Read Online The Genius Asylum: Sic Transit Terra Book 1 by Arlene F. Marks - Free Book Online Page A

leather-covered box. In his apartment it had made an interesting piece of furniture; here, in a guest room only slightly larger than his bathroom back on Lamont Street, there was space for only a bed and a built-in desk. Everything else was concealed behind smooth, sliding panels in the bulkheads. The trunk was too bulky to hide behind a bulkhead. It was too high to conceal under the bed and too wide to fit under the desk. It was too long to serve as a nightstand and too low to double as a chair.
    It was a damned good thing these were not his permanent quarters.
    The station manager’s suite was on the other side of Deck E, and, according to the station plans, was larger than three of these cubbyholes put together. That was where he should have been unpacking. However, the Rangers who had initiated the investigation into Karim Khaloub’s death had designated the victim’s quarters a possible crime scene and had sealed them off immediately to prevent evidence contamination. There was only one way for Townsend to claim the living space that was rightfully his, and that was by concluding the investigation and solving the case, precisely what SISCO had sent him there undercover to do.
    In that respect, he wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or annoyed that Steve Bonelli was a real cop. Drew not only understood the Ranger’s attitude toward the man with the “make-work desk job”, but prior to the reinstatement of his Eligibility he had also shared it. Trained Security officers had no patience for Eligibles marking time, and with good reason: the job was dangerous enough without an amateur getting in the way. In Bonelli’s eyes, that was all the new station manager was — well-meaning, perhaps even talented, but an amateur nonetheless. A hazard. A liability. It was galling to be thought of this way. Still, Drew reminded himself grimly, he was working undercover for a reason. He would have to conduct his own investigation to the best of his ability — with or without the cooperation of the Rangers — and report his findings to SISCO.
    That was where the upside came in. Bonelli, a seasoned professional, had obviously discerned more than one possible crime scenario, and had moved in quickly to protect potential evidence. It made Drew shudder to imagine what might have been awaiting him otherwise, Earth weeks after Khaloub’s death.
    Something buzzed sharply, twice. Drew carefully placed the containers of exotic foodstuffs on a wall shelf, then slapped the sliding panel shut. “Now what?” he wondered aloud.
    A reply came through the speaker beside the door. “Are you decent, Chief? I’m here to take you on that tour.”
    Ruby had promised to show him Daisy Hub ‘by the letters’, from top to bottom, Decks A through M, introducing him to whichever crew members were on duty at the time. “They need to listen to you speak, see your face, shake your hand,” she’d explained earlier. Now, as they rode the tube car to Deck A, she elaborated, “They need to get a sense of who you are and what you might do. For starters, they need to hear that improbable accent of yours for themselves.”
    “I’m working on it,” he shot back, stung.
    But she had already moved on. “You’ll be invited to join the tekl’hananni pool. Pick any number except nine. That was Karim’s number. When he died, it became cursed.”
    “According to whom?”
    “The Nandrians. Tekl’hananni is their planetary sport. The standings are posted every couple of intervals, and the leading House gets free docking privileges for its ships at Daisy Hub until the next scoreboard goes up. So far, Trokerk is the House to beat — Nagor and his crew are regular visitors here. This is A Deck,” she announced, as the tube car doors sighed open on a large circular area ringed by arching portals.
    These were entranceways to the docking modules, he recalled from the deck plans. Inbound ships had to stop here for cargo inspection before being allowed to