Milky Way Repo

by Michael Prelee

  Kimiyo and Arulio walked into the room with Montario behind them. The leader of the cult was smiling from ear to ear and had a large duffel in his hand. “Captain Teller,” he said, “we are finished here. You can collect the crew of the Charon and be on your way.” He handed Nathan a tablet. “Here is the tracking data on the starship. Thank you for your assistance.”

  Nathan turned to Kimiyo. “Are you both okay? Did anything happen to Arulio?”

  She nodded. “We’re fine. I’ll tell you about it on the ship. Let’s just get going.”

  “Thanks again,” Montario said, “and please let Saji know that I’m glad he worked with us. I’m glad this went as well as it did.”

  “Yeah,” Cole said, “I’m sure he’ll appreciate that. You may want to look over your shoulder for the rest of your life. I understand he can hold a grudge.”

  “Believe me,” Montario said, “that won’t be a problem.” He edged toward the door. “I guess this is goodbye.”

  Caleb burst into the room on the opposite side, behind Nathan’s group. Montario got a puzzled look on his face as he saw him over their shoulders. The man was sweaty and pale. They all turned to look at him.

  “What have you done, Montario?” Caleb said. “You’ve killed us all.”

  25.

  The room split in who they were looking at. Half turned toward Montario and the rest stared at Caleb. Then they switched, like it was tennis match. Cole sidled around the room toward Caleb. Nathan looked from Caleb to Montario. “What’s he talking about?”

  Montario grimaced. “Caleb, this is not the time or the place. I’ll talk to you in a bit.”

  “When?” Caleb said. “I can see that you’re packed, Montario. I can see that you’re leaving.” He gestured toward Nathan. “Is this who you are leaving with? Are they in on it?”

  Nathan put a hand up. “Hold on, buddy. We aren’t in on anything and this guy isn’t going anywhere with us. He is not our passenger.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  “You’ll have to speak with Montario about that,” Nathan said. He turned to Celeste. “Get your crew together, we’re leaving.”

  “Hold on,” Caleb said. “No one is going anywhere. Not until I get some answers.”

  “I believe we’ll do what we want,” Cole said. Caleb turned and looked at him, noticing for the first time how close he was.

  “Look,” Nathan said, “We don’t know who you are or what your beef is with this guy,” he jerked a thumb at Montario. “Our job here is done and we’re leaving.”

  Celeste was still standing near the couch, looking unsure. Her eyes flickered between Montario and Nathan. “Are we in danger?” She said.

  “You’re fine,” Nathan said. “But I need you to get your crew so we can take off.”

  Celeste looked at Montario. “Are we in some kind of danger?”

  “No,” Montario said.

  “Why are you asking him?” Nathan said. “All you have to do is get your crew and your stuff and fly out of here with us. Let’s get it done, okay?”

  “No one is leaving until this is settled,” Caleb said. “Your ship is locked down on the landing pad.”

  Montario dropped his duffel. “Come on, Caleb. Cut the drama, huh? All of this has nothing to do with you. This is business between us,” he pointed at himself and Arulio. “Besides, we can’t even lock down the landing pads.”

  Caleb walked toward Montario and smiled. “You know, I’ve always been amazed at how you ran this place but never really understood how anything worked. You just leave everything to the mid-level managers.”

  “It’s called delegating.”

  “It’s called being a lazy ass,” Caleb said, his voice rising. “Of course you don’t know the landing pad can be locked down. Did you know we have around ten thousand members on eight different planets and colonies? Did you know we are the leading business concern on this colony? Did you know we haven’t paid a dime in taxes in more than twenty years?”

  Montario stepped closer to Caleb. “What makes you think I care? I never had to know any of that. All I needed to do was point you or some other lifer at a problem and I knew you would take care of it.”

  Caleb took another step toward Montario. The space between them could be measured in inches now. Montario was slightly taller but Caleb was stockier. “Montario, do you really think I hung around here for twenty years because I like the program? Don’t get me wrong, I like the girls and the work isn’t all that hard but you’re so shallow you’ve never really looked into things. Did it really never occur to you that me and the other lifers were here for a good reason?”

