Harris smiled. “Good. After this I say we check the district office and then sic Sharvie on tracking them down. They were here. There has to be records of some kind that can be traced back to somewhere.”
Tawn raised a finger. “Hey, I have a thought. We landed the Bangor out here at least once. The logs would show any active transponders that were in close proximity. We might be able to draw out a clue from there. Ships don’t just disappear.”
Harris gestured at their Zwicker. “Ours does.”
“OK, most ships. There were a couple dozen parked out here. They have to be somewhere.”
Harris frowned. “This gonna slow down getting dinner?”
“Maybe.”
Harris sighed. “Thought so.”
“Can you live with that?”
“I can. Prefer not to though.”
Tawn shook her head. “You sure you were in the Biomarines? I’m starting to think the Earthers could have lured you away with a couple bogler steaks.”
Harris half smiled as he thought about the juicy, rare, marinated steaks from the Grand Emporium Buffet on Chicago Port Station. Tawn scowled in disbelief at his expression.
After a short flight, the ship set down beside the district records office.
Before they got up from their chairs, Tawn said, “Every one of those ships in the log is coming back as leased. And all from Mytallis Industries. Using the emperor’s name like that is just a slap in the face. I think we were recruited by Earthers, not the DDI.”
“Then we go to the real DDI and tell them what’s going on.”
Tawn planted the palm of her hand on her forehead. “First we go get you some food.”
“What about the records? We’re already here.”
Tawn shook her head. “You’re too dumb to be looking over records. Besides, sign on the door says they aren’t open for a couple hours yet. You think you can eat sufficiently in that amount of time?”
Harris nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
A run was made to the warehouse to collect the others.
Gandy was the first aboard. “They haven’t touched the Banshee. Oh, and Sharvie already has a lead on our accounts.”
“I know where the credits were moved,” said Sharvie. “And moved again from there almost immediately after. That account is being difficult to break into, but I’ll get there. This will be the first favor I have to call in.”
Tawn asked, “Any of your hacker friends patriots?”
Sharvie thought for a moment. “I think so. Although usually for the people and not so much the government.”
Harris said, “What about against Earthers?”
Sharvie smirked. “Definitely against Earthers. Why?”
“I think that may be who did this to us. The facility we were originally taken to is completely empty. I think it might have been an Earther operation to recruit us. Pretty elaborate if that’s the case.”
Sharvie tilted her head to one side. “There has been some chatter about what appear to be accounts that originated from New Earth. They do have a flood of diplomats here from there.
“Some of my friends have made it their life’s mission to get into the Earther banking system. Tough to do from such a distance. All comms to and from New Earth go through one portal that’s kept open constantly. Traffic through there is highly restricted, so I don’t know if anyone has made it through yet.”
Harris waved, “Let’s go eat. Tawn’s treat. When we get back we can dig into all this further.”
Tawn shook her head. “I never said it would be my treat.”
“There, you just said ‘my treat’ in that sentence. Everyone heard you.”
Tawn rubbed her forehead. “Fine. Just get in the ship. Your intelligence level has dropped to that of about a twelve-year-old.”
Harris grinned. “Excellent. Must be getting my second wind. That’s up from being a two-year-old about twenty minutes ago.”
An eating establishment was located and a feast had. The team of five were transported to the district government’s record office, where it was discovered that all records pertaining to Mytallis Industries had vanished. Management was called in and the proper complaint forms filled out.
Harris was the first aboard the Bangor. “Other than the registered name, they cleaned that place out.”
“You have a console I can connect through?” asked Sharvie.
Tawn pointed. “In the bunkroom. It’s tucked in the corner. Just try to keep us anonymous if you can.”
“Always.” Sharvie headed to the back of the ship.
Trish asked, “Where to now, boss?”
“Any work you can do on the Banshee?” asked Harris.
“Some.”
“We’ll take you back there while we wait for Sharvie to work her magic.”
A run was made back to the warehouse. Trish and Gandy hopped out to get to work. Harris and Tawn waited in the ship.
A comm opened from the back room. “Check your console up there. I have a few things to show.”
Harris said, “You’ve only been in there a few minutes.”
“I have friends. They’ve been busy. Anyway, your credits made three hops before they landed in an account registered to Gnaway Corp. Lots of small-to-medium transactions going through there. Might be a clearinghouse for daily activities. Definitely looks like an expense account. You have a few dozen people working for you and they have to eat, sleep, and travel around. We have transports, lodging, clothing, even groceries.”
“Can you get us our credits back?”
“Not without signaling that we have access. It might be better to see what other accounts branch from this one. It shows hundreds of larger transactions that are between accounts and not merchants.”
Tawn said, “Seventy-two million credits. More than enough to refill our accounts. Any idea when you might be in the position to bring our credits back?”
“I could do that now, but I think it best we let them sit for a while. My friends are tracking down the other accounts. Might take us an hour to spider through all that are connected. We get that and we might be able to track down anyone using the account network to do business just by their merchant purchases. Merchants, hotels, transports… they all have recorders. Give us a little time and we might be able to build a portfolio of users, including locations, shopping patterns, and images.”
