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That was one reason she was glad to leave, for she didn't want to understand it. On a more pragmatic level, their departure meant her and her "crew's" deception only had to stand up for one last planet. Only one, and then she didn't care who knew. Fleet was welcome to pursue her. Indeed, she would welcome their pursuit if her flight could lead them to the pirates.
She leaned her elbows on the edge of the console, propping her chin in her hands and brooding down on the rapidly diminishing image, and let her mind reach out ahead. Wyvern. The planet Wyvern and a man named Oscar Quintana, Lieutenant Commander Defiant.
Wyvern had a peculiar aristocracy, with no use for titles like "baron" or "count." Their ancestors had been naval officers-little more than freebooter refuse from the centuries-past League Wars, perhaps, but naval officers-and the ship name appended to Quintana's title indicated that he sprang from one of the founding noble houses. Peculiar as it might sound to off-world ears, he'd be a powerful man, probably a proud and dangerous one, and it behooved her to approach him with caution.
Hey, Megaira interrupted her thoughts, don't get too bothered, Alley! If he knows what's good for him, he'll approach us with caution.
True, Tisiphone seconded. Indeed, Little One, unless we are much mistaken, this Quintana must be a direct contact for the ones we seek. If so, I shall turn him inside out with the greatest pleasure.
"You two are in a bloodthirsty mood," Alicia observed. "Or are you just worried that I'm getting ready to funk out?"
Us? Megaira was i
"Sure." Alicia stood and yawned, stretching the tension from her shoulders and grateful to be distracted from her moodiness. "As a matter of fact, I'm not that worried over Quintana. If he's what we think he is, I hereby give you both carte blanche for anything we have to do to him."
My thanks, Little One-not that I intended to wait upon your permission to deal harshly with such scum.
"Oh, yeah? Harsh is okay with me, but remember-even if he's a direct link, we still need to get to the next step. I'm afraid that may limit what we can do to him. I mean, we couldn't even squash that slime Jacoby."
Ah, fu
"I know that tone," she said. "What've you been up to?"
It wasn't just me, the AI said quickly. I mean, I thought it was a great idea, but I couldn't have done it by myself.
"You fill me with dread-and you're stalling."
It was your idea, Tis. Why don't you explain?
But I could not have accomplished it without your expertise, and you have a better grasp of the details, so perhaps you should explain.
The Fury's tone was serious, yet Alicia felt her amusement. She put her hands on her hips and glared at the empty air.
"One of you had better trot it out, ladies!"
Well, it's like this, Alley. You remember when we made that credit transfer and Tis and I raided Jacoby's data base?
"Of course I do," Alicia said, then paused. "Did you horrid creatures put something into it? You didn't hit him with a virus, did you?"
Of course not, Megaira said virtuously. What a horrible idea! I'd never do something like that-not even to a fossil like that Jurgens Twelve of his. Not that it might not have been kinder. That relic should've been scrapped years ago, Alley. It's so stupid-
"Quit stalling! What did you do?!"
We didn't put a thing into it. Instead, we took something out.
"Besides the information on his distribution network?"
Well, yes. I guess to be perfectly honest, we did put something in, but it's only a delayed extraction program.
"What kind of extraction program?"
A starcom credit transfer.
"A credit transfer? You mean you robbed him?"
If you want to put it that way. But we talked it over, and, personally, I think Tis was right. You can't really rob a thief, can you?
"Of course you can rob a thief!" Alicia closed her eyes and flopped back into her chair. "I thought you were supposed to have my value system!"
And so she does, but I am making some progress with her. Rather more than with you, in fact.
"I just bet you are," Alicia muttered, ru
All of it, Megaira said in a small voice.
"All of what?"
All of everything. We found all his hidden accounts as well as the open ones, and we, well, we sort of cleaned him out.
"You-" Alicia gurgled to a stop, and pregnant silence hovered in her stu
Peace, Little One. He will not realize we were to blame.
"How do you know?! Damn it, who else is he going to suspect?!"
That I ca
"You mean-?"
