by Clay Moore
“Have you calculated our Hyper plot back to Eridani.”
“I have been keeping it updated once you began your blood bath.”
“Put us in space.”
“We are free to go. Here we go into space.”
Brian stood in the grand salon and watched them rising through the personal slips until they burst into the full light of day. They kept rising until the blue turned to gray and then the black of space.
Then the ship rotated to put them on the recommended course. Amarantha then fired the ship’s engines. Then she turned up the speed. The Starship took off like a scared jackrabbit.
“Two hours till hyper.”
“You are authorized to hyper at the mark.”
Brian went back to the cargo bay. He picked up his briefcase, suitcase and put them on the luggage lift. He spent the next hour or so putting things away. Brian put the cash in the ship’s locker. Then he went to the pilot’s locker and took out one of the bottles of fine scotch. Brian put the scotch in the bar. Then he filled the ice cube tray with ice cubes. Brian Filled a glass tumbler with Ice and scotch. He sat down in a comfortable chair. Amarantha then announced, “Miss Kane is calling sir.”
“Put her on the projector in the grand salon.”
“Oh, there you are.”
“Kandace you know how expensive Hypercom call is when you add trid.”
“You’ll be amazed at how cheap the calls cost when one of your sponsors is Hypercom.” She tried to move a breast so he could see the Hypercom logo over the left chest.
“I am so glad this week is over. I get to stay the week at home. I can call your apartment home?”
“Certainly, and please do so,” said Brian. I am going to be there in a couple of days.”
“So, am I.”
“I think I need you and your effervescence right about now.”
Kandace smiled at him. She traveled first class, so she had a stateroom of some size on the liner. She took off her shirt and sat there in her brassiere
“Does that help?”
Brian smiled and chuckled.
“I see that did not help much.” She reached behind her and undid her Bra. She held up her hands to hike up her breasts.
The sight was so Kandace that Brian laughed harder. Yes, he thought, he needed a lick of Kandi now.
“Thank you, Kandace.”
“Did something not go right with your plans?”
“Everything went right. Just something came up that I did not foresee.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t want to ruin your day and your victory.”
“How did you know I won.” She looked behind her. “You saw my trophy. I call this trophy the crystal dildo.”
Brian looked at it and realized that it could be used as such if that is your bent. She even went so far has to take off her shorts and panties and demonstrate it. Apparently, Kandace caught sight of what Kandace looked like in a mirror somewhere. She fell off the trophy and laughed. Brian laughed with her.
“Something good happened to you today, as well as the bad. The question is what the net result is? Good or bad?”
“It is a net good. I have to hyper in a few minutes. Thank you for calling.”
“A Carla called me to see if I could make your mood better.
“I’ll tell her 'thank you when I see her.”
“I almost got jealous when I saw her. She’s a good looking woman for an older woman.”
“She’s my boss.”
“She sounds like she has a head on her shoulders.”
“Yeah, she does. I guess command does that to you. There’s the warning tone.” Suddenly the hyper signal was cut.
LUNCHTIME NEWS
Anton Hecton was in heaven. His personal Assistant was giving him her particular attention. The fact that he had to have his pants down around his ankle. She was naked because of where this session was going. In the midst of this bliss Hecton’s office, Trid came one. The Planetary Interests computers did that when it found something important that they have to see.
Hecton stood up. His Assistant sat in a chair. She was still hoping that she would get made love to.
He knew that he was looking at the smelter. The roof looked as if something big sat on the roof and dented it. Then while he was watching it, the roof collapsed into the smelter.
A few seconds later he got the com call. From Andrea. He walked over to the desk and lifted his desk com.
“Hecton, here.”
“What am I watching?”
“The destruction of our smelter. This has to be that Eridani agent.”
“Why? It’s insured.”
“Has someone gone down to the warehouse, Andrea?”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
Ten minutes later Hecton was listening to the sad news about the gold. All one million ounces was gone from the warehouses. There was an order from Dag Dankly to give the transport people the gold. These guys knew what they were doing, according to the warehouse guard.
Hecton put himself back in his pants. He repaired the damage to his shirt done by his hot little number. Then he combs back his slicked back hair. Then he walked to Andrea’s Office.
He walked into Andrea's office suite. The Personal Assistant pointed to Andrea's office proper. Anton walked into Andrea's office.
Anton noticed that there was a naked boy with a huge tool. Andrea must have sent someone to Giesling and acquired the boy. The boy had been tumescent, and now he is losing the mood.
“What does this mean?”
“The destruction of the smelter and the removal of all that gold is Eridani’s way of saying leave the gold alone. All the other planets have let Eridani set the value of gold. And during that period we have had unprecedented stability and economic growth.”
“So?”
“So, we better not do anything to the gold.”
The Trid came on one more time. A flying video of Dag’s house. You could see a girl’s naked pelvis. There was a single shot to the head. Then the camera zoomed in on Dag’s body. His penis and scrotum had been removed. The Flashie pointed out that they were in Dag’s mouth. The guards died with a single round each.
