stepped up to the woman in a suit with a similar shade of grey as hers and sipping from a cup while casually looking at the notices board. 'I'm detective Fenia Polasie.'

Adalet turned towards her and extended her hand. 'Francesca Peters, customs. Also detective.' Fenia shook her hand. 'You can probably guess now why I'm here.'

Fenia frowned. 'Don't tell me you want to take my suspects into custody with a warrant and leave me with nothing. Right now they're my biggest lead into finding out what's going on with that company and I'm not letting them out of my sight.'

Adalet chuckled. 'That's not what I had in mind, no. I know that kind of stunt all too well.' She held up a folder. 'I think we can help each other with our investigations. The name Dimtrade has been mentioned by someone working undercover for us and when I heard of a break-in I had to find out the details.'

Fenia smiled. 'Then I'm glad to see you. Follow me to my office.' she said but hesitated for a moment. 'Oh! We don't have coffee here as you humans seem to drink all the time, just water with various natural flavours.'

Adalet held up her cup. 'I already picked one that smelled a little bitter to get a hint of the real thing.'

***

'So, we meet again, mister Terence Miller.' Adalet said as she walked into the interrogation room.

Dormin smiled and leaned back in his seat. 'So it seems.'

'And as you can see now, denying who you are to the local force here is no use anymore. I told them the interesting history of Terence and his career in smuggling technology across borders and dimensions.' Adalet sat down in the chair across the table. 'We have Dimtrade's name in connection with a shipment that was not the kind of kid's computer toys as specified on the manifest. Care to shed some light on it?'

Dormin leaned forward. 'Why would I know something about that?'

Adalet smiled knowingly. 'Because every time there's something not quite right with shipments there seems to be accidents with documentation at the shipping companies. And your description comes up often.'

Dormin chuckled. 'I have a generic face.'

'But not so generic DNA.'

Dormin stared at Adalet.

'Once or twice at the scene might be called a coincidence, but more than that and it becomes a stretch to call it that. Judges get very suspicious of such odds.'

Dormin leaned back. 'You might want to look at who Dimtrade's dealing with and why they made such good deals lately. I'd be suspicious of the odds of a mediocre company suddenly raking in good profits, not some handyman who's just good at fixing things.'

Adalet stood up. 'We'll talk again later.' she said and left the room.

'Can you get access to their administration?' she asked of Fenia.

Fenia nodded. 'I'll get a warrant right away. I'll include possible tax fraud and national security risk to block any possible interference from their lawyers.'

Adalet smiled a little. 'Good. I think we can display a nice bit of teamwork between our worlds here.'

Fenia chuckled. 'Yes, I agree.'

***

'Can you make something out of it?' asked Adalet while Ourania examined Terry's gadget at Fenia's desk.

'I've only seen something like this once before, so I'm not sure. Can I speak to the one who used it?'

Adalet looked at Fenia. 'Can she?'

'If you think you can get more out of her, be my guest.' Fenia said and placed the call to bring Terry to the interrogation room.

Ourania looked a little nervous around the bare interrogation room which gave her cold shivers. She placed the gadgets on the table and sat down opposite of a smirking Terry.

'You don't look like a detective.' Terry said.

Ourania cleared her throat. 'I'm on the technical team, here to make sense of these things.' she said and held up one gadget. 'To disable the alarm, right?'

Terry nodded. 'Seems like it. It might even do your taxes as well but I wouldn't know about that.'

Ourania fiddled with another gadget. 'This, what does this do?'

Terry leaned forward for a moment to look at it. 'I don't know. I'm supposed to plug that into a computer until it either lights up an orange or green light, and that's it.'

Ourania looked at her. 'Infect it with a virus?'

Terry shrugged. 'Wasn't mentioned in the instructions. It could copy the whole company network for all I know.'

'How can it be accessed?'

'Plug it in?'

'I think they already tried that. Is there a password on it?'

Terry laughed. 'Looks like there is if you have to ask.' she said and grinned. 'Ask the one who made the thing, maybe it's as simple as their currently most beloved, pet?'

Ourania gazed at the gadget for a moment, then left the room.

'I'd need to use my own equipment to see if I can get into these things.' she said to Adalet. 'I have a few ideas on how to get to the information.'

Adalet looked at Fenia and she nodded. 'If it can quicken our search through the company's administration.'

'It's worth a try, and it would strengthen our case.'

Ourania put the gadgets into a secure briefcase. 'We'll get on it right away.'

***

Ourania plugged the portable drive into the cockpit's console as soon as she reached Diafanis and typed in the command to mount the disk on the system. The prompt for a password appeared and Ourania typed in Dormin. The reply was mount succeeded and she giggled a little. 'Beloved pet indeed.' She copied the data and let Ismene sift through it all.

***

Ourania placed a file folder on Fenia's desk. 'I think you'll find these documents interesting.'

Fenia skimmed through the first pages and looked up at Ourania and Adalet. 'You got this from the gadget!?'

Ourania nodded. 'This is just what we retrieved so far.'

Fenia drummed with her fingers on her desk for a moment, then picked up the phone and punched an internal number. 'Where do we find Hummin Lefoy?'

03 - Release

Hummin stared at the pages with large eyes some time later in his office. 'I don't know anything about this! I just made ordinary deals to transport their goods!'

'Illegal goods' said Fenia. 'With your approval as the one signing off on them. You'll have to come with us to answer some questions.'

Hummin looked at his son, Ret, and he put his hand on his father's shoulder. 'Don't worry, dad, I'll call our lawyer right away and together we'll clear up this mess fast. This must be a mistake.'

Hummin nodded with his ears drooped at his son and a police officer gestured for him to follow while his employees whispered among themselves and avoided eye contact.

Ret turned sharply to Fenia and glowered. 'My father is innocent, he's always been a hard and honest worker.'

'The evidence we gathered so far paints a different picture lately.' she said. 'Are you aware of any trouble he found himself in? Financial maybe?'

'No. We never made it big before our luck turned, but we always got by. We knew no hardship.'

Fenia nodded. 'We'll see what else our investigation turns up.' she said and left.

***

Hummin looked up dead tired at Fenia when she walked into the interrogation room the next morning. He hadn't slept a wink and kept trying to figure out what he might have done to get into this much trouble Fenia placed a page in front of him. 'Recognise this?'

He read what he could of the text and looked up again. 'I don't get it. What's this?'

'The clear evidence you carried a huge debt and made a deal using laundered money.' Fenia said and leaned on the table. 'Either you tell us the source, or we'll have to do it the hard way and add up years to your sentence.'

Hummin gripped the edge of the table. 'But I never had a huge debt or did anything like that! I only made normal, clean deals!'