Harris asked, “You telling us this might give us the goods on the whole Earther spy network?”
“That wouldn’t be very smart on their part, would it? My guess would be this is the network for one mission project or organization. If this is the people you were dealing with and they stole from you, we might have all the people working toward getting Eden under the control of New Earth.”
“That would be huge,” said Tawn. “If we could uncover that, the politicians might just see the light and demand the Earthers leave Eden alone. That would solve all our problems.”
Sharvie shook her head. “Exposure would not be good for my people. You can be ultra-quiet and hard to find if all you’re doing is looking. You expose this and the real DDI would be working to find out who made it happen. If my people thought for a moment you’d do that to them, they would all pull out.”
Tawn looked at Harris. “This is a possible gold mine. We can’t just let this go away.”
Harris pointed at the display. “Hey, what’s happening? The credits are dropping hard.”
“Don’t worry,” said Sharvie. “We have the account they are moving to. Could just be part of their security protocol. That account was only created two days ago.”
Harris sat back in his chair. “An entire world out there that’s accessible from a console. Scary when you think about it.”
Tawn nodded. “Scary enough that they sucked our accounts dry without us knowing about it.”
Sharvie said, “Uh oh. We have a problem. Someone is trying to get into this console.”
Tawn replied, “Should we disconnect?”
; “Not yet. Don’t know where you got this computer, but it’s loaded with firewalls.”
Harris yelled. “Shut it down! Close that connection!”
Sharvie flipped a switch. “We’re offline.”
Harris said, “We got these systems from the Earthers.”
Sharvie nodded. “That explains it. That’s why I was so easily accepted into their network. This system configuration was probably recognized as one of their own.”
“Can you send whatever this configuration is off to your friends?”
Sharvie asked, “Have you done this before?”
Harris shook his head. “No.”
“That’s actually a good suggestion. It’s something we typically do once we’re in a system. As I said, makes it easier to move around.”
The console display in the cockpit lit up with account information. “You back in?”
Sharvie replied, “I am. This time we’re routing through the connection of a friend, so we’re secure.”
For the next hour, links were traced, hotel and transport footage retrieved, and a database of users and their profiles established. Harris stood to get the circulation in his legs moving. When he moved into the cabin, a man was waiting there with a Fox-40 in his hand.
“Mr. Gruberg, please come outside with me.”
Harris walked toward the hatch.
The man held up a hand as he backed up and hopped out onto the ground. “No sudden moves please. I know who and what you are and what you’re capable of. I’m only here to talk.”
Harris gestured at the man’s hand. “Not the most friendly of invitations I’ve ever had.”
The Biomarine stepped back across the concrete parking lot. “Miss Freely, please remain in your seat. I can see you from here. As I said, I’m only here to talk.”
Harris asked, “What is it? Who are you.”
The man flipped out a badge. “Mantor Boswick. I work for the DDI.”
“We’ve heard that before.”
“Yes, you appear to have stumbled onto a network that we’ve been investigating for months. I’m here to assess your connection to them.”
“Our connection to them is they ripped us off, drained our credit stores, and took about fifteen million credits from my partner and I. We’d like those credits back.”
“Interesting. The transaction logs show the transfers originating from your stores. Care to explain that?”
“The logs are wrong. Anyway, let me see that badge again. I’ve seen too many fakes.”
“If you are referring to your use of the Sheriff’s Cleaners badge in an attempt to get comped for food, I can assure you this one is real.”
“You know about my badge?”
“We have a long file on most of your operations. At the moment we’re trying to determine which side you are on. You’ve accepted millions of credits to move illicit weapons. You’ve attempted to mine millions of tons of titanium ore, something New Earth desperately wants, and most troubling of all has been your travels to a planet called Midelon. Would you care to tell me about that?”
Harris drew in a deep breath. “How do I know I’m talking to the real DDI?”
Mantor replied, “We were first contacted by an associate of yours, Mr. Bannis Morgan. A name that is very well respected in our circles.”
“Mr. Morgan will vouch for me.”
“As I said, Mr. Morgan was who called you to our attention. Now back to my question. What can you tell me about Midelon?”
Farker moved into the hatchway, sitting on his haunches as he observed the situation.
Harris repeated himself: “I can’t tell you anything about Midelon, other than to say I won’t be telling you anything about Midelon.”
“You do realize the DDI has methods for extracting that information. Some of those I’m told are quite unpleasant. Are you certain you want to maintain that response?”
“I am. Now it’s my turn to ask a question. Why is it our fleet pulled back from Eden when you know the Earthers are after the titanium there? We still have the upper hand, although maybe not for long. Anyway, we could go in and force them to leave. We have five or six thousand of our citizens trapped out there. The DDI just gonna sit on their butts while they get slaughtered by the Earthers?”
