Chapter 9: Retirement Planning
The town was abandoned. It had been vacant only for a day or so. He had not reported it vacant yet. He was certain that the town’s AI had reported it vacant once it was taken off line and put in storage. But he also knew that with all the towns being abandoned and vacated that the authorities were having trouble keeping up. There were small windows of time that he could use to as he called it increase his retirement funding.
He was waiting near the town’s outskirts waiting for the Vulture’s crew to come and clean out the rest of the town. He had already surveyed the town and was certain that he could get about a millions crowns out of it. Even at the money’s devaluation, a million crowns was nothing to complain about. The town’s people had left silver, paintings, cars, farm equipment, and furniture. There were even some antiques in the town.
He had no idea that a companion Criminal Investigative Division unit had him under surveillance. They had been following him for a couple of weeks and had become amazed at how calloused the general was, and how blatant. The lead investigator had managed to infiltrate the General’s retirement funding team as an expert on antiques, which she was. The Thonians legend was that they had been at one time part of the companions. She and her life mate had gotten out of the famed military police unit when they had run afoul of the commander on one of their assignments. They had looted a small museum on Barbary and were discharged for it. At least that’s what the general believed.
She waited with the general for the general’s convoy to come and pick up the stuff she had picked. Unknown to the general she had tagged them with micro transmitters that when they turned up at the port they would flag the Customs Inspector and then they would have the whole money path. Her life mate who was in an over watch position up the road felt her secret pleasure in the bust that she was about to make.
The trucks came in fifteen of them all articulated hover trucks. All of the hover trucks were able to handle forty tons of cargo. They would have to leave things behind, but it would be enough.
The soldiers had been told that they couldn’t just ransack the buildings, that they had to be neat an orderly in the process. They didn’t want the Mounties, the Companions, or any of the patrols to see that the village had been ransacked. That would make it obvious that someone had looted the buildings. So they systematically removed furniture, clothing, art, cars, and even some farm equipment. It took most of the day and into the evening. No one was the wiser.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 146
