Robber Baron

by Wil C. Fry

  We popped up into the sky above the bank, and I punched two more keys on my control panel. I then wrapped my right arm around my girl, to give the left arm a little relief. We floated forward and down, heading for the alley where we had parked the lorry, dropping slowly due to the setting on the machine. Just before we landed, the power in my a-grav unit cut out. We dropped the last four feet as if we were rocks. I banged into the side of the lorry, still supporting Destiny.

  I let go of her and my bags and ripped the key out from under my arm, getting the tape stuck to my gloves. I hopped in the driver's seat and turned the key while Destiny tossed the bags in the back. When I heard her yell, "Go!" I went, pulling out onto the street, just as people were walking around the corner, curious as to where we had disappeared. Most of these pedestrians had their eyes pointed to the sky, and barely had time to fallout of the way when I powered the lorry past them.

  Taking every possible turn between the bank and the grocery store, I kept my speed up, but not too high. I didn't want to end up like my parents, a bloody burning pulp smeared across ghastly wreckage.

  "Get ready, girl!" I hollered back to Destiny when I saw the store approaching. I brought that lorry to a lurching halt next to her car, and then pivoted it, so the back door would be right against her car's rear hatch. I left the key in the ignition, and hopped out to join her. I still didn't hear any sirens. There were a couple of people coming out of the grocery store, but they were looking out toward the parking lot and didn't see us. During the drive, I had put my control module back in place, and buttoned the lower button of my vest, so we probably didn't look too suspicious, except that we were moving pretty quickly. In the Cyr Luxury Sport, there is only a small storage space behind the two seats, and Destiny's duffel bag already occupied half of that space. We crammed two moneybags back there, and the other two rode with me in the passenger seat. When we pulled out of the parking lot in her car, I looked at my watch.

  "Girl, that was fast! Look at that, five minutes and ten seconds!"

  She ignored me as she pulled out into traffic, hurriedly making several turns. After that, we just blended in with the traffic, heading due south.

  *

  Persiphone has six continents, more than most of the planets that humans occupy; Turner's Planet, for instance, has only one major land mass, covering just more than half of the planet's surface area, and two large islands that don't really qualify. Grorange also only has one continent, but it's not that big. Poois is named for its lack of landmass: Planet Of One ISland. Tuf has four continents, and two major islands. Willsworld has three continents.

  Tarkin, our hometown, is on Persiphone's largest landmass - Alana - and just south of that continent is Basplace, owned in its entirety by the Cyr Corporation. South of Basplace is Ostrollia, presently uninhabited. Just west of these last two, is another empty continent, Lichten. Keep going west and you'll run into the southern tip of the long, skinny continent, called Vertiga, where Batesville is. From the northern tip of that beanpole continent, go back east, and you'll find the sixth landmass, known as Troller. Go east again, and you've come back to Alana, completing the square. Except that planets are round.

  So, from Batesville, you could keep going west, and circle the globe, and run into the eastern edge of Alana. But we decided to go back pretty much the way we had come, since the police would be looking for the lorry. And would find the lorry. Then they would check its registration, and find the Townsends. They would probably find that it had been reported stolen earlier in the day, and find no fingerprints, or any other identifying marks, except the new power cell, which had been wiped clean of prints. I'm sure the Townsends would appreciate that new addition.

  After we came out of the south end of Batesville, we turned west just long enough to get to the mountains, and then went north. After our mileage indicator said we had traveled north past Batesville's latitude, we looped back east, keeping the car low to the ground, soon slipping out over the ocean. We kept edging to the north, until we saw the southern tip of Troller, then curved back southward, completing our arc back to Tarkin. That sporty little car had the luxury of a planetary map in its computer, so we didn't get too far off track. We left Batesville at 9:30 or so in the morning, and made it back to Tarkin in about five hours. When you tack on the nine hours for the time zone change, it was after midnight in Tarkin, but we had only been awake for six or seven hours. So we got another hotel in Tarkin, and celebrated for the rest of the night.

  *

  The take came to more than three million newdollars. Added to our previous "earnings" and split fifty-fifty between us, my half came to more than 2.5 million. And I was only fifteen years old.

  This time, we buried the money, along with some of the previous take that I could sneak out of my mansion. We did it the next weekend, after school ended for the summer. We drove into the Cloudy Mountains in the northeastern region of Alana, memorized the exact location off the satellite tracker in Destiny's car, and buried almost four million newdollars in six waterproof bags.

  We each still had more than a half million still hidden in my room in Harry's mansion, and we tried to be careful as to how we spent it. But the money in the ground wasn't there very long.

  Five

  "I think we could all use a vacation, now that I can afford one. What do you all think?" Mr. Dester sat back in his chair, and lit a cigar. His 800-newdollar suit looked strange on a man I had last seen wearing dirty coveralls and sweating in a field under bright sunlight.

  I was sitting with the whole Dester family, in a nice restaurant in Tarkin. Although I Destiny and I had already made our decisions to continue robbing banks, we would never hurt for money. Colony worlds inevitably produce some new millionaires, and I already had personal contacts with more than one. Destiny's family would never be short on cash again, unless her father made some really stupid business mistake. There were enough minerals in the asteroid belt to last for many generations. Besides the Desters, I was the adopted son of Howard Wingate Bates, the governor of the planet. And through him, I had an indirect link to Michael Hubbard Cyr, since Harry had met with him several times.