Exactly, Alley. See, what'll happen is the first time he orders a payment to one of the accounts I listed in my program, it'll automatically dump every credit he has into the transfer and then reroute it. His payee won't see a centicredit, but the program'll bootstrap itself-and the transfer-through his starcom, then transmit itself back out. And it'll erase itself from each system it moves through till it reaches its destination, too.
"Oh, Lord!" Alicia moaned, covering her eyes with her hands. "I never should have inflicted you two on an unsuspecting galaxy! Just where-if I dare ask-will this wandering program finally end its criminal days?"
It'll probably take it a while to make co
"Thaarvlhd?" Alicia repeated blankly. Then, "Thaarvlhd?! My God, that's the Quarn Hegemony's central banking hub for this sector! Damn it, the Quarn take money seriously, Megaira! Violating Thaarvlhd's banking laws isn't a harmless little prank like murder!"
I didn't violate a thing. They're used to orders like this one, and I included all the documentation they need.
"Documentation?"
Sure. They don't care about names, but I included everything they want on human accounts: your retinal prints, your genetic pri-
"My prints?!" Alicia yelped. "You opened an account in my name?!"
Of course not. I just explained they don't use names, Alley. That's why they're so popular.
"Sweet Suffering Jesus!" Alicia never knew exactly how long she sat there, staring at nothing, but then a thought occurred to her. "Uh, Megaira."
Yes?
"I'm not condoning what you've done-not condemning it either, you understand, or at least not yet-but I was wondering… . Just how much did you two rip him off for?"
Hard to say, since we don't know exactly when the program'll trip.
"A rough estimate will do," Alicia said in a fascinated tone.
Well, using his last two years' cash flow as a basis, I'd say somewhere between two hundred fifty and three hundred million credits.
"Two hun-"
Alicia closed her mouth with a snap. Then she began to giggle-giggles that gave way to howls of laughter. She couldn't help herself. She leaned forward, hugging her ribs and laughing till her chest hurt and her eyes teared. Laughing as she had not laughed in months, with pure, devilish delight as she pictured ultra-civilized Edward Jacoby's reaction. And she'd thought they couldn't hurt him! Dear God, he wouldn't have a pot to piss in, and he'd never even know who'd done it!
She pummeled the deck with her feet, wailing with laughter, until she could get control of herself again, then straightened slowly, gasping for breath and mopping her eyes.
I take it you are less displeased than you anticipated? Tisiphone asked mildly, and Alicia giggled again.
"Stop that!" she said unsteadily. "Don't you dare set me off again! Oh. Oh, my! He is going to be upset, isn't he?"
It seemed an appropriate-and just-way to deal with him.
"Damn straight it did!" Alicia shook herself, then straightened sternly. "Don't you two think you can get away with something like this again-not without checking with me first, anyway! But just this once, I think I'll forgive you."
Yeah, for about three hundred million reasons, I'd guess, Megaira sniffed, and Alicia dissolved into laughter once more.
Chapter Fifty-Six
The assembled officers rose as Rachel Shu followed Howell into the briefing room. More than one set of eyes were a bit apprehensive, for the intelligence officer had just returned from meeting Control's latest messenger, and Howell's people were only too well aware of the casualties they'd taken on Ringbolt.
Howell took his place at the head of the table and watched his subordinates sit, then nodded to Shu.
"All right, Commander. Let's hear it."
"Yes, Sir." Shu cleared her throat, set a notepad on the table, and keyed the tiny screen alive. "First, Control sends us all a well done on the Ringbolt operation." Breath sighed out around the table, and Howell smiled wryly. "He regrets our losses, but under the circumstances, he understands why they were so high, and it appears both our primary and secondary missions were complete successes."
She paused, and Howell listened to a soft murmur of pleasure walk around the room. How many of those officers, he wondered, ever really spent a few hours thinking about what they'd done? Not many-perhaps none. He certainly tried to avoid the memories, though it was growing harder. Yet it was often that way. There were things he'd done in the service of the Empire which he tried just as hard never to remember. This wasn't that much different, he told himself, and pretended that he didn't know he lied.