There's
been a murder on Preservation Station and Murderbot has been called in to solve the case!
Not!
Ok, so yeah, the murder happened, but our favorite SecBot is actually a suspect at the start of the investigation. But as Murderbot puts it:
No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall, for fuck's sake.
You can almost hear the eyeroll.
Murderbot is interested in the case as it wants to rule out that the murder was related to GrayCris, the nefarious corporation out to eliminate Murderbot's favorite human, Dr. Mensah. She recognizes that this is an opportunity for Murderbot to improve its relationship with Station Security. After Murderbot provides an alibi that Station Security accepts, it works with them to track down the suspect because murders just don't happen on Preservation Station.
The full station threat assessment for murder was at a baseline 7 percent. (To make it drop lower than that we'd have to be on an uninhabited planet.)
Station Security is still leery of Murderbot as it's a SecBot, which avid readers of this series know is a Security Robot, a machine capable of lethal violence second only to Combat Robots. Its chief also doubts Murderbot's investigative skills.
"Yes, I've had experience with investigating suspicious fatalities in controlled circumstances."
Indah's gaze wasn't exactly skeptical. "What controlled circumstances?"
I said, "Isolated work installations."
Her expression turned even more grim. "Corporate slave labor camps."
I said, "Yes, but if we call them that, Marketing and Branding gets angry and we get a power surge through our brains that fries little pieces of our neural tissue."
Of course, Murderbot is leery of Station Security as well, since, you know, they're humans. And getting along with humans is not something Murderbot was programmed for.
I didn't make an expression because I knew Indah would be more annoyed by me not reacting than by me reacting.
But Murderbot and the Station Security personnel try to make the most of a situation that neither side wants to be involved with to solve the case.
Fugitive Telemetry is another solid entry in a fantastic series. However, I don't expect a series of cozy mysteries involving Murderbot to become a thing. ;-)
4 stars
\_/
DED
