Destroy The Corrupt: A Space Opera Adventure Legal Thriller (Judge, Jury, & Executioner Book 2) Read online

  Destroy The Corrupt

  Judge, Jury, & Executioner Book Two

  Craig Martelle

  Michael Anderle

  Destroy The Corrupt (this book) is a work of fiction.

  All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2018 Craig Martelle and Michael Anderle

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US edition, August 2018

  The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2015-2018 by Michael T. Anderle and LMBPN Publishing.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Author Notes - Craig Martelle

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Books by Craig Martelle

  Books By Michael Anderle

  Destroy The Corrupt Team

  Thanks to our Beta Readers

  Micky Cocker

  James Caplan

  Kelly O’Donnell

  Thanks to the JIT Readers

  James Caplan

  Kelly O’Donnell

  Mary Morris

  Keith Verret

  Daniel Weigert

  John Ashmore

  Paul Westman

  Peter Manis

  Micky Cocker

  If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!

  Editor

  Lynne Stiegler

  We can’t write without those who support us

  On the home front, we thank you for being there for us

  We wouldn’t be able to do this for a living if it weren’t for our readers

  We thank you for reading our books

  1

  A plasma beam hit the bulkhead above Rivka’s head.

  “Time to die, bitch!” a gruff voice yelled from beyond the overturned table. “I’m going to— Aaaggh!”

  Rivka wanted to look, but the melting bulkhead still glowed. She didn’t think her head would grow back if it was blasted off.

  “All clear!” Vered called. “And next time, before you deliver your verdict, you might want to make sure the perp isn’t armed.”

  Rivka peeked over the top of the table to confirm it was her bodyguard, nicknamed “Red,” before standing. “Caught in the act means that they’re probably armed. I couldn’t let him get away, could I? Would you look at this?’

  Rivka proudly displayed the scorch mark on her jacket, from the first shot that had narrowly missed and sent her diving for cover.

  She pushed the table aside and stood over the dead body. “Justice is served, bitch.”

  “Amen to that, Magistrate.” Red cleaned his blade on the dead man’s shirt. “What’s for lunch?”

  “That new Mongolian place sounds promising...” Rivka tapped her datapad as she walked away. “Chaz, send the locals to clean this place up. Tell them that the case is closed and the paperwork will follow.”

  Red jumped over the growing blood puddle and caught up to the Magistrate. He moved smoothly past her and traveled in front, head on a swivel as he assessed high and low, left and right for threats. He was never off the clock.

  “They were supposed to juice you enough to where you didn’t overheat, not make you a man-mountain.”

  “That’s my natural immensity,” he replied.

  “Is that a word?”

  “If it isn’t it should be, with my picture next to it in the dictionary.” He talked as he walked, never looking at Rivka.

  “Thanks for saving my ass.”

  “You should consider packing.”

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “No. Packing heat, like a blaster or something. I’m pretty sure Grainger told you the same thing.”

  Rivka shook her head. “I don’t think I will. You’ll have to pack enough for both of us, and make sure you pack sandwiches, too. I’m hungry.”

  “You’re always hungry, Magistrate.”

  “Alas, ‘tis true, Vered.” Rivka looked at the floor as she walked. It was how she thought best, even though Red gave her a hard time about not being more aware of her surroundings. Her mind was occupied. “And after lunch, I have a meeting with the other Magistrates. More boring lawyer training, and then we pick our next cases. I’ll be quicker this time. Some kind of murder in paradise or a theft of shoes from a high-end shopping district. I could work cases like that. I hope they have snacks at the meeting, I’m hungry.”

  “I would like you to pay attention, please,” Grainger said to the group. Jael and Cheese Blintz clinked their beer glasses before draining them and belching in unison. “The Federation’s finest, ladies and gentlemen!”

  Rivka scanned the area to see if anyone had heard. The restaurant side of the bar was empty, but even if people had been there, no one would have cared.

  “Lighten up, Liebchen,” Jael replied. “What case do you have for me, while I’m still sober enough to adjudicate it?”

  “For you, we have the usual. File’s in your folder. Go forth and conquer.”

  “Wait!” Rivka slapped her hand on the table, making the others jump. “Last time, it was all about being the first to raise your hand. Now, you’re just handing them out? What bone job do I get this time?”

  “’Bone job?’ Sometimes the cases are a natural fit for our talents, so I assign them accordingly. Have you not read the Magistrates’ Manual?”

