***

  Ake sat in the rhythmic hum of the ascent car climbing toward the edge of Earth's orbital ring, attempting to weave the disparate threads of Michael's plan into a cohesive web. He had plenty of time to focus; the journey to the electromagnetic slings perched at the ring's apex was a tedious eight standard hours transit.

  The orbital rings were yet another marvels of engineering -- gargantuan mega structures designed to efficiently defeat the planet's gravity well through sheer scale -- but for Torenbergh, the novelty had long since eroded. As a frequent traveller between Earth, the space habitats, and the frozen silence of cargo stations, the spectacular views from the cabin were merely background noise. The endless blur of passing freight containers and passenger pods hurtling in the opposite direction, and even the staggering curvature of the Earth itself, were too routine to attract his attention.

  He spent the first hour dissecting the profile of Sojohan Wolters. His objective was surgical: identify a psychological fracture, a specific weakness, and calculate the precise leverage required to align the grieving man to Michael's agenda. It was a high-stakes play; for the next several weeks, the stability of the entire Michael's corporate scheme operations rested on Sojohan's compliance.

  Next, his mind drifted back to the recap of their office discussion. He could still catch the faint, peat-heavy ghosts of the whiskey Michael kept in his desk. The state of Lizzie Wolters -- a top-tier figure in the German Cluster -- was neither life nor death. "Temporarily dead". The phrase was frightening, and the implications stirred a rare, cold friction in his gut.

  His logic struggled to process the concept before finally settling on a new classification. He slotted this third state of being directly between life and death. The sheer longevity of this newly introduced state -- and the fact that it involved someone of Lizzie's stature -- was frightening too. Yet, once his brain aligned with the new flow of existence, the weirdness began irradiate outside. It became a simple logical manipulation: create a new category, define the parameters, adjust the flow, and proceed with the mission.

  Ake sat in the darkest, furthest corner of the cabin, fully dived into his thoughts. He wasn't looking for small talk with the other passengers; instead, he sought a rare, solitary peace during the long ascending hours. But this time, his isolation was rudely interrupted. A tall man stepped into the windowless, secluded area, cutting through the shadows.

  "Hey! Are you travelling often?" the man asked.

  The tall stranger didn't seem interested in Ake's appearance; instead his eyes darted around the cabin, searching for a static, solid object or a surface to anchor his gaze against the motion of the ascent.

  "Yup. Often." Ake replied, his voice a flat signal that he had no interest in continuing the discussion.

  "See, I am going up for the second time only," the man continued, despite the Ake's coldness.

  "It feels... funny in the gut. But the talking, it helps me to cope."

  "A newborn, huh?" Ake said, keeping the replies short.

  "Almost. But the ten years ago, I decided to move from the Earth and enlist for the gene therapy. That is the requirement, you know..." The tall man sighed and sat nearby, his body moved awkward in the shifting gravity and acceleration.

  "The requirement? Man, that is the investment," Ake replied, his tone shifting into the lecture of a seasoned expert.

  "The Cluster expects you to work for the many decades to come. The education, the practice, the insurances... nobody wants to waste the credits to educate you just to get one or two decades of the job before you retire. The pace in the space is the different thing. The project developments are long. You must keep up the KPIs, man!"

  "See, I am the communication engineer, assigned to the space habitat -- the name is Munster... of the habitat," the man continued.

  "I was there when the drum's frame was finished. Massive structure, made from about 450,000 big universal frames. Six years ago..."

  "Ah, I have heard this habitat is already spinning, but still in the filling phase, right? Huh?" Torenbergh asked.

  Despite his cold, logical mind, he felt a flicker of pride for those who built and maintained the mega structures. He knew these people performed a wonderful job to keep all such things alive and bring the new ones to existence. In some degree, he felt the responsibility to keep these people out of the dangers. In some degree, he thought he served them -- only a little bit, but he served.

  "Yeah, the hull is ready, the static structures are almost in place, the fusion works, and part of the drum is already habitable," the excited man continued, his eyes filled with the pride and the joy for the upcoming work.