  Montario threw his hands up. “Fine, Caleb, tell us why. What’s the big secret that keeps you here when you could have gone off and done so much more?”

  “Oh, crap,” Celeste whispered.

  “The money, Montario. I stayed for the gobs of cash that run through this place without anyone really looking too carefully. You and all the other leaders just drop in, run things for a few years, skimming off a percentage while we do all the hard work. You all think you’re so smart and all the while each of you have missed the big picture.”

  “What big picture, Caleb?”

  “Nathan,” Celeste said. “I want to go. Now.”

  Nathan held up his phone. “We can’t. I had Duncan check things out. This guy really does have the landing pad locked down.”

  “I really want to leave,” she said. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”

  He shrugged. “I have Duncan working on it. He’ll get us loose. Just stay cool.”

  “The money, Montario,” Caleb said. “It washes through this place like a river.”

  “Yeah, well we have a cleaning company, farming concerns and a dozen other little service companies we use for fund raisers.”

  Caleb smiled. “What about money laundering, Montario?”

  The room went quiet. Everyone looked at Montario. Nathan spoke first. “Money laundering for who, Caleb?”

  He spun toward Nathan. “Oh, now you’re interested in talking to me?”

  “What do you mean money laundering?” Montario said. “Who do we launder money for, Caleb? What are you up to?”

  Caleb smiled and walked around Montario. He took a seat on one of the sofas. “I’m not up to anything Montario. Do you really not understand how all this works?” He spread his arms wide. “Laundering money is what this group has always been about. It’s why we exist. This whole scam was started for the express purpose of being a front for organized crime.”

  Nathan sat down across from Caleb on one of the other sofas. “You mean the Syndicate? Like organized crime?”

  “Hell yeah, I mean the Syndicate,” Caleb said. “Do you know many other people who need large scale money laundering?”

  Nathan turned to Montario. “Sit down, slick. We have a lot to discuss.”

  Montario picked up his bag. “No we don’t. Our deal was you bring the wetjack to do something for me and I release the body barge and its crew. That’s what we did. We’re done and I’m gone.” He turned to walk out of the room and Cole grabbed him by his collar and the waistband of his pants. He shoved the con artist hard into the conversation pit and threw him onto the sofa next to Caleb.

  “You aren’t going anywhere until this is settled,” Cole said.

  Montario started to get up but Caleb put a hand on his shoulder. “You really don’t want to leave, Montario. You need to help fix this mess you made. In fact, you may be the only one who can.”

  “How did you know?” Montario said. “How did you know the money was gone?”

  Nathan’s eyes narrowed. “What money?”

  Caleb turned to him. “You don’t know? You hauled these two,” he pointed at Arulio and Kimiyo, “all the way here from Earth and you didn’t know why? Come on, you don’t expect me to believe that.”

  Nathan sat back in the sofa. “This idiot,” he said, pointing to Montario, “somehow managed to capture the body barge an
d its crew. His ransom was the services of a wetjack. We provided transportation for Arulio and Kimiyo. I assumed money was involved, or information, but until just now we didn’t know what he wanted. So, if he’s done something ridiculously stupid, like stolen from the syndicate, I would just as soon take my ship, crew and passengers and leave before they start asking questions.”

  Caleb held up his phone. “It’s too late to leave, captain. I got a message the moment the account for the Children of the Apocalyptic Rainbow holding the laundered funds was accessed for more than one hundred thousand credits. That message blasted out to me and a dozen other people. I can assure you, they are on their way here right now.”

  “How much did he take?” Celeste said. She looked frightened. Hell, she sounded frightened. Nathan felt bad for her. The last couple years had seen her divorce, lose a cruise line job, pilot the body barge, get kidnapped and now, when freedom was near, she was wrapped up in this mess.

  Caleb looked at her with a leer. “Sweetheart, this guy was trying to walk out of here with twenty-three million credits. I doubt you or your ship full of dead bodies is worth that.”

