George Kostas Series

As the legend of George grew, he knew that it was his use of the wall, the technology, that drove his success rate in murder clearances. Melbourne 2020. Prosperous, but tense. The skyline at any time of the day or night littered with drones. Almost of all of them linked back to police headquarters in Docklands. Everyone called it the “fun palace” as a testament to it’s architecture. He had a bad feeling about this one. It was so sophisticated. So elaborate. More worthy of an international terror ring than a domestic murder. A middle level employee in a Chinese security company, making inroads. If it was about competition from another company, then surely this was overkill? The wall pointed to the real estate business. More expensive than New York, but more dynamic. No real space left in New York to build something new. You had to knock something down. Here there were the suburbs. Home to the famed “lifestyle”. They had it, and they were going to hold on to it. A city has to work, though. New people. New money. New developers. Mostly Chinese money. The wall seemed very interested in the tactics of the developers. They seemed to have ways of clearing large areas just in time for their apartment building to commence. The wall also pointed to the hackers. To the group CtrlX, and to Mia. Having spent most of the last decade drifting from one Asian metropolis to another, with a range of shady activities in her resume, all of a sudden she was back. She seemed to have the ability to move around the city without leaving a trace. George decided to start with the victim, his family and associates.

It dropped vertically, fast enough to almost look as if it was falling, uncannily like the swoop of a bird of prey, to be hovering directly above his head but slightly to one side. Still transfixed, he did not connect it with danger. Quickly it aligned itself with his shoulders. The worm drive expanded the diameter of the wire, making sure there was plenty of margin to pass over his head. No hesitation now, it dropped and the terrible chatter began. An insistent “clack clack clack” as the metal teeth pulled the wire. The worm drive doing its terrible work. It first jiggled itself to make sure that the wire was where it should be. There was a fleeting moment where he could have put his hands inside the wire, but it was simply too fast for him. His neighbor, Elise Watts, chose this moment to exit her apartment and walk across the garden to the car park. She saw Geoffrey fall to the ground, for no apparent reason.He could not breathe. It was tight around his windpipe. He grabbed at the drone, trying to shake it off him. Trying to damage it, to just make it stop. Managing only to damage one rotor blade. One of four. Then it was all over. The wire tightened, severing his windpipe, and a major artery. As Elise ran towards him, it spurted like a hose cut with a knife. A burst, then another. The drone having completed its mission let one end of the wire go. Flailing across the ground, struggling to gain altitude with only three rotors working it limped. In a matter of seconds it was out of sight. She ran to his side. For a fleeting moment, she could see signs of life in his eyes. Trying to grab at his neck to stem the flow. So much blood. He looked as if he was about to say something, strained to hear. Then he was gone.

George was always an enthusiastic adopter of the technology. But now it has brought him grief. His fame was always problematic. Now he has gone to extremes to put an end to it. Will he return? Alice and Henrik, the new recruit, struggle with the case. While the new systems are excellent at the mundane cases, this case leaves it without answers. The complete absence of a motive stalls the investigation. Whilst the technology is useful, the team is increasingly uneasy. Too much reliance on technology can lead to unexpected places. The deeper they dig, the darker the picture appears. “Shark Pool” is the third in the George Kostas series: following “Murder in the Fabric” and “Nemesis”. All fall into the category of urban crime fiction. They are all set in Melbourne, Australia.