CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Cak walked out of Bir’s room as Mike and Joe approached. Cak stopped in the doorway and watched them walk down the hall.

“We’d like to see you in my cubicle in about half an hour,” Mike told him.

“If this has anything to do with the murder, I won’t do it.”

“Won’t?”

Cak said, “That’s right. You have no police or judicial status here. We should have a formal investigation from the central government. Sanctioned by a committee and done by someone who has more than no experience in these matters.”

“Joe’s a cop.”

“With no implants so that’s meaningless.”

Joe said, “You mean you should be investigating?”

Cak drew himself up. “As a lawyer, I am certainly more qualified than either of you. I’m sure Mike would like to add investigatory powers to those he presumes to have already, but he is not absolute dictator here. Besides which you are both quite fallible. No matter how much power is in that magic aura, no one is going to follow you blindly or implicitly obey your whims.”

Joe said, “Nor are you in charge.”

Cak’s mean, piggy little face turned meaner and piggier, which Mike hadn’t believed was possible.

“Legally,” Cak began.

Joe cut him off. “Legally, horseshit. I’m tired of you throwing ‘legal’ around in the colony. All your laws, all your legal protection, all your two-bit mumbo-jumbo didn’t save us from being collected into camps and sent here.”

“No, that was your fault. You and your husband arriving in this part of the galaxy caused that.”

Mike spoke up. “Prejudice didn’t start with me. All your legalistic fairytale castle that was supposed to protect us didn’t work. We’re here, at a major level of nowhere, and by prison colony rules, I am the law.”

“Traitor. Collaborator.”

“You haven’t been able to see how I’ve worked to set up a rational law system within the rules while we’ve been here. You’ve only been able to see that I’m in charge, and you’re not. You and Karsh.”

Joe added, “All our snotty gay lawyers couldn’t do shit to save us, and now you want to be in charge. Well, fuck you, and all lawyers too.”

Cak sniffed. “I doubt if you know what you mean or what you’re doing. You’re not a lawyer.” He pointed at Mike. “You’re just a waiter with a weapon which hasn’t done anyone except yourself a lot of good. And for yourself not that much because you’re still here.”

Mike said, “Let me explain something so even you understand.” Mike’s voice began to resonate in the hallway. “You, Cak, are undoubtedly one of the premier assholes in this or any other universe.”

Cak got up close enough to Mike’s face to set off Mike’s aura. Cak moved back a fraction of an inch from the blue. He said, “Our situation is hopeless. We’re all going to die. There are no children. There may be an infinite supply of gay people as we will be born and found out, somehow, or come out and be damned, but there will be no legacy.”

Mike said, “I thought I’d give living a life of decency and kindness a try. What legacy do any of us leave except the love and kindness we’ve left behind? With or without kids, if we’ve left the world a little better than we found it, or been a little gentler, I figure that’s all we can do.”

Cak made a move to leave. Mike got in front of him. “You’re not leaving until I finish.” Mike saw defiance and fear in Cak’s eyes. “It’s about time you heard this.” Mike began to gather steam. “You constantly obstruct everything that’s going on in this colony. You’re always complaining. If something is black, you want it white. If it was changed to white, you’d complain because we changed it. What’s worse, in private conversations with me, you’ve said things, agreed to things, but then as soon as we’re in front of a group, you say and do just the opposite. Now, maybe that’s common lawyer practice, but among the rest of us mere mortals, that’s called double dealing and lying. As far as I’m concerned, you’re shit.”

With a snarl Cak rushed at him. Mike had expected a verbal battle, not physical violence, not from Cak. He was momentarily caught off guard. But his blue aura arose and Cak couldn’t get near him. Cak was driven back. He waved his fist at Mike and swore.

Mike turned his back on him and walked into Bir’s room. Joe followed.

Inside, two other men stood near the body. Gek said, “I’m finished with him. Please take him to the temporary morgue we’ve set up near the entrance.” The men covered the body and carried it away.

In Bir’s tiny room Mike leaned against the wall. He said, “I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”

Joe said, “It’s understandable.”

“Was I wrong?”

Joe said, “We’re all under a strain. A good kid has just been murdered. It’s a bad time.”

They looked at Gek who said, “As far as I can tell, Bir was relaxed and unsuspecting when the explosion took place. The notion I have from inspecting the body and then examining the area around the cave-in is that the guy set the charge, took off, hid in some side passage, and then quietly joined the throng that arrived.”

“What about the sexual residue?” Joe asked.

“The cum in his pubic hair was Bir’s own. The cum on his pants and in his rectum was someone else’s.”

“One someone else or many someone else’s?”

“I don’t have equipment sophisticated enough for that. I don’t know.”

“He’d just been fucked before he died?”

“Within fifteen minutes, all the sets of cum were fresh. He also bled a little from the rectum.”

“Meaning?”

“Any number of things. He could have had a hemorrhoid that was irritated by the fucking. The guy doing it could have been rough. Bir’s partner might have had a huge cock and tore something.”

“Were there other signs of violence on the body?” Joe asked.

“No bruises or signs of attack. I checked his finger nails for traces of flesh from his partner or partners. Nothing. I couldn’t find any signs of drugs in his system or anything else noticeable or abnormal.”

Joe said, “Doesn’t tell us much.”

“He was a hustler,” Mike said. “Krim told me so a little while ago. He also said that Bir preferred to be a top.”

Gek said, “That I wouldn’t know about.”

Mike and Joe headed to their room. Mike sent Karsh a message to meet them.