Unlimited. Around a dozen companies owned plants in the chasma, Arreola and Nibhanupudi were the two biggest. Since the second year of planting, each company's plants were genetically modified with hereditary markers that allowed the Echusian Desert Rangers to audit the Lake-land biota. The bio-markers were registered with the government of Echus Region in Nueva Buenos Aires, the regional capital. The companies were paid by the Confederacy for each plant they owned that successfully flowered at the end of the thawed period. Ashok Nibhanupudi had visited Nueva Sirian Desert Rangers every day since they'd arrived in the chasma. Most of the other companies hadn't bothered to send observers. Ashok Nibhanupudi lived in Rotterdam, the closest town, so he rode out regularly to check no one was disturbing his plants.
"Ashok's never here for more than an hour," Ruan stated.
"I think we chose the wrong job," Ferderand smirked. "I wouldn't mind working just an hour a day!"
"His people do enough," Gabriel observed. "They own a lot of the plants growing out here. Did you guys find any plants belonging to Arreola in that bog out west?"
"I couldn't get close enough to scan some of them," Ferderand answered. "That bog is really treacherous. But only about ten to twenty."
"Ten to twenty plants aren't important enough to risk your life," Gabriel stated. "We need to find thousands."
"I've been thinking about Ashok," Ferderand said thoughtfully. "He comes out here for an hour or so everyday, as if he's checking up on us. Then he says he's heading back to Rotterdam, but you rarely see him there, and Rotterdam isn't that big."
"Maybe he just works in his office," Ruan suggested.
"This job doesn't require much office work," Roelof dismissed the idea.
"It doesn't matter what he's doing. It's none of our business," Gabriel dismissed the question, wandering off towards to patch of plants that had already been worked. More than half the plants were still in the ground, divided by small holes where Arreola's plants had been dug up. In a few hours Gabriel would be riding to Rotterdam, where he'd have to explain to Furaha Tip that the number of plants was going to be considerably smaller than expected. He stood there glaring at the plants, and tried to remember if there were any other bodies of water they had somehow missed. Hugo, Adoración, Philibert, and Jessika were still out there checking the eastern lakes. Maybe they'd find something.
The other rangers returned late in the afternoon, and they had only found a few hundred Arreola plants.
"Headed into Rotterdam?" Roelof asked as Gabriel climbed onto his bike.
"Yeah, got to let Furaha know the count's short," Gabriel answered.
"I'll ride along," Ferderand offered climbing on his bike. "In case we encounter something interesting."
Gabriel grinned. Few men he'd worked with were as understated as Ferderand Afuyog. The ranger was a expert survivalist, he could be dropped anywhere on the planet and survive, but what he really liked was a good fight. Gabriel knew Ferderand was heading to Rotterdam to find Elías Medina.
"We don't want any trouble," Gabriel ordered. "You know how Furaha is."
Ferderand glanced at Gabriel. "Think this'll blow back on her?"
Gabriel glanced back at Ferderand. "How couldn't it? It's her project, and she's the one who recommended me to head up the rangers."
"Yeah, it doesn't look good," Ferderand agreed. "You ever think that maybe Arreola faked their records? They do get paid per plant."
Gabriel considered the question for a couple seconds before answering. It was something he didn't like to think about. "The Echusian Desert Rangers audited over 45,000 Arreola plants last season. I can't see how there could be over 10,000 less this year."
Ferderand wasn't quick to respond either, he hadn't thought about the blow back on the Echusian Desert Rangers. "I hadn't consider that," he finally stated. The meaning was clear enough to both of them. Gabriel had been an Echusian Desert Ranger last season, and now he was responsible for a purchase that ended up falling short by 15,000 plants. To someone that didn't know him, it could look like a scam. He could be charged with capitalism, one of the few capital crimes in the Confederacy.
Furaha Tib was waiting for Gabriel in the lobby of the hotel when he got to Rotterdam. She smiled when he joined her, but he solemnly pointed to the bar without a word. Rotterdam was a small colony of a few thousand people, in the northern lowlands of the Hebes Chasma. It had started as an European Space Agency research outpost, that had become an AkzoMars mining colony after the discovery of a protactinium rich uranium deposit. The colony had languished under Sudamérican rule after the Mars Treaty, resulting in a large independence faction that had been in revolt for almost a decade before the the war that had created the Ares Confederacy.