  “Magistrates’ Manual?” Rivka looked at Chi, Jael, and lastly at Grainger. They nodded slowly. “You suck! When will the new-guy hazing end? As I learn the rules, you pack of Klingons circling Uranus change the rules. Here I am on the outside looking in, again. So, did I get a good case this time?”

  “Your last case was a good case, Zombie! Damn. Maybe you want cookies for breakfast and ice cream for lunch? Don’t answer that. You don’t have a choice on this one. Nathan Lowell requested you to personally look into a competitor of the Bad Company.”

  “I get to see Terry Henry and Char again?” Rivka wondered, staring out the long window that showed space beyond the station.

  “They’re the Direct Action Branch. No, you’ll be looking into the import/export business. Nathan believes that the Mandolin Partnership is a racket. Everywhere they’ve gone, people have been breaching their Bad Company contracts left and r
ight. Businesses do that when they are afraid.”

  “Nathan picked me to bust up a racket?”

  “They’ve already spread their influence to more than twenty worlds. They are based out of...” Grainger consulted his datapad, “the Corrhen Cluster.”

  “Never heard of it.”

  “No one has, but there’s a Gate and they aren’t afraid to use it.”

  “If no one’s heard of them, how’d they grow so big so fast?”

  “I can see why Nathan selected you for this case. Your insight is dazzling.”

  Rivka continued to look out the window, trying to remember the course she’d taken on racketeering and corruption. Finally, Grainger’s words registered. She gave him the finger and then waved it back and forth. A server stood next to the table, silently watching.

  When Rivka saw her, she stopped. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

  “One check?” the woman asked.

  “Yes, and give it to him.” Rivka pointed at Grainger. She finished the last of her fries. She wanted dessert, but since they had the check, she assumed the restaurant wanted the group to leave. “Can you get me the special lava cake disguised as a fudge brownie to go, please?”

  The server updated the bill on her datapad and handed it to Grainger for confirmation. He tapped it, and the server left.

  “I’ll give odds you don’t get your cake,” Jael stated.

  Rivka leaned her head sideways to look at her fellow Magistrate through one eye. “Them’s angry words that can lead to no good,” Rivka drawled. “I’m not leaving without my cake.” Rivka changed gears. “Anyone up on the latest RICO laws?”

  The other three Magistrates shook their heads. “Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations,” Grainger said. “I know what the acronym stands for, and that Bethany Anne brought it with her from Earth because of the massive corporations in the universe that turned whole planets into slaves, but I fear that’s the extent of my knowledge. Looks like you get to spend some time in the library. We’ll be in the gym.”

  “Wait!” Rivka called after the others got up to leave. “I haven’t gotten my cake yet.”

  “You can owe me,” Jael replied with a wink.

  Red watched the others leave. He remained near the entrance, failing miserably at trying to look inconspicuous. The server appeared with a bag for Rivka. “I heard what they said.” She smiled. “I brought you a double and charged your boss appropriately.”

  Rivka threw her head back and had a good laugh. “That’s what I like to hear.”

  Red watched the interaction while glancing at the area outside the restaurant. He’d already assessed the waitstaff at the All Guns Blazing as a non-threat, but that didn’t mean he would completely ignore them.

  With a final nod at the kind server, Rivka strolled from the restaurant, lost in thought. Grainger was right—she needed to do some research before hitting the gym. She didn’t have the choice to pick one over the other.

  “No time to waste, Red!” she declared as she zoomed past. He hurried to get in front of her before stopping.

  “Where are we going?”

  “The Magistrates library.” She tried to get past Red, but he held her back.

  “Where is that?”

  She pointed ahead, tucked her finger into her hand, and then pointed in the opposite direction. “Dammit, Grainger! There is no Magistrate’s library, is there?” She took a deep breath. “Let’s go to the briefing room. That will become the library.”

  Red nodded and headed in that direction. She saw Tyler Toofakre, the dentist as they rushed down the wide corridor of the restaurant and shop level of Federation Border Station 7. Rivka waved to him and called, “Tomorrow, seven in the morning for breakfast?”

  “Sure,” the man replied as he strolled casually toward the elevator. He gave her a thumbs-up before disappearing behind a crowd.

  “What is that about?” Red asked, no judgment in his voice. He wanted to know for security reasons.

  “I realized I need normal in my life. If I spend too much time with the likes of Jael, Grainger, and Cheese Blintz, I will be a basket case in short order. He is the most normal person I’ve met out here. We have to stay grounded in some way.”

