Children of Junk (Rogue Star Book 3) Read Online Free

3D images, scanning for DNA, and generally processing the scene.
    “Officer Smith?”
    He turned at the sound of Marcus’s voice. “Ah, Captain Drake, forgive me for not using your proper title upstairs. Miss Kazumi, a pleasure to meet you. This way please.”
    They followed him away from the crime scene and through a plain, unmarked door. They entered the security office; dozens of video screens covered the wall. A slim, twitchy, alien with ten eyes across his forehead stared at them, unblinking. A long tongue shot out and licked the eyes before snaking back into its mouth. Marcus suppressed a shudder. He’d seen worse over the course of his travels.
    “Chief Vix, would you play the recording for us?” Officer Smith asked.
    The alien didn’t speak, but just turned around and typed commands into his console. All but one screen went blank, plunging the room into near total darkness. On the active screen Solomon sat beside the girl near the fountain. She was kind of cute in a computer geek sort of way. There was no sound while they talked and soon they left the bench and went toward the restaurant. The viewpoint shifted and they were inside sitting at a table talking some more. A second monitor came to life. On it a gray van pulled up outside the hotel and six men in combat armor and masks piled out, heavy blasters in their hands. All around them people went running.
    The kidnappers blasted the restaurant door to smithereens, no doubt hoping to intimidate the patrons into behaving. They moved through the wreckage two by two, one group covering the next while the last group watched the lobby. Whoever they were they knew their business. After they shot the cook they took Solomon and the girl out to the van, put stun cuffs on them, and threw them in the back. The van sped off a moment later. The video stopped and the other monitors came to life, brightening the room back up.
    “Any thoughts?” Smith asked.
    “They’re pros, that’s for sure,” Marcus said. “It looked like they came specifically for Solomon and the girl. They could have been any of a dozen species under that armor. I don’t know what to make of it. Does this happen often here?”
    Smith shook his head. “I’ve been working here ten years and nothing like this has ever happened. We don’t have much of a criminal element here. All the vice stuff is legal, so there isn’t much for the syndicates to do for income. We have a few murders every year, lovers’ quarrels, that sort of thing. Some theft of course, but this, professional thugs blasting their way into a luxury hotel and kidnapping a guest? No, nothing of the sort.”
    Marcus frowned and tapped his chin. “Just because there’s little illegal for criminals to make money with here doesn’t mean they aren’t here. Plenty of legit businesses have friends in low places. That’s where I’d start looking.”
    Smith’s frown matched Marcus’s. “If I go poking around where you suggest I’ll be out of a job in a hurry. I did a little digging about you two before I came up to your suite. You’ve been mixed up in some crazy stuff. Is there any way I can convince you to help me out with this, kind of quiet like? I can provide you access and whatever official cover you need.”
    Marcus had no intention of letting Smith handle this on his own so when the officer offered to bring him in officially he said, “Sounds like a good idea. We’d be glad to help.”

3
    “ S o what do you want to do first?” Smith asked. He seemed eager to get going and Marcus suspected the powers that be didn’t like the sort of publicity two of their guests getting kidnapped brought down.
    “I’ll need screen captures of those masked men so I can send them to my contacts. I assume you’re tracking the van?”
    Smith shook his head. “We have little hope for that. It’s either stolen and they’ll dump it somewhere or they’ll plasma bomb it so nothing’s left.”
    “Do you have satellites for tracking?”