The core of the colony was a pressurized dome that had been erected by the ESA. It was only one kilometre across, but had a small park in the centre that had become the heart of the town. Around the park the ESA engineers had built a ring of dorms and labs that had become offices and shops during the Corporate Era. The ESA had also pioneered farming on Mars, with a large complex of greenhouses that had once grown a number of fruits and vegetables, along with chickens and rabbits. Most of the species hadn't survived the Corporate Era, and now the greenhouses only produced tomatoes, chilis, cucumbers, and apples. Everything else eaten in Rotterdam was imported. Apartment buildings and processing facilities had been built up around the dome during the Corporate Era, all connected via pressurized catwalks, so once inside people could move around without respirator masks.
Gabriel and Ferderand had parked their green Italikas in the garage that Nueva Siria had leased for the mission, and then headed into the dome to where the La Bergère Mars hotel was located overlooking the park. The La Bergère Mars' bar was built on a deck overlooking the park, and above them the sky was darkening beyond the plexiglass dome. Gabriel and Furaha sat down at a table overlooking the park, Gabriel ordered a calvado, Furaha ordered a hot apple cider. Then Gabriel looked at Furaha somberly. "The count is short."
"How short?" Furaha asked realizing it couldn't be a small number.
"About 15,000," Gabriel answered. Around them the bar was noisy, but for them the entire universe was suddenly silent. They were both contemplating the ramification. Furaha was heading up the Nueva Sirian Terraforming Office, and therefore Gabriel's boss. She was also his wife, and the main reason the NSTO had hired ex-military to serve as rangers instead of environmental scientists. Furaha was an environmental scientist, a planetary engineer from East Africa, who had defected to the Arean Confederacy right after the war in order to be part of the Eco-Revolutionary's promise to terraform Mars.
Furaha and Gabriel had met in Echus, an unlikely couple of Earth-borns in a post-independence region of Mars. Gabriel was a Sudamérican from Mexico with coffee-coloured skin, and Furaha was from East Africa with even darker skin. They stood out, the shades of their skin were too brown. After a generation or two on Mars, the natural shades of human skin had faded into greyer tones, as no one ever went outside without being fully clothed. Most of the Earth-born had left or been killed during the war. Afterwards the Mars-born had briefly become highly xenophobic, especially those that hadn't fought. For two years Gabriel had worn his uniform whenever he went out in public so people would know which side he'd served on. When they met, Furaha had almost given up on her dream of being a terraformer, as she just couldn't take the xenophobia and was trying to figure out how to get back to Earth from the embargoed Ares Confederacy. When he found out she was an environmental scientist he called a friend in the Echusian government, who hired her to work in the Terraforming Office they were setting up.
The xenophobic wave had passed by the time the Nueva Sirian government had decided to setup their own Terraforming Office, and they hired Furaha to head it up. She had recommended the ex-military personal for the Nueva Sirian Desert Rangers because she'd found them far more reliable than the scientists they'd sent out. She also recommended Gabriel to head-up the ranger group. Now their first projec
t was hitting a major road-block, one that smacked of capitalism.
"I was afraid of something like that," she finally said. "I'm reasonably sure some of the rangers were taking bribes."
"Cecilia's not the type that would pay a bribe," Gabriel replied. "She's both too honest, and too cheap. I'm having a hard time believing Cecilia could have been involved."
"Speak of the devil," Furaha stated, nodding her head towards Cecilia, who had just entered the bar and was heading to their table. Following her were four of her crew, led by her foreman Ale Rodríguez. All of her crew were former military, mostly Sudamérican troops that had been left behind when the region fell to the Eco-Revolutionaries. Most of the Earth-born troops that survived the war had nothing to return to on Earth, and limited skills beyond combat. Few could find employment, and crime had run rampant throughout the former Earth colonies for years, fuelling the xenophobia that had briefly engulfed the Confederacy. Cecilia had fought for the Eco-Revolutionaries during the war, but didn't discriminate which soldiers she hired.
"Esparza!" Cecilia's voice echo across the room, and the other patrons began vacating the bar. "I've heard you claiming our numbers are off! You think I'm an embezzler!"