  “While in space?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Did you get the server’s name?”

  “What?” Rivka was confused. “Do you have to run a background check or something?”

  “Eventually. Maybe tomorrow you can get her number for me.” Red continued to scan the area.

  “Are we in high school?” Rivka chuckled at Red’s scowl. “Fine. I’ll ask her tomorrow if she needs a man-mountain in her life.”

  “Tell her I’m a nice guy.”

  “By all the stars in the universe, I shall condemn you for eternity if you strike up a relationship with her, it goes bad, and I don’t get to eat there anymore!”

  “I share your concern,” Red replied, tinging his statement with the right amount of sarcasm. “Us servant types need to stick together.”

  “Is that how you think I treat you?” Rivka was instantly upset. She grabbed Red’s massive arm and spun him around. Her golden-blue hazel eyes flashed as she glared at him.

  His look wasn’t confrontational. “I seek no one above my station,” Red said calmly. “I think I have more in common with someone like her than someone like you, and no, I’m not hitting on you. That’s not my thing. She observes people and works them to earn their praise and maybe a tip. I observe people and try to understand what they are capable of. We both share a sense of duty. She wears the All Guns Blazing logo with pride. I wear my service to the Magistrates with pride, too. We aren’t so different. Just tell her I’m a nice guy.”

  “I’ll tell her you don’t bite.”

  “What if that’s not true?” Red’s gaze flashed past Rivka for a moment before returning to her.

  “What are you trying to do to me?”

  “In a battle for your life, there is no such thing as a fair fight. I’ll bite someone’s nose off if I have to. I’m not going to lose a fight. Ever.”

  “Here’s what I’ll tell her: ‘I’ll give you fifty credits if you’ll talk to my bodyguard.’ Will that work?”

  “I am doomed to be forever alone.” Red took the stairs as he preferred to do. They traveled in silence since others were in the stairwell, then followed two smaller corridors to reach the briefing room. Once Rivka confirmed it was empty, she checked the time and turned back to Red.

  “Give me four hours. I’ll lock myself in, so you can consider yourself off-duty. Why don’t you go back there and talk to her yourself? You are a nice guy, Red, easy on the eyes and loyal to what you believe in. Give her a chance to like you, and you’ll be saving me fifty credits.”

  Rivka closed and secured the door before Red could respond. She set her datapad to the side and opened the bag, delighting in the chocolatey goodness wafting into the air. “Come to me, my friend,” Rivka told the double serving of lava cake.

  2

  Rivka rolled her head back and forth to ease the stiffness in her neck. She used the room’s systems to project passages of law on the big screen while researching case precedents on her datapad.

  “Lexi, bundle those last ten cases and display every reference for predicate offenses.”

  “Of course, Magistrate. I love researching the law. As an Artificial Intelligence, I am constantly gaining new insight into the human psyche. Each Magistrate researches and studies differently. Jael dispenses with case law in entirety and delivers her own interpretation of the law as promulgated by the Federation. She says that she is a judge, and her determinations will provide precedent for those who follow. Chi puts his weight behind precedent, but he looks for the penalties first, giving weight to those with the harshest punishments.”

  “I would have guessed differently—that Jael would be all about the punishment and Chi would prefer setting precedent. What about Grainger?”

  “Grainger has never studied th
e law with me.”

  “That is interesting. Is he just making it up? Maybe it’s as simple as, ‘He works out, and he knows things.’”

  “I cannot say,” the AI replied.

  “Fair enough.” Rivka scrolled through the predicate offenses. “There have to be at least two of the predicate offenses such as murder, kidnap, arson, drug dealing, and so on. Those are all felonies, and they must attach to an enterprise, not an individual. Enterprise and predicate are critical factors in charging under RICO instead of charging just the crimes. Racketeering is the umbrella under which the rest of this garbage happens. How is that different from conspiracy?”

  “Conspiracy is when two or more people agree to commit a crime and intend to see it through. There is an intent component as well as an act, but the act is challenging to prove before a crime is committed. It is usually applied post facto as an additional charge and sentencing factor for the main crime.”

  “Got it. Just like RICO, there are both civil and criminal versions. I’m not their mom to tell them to play nice with their contracts, so forever more, unless I specifically ask, don’t show me the civil side of the law. I mete out Justice to criminals.” Rivka slapped her hand on the table for emphasis.

  “Is that what the Pretarian Treaty was?”