Chapter 40: Grieselda

Grieselda peeked through her telescope by the window. She had the finderscope aimed at the captain’s apartment on the 70th floor of the Etaf building.

The lights were on and she observed the captain’s silhouette through the curtains. He was planted on a couch in the living room, streaming some show on a virtual screen. Moments later he switched off the projection, stretched his arms out and sauntered to his bedroom. The apartment lights all flickered off a moment later.

Grieselda peeled her eye off the eyepiece. Yawned. Rotated her neck in a stretch.

‘Another routine day. Home, work, brothel, home again. Never has visitors, very predictable as always.’

Grieselda rose and trudged to her own bedroom.

‘Another long day.’

She worked the Carrasco case during work hours to maintain her cover and investigated the captain after hours. And the captain stayed up late which meant she stayed up late watching him.

“This isn’t getting me anywhere,” she muttered to herself as she slithered into her pink covers.

‘The lieutenant and mentor will want results soon.’

Grieselda knowing the captain was dirty wasn’t results. She needed proof but the captain was too cautious.

‘A closer look into his apartment should yield better results.’

She was sure of it. He was definitely hiding something in there. But she needed a search warrant and what she had on the captain – nothing – wouldn’t be enough to get one.

‘Why not take a look anyways?’

She frowned at herself. She wouldn’t allow their corruption to rub off on her.

‘But then again good intentions won’t catch him either.’

No, she had to wait for him to slip up.

‘And how long would that take if ever. The captain is too cunning.’

Grieselda accessed her interface and dove into the virtual network.

Her avatar materialized as a digital replica of herself. She was in a pink room with crimson lighting. Antiques handcuffs ornamented all four walls. The ancient pure metal ones before electromagnetic cuffs where a thing.

“Search,” she said and the search engine popped up mid-air.

“Etaf building,” she said and the words typed themselves in.

Grieselda hadn’t decided to break in or anything. She was simply exploring how difficult it would be if she were to try.

A list of results flashed into existence right before her.

She scrolled through the first page results without success. She typed in the building address and oddly enough she wasn’t able to find the Etaf building. She typed in other keywords and similarly without success. She eventually reverted to her initial search and kept scrolling through the pages results until she found a link to the Etaf Building datasite on the seventh page.

‘Their marketing model really needs work.’

Her avatar tapped on the link and she was sucked into the datasite. She materialized within the reception area of the virtual replica of the Etaf building.

A male model in a grey suit popped up before her.

“Welcome to the Etaf—”

She swiped at the model and the projection flickered out of existence. She had no patience for the introductions and marketing.

“Rental options,” she said.

A small skeleton projection of the building popped up. Indicated the occupied rooms in red and the available rooms in green.

She focused on the 70th floor.

‘I can’t catch a break.’

The two rooms neighbouring the captain on the 70th floor were both occupied. As were the rooms above and below the captain’s apartment. In fact most of the apartments on the 70th floor were occupied.

Coincidence or by design.

There was no way to know for sure. All she knew was that answers lay in that apartment waiting to be unearthed.

Grieselda blinked hard and woke up back in reality.

There wasn’t anything more to be found tonight. She’d introspect more on this problem tomorrow. She closed her heavy eyelids and began to drift into sleep.

“Ahh!...Ahh!...Ahh!...”

The neighbour’s screams rocked her mind wake. She opened her eyes and lay face up. She was a light sleeper and had long given up trying to sleep through Howard and Daniela’s nightly ritual.

Grieselda sighed exasperation.

‘Another long night.’

Grieselda licked two fingers wet, slid a hand into her pyjama shorts and made an uninspired attempt at masturbating.

‘If you can’t beat them might as well join them.’

“You haven’t reported anything in some time,” Lord Murakami said. Seated in the lieutenant’s grand chair and the lieutenant hovering behind him.

‘There hasn’t been anything to report.’

She’d been dreading this moment. Mentor had high hopes for her and why she longed to live up to her his expectations, she wasn’t sure.

“It’s slow but I’m making progress…”

She briefly detailed the captain’s recent movements, the security he had on his apartment and her suspicions. Other than that she truly didn’t have much to report.

“I see.” The light in Lord Murakami’s blue eyes dimmed. He sighed and slumped into the long back chair with patterned armrest. The disappointment in his body language loud and clear for her to see.

Grieselda felt her heart sink and attempted to salvage the situation.

“If I can get a warrant for his apartment I’m sure we can get the evidence we need to put him away.”

“A warrant?” Lieutenant Rafinya snorted. “On such flimsy suspicions.”

“But—”

“Rafinya’s right,” her mentor cut her off.

“Understood,” Grieselda said stiffly. “I’ll keep digging.”

“No, you won’t,” the lieutenant said.

“You can’t take me off the case,” Grieselda protested. “It’s only been a few weeks. I promise I’ll find the evidence—”

“No one’s taking you off the case,” mentor said. “But were putting your assignment on hold.”

“Hold?” Grieselda tilted her head, eyes wide.

“The council is getting antsier regarding this Carrasco case,” Lord Murakami said. “We can’t continue to let it drag on. We need to give them answers soon. I’ve also been tasked perform my own search for the agent and we need you to focus all your attention on that as well.”

It took a minute for her to process her mentor’s words.

‘But the assignment always comes first.’

Besides she’d been doing both.

Cybercrime and internal affairs still underestimated how dirty the captain was despite her daily reports detailing her suspicions. This wasn’t the time to ease their investigations on him. What if they missed something? She couldn’t allow that to happen. No matter what she would ensure the captain saw his day in arbitration.

‘But mentor and the lieutenant won’t understand.’

So for now she could only pretend to be obedient.

“Understood sir, but to do our job properly shouldn’t the council be more upfront with us. They haven’t acted this way with the other AoF cases. Clearly there is more at play here. If I kn—”

“That’s not your place to know,” mentor said and gripped tight the patterned armrest of his chair.

She watched his face twitch frustration betraying his usual stern demeanour.

‘He also wasn’t briefed.’

This case had elements to it that even the Lord Protector didn’t have clearance for.

‘So he doesn’t know about the astra? And was an astra that powerful to warrant such secrecy.’

“Shenko is still on leave,” the lieutenant said. “Ray Dawn is pursuing another lead. You were looking into past AoF cases right? Dig deeper into that and find something we can use. We need to close this case and lift the lockdown.”

‘Ah, the lockdown, the corporations want to resume their cash flow.’

“Understood.” Grieselda saluted.