As Gabriel Esparza carefully got to his feet, Ferderand Afuyog entered the bar and started quietly towards the Arreola crew.
"The numbers are off Cecilia, but I didn't say you were involved," Gabriel replied calmly.
"No, that's bullshit boss!" Ale Rodríguez sneered from behind Cecilia.
"I wasn't talking to your bitch Cecilia, and it isn't bullshit. I've known you too long to accuse you of something like this," Gabriel continued calmly. "You sold us over 50,000 plants. I accepted your numbers without question, and vouched for them, and you, to the NSTO."
Cecilia stared at him, waiting for him to get to the point, and then after a few seconds demanded, "What's the problem?"
"We've only found around 35,000 plants with your bio-marker," Gabriel reported.
"35,000?" Cecilia stared speechless for a few seconds. "You puto! If you only found 35,000 plants, it's because you hid 15,000 plants!"
Gabriel wasn't expecting that response, it wasn't rational. There was no reason for Gabriel to under report the number, let alone hide the plants. He didn't know whether to be angry at the suggestion, or to laugh. He decided to remain claim, and stated, "We need 50,000 plants Cecilia."
"He's trying to jam you up, Cecilia," Ale declared. "Let me take care of this maricón for you."
"I wouldn't do anything stupid," Ferderand said from behind the Cecilia crew. He had his pistol pointed at Ale. "Of course, I'm smarter than you are so, we'll see if you do something stupid."
"Ferderand! Back down," Gabriel barked and then turned to Ale. "And you need to shut up before you get a bunch of people killed."
Cecilia's anger left her as she realized that things were about to go sideways. Furaha Tib was there, a government scientist that didn't carry a gun. If she got shot there would be no way anyone could claim self-defence.
"Shut up Ale!" Arreola ordered. "Sorry Gabriel, this is getting out of hand. But you know me. I never stole anything from anyone. You know that better than anybody."
"Ms. Arreola," Furaha interjected quietly. "Just before you came in Gabriel was saying that you couldn't be responsible for the discrepancy."
Cecilia paused considering and then decided to take a different approach. She pull a chair over from the next table and sat down, "I guess I over reacted then. The idea that you were accusing me of grift really pissed me off."
"Let's move on then," Gabriel suggested and then looked over to Ferderand. "We don't want any trouble here, do we?"
"I agree," Cecilia turned to her crew. "You guys take off, I'll handle this from here."
As the Arreola crew left the table, patrons began to return, and with them came Ashok Nibhanupudi, the owner of Nibhanupudi Biotics Unlimited. Ashok was Mars-born, his ancestors were Colonial Era miners in the old Indian colony on Pavonis Mons. His family had been hydroponic engineers for more than a century, so when Ranunculus glacialis was proven to grow outside, Ashok moved to Hebes Chasma to found a Biotics company. In the past six years it had grown into one of the largest biotics companies in the chasma, owning tens of thousands of plants and employing dozens of staff.
"Hello, Ms. Tib!" Ashok interjected himself into their conversation at the table. "The NSTO office suggested I might meet you here. Could I have a few minutes of your time?"
Gabriel looked up at Ashok and was surprised to see him dressed in a business suit. Gabriel had only seen Ashok in a dust covered still-suit before.
"Why, yes, Mr. Nibhanupudi, just one minute please," Furaha turned quickly back to Gabriel and Cecilia. "Do you think you can find a solution to this without me here?"
"I'm sure we can give it a shot," Gabriel said.
"Sure," Cecilia agreed. She pulled her com from her pocket and projected a map of the chasma above the table. "Let's figure out where the plants are. Where did you find your plants?"
Gabriel and Cecilia compared their numbers for a few hours but were not able to find any large unaudited patches. All of the numbers in Gabriel's audit were smaller than the numbers reported in the Arreola records. In each patch of plants Arreola claimed there were more plants than the Nueva Sirian Rangers had found. The numbers looked inflated, yet Gabriel still couldn't bring himself to believe that Cecilia was providing false numbers.
