He searched my face earnestly, realized that the game was up. His wife was coming up behind him with a concerned expression.
She said, “Honey what is it?” He said, “This nice young man wants me to help him answer a few questions about one of my business associates.”
She asked, “Is it about that scum bag Scanlon, I never liked you associating with him.”
He said, “Yes it appears to be. Don’t be worried Darling.”
I said to him, “Do give her a hug and also this card. We will take care of her financial needs if that is needed. Just call the number on the card ma’am.”
Relief washed over his face and after he had given her a warm hug, he turned around and asked, “Can I get her to bring us my computer?” He was ready to rat a tat on his colleagues, smart man.
I said yes and she promptly got it from the table and handed it to me. I watched him like a hawk as he walked in front of me down the stairway making sure no self harm was attempted. The group in front and behind gave the all clear sign and another van like vehicle left the shadows of the leafy street, slid to a stop. The door opened and he was pulled in shackled, searched and secured. No deadly pills were found. We were all milking him. He should have listened to his wife. He was an engineer and could have made a good living without getting mixed up in Scanlon’s schemes. As it is, he was dirty too. His wife was just an innocent country girl who really loved the scumbag. He did not deserve her I felt.
We were back in the big van but now in a convoy of three identical vans. We were given snacks and stopped once to use the restroom. It was going to be a long night we accepted, as it became dark. We all fell asleep. Thankfully we had new drivers. We split up sentry duty amongst ourselves with each taking about one and a half our stints casting our senses ahead and around us as we were driven. Six hours later and bleary eyed, we were pulling into the base where we had landed earlier.
Before we got to get a solid rest. Jongi came on stream saying congrats well done. Apparently fifteen associates in this Northumbria area total were picked up and were to be debriefed. Only three deaths and two injuries all on the Outlaw side. Clean operation and more mopping up being done. She also gave us the good news that we would be on vacation for two days and get to return via the same hypersonic aircraft and that the crew would do all they can to give us some weightlessness experience.
We got the opportunity to do some sightseeing and hiking for two days. Then we boarded the hypersonic plane for the return leg. This time we were geared to really take advantage more fully of the opportunity to utilize the short one hour period of weightlessness. As soon as the pilots up front turned on the ‘go’ light and the solo cabin steward helped us to recline our seats fully and deploy the special padding, we started doing the maneuvers he showed us. So, there we were floating hand in hand as twosomes, then doing flips and course reversals just like divers perform underwater. Of course we all had our flubs too. Now we really understood the need for the extremely padded cabin all around. It dawned on us that being slow, deliberate and carefully planning our moves before executing them was the best way to approach it. It was so much fun to sit on the floor anchored via the built in hooks and hold a partner by the belt then set him or her spinning above you. That particular maneuver did induce some nausea though. Finally the red light started blinking and it was time to raise the seats again from their fully reclined sleep position and help the cabin steward take down and stow away the extra padding. It was exhilarating, that flight back.
When we landed we learned that Five had completed their mission safely but Wesley had had a fall with just bruises in sustained during the fun part of their stay. The other major group of Outlaws were put down in a hail of fire by ordinary special forces. Only one of the top Outlaws survived, three others died and one special force member was killed, four injured. Such was the result when forces were relied upon who did not have special attributes like Six and Five. Breecher, Jongi and Choka were now well positioned to push their respective organizations to continue this grand new version of the Immersion as results with Six and Five had so far been astounding. Prior to this version occasional individual humans might emerge on a sporadic basis who possessed great attributes just like the three of them did, but it was like sifting the streams for gold flecks, at best an arduous process.
All the investment in encouraging sensible genetically improved humans was beginning to pay off. The critical thing was to ensure that this technology did not fall into the hands of those who would use it for evil purposes. As always this will prove to be the difficult part, since within us all, lies both good and evil Lord Meneer’s teachings say. Policies will have to be put in place to quickly detect the hopefully rare cases that might go through the Immersion, do well but end up being truly warped mentally and thus pose a danger to society at large. There will always be bullies at heart and the super privileged who think that they are smarter than everyone else and deserve everyone’s obeisance.
So we were home and though tired mentally and physically. We were glad to be back. That very weekend we were all having a pool party before the cold weather came in. Five and Six together laughing, splashing and having healthy fun together. Jace and Susan mostly stayed out of it watching over the party that Saturday, with their skills on full alert so that the teams could just relax totally yet be protected. Such hiatuses would be few and far between, we would learn.
OUTLAW BADJANS PART 3
20.Training for Defnet Service
21.Vacation in the air
22.Personal control and Defnet training
23.Moog and Juliana hitched
24.I got my Jessi and Jessi got me
20. Training for Defnet Service
Six had a conference with the heads of the major organizations who were shepherding them through their training and advising them as they matured. Apart from Jongi and Choka, there was Breecher and new to them, Mark Buenafe who heads Defnet. Since all of the members of Six had expressed a desire to give some service in the Interplanetary realm as diplomats, explorers and scientific innovators, they were being so guided.
