This is Duel: A Tech-Noir Detective Story
Authors Note: Please check out the note at the end of the story for a special request!
Previously: McElroy and DB431, reunited, returned to the Bergenz Brothers Stockyard, to confront Gerard Bergenz
Sol II System, Eden, New Chalcedon. 02:30 Local time
James McElroy blew smoke confidently, while the security guards arrayed themselves around him and his car.
Gerard Bergenz, followed closely by a distraught looking Bridgett, descended the stairs from the main office building and walked authoritatively through the line of security.
“What a pleasant surprise.” Gerard said with effortless nonchalance, his hands in his pockets, his eyes betraying a sharp seriousness that didn’t match the casual indifference of his words.
“To see me and DB431 alive, you mean.”
“Bridgett and I were just having a little chat.” Gerard continued. James glanced at Bridgett—she was staring at the ground, a far cry from the confident assertiveness she had exercised when she arrived in James’ office.
“It seems there’s been a misunderstanding. She has hired you on a false pretense. The accident which killed my brother—a terrible, terrible tragedy. Grief strikes us all in various ways.” His tone shifted, and James saw his fists clench in his pockets, “But Bridgett was out of line to include you. She sees that now.”
“Isn’t that funny.” James said, puffing on his pipe. “I have a different memory of things—and my memory…” puff, “is not so bad that I can’t remember being dismissed, being shot at by an assassin, and you kidnapping Bridgett against her will.”
“Assassin?” Gerard laughed. “What a novel fantasy. Assassin you say! There are simpler ways to kill people, thugs do it every day.”
James smiled, adrenaline pumping through his veins, “Oh yes, an assassin Gerard. Killing people is easy. Killing people invisibly is hard. So, you hired the best there is. Someone who can get in and out unnoticed. Someone who has never failed to collect.”
“Oh, this is rich. You’re talking nonsense. I am done with—”
“But I’m not, Gerard Bergenz! I’m not done at all. You see, Bridgett hired me, and it may not be the most glamorous of jobs, but I’m kind of like a bounty hunter too. I had a job to do, and I have never failed to collect.” James took a casual step towards the back of the car, puffing pensively. The security guards flanking Gerard twitched nervously.
“You see, as a detective, Gerard, my job is to collect evidence. I operate in the periphery of the law, solving problems that the police are too busy…or too corrupt to investigate. So I’ve picked up a phrase or two, along the way.” James continued walking slowly back.
“And one of the terms I’ve picked up is an old latin phrase. You’re familiar with Latin aren’t you? Of course you are, well educated business man like Gerard Bergenz. It’s this phrase that means, in court, you have to be able to bring someone before the judge. The latin is habeus corpus. Do you know what habeus corpus means?”
James went around to the trunk, and unlatched the door. “It means, ‘I have the body.’”
James threw the trunk open, and the pale, bloody, mechanized body of Black Zaelland spilled out onto the pavement. Bridgett let out a short yelp, and some of the security guards aimed their weapons at James.
“And let me tell you, Gerard. Before he died, Black Zaelland here told me a really interesting story.”
Gerard’s eyes looked black—he was staring daggers at James while he spoke, motionless and hateful.
“He told me about his machine parts! Looks like the Bergenz Brothers helped fix him up with some upgrades on humanity. I’m sure he must have had to come in for some routine maintenance. And helped remove some uncomfortable thorns in your side. More than once, I am sure…”
“You’re a terrible liar.” Gerard said. “It doesn’t suit you.”
“And you’re a terrible person, but here we are. Zaelland told me a good one about this, uh, initiative of yours. Have you heard of it? Tell me if this sounds familiar.” James walked towards Gerard. “Step one: Get a contract with the government,” Step, step, “Step two: sell them robotic exoskeletons for workers,” step, step, “Step three: enhance soldiers and workers both with robotic parts—high maintenance, exclusive contracts…” Step, step—James stood right in front of the tall and towering Gerard Bergenz, who glowered at him from behind black eyes, his face shaking with anger. “Profit—and power for life!” James blew smoke in Gerards face.
