Ashes of the Earth by Eliot Pattison

the
bribe," he said after a moment. "It's the world Buchanan
lives in. He was certain Fletcher would offer a bribe, certain you
would accept it. Then he would confront Fletcher."
    "But
Fletcher was on the Council by then," Emily inserted. "Buchanan
wouldn't want the scandal."
    "There
would be no scandal. Buchanan wouldn't want to arrest Fletcher, he
would want to control him. The sergeant and Fletcher would become new
pawns because Buchanan could throw them in prison at any time.
Except," he added, "the sergeant upset his plans with her
unexpected honesty."
    "He
put me on suicide patrols for a month," Waller said, "watching
tall trees on the ridges, and threatened to fire me if I failed him
again."
    "You
came here to resurrect your old case?" Hadrian asked.
    Waller
looked down at Reese. "What if what happened to him was because
of me?"
    Hadrian
gazed at the sergeant as if seeing her for the first time. "Dangerous
sentiments for someone working for the governor."
    "Working
for the governor," Waller replied, "is an honor few members
of the corps ever get."
    "That's
better," Hadrian said as she cast him a smoldering glance. "Now
tell me. The two men who follow me. Do they report to you or Kenton?"
    She
grimaced. "Officially they are assigned to me. But Kenton gets
whatever information he wants from them, whenever he wants, without
bothering to ask me."
    "Let
them keep up their playacting," he instructed her. "And
resurrect your old case by all means. I don't need to see you again.
Write up your report on me and give it to the governor in a couple of
days. Mark it secret, so Kenton will be sure to read it. Show them at
last you have grasped the essence of good police work. Say your
subject exhibits dangerous antisocial behavior, that he harbors
delusional suspicions of criminal conspiracies taking root in
Carthage. If left unchecked, he threatens to be the seed for a whole
new hooligan class. Don't forget his psychotic tendency to believe
only he knows how to discover the truth."
    Emily
fixed him with a withering gaze. "I have medicine that will shut
him up, Jori." She moved closer to Waller as if to protect her.
    Hadrian
smiled grimly. "I took my last medicine twenty-five years ago,
Em, and never woke up."

    CHAPTER Four

    Hadrian
watched from a
window in an empty hospital room as Sergeant Waller conferred with
her two men on the rain-slick street below, pointing to the
second-floor corner room where she'd last seen him. Then he darted
into the corridor, down to the kitchen, and out the back door.
Minutes later he stood at a large building whose four chimneys
churned out clouds of wood smoke. The textile works in its early
years had been constructed to turn salvaged fabric into fibers for
papermaking. It had eventually expanded and now took in raw wool to
be processed into cloth for the colony's apparel makers.
    "I'm
looking for the owner," Hadrian said to the woman who sat at the
front desk. She appraised him coolly as he self-consciously pushed
back his ragged hair, then she disappeared behind a closed door. He
waited several minutes before she reappeared, gesturing him inside
with a frown.
    He
followed her past great steaming vats, through a room stinking of wet
wool, into a huge chamber filled with carders and spinners, then up a
staircase to a quiet room where half a dozen large looms were being
worked. Hadrian stood uncertainly after the woman turned and
abandoned him. Looking about, he saw a stocky, bearded man by a rear
window, who gestured to him with his pipe.
    Hadrian
knew Hastings from years earlier, when the burly man had supervised
the construction of the school, but had had little contact with him
since he had gone into private enterprise. He stood silently as
Hastings filled and lit his pipe, puffing out richly scented clouds.
    "I'm
not sure how this is supposed to go," the mill owner stated. "Am
I supposed to cooperate with you because the governor finally took
the yellow band off your arm or throw you out for