Everyone who went interplanetary needed to be competent at every task to do with survival in space. So everyone needed to be capable and competent with operation of engines, fueling, maneuvering into and back out of orbit. Navigation in space as well as terrestrially, needed to be mastered. Of course mastery of weapons in and out of space was necessary too. General survival on different planet surfaces was stressed too, just in case one happened to become accidentally marooned there in a hostile environment. Despite the enormous quantity and quality of information that had been dumped into us during our successful Immersion, that all needed to be actually used and finessed before we as individuals and as a group could be confident in it. It needed to be actualized in multiple practical ways. We were as a group still somewhat of an experiment. No one and no group had quite been forged yet, as Six and Five to a lesser degree was being.
This all had to be done while still giving us the opportunity to exercise our own choices as all humans had a full right to do. To push us as a group to simply accomplish what the state of Toigan wants would be a big mistake, all the leaders agreed. We of Six totally shared that view with our superiors. So it was felt that we would as individuals and a group drive our own training at our own pace once the requirements were placed at our feet. Our eagerness to learn aside, we also have varying aspirations on a personal level.
Everyone agreed that Six would be mostly allowed to free form within Defnet and not be expected to be regimented by rank such as cadet- space person, then certified space-person, thence through officer rankings as would be the norm in all these government services for typical career oriented service people. We certainly had unique skill sets and will go aboard spaceships with a completely different outlook and goals when asked to do so. It was expected that we would make short forays into space and be ready for special projects as those presented themselves.
; Such projects might include rescue missions, political difficulties needing mediation among and within neighboring planets and moons or just other unanticipated emergencies. We in Toigan needed a growing cadre of competent space folk to help with human innovation and future growth. In most aspects Toigan was setting the pace for the other planets for good governance, fair and equitable social development and minimizing corruption at all levels. Having the brightest young people with good ethics get into every level of government and law enforcement particularly with oversight roles could only strengthen human society. That also meant ensuring adequate reward strategies for the folks entrusted with those roles. To recruit the best meant being prepared to give them reasonably commensurate reward. Traditionally, government rarely got that truth right.
So now all these discussions were done and we were told that in a few months we were to start wind sailing, flying and diving lessons. Parachute jumping and survival training plus practical warfare and ordnance, fire control were all needed. Warfare theory if only to be able to outmaneuver the classically trained soldier types was also needed. Formal diplomatic etiquette training was a must to allow us to mesh well in high ranking official circles on other planets. This all was likely to take three to four years to master and prior to being exposed to space radiation in earnest, semen and eggs will need to be saved for future children of the members of Six too. There are space medicines to be taken to protect DNA and muscle mass in addition to brain and thyroid. Meanwhile it was understood that Six needed to take as much time in and between to mature our social skills, form friendships outside of the group that would help sustain strong psychological cores.
So it was, that we got the syllabus outlining training for eight months of the year over the next 3-4 years with a salary from Defnet to begin in a couple of months. It was understood that Securinet may use us to help train new groups, like we already did with Team Five right after completing our own quest. These groups could benefit greatly from our experience and example. Plus in appropriate situations here on Toigan, like with the push against the Outlaw Badjans, we could continue to be called up by Securinet... That would break up any likelihood of monotony. It was nice to be needed, I say.
We were also counseled on making wills, getting good financial planning done and good money management all of which we knew about already in theory, since that stuff came with the Immersion. Just at about the end of our big conference a very serious young lady was introduced to give us a report. She was from the government treasury office specifically dealing with bounties. She revealed to us that while we were in the conference, five million three hundred and seventy five thousand credits were already deposited into each of our accounts. That was because we, during the training period were not on a regular salary, and therefore we were eligible to get a share minus federal and provincial taxes of all the bounties that were on the heads of Gooch, Scanlon and their deputies. All the members of Six, except Jessi and I would also have to pay extra city taxes unfortunately, to the city of Pommerose. Gooch alone had a fifty million bounty on his head and the other Outlaws had less even though they all caused lots of grief in their areas of influence. They were all a bit like warlords, mafia and Outlaw all rolled into one package. The members of Team Five each were to get less than one million credits she responded, to our question on the subject since their Badjan takedown did not have such a large bounty. Mr. Buenafe interjected though that folks doing Interplanetary work were fully entitled to completely keep their bounties minus taxes and got large bonuses as hazard pay. Their lives were on the line just by being out there being exposed to radiation and other perils in space already.
Once we got on the official salary structure, takedowns like this would be subject to government rules and the amounts we might be eligible to get would be a lot less. So each of us were richer in terms of raw cash than our parents, though their worth in real estate in some of our cases might still be more. So this conference was really a fantastic peep into the window of our future. Once we turned eighteen in a few short months or weeks we could vote, marry and not have to need parental consent for all the dangerous things we would be choosing to do. Up ‘til now each of us have had to get their assent.
