Murder in the Fabric

George was dwarfed by the wall sized display with surveillance and analysis from all over Melbourne. A self driving car, a murder so sophisticated that even with all this it might have escaped notice. An employee of a Chinese security company. Surprisingly uncooperative. What did it have to do with the return of Mia, a mysterious hacker? It certainly was a city with murderous secrets.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.