“Now what is the message?”
“There is two madame. The first one is that this is what Eridani does to anyone who mines Eridani. The second is that what happened to Dag is what happens to rapists. This is a personal message from the Agent.”
“Do you think they know it was us?”
“Almost certainly.”
“Should we move assets?”
“If we move, that will be an admission of guilt. If we stay on Eridani, there will be surveillance like you’ve never known. Eventually, we will be able to move. If we time it right, we can blame Eridani for disliking us.”
“I sent one of my assassins to Shoot the son of a bitch.”
“Andrea. The man you wanted to kill is here on Alphacent.”
“Oh. Bother. I can’t recall Pris.”
Anton chuckled. “I sent Harminio. He reports that he has a young lady on the hook. Maybe we might get someone in the inner circle.”
“That won’t happen. I don’t know what you see in Harminio.”
“He does get results.”
“What happens if my sniper takes out what she thinks is one of these super agents?”
“Pris?”
“Yes.”
The second she fires her rifle they will have her. If she is caught alive, she will have to stand for an interrogation. She is not going to have any rights either. They may just kill her.
“If she is dead they will go over her hotel room. If she did not follow proper procedure, she might have left incriminating evidence.”
“Eridani may force us into white revenue. They will make it impossible for us to make black income, and black revenue is much more profitable.
“How has the Pink Pagoda club been faring.”
“I found a source of compliant hosts a
nd hostesses.”
“Really?”
Anton took in a breath. The man who runs the first club has twenty of them working the club. At two hundred a throw we make fifteen thousand a night.”
“Lord.”
“That’s not counting food and drink.”
“And they are truly compliant?”
“I’ve not had one of them refuse me.”
“You’ve sampled the wares.”
Anton smiled at her.
“Well,” said Andrea, “let’s hope that Eridani does not get wind of any of our black operations.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Faster, Faster, Must Go Faster
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT?
Julie got out of her Grav-car. She walked through a mostly empty Headquarters. The night agents were here processing information and giving information to anyone out in the field. She never in her life thought that she would ever see the frogs of the night show. That is what they called themselves, the night analysts. She sat down at her desk Digging through her purse for the datastick. She left the datastick on her desk.
Dan walked into Julie's office. He unlocked the communicating door between Julie’s office and his office. He went into his office
Julie heard someone bumbling in Brian’s office. She opened the door on two Building workers. They brought up a cot and linens for her. They even brought a dress and new underwear. There was clothing that was stored until needed like right now.
She stood for a moment and looked at the dress. Whoever chose this dress for her knew her well enough. The dress had a blue and green floral pattern. The material was very smooth and soft. She touched the dress still wondering who got it for her.
“That’s Brian,” said Dan.
Julie turned to Dan. “What do you mean?”
“We were shown our personal assistant during the latter part of our training. From sight only we were supposed to select a dress for you to wear if something were to happen to your other dress. I take it you approve?
“Yes, I do approve.”
“Good, because you’re not going home until this is resolved. Is there anyone I need to call on your behalf.”
“Sadly, no. Kinda hard to talk about what I do at the Pendit corporation.”
“I’ve tried to make a go of a relationship. I think Brian has the formula. He’s seeing Miss Kane, the pro golfer.”
“He never told me.”
“Are you jealous?”
“No, I am his Personal Assistant. I am supposed to know his personal stuff. Why is seeing Miss Kane probably the best for him?”
“Miss Kane is a pro golfer.”
“There are a lot of lady pro golfers.”
“No this is Kandi Kane who competes with the men and wins. Last season she cashed on every tournament she played. She won four of the tournaments. She also won the top money winner.”
“Then why is she perfect for him?”
“He is in a profession where he suddenly goes off and then comes back. Kandace goes off to a tournament, wins, and then comes back.”
“Kandace”
“Yes?”
“Kandi Kane?”
“Yes, your boss is dating the number one party girl of the colonies. Although this time she did not do any of her party stunts. Could there be love between them?”
“I think that is enough.”
“I think so too. Especially since I called some heavy duty Datasleazes to help with looking at the contents of that datastick.”
Three men entered Julie’s office. They wore t-shirts with pictures and mottos on them
“The guy with the slack face and ‘Ok, gosh’ attitude is Franklin Wellington, probably the best DataSleaze. He’s also the guy who wrote all of our datasleaze tools.”
“Julie Brio.” He shook her hand. Then he seemed to blush.
Dan continued with the introductions “This guy with the Limex Rugby Union shirt is Fenton Horey. He had written the book on device based penetrations.”
“Julie Brio.” Again there was that shy handshake.
“This last guy with the wild hair is Herbert Higgins. He is the authority on software-based intrusions. Brian and I use a lot of his work in the field.”
“Julie Brio.” She offered her hand. Herbert took it and then dropped her hand. These were an antisocial lot, except antisocial meant all people. These men were either afraid of women or unaccustomed to their presence. As she worked through the introductions in her mind, she realized that they were not accustomed to having women present.