  Cole cuffed him on the back of the head. “Watch how you talk to the lady.”

  Caleb turned to him. “You think you’re tough? Wait until my friends get here; then we’ll see.”

  “Maybe we will,” Cole said. He clearly didn’t care about Caleb or his friends.

  Nathan waved his hands. “Wait a minute. How does a cult come to have twenty-three million credits? There’s no way you have that many trust fund babies running around here and I don’t think cleaning services pay that well.”

  Caleb looked at Montario. “Tell him. Tell him how we came to have that much money on hand.”

  Montario sat quietly. “Well, I don’t know exactly.”

  “Oh, really?” Caleb said. “That’s shocking.” He moved closer to Montario. “Let’s face it, you’re just a con man and you got this gig from the last idiot we let sleep in the big bedroom.”

  Montario held up his hands. “It was supposed to be a good gig. Skim a little off and enjoy the fruits of everyone’s labors. Then…” He let his head drop.

  “Then you found the big account,” Caleb said. “The one you should never have seen.”

  “Yeah,” he said.

  “How?”

  Montario shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Come on,” Nathan said. “Let’s hear it. This could be important.”

  “It was a girl, wasn’t it?” Caleb said. “You’ve had a steady stream of them going through your room since you got here. One of them said something, right?”

  Montario looked up and shot a quick glance at Celeste. “Yeah, it was Jennifer. She does the books and found a record for deposits in the account and thought it looked odd.”

  “And once you saw how much was there you just had to get your hands on it, didn’t you?” Caleb said, his voice escalating.

  “Well that wasn’t nearly as important as I thought it would be,” Nathan said. “How did you get the money, Caleb? How does a cult amass that kind of cash and not draw attention?”

  Caleb gave him a sideways glance, like Nathan had insulted his mother. “We’re a religion, not a cult. We do some good work here. People get their lives back together. People find a purpose here. They get cleaned up and start over. It’s not all a scam.”

  Nathan sighed. “My apologies. Now, how did you get the money? Are you ripping people off on the cleaning?”

  Caleb sat back. “I can’t talk about it. Not with you guys. This has been a very profitable operation until now.”

  Cole cuffed him on the back of the head, harder this time. “Answer the question or I’m going start using something other than my hand.”

  Caleb rubbed the back of his head and started to get up, then stopped when he saw Cole’s face. “Okay! That’s enough of that.” He sat down and looked at Nathan who was staring calmly at him.

  “You know how money laundering works, right? The basics?”

  Nathan nodded. “I think so. You use a legitimate company to clean up illegitimate earnings. Funnel money earned through crimes into a business so it comes out clean on the other side.”

  “Right,” Caleb said. “So, the syndicate owns shell companies, lots of them. All designed to be legitimate. They all do real business; restaurants, manufacturing, retail and wholesale supplies.”

  “Okay.”

  “Well, some of those businesses exist and some don’t, see? Some just exist on paper, owned by the syndicate. We bill those companies for cleaning services and hospitality services. Those companies pay us with syndicate money.”

  “That makes sense,” Cole said. “When I was a marshal we chased quite a few syndicate guys who pulled scams like this. How does the syndicate get their money from the Children of the Apocalyptic Rainbow?”

  “The syndicate owns a wholesale cleaning supply company. We buy all of our cleaning products from them. In order to get them their money we order twice what we really need, they deliver half the order. The wholesale company doctors the paperwork to make it look like they shipped us the whole order. They keep the credits for the supplies that were never delivered and the money is clean. They do the same thing with a hospitality company for linens and other supplies.”

  “That’s incredible,” Nathan said. “Does that really work?”

  “It’s worked for decades,” Caleb said. “The balance in that account goes up and down as we bill nonexistent customers and buy nonexistent supplies. All Montario had to do was wait until the shell companies paid us and grab the money before we paid the wholesale company.”

  “Arulio?” Nathan said.

  Kimiyo nodded. “He had Arulio hack into the bank and take the money.”

  “Then Arulio needs to put it back,” Nathan said.

