Joel Travante had been a Special Inspector for nearly forty years prior to the Fall.
Direct access to Mother's DNA database was closely restricted. To obtain a general DNA search required a plurality of council member approval, and a direct location search required a super majority. But prior to the Fall the inspectors had enormous resources to find their subjects. The slightest clue at the site of a crime could be used to track down the perpetrator. A shred of DNA, a fiber of clothing, any distinctive chemical or biological residue, and the inspectors had a lead that they would follow until they died or hell froze over.
Or the whole world came apart.
"What were you doing there at the Fall?" Sheida asked.
"There was a person who had committed a string of offenses," Joel said, one cheek twitching for just a moment. "Primarily rape and murder, concentrating on very young females. He would . . . seduce them in order to get them to drop their shields and then . . . ensure that they were too overwhelmed to raise them . . . afterward." His jaw worked for just a moment and he shook his head angrily.
"I had a hard gene coding on the person, he'd been going by the name Rob Morescue, mostly, but he had seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. None of the secondary surveillance systems picked him, or his DNA, up, anywhere. I was able to secure the information that the person had turned himself into a kraken. I had reason to suspect that he was residing somewhere in the deep trenches near the Asur Islands. I had been asking around; there was a pretty large delphino population in the area as well as orcas and various fishermen and sailors. At the time of the Fall I had gotten three confirmed sightings of a kraken in the area and was about to perform a search of the depths. Then, with the Fall, I was forced to forego my investigation."
"And since?" Sheida asked.
"I took a job with one of the local sailors who had converted to commercial fishing," Travante replied. "In time I was able to secure my own vessel, a small sailing caique. When New Destiny forces took over the island I maintained my cover as a visiting tourist and post-Fall fisherman. When the time was right and the weather looked good I set sail for the mainland."
"In a fishing caique?" Sheida said, aghast. "How large?"
"Four meters, ma'am," Joel replied. "I had reason to suspect that some of the orcas that had willingly joined the New Destiny forces had suspicions that I was not all that I had said. Some of my questions, pre-Fall, had apparently been insufficiently circumspect. And, frankly, ma'am, I didn't think much of New Destiny's charter or actions. So as soon as I felt it was probable I'd survive, I set sail. It's not that difficult a sail from the Asur Islands to Norau, provided nothing goes wrong."
"Charts?" Sheida asked. "Navigation?"
"I was able by that time to secure a compass and had some training from my previous employer at stellar and oceanic current navigation," Joel said, shrugging as if a three-thousand-kilometer voyage across empty ocean in a small boat was no great feat. "Dorado tended to congregate around the boat so that I had a ready supply of food. I had a large store of water when I left and picked up more from occasional rain showers. I made landfall on the coast of Flora ninety-three days after setting sail, made my way up the coast to the base at Newfell, contacted a person that I had known prior to the Fall and was put in touch with the Freedom Coalition rump of the Council. Upon being summoned by you I traveled by stagecoach and horse to Chian and was ported here."
"Amazing, Inspector," Sheida said. "Will it bother you if I say 'a bit too amazing'?"
"No, ma'am," the inspector replied. "If you wish to perform truth detection, feel free." Like most intrusive protocols, truth detection required permission of the subject or agreement by a plurality of the Council.
Sheida frowned and then shrugged, drawing a smidgeon of power and running a lie detector test on the surface of the inspector's thoughts. There was no indication that he had any reservations about his story. He had some personal problems that were beating at him, though.
"What's wrong?" Sheida asked. "You're calm on the surface but you're not so calm underneath."
"It is . . . personal, ma'am," the inspector said, then sighed. "My wife and daughter are missing. I'm aware that most families were broken by the Fall, ma'am, but it doesn't make me any happier. Now that I'm back in contact with higher, I am hoping that I can search records to try to find them. The problem is . . . as far as I knew, my wife was in the Briton Isles at the Fall. What is worse, my daughter was in Ropasa visiting friends." He paused and then shrugged again. "Frankly, ma'am, I'm afraid that if New Destiny finds out who they are, and that I'm working for you, they will use it as a hold on me. If they do so . . ." He paused, his face hard. "I will be in a very uncomfortable position."