Eventually Cecilia gave up and left. The sky was dark overhead, and far off stars shone as blurry splotches of light in the plexiglass dome. Most of the patrons had left the bar. Near the far end of the bar Ale Rodríguez and the Arreola crew were still at a table. Across from them Ferderand sat at a table, watching. He was playing a game on the tabletop holographic display, but kept glancing up at Ale's crew. After Cecilia had left, Gabriel walk over and joined Ferderand. On the tabletop holographic display Ferderand was playing one of those games with sword-fighting and magic-carpets. He nodded to Ale as Gabriel sat down. "Rodríguez has a lot of credit. He's been buying drinks for the whole table all night."
As they spoke Elías Medina entered the bar, along with Justine Aalfs and Chidimma Aniakor, the two people that were with him earlier in the chasma. Justine averted her eyes from Gabriel and Ferderand. At least one of the three was willing to leave well enough alone. The three walked over to the Arreola crew and joined their table. It was the first time Gabriel realized Elías and Ale knew each other. He wondered when they'd met. Both were Earth-born Sudaméricans, they could have served together in the war.
"Let's head out," Gabriel suggested to Ferderand. "We've got a lot to do tomorrow."
They got up to leave, and walked past Furaha and Ashok, who appeared to be discussing the sale of Nibhanupudi's plants to the NSTO. That was odd, as far as Gabriel knew the NSTO wasn't looking to buy any additional plants. Even the Arean Senate wouldn't let them buy Nibhanupudi's plants, it would mean they'd be taking most of the plants in the chasma. Maybe they were discussing a purchase for next season.
There was too much that didn't add up: Elías' unemployed crew ambushing Ferderand, the missing plants, Ale having a lot of credit, and Ashok offering his plants for sale. They walked back to the garage silently. Around them the town was quiet. The shops were closed, the lights dimmed. Gabriel had something to ask Ferderand, but not in public, he waited until they got to the garage. "Ferderand, have you done a count of the plants with other companies' bio-markers?"
Ferderand looked over, half awake. "No, why would I? We're not buying them."
There must be at least a hundred thousand plants in the chasma belonging to Nibhanupudi, Christin, Napoleon, Zachariah, Isaak, Cavanah, and the rest. That's a lot of plants. Gabriel wondered if any of those other companies had 15,000 more plants than audited.
It was almost noon the next day when Gabriel joined the ranger group. Gabriel had been checking the audit numbers of the other companies' plants. The rangers had been scanning the plant patches
in order to determine which plants belonged to Arreola Biotics, and then collecting the Arreola plants. The total number of plants scanned was close to the number expected from the Echusian Desert Rangers audit last season. It would be another month before the Echusian Desert Rangers started this year's audit, but the Nueva Sirian Desert Rangers had effectively conducted their own audit by scanning the patches looking for Arreola's plants. The problem was the numbers for the other company's plants looked right, none of them had an extra 15,000 plants.
Gabriel was frustrated, he had been in one of the airships' gondolas working at a desk, which he didn't enjoy. It would have been alright if he found the missing plants, but that wasn't the case. He had been up late considering the possibilities. He hadn't gotten much sleep, and was frustrated as he heard the rangers enter the airship. They were coming in for lunch. Ferderand, Roelof, Adoración and Jessika had just entered the airship, the others would be along soon. Gabriel met them in the cafeteria, where they were taking hot meals from the vending machine.
Gabriel sat down across from to Jessika. "Jessika, what time did you get in last night?"
Jessika hesitated. "Around midnight." Jessika was an Earth-born former Canadian. Gabriel had only known her since she was hired a couple months earlier. He knew she had been the Canadian Army during the war, but that wasn't something he could hold against her given his war record.
"Midnight?" Roelof looked at her in surprise. "I'd hardly call 3 AM to be midnight. You woke me up."
"I saw you come back about 3 AM." Gabriel stated, the rest of the rangers were silent. "I know I saw you here at 11 PM, so where did you go for four hours?"
"I just went out for a walk," Jessika's eyes shifted around the room. "I couldn't sleep."
"Me neither," Gabriel stated candidly. "So I went for a walk. Which was when I saw you return on one of the Italikas."
"You're meeting with someone!" Roelof snapped. "Who do you know in the chasma?"
"Four hours was more than enough time to ride out to the work-site we worked this morning, work it and come back," Ferderand stated, and drew his pistol, pointing it at Jessika. "You been injecting the plants