  Most people would never figure Destiny and I to be criminals, living in a money-laden atmosphere like that. Sure, a lot of rich kids rebel against the ways of their parents, but not when they've been working out in the hot sun for ten years, and all of a sudden find themselves surrounded by money.

  Mrs. Dester was about to answer her husband when Destiny broke in, "That sounds like a great idea, Dad! Where do you want to go? I can get half-price spacefare for the whole family, and 25 percent off for Philipp, if you'll let him come."

  Mrs. Dester said, "We know a lot of people and things to do back on Sixxle. And it's been ten years since we've seen it, dear."

  Everyone looked expectantly at Mr. Dester, except me, because I was trying to act like I wasn't interested, and Norman, who argued, "Dad, I don't think I want to go back there. I don't remember anybody there, and besides, it probably hasn't changed much since we left."

  Norman's older brother Jeffrey broke in, "Norman's right. Sixxle is most likely just as we left it. We're the ones who've changed. We've grown, experienced new things, and made a home and a business for ourselves. We've made new friends and new lives, on an open and free world. There's nothing for me there."

  The oldest of the four children, Allen, spoke up. "Well, Jeff, I agree with you, but Mom's got a point too. If she wants to go there, let's go. Remember, she spent her whole life there; the rest of us just happened along later."

  Mrs. Dester said, "Honey, I think the kids are right. All the people I can think of that I'd want to see... well, they probably won't understand us. We would be telling them our farming stories, about how we built our own house and mining business, and how there are less than a million people on this planet. We might find them unchanged, just a little older, while they would find us to be drastically different people than we were ten years ago."

  Norman
broke out with, "I want to go to Paradise! I've got a friend at school who's from there. He says-"

  Jeffrey and Allen interrupted with the planets they thought would be cool to visit, and all three boys were talking at the same time.

  Mr. Dester held up his hand. "Hold on there, boys. There's a difference between a family vacation and a sightseeing tour. I don't know if I'll feel up to traveling the whole time we're gone; I've been working ninety hours a week for the last eight months, and I'm tired. I finally have an assistant that I trust to run things for three weeks or so, and I just want to sit by a pool somewhere on a planet with a low-radiation sun and enjoy the singing of the birds and such like. Destiny, you have all the brochures and information at work; why don't you bring some home tomorrow, and we'll look them over. And, yes, if Mr. Bates will give his permission, Philipp will be very welcome to come with us."

  "Daddy," Destiny said, pulling a paper brochure out of her purse, "I think I've found a place that we'll all like."

  "What? You mean someone already beat me to the idea? Where, dear?"

  The three boys were quiet now, looking at their sister. Mrs. Dester raised her eyebrows, still a little depressed after her thoughts of her home planet, but willing to listen to new ideas. I perked up, not having known that Destiny had already thought that far ahead. Of course, I should've known; she's never been one to just "go along for the ride." My girl is always on top of things. I knew that if and when we got married, she would be the one in charge.

  Of course, she's never made my decisions for me, but she can usually present an idea in a way that I'll agree to it.

  She winked at me, like I already knew about the planet she had selected, then opened the pamphlet. "They say that Paradise used to be a planet with a lot of beaches and nice hotels, and honest casinos, and beautiful sunsets and all that. But now it's crowded with almost 200 million people, the second most populated planet that we know of, and there are factories all over the place, and everyone says the tourist spots have been overrun with corruption.

  "But there's another planet that's just like Paradise used to be, two or three hundred years ago. 'Justine' is its name, in the Betelgeuse System. Humans first landed there in 2399, but the Kelvod people discovered it in 2301. The whole planet has a population of about 8 million Kelvods and less than 10 million humans, since the Commission has been hesitant to colonize worlds that are already occupied. There are nice hotels, beaches, pools, mountains, rivers, casinos, amusement parks, nature walks, sports centers, all kinds of stuff. And no taxes, since the Commission's not directly involved.

  "And it's a lot cheaper than going to Paradise. The Paradise tickets cost more for two reasons: one, the place is so popular and everyone goes there, so the prices are jacked up. Two, the ships have to make a double Jump to Paradise, since there's two suns of almost equal size, and the margin of hyperspace error increases drastically. Justine has just the one big sun, Betelgeuse, and they don't advertise nearly as much as Paradise does. Besides, the galactic basketball championship is going to be there in a few weeks."

  She looked around the table. "So, what do you think?"

  Allen looked thoughtful. "I've never seen a Kelvod in person. That might be neat."

  Jeffrey snorted, "You've never seen a Granger or a Stranger either! What does that have to do with it? I want to see the game."

  Norman defended Allen. "The Kelvods are the only race we know of that ever colonized another solar system without hyperspace or some kind of star drive. They launched out of Kelv in nuclear-powered rocket ships. Those people were in that ship for four hundred years before they found Justine."