  "But there is about one decade left to commission it as the fully ready habitat. That is a Phoebe-class... could support the living for five millions."

  "Yup. I am going to the another places. You better talk with the group..." Ake gestured toward a section of the cabin occupied by a cluster of travellers.

  "Those guys look excited too; probably you will find them the more talkative. I am busy, man," Ake finalized.

  "See, definitely will try them. Thanks," the tall man replied.

  He left quickly, appearing a little dizzy as he navigated the shifting inertia of the ascent.

  Torenbergh switched back to his thoughts. He remembered the few weird things -- the variables that did not align. Michael did not know how or who had murdered, or more precisely, who had transitioned Hugo and Lizzie from the alive state to the temporary dead. He also did not know who had triggered the HEI transmitter to explode during the Mair inspection.

  Someone -- or more frightening, something like another organization or Cluster -- knew about the HEI transmitters. Or perhaps the owners from the Outer System had done it? However, the last thing was not fitting to the logic. The hidden installation of the transmitters was beneficial for Michael and for the certain interests of German Cluster; it was even more beneficial for the owners.

  One last thing sparked in his mind: the message about the Privacy Protocol violation. Michael's reaction had been strange -- way too calm. Michael already had the name of the violator, Adrian Porinen, and the name of the victim, Lizzie Wolters. Everything was on the table to sink the man and shut him down for quite a while. But instead, Michael had ordered to make himself the victim's representatives in the court and sent a request to provide more data to the case.

  ***

  Mikko's eyes found Adrian's car parked at the roadside on arrival to his secluded house. It was morning; clear blue skies and white snow made view cold, fresh, and calming, but Mikko's mind was in hurry. He went to door, following already made path through snow.

  When he approached door itself, it clicked, welcoming guest.

  "Come in, Mikko," Adrian's voice echoed in almost empty corridor.

  Mikko removed his shoes and continued to working room. Adrian sat at working table; few emptied bottles of ale were spread everywhere. He was awake, his eyes filled with mix of joy and worriness.

  "I was expecting you to come. Sorry for being off for while, but first things first. Please sit and explain what you found," Adrian said, leaning back in his big chair.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Mikko knew this mood; it always spoke of Adrian's findings, or conclusions made. Something mind bending, or opposite -- trivial, but concluding and well calculated.

  "I found Lizzie was driving to conference; forum about research partnership or some agreement between our and German clusters. She was planning to present new research in gene therapy. And know what? Her fellow head of research suddenly died day before she intended to arrive. Hugo Moreau is name," slightly shocked Mikko began.

  "It is definitive connection between her appearance and her research... and this death," Mikko said.

  "I know that fact too. Moreover -- I could even share her last movements and probable last contacts too," Adrian replied with bit of smile.

  "However, I guess you have other question. Right?" he continued.

  "I have a lot of questions, not only one. How do you know about her? Found someone?" surprised Mikko asked.

  "Hmm, you make me tell bad news first, but I was planning to keep it for story end. Well, probably it makes sense to begin with bad side of story," Adrian started.

  "What news?" Mikko asked, his eyes were wide open.

  "You are speaking with criminal person now, Mikko. I have got notify to stand as violator in court. Privacy Protocol violation. Just few hours ago. But do not worry -- I was expecting that," Porinen explained.

  "So... there is probability I will miss your and Virta's party, lose job assignment, and who knows, probably something else... Needless to say I will continue to investigate; only problem is one person: Michael Berndt. Do you know who I am talking about?" Adrian asked.

  "Yes, technarch of corporate operations of German cluster. He is same old as you, very cunning person, heavy lifted in corporate hierarchy. How long is he in this position? Two centuries... or something like that. How this tier is involved?" Mikko continued, being surprised.

  "You could not believe, but he represents Lizzie in court," Adrian replied calmly.

  "Heh, you stole data about Lizzie, just to get same information as I. That is silly, Adrian."

  "Oh nope, that is where I am asking you again: other question?"

