The Detective

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The Detective
DET-EB-680-1.jpg
Title The Detective
Publisher Dark Øverlord Media
Published 2012
Pages 290
ISBN 978-0-9831963-9-6
Podcasted 8/4/2019 - Current
[ ScottSigler.com Page]

The Detective is a novella co-authored by author Matt Wallace and Scott Sigler. This novella is a spinoff of the character Frederico Esteban Giuseppe Gonzaga, introduced in The Starter.

Overview

GFL star Quentin Barnes is an orphan born into a culture that prizes family connections above all. He spent his youth struggling with poverty. When he signed his deal with the Ionath Krakens and became rich, one of the first things he did was hire a private detective to find out if his family is still alive.

The Detective is the story of that search, as seen through the eyes of Frederico Esteban Giuseppe Gonzaga — a.k.a. “Fred,” a master of disguise and a truly dangerous human. But Fred’s past is just as big a mystery as is the whereabouts of Quentin’s family. This gritty scifi/noir novel follows the tradition of ALTERED CARBON and BLADE RUNNER, giving you an anti-hero that won’t stop until the job is done.

THE DETECTIVE runs from roughly Week Seven of the 2683 regular season in The Starter (GFL Book II) through Week Ten of the 2684 regular season in The All-Pro (GFL Book III).

Plot

Structure

The Detective is told in seven books and takes place over the course of a year. Occasionally, the story elements weave directly back into scenes from The All-Pro, showing the same scene from a different perspective.

Overlapping Scenes

Detective Chapter The All-Pro Chapter Description
Quentin (Book III, Ch. 17) August 2683 (Ch. 2) Frederico flies to Wilson 6 to meet with Quentin Barnes. Fred wears a disguise as a nannite machine repairman, and meets Quentin at Smithwick's stadium during a Dinolition match.
Cillian (Book VII, Ch. 27) Week Eight: Bye (Ch. 18) Frederico has a holotank-call with Quentin Barnes, during which Quentin releases Fred from his obligation to locate Quentin's father. Gredok the Splithead has apparently already located Cillian Carbonaro and reunited the family members.
Torba (Book VII, Ch. 28) Week Ten: To Pirates at Ionath Krakens (Ch. 20) Frederico surprises Gredok and Quentin by presenting his sister, Jeanine Carbanaro.


Book I: The Mines of MICOVI

Frederico is undercover as Caleb Cole, a miner working for the Rhingold Incorporation mines on MICOVI. Fred is surreptitiously interrogating miners to find out information about Quentin Barnes' family. Having obtained as much information as he thinks he will get, he plans to leave the mine, but is confronted by Carny, a fellow miner who showed Caleb how to properly wield the tools of the mining trade. Carny properly deduces Caleb's imminent departure, and hopes for a quick fling before Caleb leaves, but Caleb firmly turns Carny down.

Fred has nightmare flashbacks of a time when a craft he was flying for the Purist Nation military was shot down and crashed. The sole survivor, Fred panicked when he heard someone approaching the wreckage. Setting upon them immediately, Fred quickly kills the intruder, discovering too late that the person was merely a scavenger, and not an enemy combatant. During his recounting of the nightmare, fred converses with The Loa, an imaginary character Fred has created to accompany him in his nightmares as a way to constantly remind him he is only dreaming.

Having exhausted his invesigations in the mines, Fred decides to meet with Sam "Mister Sam" Sargsyan, the restaraunter who took pity on a young Quentin Barnes and took on the responsibility of feeding the rapidly-growing child. Sam gives what information he can to Fred, and reveals that Yolanda Davenport was also just asking questions about Quentin's childhood on MICOVI. Unable to provide more details about Barnes' family, Sam suggests looking through the Micovi Raiders' files.

Fred gains entrance to the stadium's offices, and begins to copy what electronic information he can when he becomes aware that something is attempting to gain entrance to the same office via the ventilation ducts. Fred positions himself to be able to capture the intruder as soon as they gain entrance, and is somewhat surprised to capture Goolie, a notorious grease-man and intergalactically wanted assassin. Fred attempts to interrogate Goolie, but Goolie summons assistance, forcing Fred to flee with his purloined data.

Book II: Grim Tyrant Valley

In the guise of Nathanial Cornish, Sr., successful salesman of Magi Mining Supplies, Frederico uses the Micovi Stadium Inn as his base of operations. In order to preserve the cover of the salesman, Fred checks out of the Stadium Inn and into a cheap flophouse. "Nathanial Cornish, Sr.," however, leaves Micovi.

