Stacey Adele Robinson
"Stacey? She's my best friend! Oh, I'm Linda, Linda Rohrsach. Stacey and I go back to when we were little. Is she in trouble?"
"No, but we do have some questions... Can we come in?" Interrogator Sanskot was disguised as an Urdeshi planetary justicar, a rather rare, highly ranked police officer.
"Sure! Mom! Visitors."
"We don't get visitors often, here at Elena..." Linda's mother, Belinda, commented noncomittally.
"We're just trying to get a full picture here... Linda says she knows this girl?" Sanskot was still unused to wearing a disguise as part of investigations, but was keen to advance, and help his inquisitor in every way possible.
"That's Stacey, I myself know her, and Stacey, that is, her mother and I went to school together. Linda and Stacey go to the local academy together."
"And have you seen this man before?"
"That's the young master Commissar, I've seen him a few times, he's with the offworlders, isn't he?"
"That's not important right now..."
"Well, it's important if he goes back there, then he won't be your problem, anymore, will he?" Belinda asked, knowing it would be a very odd planetary justicar indeed who cared about things off planet, and there, Sanskot overplayed his hand...
"He's not beyond our reach..."
"Well, I wish you lot good luck, I only saw him once, mind you, but I got a look at his salad-bar, the military call it, my husband was with the planetary militia, and I've run into my share of Imperial Guard from the stars... He's an imperial hero, good luck trying to pin something on someone like that."
"A hero?" Sanskot wavered.
"A pair of triple-skulls, he was among the survivors where two-thirds of his colleagues did not... Twice."
Sanskot almost broke cover to ask for guidance right there, but caught himself. "Sometimes, such people are broken, by their terrible experiences, and become a danger to themselves and others, if you see him again, please call me, I only wish to speak to him."
"Interrogator Sanskot to Inquisitor Renary, over."
"Go for Sanskot."
"Subject is apparently a decorated hero, and the witnesses do not, I repeat, do not, display any kind of tampering or foul play."
"Good." The vox cut off, and the Inquisitor at the other end smiled fatuously, the recruitment was coming apace.
"Thank you for seeing me, Commissar-sir!"
"It's a simple matter, how can I help?"
"Oh, I just wanted to thank you, I didn't get too good a grade, but I've been invited to appear on the national voxcast, thanks to you, and I wanted to show my appreciation." She reached into her backpack, bringing out a local delicacy.
"Oh, and this voxcast spoke of our unit in a good light, I hope?"
"Why wouldn't they? You're outnumbering our local defenders two to one."
"Oh, my, it's that bad? The Fusiliers are only a regiment." Michael caught himself, of course she'd not think in such terms, he wanted to slap himself.
"Oh, I misspoke, I meant the Imperial Guard, how much is a regiment again?"
"With dependants, we're just under eleven-thousand."
"All terran-born, I presume?" She couldn't quite keep some bitterness from her voice. Her mother was sure she was smitten with this offworlder, with his smooth manners, his trim build. She was wrong, well no, that was just incomplete. He represented getting away from this stale, dissolute Urdim life, and seeing the universe, traveling the stars, seeing holy Terra, and all the other opportinities he took for granted, but that she would never have, and so she was finding him irresistible.
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