  “Quite impossible, Captain Teller,” Arulio said. Everyone looked at him. “The funds were transferred to ten other accounts set up ahead of time. The banks and investment houses are split between planets in two solar systems. Even I cannot hack into that many locations and retrieve the funds. Certainly not before this gentleman’s business associates arrive.”

  “What about after they arrive? Perhaps we could cut a deal for time.”

  Cole shook his head. “No way will the syndicate let us go, Nathan. We know too much about their operation. They’ll kill us, torture Montario until he transfers the funds back where they belong, kill him after he’s done and probably do unspeakable things to Caleb for letting this happen in the first place. We need to get out of here. Is Duncan having any luck?”

  “He’s still working on it,” Nathan said. He looked at his phone but there were no new messages.

  “Swell,” Cole said. He shifted his gaze to Caleb. “Unlock the pad. You locked it down, you unlock it.”

  “No,” Caleb said.

  Montario looked at him. “Caleb, I have to tell you, you’re not negotiating from a position of strength here. These syndicate guys play rough, I know. I’ve had dealings with them before. It’s better to leave now and take our chances on our own than wait for them.”

  “My instructions were clear in this situation,” Caleb said. “If the perpetrators could be delayed, I was to delay them.” He looked at Cole. “I don’t need to worry about the syndicate. You do. You stole their money. I’m just helping to clean up the mess.”

  Cole looked ready to explode. “In their eyes you allowed this to happen. Do you understand that?”

  “We’ll see,” Caleb said. He was smiling, smugly.

  Nathan held up a hand. “Forget about him. Let’s go outside and see what we can do to help Duncan.” He turned to Celeste. “Go get your crew together and tell them we’re leaving.”

  “Nathan,” Cole said, “If these guys are really on their way, the landing pad may not be the best place to be.”

  “I’m not hiding in here,” Nathan said. “We need to get away from here and figure out a solution. We need breathing r
oom. The Blue Moon Bandit is our only shot at doing that.”

  Celeste was just standing in the middle of the conversation pit, still looking scared. Nathan studied her for a moment. “Celeste? You really need to get moving. Can you do that?”

  She nodded but looked unsure. “I’ll get Captain Geechy and the others and meet you outside.”

  “What do you want me to do with these two?” Cole said, pointing at Caleb and Montario.

  “Do you have any restraints?”

  “Sure.”

  “Cuff them and leave them here,” Nathan said. “Let the two of them explain what they’ve done.”

  Caleb jumped up and moved away from Cole, trying to slide around a table in the middle of the sunken living room. Kimiyo slipped behind him and took hold of his wrist. She bent his arm back and pushed his hand up between his shoulder blades. Simultaneously, she kicked at the back of one of his knees and he dropped to the floor. She rolled him onto his back and dug a knee into the small of his back, immobilizing him.

  Montario jumped up and Cole caught him halfway off the couch. He shoved the con man face first onto the floor and straddled him from behind. He had the flexible restraints wrapped around his wrists in a few seconds. He got up, walked around the table and smiled at Kimiyo. “Nice job.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “I didn’t want him getting away.”

  “He wouldn’t have,” Cole said, kneeling down close to Caleb’s ear. “I would have shot him before he got out of the room.” He slipped the restraints around Caleb’s wrists and left him lying between the table and couch. He got up and helped Kimiyo stand.

  “All set here, Nathan.”

  “Good,” Nathan said. “Why don’t you escort Kimiyo and Arulio out to the ship. I’ll help Celeste get her crew together because she still isn’t moving.”

  Celeste seemed to wake up at that. “Yeah, okay. I’m okay. Let’s go.”

  26.

  The rain was light when Cole led Kimiyo and Arulio outside. The afternoon sky was still dark, though, with thick, slate gray clouds blanketing the sky. As soon as they broke from the cover of the Children of the Apocalyptic rainbow temple, Cole scanned the area, moving his eyes from side to side. The Blue Moon Bandit was directly ahead on the launch pad. He could see heavy metal clamps anchored in the tarmac holding down the four landing gear struts. These were the landing pad lockdown devices. They looked remarkably solid.