  "That's not right, son," Mr. Dester disagreed. "The Trayaks' first colony ship had no star drive either. But that's not the point As long as it's a good place to relax, and kick back, it sounds good to me. What do you think, honey?"

  "What's the gravity like?" was the only question Mrs. Dester asked.

  "Seventy-nine percent of Galactic Standard," Destiny answered.

  *

  It was decided that the vacation would take place at the end of summer, right before Destiny, Norman and I started back to school, and it would last two and a half weeks. I found out from Destiny that since Justine was a fully self-sufficient planet, they imported nothing, and exported mostly tourism. So, there would be several wealthy banks there, where we could trade in the rest of our Colonial Credits, and maybe even start a few accounts.

  Since I was fifteen then, I got a work permit. The lady at the permit office was a little hesitant to give it to me; the under-age work permits are supposed to be for families with "hardships," such as colonial farmers who aren't quite getting along. I explained to her that I was bored, since school was out, and I didn't have anything to do. Having a job might keep me out of trouble. I was about to call Harry, when she went ahead and gave me the permit, explaining that minimum wage was lower for underage kids. She said Persiphone's new minimum wage was two newdollars per hour, but it was 1.5nd per hour for me. I told her that was okay; I just needed something to keep me busy.

  I got a job at Mike's New & Improved Supermarket on Third Street, packaging groceries. Mike's was the first store in Tarkin to offer the service of bagging groceries for customers, and he wanted it to go over right, hoping to bring in more business. After one of the other bag-boys had trained me in the fine art of putting a customer's groceries in bags and taking them to the car, Mike himself had a talk with me, in his upstairs office.

  "Philipp, I'm curious. What do you need this job for?" He was puffing on a big cigar, homegrown.

  I told him the same thing I'd told the lady at the permit office.

  He laughed. "That's good enough, I guess. But I want you to know I won't tolerate laziness. I know you're the governor's son and don't really need the money. Usually, I like to hire people who really need the money, so they'll stick around for a while and do good work. If I catch you standing around, you'll be gone, okay? When you're on my time clock, I expect you to pretend like you really need the money."

  I never could pretend that I needed the money, but I did good work. By the end of the summer, Mike had given me a raise to two newdollars per hour, and I was learning how to build and fill the displays at the end of the long aisles. When I left the job to go on vacation with the Desters, he promised me I could come back to work, part-time, during the school year, if I wanted.

  Yes, I know some people - even Destiny - thought it was a little morbid for me to work at the same location where my parents had met their death. Maybe I felt I was closer to them that way, knowing that somewhere near the front of the store, a cleanup crew had wiped up my parents' remains. Sometimes, I even fancied that a few of their molecules were hanging around the store, watching over me.

  *

  Most of the money that we were transferring cross-planet went into Destiny's bags, although I carried about a million of it. It wouldn't look right if I brought as many bags as a young woman - that's one thing that's never changed, I guess.

  We left both our stolen guns and the dart gun buried in waterproof bags in the mountains.

  New Planet Spacelines was a great way to go - the only way to go from Persiphone, since the other spacelines hadn't begun to move in yet. The ship was big, new, clean, and well equipped, which makes a difference. Even with hyperdrive, it takes a few days to get from one system to another, and it helps the morale of the passengers if they're in a nice ship. We rode out of the Hollis System enjoying the company of the other young people on the trip and watching Persiphone shrink from a huge spherical sun to a tiny dot of light, just before we Jumped. Of course, I'd Jumped before, once on the Jeffries from Tuf to Blabrow, and once on the Skelton from Astropolis IV to Persiphone. But I had been only five years old then, and didn't really remember it. I didn't feel a thing when the spaceliner went through hyperspace, although some people on board said they got a little sick. I was up and eating a full meal a few minutes after the Jump.

  We watched Betelgeuse swell in
the view screens, until we could see Justine. She was indeed a beautiful planet. There were two main continents, one populated mostly by Kelvods and the other predominately human. By a stroke of luck, the ship's time (Galactic Standard) was almost the same as Justine's main city, so there was no time-lag upon our arrival, like there had been when we departed from Tarkin.

  The age laws were very loose in Carmenghia - Justine's largest city, as were quite a few other regulations. Anyone older than sixteen could go anywhere and do anything. Anyone under the age of sixteen had to be accompanied by someone - anyone - over that age. The law wasn't strictly enforced, however. Any establishment that served liquor merely decided for themselves whether or not a certain patron was older than sixteen.

  Modesty laws were not what we were used to, since most colony planets are very conservative. At the spaceport, we immediately saw men wearing only minuscule shorts, and woman wearing the same, their upper bodies covered only in body-paint or colorful adhesive material.

  Mr. Dester did pretty much as he had said he would, and his wife joined him beside the hotel's pool almost every day. It was the one place they could accept the lack of clothing. Allen, Jeff, Destiny, Norman and I took one tour to the Kelvod continent, New Kelvod. There a nice female Kelvod gave us a tour of some of the farming communities, and showed us the exact spot where the first Kelvod ship had landed. There was a memorial plaque there, as there were on most planets, commemorating the first touchdown. A perpetual hologram floating above the memorial sight depicted the first ship's crew.