Page 81 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

his body. Word has come to me that there could be a connection with Syndicate member’s
activity. If I find out who was responsible I will be certain to let you know. Take into account
also that a certain Councillor is a suspect in all these enquiries” Marco dropped the name
and he left the HQ into the waiting car of his two underlings. Lomax headed back to the
incident room and relayed what Marco had told him.

“That explains a lot of these requests. There is a common theme to all of them. All the plans
date to about a decade before the Turf War of ‘99” Krank said “There are some just before
and some just after. The spread is around 25 years in total. Many of the structures have
undergone rebuilding or substantial changes, the areas themselves have undergone
boundary changes too. One building in particular has not changed” He added only to be
interrupted by Dreck

“The Hedebar State Penitentiary, though back then it was the regional seat of governance.
That all changed after ’99 and the change of use legislation signed and sealed for by a
certain currently serving Councillor. It was rumoured that he was receiving kickbacks to
allow planning permissions through, but nothing was proven. What references do we have
to those permissions, and for which buildings?” Dreck interjected. The four of them went
through the microfiche files again. It took about an hour, but a common thread was showing
up. All the permissions related to contractors in the ownership of the four main Syndicates.
Closer inspections of the plans showed they all had substantial foundations built by one
contractor with The Sintivar Multi-Crete works supplying the materials.

“Good grief; they were hiding the fact that there’s a massive amount of the stuff right under
the city centre. Our outside influence was probably telling each Syndicate where to look to
get an edge to blackmail the others into submission. What was the name of that
Councillor?” Hurden asked

“He’s wheelchair bound, but under the regulations he can still serve. It’s Marchant Lucerne!
That’s where his fortune came from. He must have fed the kickbacks into the market using
proxy trading partners, feeding the returns back into the Lucerne estate. I could see where
that would be a useful lever. If our outside influence was trying to set one faction against
another, offering this titbit would give the boss of one Syndicate leverage
over the others; Marchant could be blackmailed into pitting the others
against each other leaving the field open for that last Syndicate to clean up
and rule supreme. By offering all the Syndicates the information the
outsider starts a turf war and keeps us and The Black Guard busy.” Dreck
concluded.

“It still leaves us without a clue as to who that outsider is; or why he’s doing this, what’s his
motivation” Hurden asked adding “Revenge, but for what?”

“I got Marco Lydissian to keep his “Boys Cartel” fishing around. They do tend to “hear
things” even our best informants miss, because of the “intimate” nature of their service. He
did give me a clue about those disfigurement murders we had recently. He didn’t do it
intentionally, but he fingered Mortimer Glass! Maybe we should get Homicide to try finding
out what Glass’s activities are, they do have some sophisticated surveillance, thanks to The
Coundon Institute.” Lomax said then looked distracted.