Fred reviews the data he stole from the stadium and discovers that Quentin Barnes' original name was Carbonaro. Realizing he will need to infiltrate the MICOVI archives to find more information about the family, he spends four days organizing the various components of his disguise kit and planning the clandestine infiltration.

During a dream/flashback Fred relives an episode of a time when he was in a mercenary group called Red Moon. While the majority of his group is being attended upstairs in a brothel, Fred abstains and remains downstairs. A bomb explodes, destroying nearly the entire brothel. As Rico picks through the ruins, he finds the remains of his dead company, nearly all the working girls, and what little remains of the girls' nursery, in which their children were kept while the mothers worked. The explosion, a retaliation by the very organization the mercs were hired to destroy, killed everyone without discrimination.

Easily bypassing the front-desk clerk at the MICOVI archives, he makes his way into the paper archives room, and finds the information he is looking for about the Carbonaro family. The information provided is not complete or correct, as they list Quentin as having died in 2671. Based on the record information, Quentin's father, Cillian Carbonaro, his mother, Constance Carbonaro, and his sister, Jeanine Carbonaro, may all still be alive.

Suddenly and swiftly attacked again by Goolie, Fred manages to get the better of the Harrah assassin. But while interrogating Goolie, another sentient attacks him from behind, gets him in a chokehold, and eventually renders Frederico unconscious. When he awakens, he discovers the paper records have been taken, but Frederico remembers the name of his next target: Alastair Britton, Grim Tyrant Valley sexton, the cemetery worker to whom the Carbonaro family remains were delivered.

Needing now to follow up with Britton, Fred enlists Carney to help him research the previously-unknown Jeanine, promising Carney a payout that will let him get off MICOVI for good.

Frederico manages to get to Alastair Britton before Goolie's goons, and takes off on a sand rail towards the burial location. Soon, they are intercepted, pursued and attacked by a larger, faster, more armored sand rail that uses an illegal plasma cannon. The brash and reckless use of technology further illustrates the desperation of Fred's pursuers, as their blatant use of contraband in the open risks bringing the Creterakians into the conflict.

Weighing the possibility of running across a live mine against the certainty of being caught and killed by their pursuers, Britton advises Frederico to head to the Elephant Graveyard, a weapons and shipping decommission dumpsite filled with hulking old shipwrecks as well as old weaponry that may or may not be deactivated. A glancing hit of the plasma cannon sends the sand rail flipping end over end, landing as another wrecked vehicle in the Elephant Graveyard.

Roused by the gravedigger, Fred sees their antagonists making their way through the graveyard looking for the two of them. The gravsled is beset upon by patrolling creterakians, who do not seem to be aware of Fred and the Gravedigger. After making sure the patrol has left, Fred and Britton clean the gravsled and head off to the actual human graveyard. After confirming that Britton knows the location in his head of the grave Fred is looking for, Britton leads them on a long hike until they stand in front of Constance Carbonaro's grave marker. Fred destroys the grave marker, confident in Britton's ability to locate it again if needed, and to further thwart whoever is trying so desperately to keep Fred from making progress.

Fred decides to contact Quentin and give him a status report, but first checks in at Mr. Sam's with Carney, to see if he has made any progress on finding information on Jeanine. Carney meets Fred at the restaurant, and produces a letter Jeanine wrote to her friend, detailing how Jeanine got aboard a freighter, made her way to the Jupiter Net Colony where she worked in a nightclub. Fred pays Carney for this time and trouble, though Carney is more interested in inviting Fred back to his place for the night. Turning Carney down once again, Fred boards a transport for Wilson 6 to meet up with Quentin.

Book III: Wilson 6

Book IV: Jupiter

Book V: MICOVI

Book VI: Ionath

Book VII: 2684 Season, Week Six

Main Characters

Name Information
Frederico Esteban Giuseppe Gonzaga Private Investigator
Carney Rhingold Corporation miner on MICOVI
Sam "Mister Sam" Sargsyan Purist nation BBQ Restaurant Franchise owner

Release Schedule

Digital editions

Cover Art Edition Country Release Date
DET-EB-680-1.jpg
eBook United States October 22, 2012
Detective-audiobook.jpg
Audiobook United States December 29, 2015
Detective-audiobook.jpg
Podcast United States August 4, 2019

Related Stories

Frederico Esteban Giuseppe Gonzaga appears in nearly every Galactic Football League Universe story.

GFL Novellas by Scott Sigler

Title Fight • The Reporter • The Detective • The Rider • The Reef • The Stone Wolves