21. Vacation in the air
For now though, we could remain youngsters and have party time. Vacation was in the air. Jace, Susan and Jessi were going to be gone for two weeks to visit with her grandparents and experience a National Park. Several of the others were off to do similar trips post Immersion too. I was going to hunker down and deal with post harvesting issues here on the farm for the next two and a half weeks. Tilling needed to be done for a last crop of winter wheat. A lot of the fruit trees needed to be trimmed to make ready for next year. Leaving spindly branches on trees which will then become heavy with fruit leads to breakage and losses. Our small herd that we keep on multiple partitioned lots within a 200 acre portion of the farm needed culling. Steers needed to go to market after the summer fattening. Fencing needed repairs. Lots of chores needed to be done as cooler weather approached. We had already put up lots of feed for the animals.
Jessi did have plans to go with my family on a one week trip to the beach about six hours drive away. Her parents had already given permission. Jessi was still planning to hopefully persuade them to come as well. It would be really nice we both felt to have Jace, Susan, Jonah Sr and Elma all get to spend time together along with Moog and Juliana too in one condo that would sleep twelve comfortably. Jessi and I already had rented a condo directly on the beach for that said purpose using our newfound wealth, as we liked to call it while giggling privately. It was going to be a great big special trip for us. The beaches should be less crowded now that the younger kids would be back in school. It was so nice to be finished with high school. We planned to have our neighbors and grandparents look over our farm including the animals. We normally did the same for them and their farm. Before that trip though, would come lots of hard work to accomplish the set tasks.
So back at home with my feet on the ground, I let Mum and Dad know that Jessi and I already rented a condo on the beach for a week and that they did not need to worry about the hotel rooms we customarily would rent. My parents were hard working and made a decent living but did not have lots of cash. I then showed them the balance in my checking account as well as the amount in investments that I had lost no time in setting up. Then I shared a copy of my will with them. They obviously were shocked to learn about the bounties and that their son wasn’t just a super bright boy, but now was legitimately well to do. Dad was so proud and Mum gave me a big hug and quickly disappeared upstairs crying for joy.
I did share with them a plan for each of us to contribute toward an investment for Moog who we expected to marry soon. I told them that I had one hundred and fifty thousand set aside and if they put in fifty thousand it would give him, and his wife a really good start in life. I think that was what made Mum run upstairs and cry- my sharpened hearing told me so. She was overwhelmed with her son being so thoughtful, diplomatic and sharing. I knew that they could afford their fifty thousand easily. Though only seventeen, my life experiences plus the deep adult type thinking and reasoning lessons from the immersion really was coming into play in my outlook and relationships. There was no way that I would have even thought like that before the Immersion honestly.
Moog, Dad and I with our thick leather long arm gloves on, rolled out the barbed wire and with tough wire cutters clipped out the length we needed for that segment attaching it to the fence posts and to the remnants of wire already there, then started to ratchet it straight with the special tools. Upon reaching the correct tension, we wired each segment to the poles and to the remnant strands. We stood back to get a good look at our work and walking along the repaired length gave it a final test push and kick. All tight, so onto the next segment we went. All day the previous two days we repaired posts and even placed several new ones using our ‘known to be dangerous’ post hole digging machine. We were careful to avoid
those horrible de-gloving injuries. The days before that were spent in the blazing sun on ladders and cherry pickers, trimming the fruit trees so that they’d be prepared to cope with the strong wintry winds, sometimes frost and thus be in good shape to bear next years crops come spring.
Tomorrow we would hopefully be finished with fencing and work on veterinary care to include daubing the cattle and goats with anti insect coatings and sprays to help rid them of ticks and decrease irritating fly bites. Farm work is non-stop year round toiling. Shooting vermin that would prey on our animals was a year round thing too. Then when it gets colder and the grass is not growing, it will be cleaning up the ponds and water holes, putting out feed and bales of hay, repairing the pickers and other farm equipment in preparation for the busy spring planting. There is also winter wheat fields care and other land preparation.
Jessi and I were in frequent contact and is was great to hear how she was having fun with her grands on both sides along with her parents. All of us in Six of late most evenings did a group call-in and we also got once every other day secure confidential updates from Securinet. We appreciated those as often news came about the characters we had dealt with recently and new takedowns of their organizations. Clearly the structure of the major Outlaw groups were devastated by our efforts. We could tell that from the intel received through tracking their own secret hijack of Securinet satellites. We learned that a few moles within the satellite production and launch apparatuses were found. Securinet was now overall more secure. All that intel gained, had now been fed into Securinet’s best AI systems and using their algorithms and predictive capabilities, several other weak spots that could have been exploited by nefarious groups or individuals were nixed. Two more individuals were caught in fact, just based on nothing other than such predictions and their names came out of the computer. That gave Securinet even more confidence that they had fine tuned and blocked a few more vulnerabilities. ‘Six to the rescue,’ we laughed among ourselves patting our own shoulders at our contributions.
Outlaw Badjans (Six of Toigan) Page 15