“That’s not—”
“There’s just one problem! You, you alone, couldn’t do all this yourself. Right? You needed to cooperate, with that pesky brother of yours, George, of happy memory. And he didn’t like your plan.”
“That’s enough!” Gerard shouted, booming powerfully, leaving a tense silence in his wake. Gerard stepped forward, menacingly close to James, and jabbed him in the chest with an index finger. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He sneered. “You’ve got it all wrong. You’re mistaken. That man on the ground, whom you murdered, whatever he told you, is lies. Dirty, rotten—”
James’ phone began to ring, loudly. “I gotta take this, do you mind?” James smirked, and answered the phone.
“McElroy. Tyrone! Good to hear from you. No, no, I can talk, just having a chit-chat with my friend Gerard Bergenz. You mind if I put you on speaker phone? Good!” James clicked a button.
“You’re on speaker now, Tyrone. Gerard, this is my good friend Tyrone.”
Tyrone spoke awkwardly over the phone. “Uh, yeah, hi. I’m at Black Zaelland’s ship here at the New Chalcedon spaceport.”
“Is that so?” James smiled, looking at Gerard.
“Yeah, I took Zaelland’s security key and got into his ship. I’ve got, uh, everything.”
“What do you mean by everything?”
“It looks like he lived out of this thing. All his communications, all his payments, all his personal records. His food, his equipment, his—”
“Great, buddy! Good job. Gerard here is smiling too.”
Gerard scowled at James.
“And I’ve sent it all to the press and the police with the contact info you gave me.”
“Great news. We’re here down at the Stockyard so—”
Gerard slapped the phone out of James’ hand, and before James could react, Gerard punched James in the face, knocking him over and spilling his pipe on the ground.
“You’re sleazy gutter-trash, James.” Gerard said. The security guards all jumped to alert. James caught a glimpse of Bridgett—she was smiling.
James picked himself up on his feet. “Yeah,” he said, “Yeah, you’re probably right. But you know what?” he stood, and wiped blood off his lip. “At least I’m not you.”
Sirens wailed in the distance, a slow crescendo as they approached.
James emptied his pipe on the ground, and stepped on the ash and tobacco with his foot. “You’re finished, Gerard.”
Gerard reached into his coat pocket and pulled a small pistol; James saw him move and simultaneously pulled his own from his shoulder holster.
“I’ll kill you, James McElroy.”
“Okay. Sounds like that’s not going to change the outcome, if the police are already on the way.” James spied some security guards, nervously looking at each other. “I doubt your security want to be complicit in a crime either.”
“I can help people.” Gerard said defiantly.
“I’ve got a piece of advice. If the cost of helping people is killing your brother—and maybe this is just me—but I don’t think it’s worth it. Put the gun down, Gerard. Don’t add another crime to the list.”
Gerard’s hands shook as he held the gun, his stony face faltering.
“Drop the gun.”
The sirens wailed louder and louder.
James met Gerard’s eyes across the barrel of the wavering gun. Finally, Gerard dropped it. He turned, and walked towards the gate of the stockyard, running his hands through his white hair.
James kicked the gun towards his car, and returned his to his holster.
Bridgett walked over, triumphantly. “So that’s case closed, is it?”
James smiled, “Next time—tell me to find your lost cat or your cheating husband.”
Thank You For Reading!
This has been DUEL, a tech-noir serial featuring Detective James McElroy and his Detective Droid DB431. There is One Episode Left, which will publish next week! Thank you so much for reading along and making this a fun journey.
I plan to do a post-op about my experience writing this serial. I would like to also answer your questions! If you have any questions for me about writing, about the story itself, about the world—Please leave questions in the comments! I will answer questions which are left in this episode and the next, last episode, in the post-op analysis article.
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A satisfying chapter! This felt a touch Agatha Christie, I loved it
I like the way you combined several detectives into James. The lavish spending by a poor man of Fletch-- and his humorous wisecracks. The crossing of legal lines and the swagger of Rockford. The prefiguring of how the trial would go that Columbo was good at. But, it struck me that Gerard caved too easily when he still had options to escape.