The men were geniuses. Men like to talk about their work. For these men talking about their work would soon involve concepts they knew so well and would make no sense to most women. Right then and there she would find females that would understand what these men were doing and maybe help them.
“So you see our problem. I don’t want to plug this into my terminal. I don’t think it could do anything unless it forged its own certificate.”
“Let’s try it on a dummy,” said Fenton.
“I thought so,” said Dan. He took a slate, colored gray, from the top drawer in his desk. He handed Fenton the dummy Slate. Then Dan gave him the questionable datastick. Without any fanfare, he slotted the Datastick in the dummy. Fenton’s eyes lifted as he read the numbers. That brought the other two. They traded a lot of words which went beyond Julie. Dan came and sat next to Julie.
“I’ve had word from Brian. He is aware of what is happening and how you handled it. His only words to you are, ‘Do you want to become a special agent?’”
Julie laughed. “That’s so like him. He knows what to say to lighten my mood.”
“Yeah. Brian is in hyperspace right now. On the last hyper, when he exits Brian will be on the Eridani Heliopause. Three hours after that he lands. Thirty minutes after that he will be in Headquarters.”
“He doesn’t want to miss on any action,” said Julie.
“Especially when it is happening to one’s assistant. You are supposed to be here and safe, not squashing intruders.”
Julie laughed a little harder. If Brian made it here in time, Brian would want to take the lead in any interrogation. She had never before been to an interrogation. This time she would have the inner strength to go through the whole process.
“Okay,” said Fenton, “we added this little snake in our definitions. We are clear through the whole length of the network. That is good news. Now we need payload. He wanted an employee manual. Does anyone have a non-top-secret document?”
Julie decided to do a little educating. “This is Z Agent land. By definition, anything they write is classified Top Secret. Even a shopping list is Top Secret. You should read Brian’s mash note to Kandace, and -yep- it is top secret.”
Fenton looked at the other Data Sleazers. Finally, Herbert raised his hand.
“Well What is it,” said Fenton.
Sheepishly Herbert showed the face of his Slate. The other two Data Sleazers started laughing uncontrollably.
“Why the humor.” Herbert showed her the face of his slate. On the screen was the cover of the most recent issue of Splendid Man. Now She saw the humor.
“Yes, if he escapes he will have a copy of Splendid Man,” said Dan. “This will make an interesting Training scenario. Transfer the issue to the datastick.”
Herbert made a flicking motion to the dummy Slate. Fenton removed the datastick. Dan took charge of the datastick and handed it to Julie. She put the datastick in her purse.
Dan ushered the Data Sleazers out of the office. Then he made up the cot for her. She looked at how Dan made it up. He apparently was not a member of the little campers.
Dan stood, a little uncertain. “I don’t know how Brian would have run this operation.”
“I don’t think he would know either. If I know him I know, that he will take the hand that’s been Dealt him. He won’t complain. I bet that he will ask you to help in the final moments. Maybe in the interrogations as well.”
“The picture th
at you paint is closer to the truth. Julie, I want you protected, so I am asking you to stay in Headquarters. The Kitchens open at 5 AM. Order yourself a breakfast. If you want to take a shower, they are on the twelfth floor. Unfortunately, they are Unisex. You will be showering with men and women.. Shower things are in the clear plastic Dopp kit.”
“Where do we need shower Dopp kits?”
“In the Cells below the Quartermaster. We have enough room to house twenty-five criminals. Tomorrow we are going to add our first one.”
“Umm, there’s no pajamas.”
Dan looked around and discovered that there were no women’s PJs.
“It’s okay, Dan. I can sleep in my birthday suit.”
“Thank you. We wrote all this Headquarters stuff. We did not have any women Special Agents to help with PJs and some other things.”
“It’s okay Dan. I’d like to get some sleep. She locked both doors to Brian’s office. Then she stripped down to her birthday suit. She got into the cot and covered herself with the sheet and blanket. Then she promptly fell asleep.
FASTER, FASTER, MUST GO FASTER
Brian did the one thing that Amarantha can’t do. He filled out the logs that were contained on his Slate. Brian Thought that the Colonial Pilot Association did it to prevent those people who might have never seen the forms ever. Sometimes the CPA was an anal retentive prick.
Brian wanted people who actually piloted their craft to be in the skies. Brian knew the laws of physics. Wishing it so was not going to change the space-time in the least bit. Sitting in his pilot’s couch was not going to do anything faster.
Brian slid his seat back. He got up from his chair and walked out of the cockpit. As he passed the entertainment system and played Kandace’s last round. She had just made a Hole in one on the twelfth hole. Kandace always said, “Sometimes the skill doesn’t work. That is when being lucky is a useful thing.”
He could tell by her face Kandi was just as surprised as the rest of the viewing public, including one member of the people who got to see her naked much more than her mother did. Brian just realized how much in bad taste that was. Kandi’s mother died from a fast developing cancer. Harry was both father and mother. He often wondered how the day that he had to shop for bras for his daughter. He would have to ask Harry the next time he saw him and the subject came up.