“Our intel says the personnel there are currently in a superior position.”
“Until they run out of food. Probably another week. Two, tops.”
“Negotiations for the safe removal of our citizens are underway. Once that is accomplished, the titanium problem will be dealt with. This situation is under control.”
Harris shook his head. “Hardly. The Earthers tried an assault a couple days ago and they would have been successful had it not been for us.”
“Yes. Your stunt was determined to be a provocation, causing the new Earth fleet to go ahead with their attack.”
“That’s not how it happened. When we came up, that assault was well underway. We happened to get word to the colonel that prevented its success. Who said we started it?”
“The New Earth diplomats who are part of the negotiations. And I can tell you, regardless of what actually occurred, their accounts were believed. Your unprovoked assault on the Rumford Mine has only added to their demands for a complete withdrawal from that system. All of that is of course irrelevant. You have no evidence to support your account of what happened.”
“I have my ship’s logs.”
Mantor shook his head. “Which can be altered.”
Harris said, “Look, the way I see it, you need us. I have a database of their complete network in there. You can take that, arrest those people, and use it in your negotiations to level the table of discussions with the Earthers. Show them their spy network has been captured and demand they withdraw from Eden because they are in violation of the truce.”
Chapter 27
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Mantor shook his head. “That option is already off the table. Our politicians don’t see that as a suitable resolution because it brings with it the possibility of war. If we declare them to be in violation of the truce, the truce has effectively ended. That creates a tremendous political problem for the current administration.”
Harris crossed his arms. “Look, give me a dozen destroyers and a budget, and in six months I can run that whole fleet out of there. I even have the people willing to take on that fight.”
“We both know that isn’t going to happen, Mr. Gruberg. Your only concern at the moment should be about you and your friends here. The DDI has the Eden situation under control.”
“So I guess we’ll just be leaving then.”
Mantor shook his head. “Sorry, I’ve been instructed to either get your cooperation on Midelon or to bring you in for interrogation. The choice is yours. Tell me what I want to know, come in peacefully, or we can do this the hard way.”
Tawn stepped into the hatchway. “Now that sounds like a direct threat. The DDI must be getting desperate. Frankly, I’m a bit surprised you still have funding. And I’d say this conversation is over.”
Mantor said, “I have a dozen agents waiting on the other side of this building. Please step out of the ship and we’ll get this taken care of as quickly as possible.”
Tawn shook her head. “Not going anywhere with you.”
The DDI agent began to raise his Fox-40 toward the hundred kilogram Biomarine slug in the doorway. Farker’s mouth opened and a concussion wave emerged, knocking Harris from his feet and lifting Mantor Boswick into the air. The regular Human agent tumbled backward, slamming into the concrete with his head, where he was knocked unconscious.
Tawn jumped to the ground, hurrying to Harris’ side, helping the groggy stump to his feet. “You OK?”
Harris looked at Tawn. “What? I can’t hear you.”
Tawn turned him toward the hatchway and gave him a shove. As she sprinted for the warehouse door, Trish and Gandy came into view.
Gandy said, “What happened?”
“Do
n’t have time to explain! Just run!”
The team was quickly aboard and the hatch closed. “Strap him in. He’s deaf at the moment.”
Tawn powered on the drive and the Bangor lifted toward the sky as small weapons fire pinged off her hull from the grounds around the warehouse.
Gandy again asked, “What happened? Who was that guy?”
“That was the real DDI. They wanted to know about Midelon. Farker took him down. I think he was about to shoot me.”
Sharvie came from the back with a grin. “I did it! Check your stores!”
Tawn shook her head. “Won’t matter now. We can’t spend them here anymore.”
“What happened? Are we moving?”
Gandy replied, “We got a visit from the DDI. The real DDI. They wanted to know about Midelon. Farker shot him. At least that’s what she said.”
Tawn growled. “Great. If you aren’t strapped in, you’ll want to be. We have two Domicile cruisers moving to intercept us.”
Sharvie sat, pulling a belt across her lap and fastening it on the other side. “That was the real DDI?”
Tawn nodded. “They know all about us. Bannis Morgan has been working with them. What they don’t know is anything about Midelon. And they aren’t getting that from us.”
Trish said, “That where we’re headed now?”
Tawn nodded. “Yep. I think it just became our new home.”
Harris wiggled a finger in his ear. “Was there an explosion or something? All I can hear is ringing.”
As the cruisers approached, Tawn turned the Bangor back toward the surface. “They had the angle on us. We’ll have to stay low and near populated areas until we can get a little distance between us.”
Trish rushed up, jumping into the copilot’s seat and strapping herself in. “You need the railgun. I’ll run it.”
Tawn shook her head. “No. Those are our people out there. Our military. They’re only trying to protect Domicile. We don’t use weapons against them.”
“So we just run?”
“Yep. Just run.”
The Bangor flew at supersonic speeds over neighborhoods and small towns. “Good afternoon, Denver Flats.”
ARMS Harris' Revenge Page 25