  "Have a lot, let me choose first one: why German cluster directorate still silent about Lizzie death?" guessed Mikko.

  "That is not question I expected, but will reply: she is alive on paper. And yes, that is good question to ask in court. Lizzie is dead, but yet officially is alive. Next one?" slightly satisfied Adrian replied with bit of smile.

  "I found one weird fact: why she did not react to death of this Hugo, and why she was heading to forum? Her and Hugo's presentation was cancelled," Mikko replied.

  "Indeed, that is point! That is bloody right question! She was intentionally walled off for few days. I mean she did not receive any real information, updates, news. Someone very powerful did that. I found that in logs; there is gap -- few days, some faked data. Hah! My dirty job was not waste." Adrian said with signs of satisfaction.

  "But now, Mikko, I need your help. You will find telemetry, logs, and more digital evidence... I want you to make a report out of it -- an iron proof for my words," Adrian continued.

  "And that is not the only task waiting for you. I have another message. At first, I decided to postpone it, to ignore it for a while. It came from a man you do not know yet -- John Berg. He is not so high-ranked, but high enough to control and investigate these non-standard cases for his insurance company. His focus is space transportation," Adrian continued, his voice became calm again.

  "No, okay, but what about that? We are on Earth now, and our coverage is Northern Europe mostly... at least for the next decade," Mikko objected.

  "No, there are two points to argue with you. First, the very core of transportation is the same, and one of the important things is time synchronization, right? Second -- did you get this calculated feeling of some connection between Lizzie's death and the explosion on that German habitat? Two rare, extraordinary events happening on the same day... coincidence, right? It is unclear, but our friend Berg has brought something frightening to our table," Adrian continued, a small, knowing smile playing on his face.

  "He brought telemetry, full logs, and sensor data from space... about the space tug. You know, those ones used for delivery from crawlers to the logistics hubs. Unmanned, highly automated ships doing their monotonic job. In most cases, space tugs work autonomous mostly, without any remote interruptions. Only the location or other small data packages come from them, right? So, no fancy electromagnetic traffic in the gigahertz range."

  "However, it is core functionality to take remote control -- for emergency, or to reassign the destination. In that case, whoever needs to make changes also informs the insurance company, and the space tug itself verifies two sources. That is how to make a proper goodbye for smuggling and piracy, right Mikko?"

  "I know that. Why are you explaining the basic things again?" Mikko asked, his patience thinning.

  "No, my point is to answer all your questions when my explanation is finished. So, please, do not try to hurry with the answers. I received a report from the insurance company with some weird data from this tug -- the very same weird logs you have seen before from Lizzie's car... And you know what? It happened almost the same day as Lizzie's death and the habitat accident."

  "The space tug was property of our beloved German Cluster, but the changed destination and the amount of cargo -- it was not aligned with the insurance company's data. So, here is the second favour I must ask you: could you analyse this data too? Compare the patterns, whatever you find in there," Adrian said, and fell silent for a while.

  "No, this information gives me more questions than answers. And looking at you, the same could be said of you, Adrian. When are you going to be in court? And where?" Mikko disrupted the silence.

  "That is another interesting point. I am not surprised with the timing -- I have about four days before the event. I guess the Court can clean up the schedule for such a serious violation. But the place is a strict location; I cannot be remote. The victim's representative requests the Inter-Cluster court in Rotterdam. Since it is about a Privacy Protocol violation... I can only guess, but it feels like this Michael is hiding things. A lot of things in this mess do not align. It will be a play -- a play with a sharp mind. This is the reason for my worries; I must reveal the evidence at the exactly right moment," Adrian replied.

  "Yep, yep... it will not be easy. However, Lizzie is still alive on paper, and according to global policies, she should represent herself in case of a Privacy violation. But they are forcing it now, not postponing until she is officially dead. That is weird," Mikko continued.

  "No, you are following the line. That is definitely something. And this is the reason why I need your help with the evidence and the data I have."

  "Let's move on with it then. A few days is a tough deadline," Mikko agreed.