NEW: The First Chapter of "DOUBLE TRUTH"

The job has done, and in the next weeks the first episode of "The M.C.C.I.B. Investigations" will see the light. Just to stimulate your appetite, here you are, my future English speaking readers, the first chapter of "DOUBLE TRUTH".



CHAPTER 1

Day 0: NEW YORK
As usual, Allen Stewart arrived in his office on the East River early in the morning.
Afroamerican, slim, bald, with a tormented face underlining a strong character, he was gifted by a sharp and logic mind, used to weave solid connections between facts.
Connections and facts that had to withstand any jury in a tribunal.
He walked all the United Nation Plaza entrance corridor into the building that, almost one thousand years ago, was the United Nation site. The name of the place had remained but the organization was vanished, like many other things devoured by the ghastly crisis at the beginning of the second millennium.
Because of his simple and rigorous nature, Allen Stewart had always refused to use the VIP entrance despite the strong recommendations by the MCCIB Security Department , a branch of the Marine Corp Criminal Bureau of Investigation. For years, as simple Senior Special Agent, he has been entering by the main gate, the one everybody used, an there was no point to change his habits. To him it sounded like abusing his new position of freshly nominated Director. He was a heedful observer, a useful talent for his detective job, and liked to note small details in the flow of incoming people.
One of the warden officers at the entrance, a Marine from 553rd Military Police Company based in New York, spotted him.
«Sir, you can go through…»
«Sergeant Nolan, I prefer to use the badge, like everybody else.»
Nolan shook his head and smiled.
«I don’t understand why. You’re a big shot, here…»
« That’s the point. Rules are here to save us. And the first who should comply are the people in charge. By the way, It's me who wrote the security standards to access the former UN Palace. It was during the my initial period in the MCCIB. A way to keep me away from field investigation since the then Director had few sympathy for me.»
«As you want, sir. Also the body scanner?»
«Follow the procedure.»
Not far, a red haired woman wearing a coat was complaining.
« I don't understand why this pain in the ass every time. I am already late to the Interplanetary Criminal Court, where I work. I am the assistant of Attorney General Edwards. Couldn't you make an exception once?»
The policeman on duty pointed his finger towards Nolan and Stewart.
«You see that man, mrs. Mills? It’s Allen Stewart, the MCCIB Director. And he’s going through all the checks as everybody else, body scanner included.»
The woman looked Stewart, angrily smiled, and finally agreed to get inside the body scanner.
«Try not to get too excited while you're peeping me, agent…» she hissed.
«Pretend you’re to the doctor» the uniformed man replied with a bored expression.

Stewart reached the twenty first floor and the elevator opened the doors on the huge open space crowded with desks. The MCCIB was in charge to pursue crimes concerning the Marine Corps and the Starfleet on 57 different planets.
Since the Federal Infantry had been recently declared a separate armed force, the work had multiplied and he was thinking to entrust investigations for crimes concerning the Infantry to a body created on purpose. He would be pleased to provide formation and training to the new bureau, but due to budget limitations recruiting more agents was not possible.
A graceful Morassian woman greeted him with a smile in the corridor leading to his office.
«Oh, good morning Sema, what have we gotten today?» Stewart greeted in turn.
Sema harna was his Assistant for Interstellar Affairs, but because of what had happened few months before, everybody was doing everything, so for the moment Harna was replacing also the Assistant for Internal Affairs, an Earthling named Reagan Mason, ended in a hospital for a heart problem.
«Good morning Director. We’re having some problems with the Hybrids…» Sema Harna began.
Stewart's feeling was that the typical Morassian meticulousness was about to generate a long list of facts that, according to his Assistant, the Director had absolutely to know.
The truth was that as Director his competence was barely the five percent of what Harna was about to tell him. All the rest were details that could be entrusted with no problems to the chiefs of the different Sections, one for each planet.
«Again?»
«Yes sir. Hundreds thousands of them are still on the run. We won the war, now the problem is to establish the peace» said quickly the Morassian «There have been thefts in a couple of UFMC deposits, mostly small arms.»
«I don’t like it at all» Stewart answered frowning.
«And…»
«Sema… only the essential. The big stuff. Forward all the rest to Sector chiefs.»
He went inside his room while Harna kept to follow him and to read from her service tablet.
«Oh yes, mrs. Bertrand was looking for you. She wants to talk to you as soon as possible.»
Allen Stewart raised his eyebrows, surprised.
«Erin Bertrand? The lawyer?»
«Yes sir. She told me it’s quite urgent.»
The last time he had something to do with Erin Bertrand had been two years earlier, at the beginning of the war. A big corruption case within the Starfleet. There had been an assassination attempt: a furious shooting had taken place not far from where he was in that moment. And the inflexible Erin Bertrand had found a bomb under her helicar, which only for a fluke hadn't exploded.
Then it had happened again, two months ago, at the New York spaceport customs. This time a Morassian officer of the Starfleet had been killed.
«Sema, could you immediately call back mrs. Bertrand?» asked gently Stewart.
Inside him the feeling was suggesting a strange deja vu and his insight was telling that in some way the bomb at the NY spaceport and Bertrand’s call were linked.
He sat down and began to read some reports headlines.
There were problems with the Hybrids, especially those ones originating from the Earth and Moras, because they were able to breathe both the atmospheres. All the other Hybrids, coming from unknown worlds and much, much more ancient, had died 48 hours after the destruction of their spaceships. They had been killed by the thing  that kept Humanoids like him alive: oxygen.
Federal Infantry was taking care of the problem, but the job wasn’t an easy one: the more Hybrid groups were shrinking in number the more they were taking shelter in remote and uninhabited areas. And the more they were difficult to be detected and eliminated.
The terminal on the desktop switched on and Sema’s face appeared.
«Sir, mrs. Bertrand is waiting on line.»
«Please, get me her on my extension, Sema. Thank you.»
The sweet face of the Morassian was replaced in 3D by Erin Bertrand’s algid one.
That woman had the power of always embarrassing him. Stewart made an effort to smile.
«What do I owe the pleasure of your call to? My assistant told me it was urgent»
«That’s correct, Director. As you know, I am not used to waste time and I’ll go straight to the point. Herbert Hillman has vanished. And he kidnapped several important people, including the Bank of Moscow CEO and Harrington & Richardson holders.  I believe that among his accomplices there are his security chief, former UFMC general Konstantin Yugashvili, and his son George»
Allen Stewart didn't had his morning coffee yet, but when he heard all those names he woke up immediately. Herbert Hillman was a famous billionaire as well as, in recent years, an important name in the field of defense industry. It began to look like one of those cases that would have filled the newspapers headlines.
«How do you know?»
«I received an email from an anonymous mailbox. Very detailed I have to say. Bring with you a lot of body bags and biohazard suits.»
«Why?» Stewart calmly asked.
«Somebody used vx gas. All Hillman’s bodyguards are dead.»
MCCIB Director nodded, surprised, raising one eyebrow.
«I am personally going to take care of it. Where did it happen? In the villa at Mentone?»
«Correct once again. I do want the whole villa to be declared crime scene and that everything contained in that area, furnishings, clues, traces and devices, to be scrupulously examined.»
«I know how to make my job, lawyer. I'll keep you constantly informed. I think I'll have to send someone to examine your terminals. Do I need a warrant? »
«No, you don’t, Director. My offices are at your disposal.»