A Pirate's Tale: The Only Solution Is Retribution (3 page)

“Capture?”

“Yes, I only require that I be there when you take him into custody.”

“I’ll have to think about that.”

“Leo, do you know what I’m offering you?”

“I do and it’s a good offer.  But I lost my brother and you obviously have leaks in your organization that would cause huge problems I don’t want to deal with.  Why would you pay this much, anyway?”

Ana stared at Leo and said, “Because Serge was not my father; he was my husband.”

T
he large black vehicle drove up to the liner and parked under the baggage compartment.  Three men lifted a casket out of the vehicle and carried it up the boarding ramp and disappeared into the Starliner.  A few minutes later, four men appeared out of the baggage door under the ship carrying the casket.  They slid it into the rear of the black vehicle and tied it down.  The black vehicle pulled away and written on the back of it was Romanov Services.

While the body was being removed from the liner, an armored convoy was driving up to the liner and twenty armored soldiers jumped out of a massive vehicle, went up the ramp, and disappeared into the landing bay.  Right behind them, Ana Romanov came down the ramp out of the Starliner and entered the landing bay under the huge ship wiping her face with a white cloth; it was clear she was weeping from the loss of her parents.  A giant armored transport moved out of sight under the Starliner.  There was activity under the baggage chute as a large box was taken out of the ship and put in the back of the giant armored transport.  Ten minutes later, the twenty soldiers exited the landing bay and ran under the open armored shield into the rear of the giant vehicle as it moved out from under the Starliner.  The shield was lowered and the six soldiers locked it securely in place.  The huge vehicle’s engines roared to life and it moved out from under the Starliner inside a perimeter of ten other armored troop carriers gathered around the Starliner. 

Every one of the hundred troops traveling with the convoy were carrying heavy shoulder blasters and were watching the surroundings of the convoy closely.  The convoy pulled away from the liner and headed out of the space port toward the main highway, where the local authorities had blocked all traffic from using the super highway. Three armored hover ships were flying aerial coverage over the eleven vehicles in the convoy. 

The Convoy made fast progress and almost made it to the Unity’s Treasury exit before it ran into trouble.  A large moving transport that had been stopped in traffic on a side road waited until the convoy arrived at its location and ten men jumped out of the rear quickly and lifted shoulder missiles and took aim.  The three armored floaters flying above the convoy were hit by three missiles each and exploded over the top of the convoy raining hot debris down on the ten armored vehicles.  A tenth missile was fired at the armored troop transport directly in front of the giant vehicle carrying the armored box flipping it end over end as it went up in a massive explosion.  The ten men calmly pulled another shoulder missile launcher out of the truck and fired at the other nine troop transports blowing them into flaming wreckage.

A giant warship came flashing down out of the sky and shot out the lasers on top of the massive armored transport as it moved directly over it and lowered a giant grappling claw.  Six more warships came flashing in from over the horizon and began firing on the Proctor’s that were roaring in on armored air-assault jets. The Assault Jets were no match for the warships’ blasters and debris from them rained down on all sides of the major highway as they plummeted to earth.  The giant vehicle was gripped by the claw and pulled up into the giant landing bay of the warship.  Ten minutes later, all seven ships flew into the atmosphere at six times the speed of sound breaking glass in most of the buildings below their escape route.

The Planetary Defense Warships came flashing in off the filament but arrived ten minutes too late.  They had been called out to investigate an attack on a Cruet Freighter in the outer planets.  They arrived at the site of the distress call and found burning debris of a derelict transport.  They were tricked into leaving the planet to investigate and the report of the attack at the planet came in as they arrived at the burning derelict.  They were too far out from the filament to arrive before the attackers managed to get into under space and activate their stardrives.

• • •

The Pirates arrived at their base and John Blakely ordered the driver, rider, and all passengers in the armored transport killed.   High powered lasers burned through the cab of the armored vehicle and the driver along with the rider were riddled with laser blasts.  The doors to the landing bay were opened exposing the vehicle to the vacuum of space which would kill any survivors as it rushed through the hundreds of holes shot into the vehicle.  It was only then that the landing bay was pressurized and the technicians began cutting through the armored shield on the rear of the smoking vehicle.  Blakely sighed,   Romanov’s two daughters and their baby probably died when the vacuum rushed into the transport.  Oh well, he wasn’t going to endanger his men in an effort to save them.

The Pirate crew cut their way into the giant transport and Blakely was surprised the two daughters weren’t on the transport.  The armored box was taken out of the compartment and placed on the deck.  The locks were burned away and the box opened.  John Blakely walked forward smiling and looked in the box.  He looked at the pirates gathered around the box and started laughing.  He doubled over and started slapping his leg.  Inside the box was the body of Serge Romanov with a note pinned to his shirt saying that the Romanov Family was willing to buy back the body.  They had pulled a switch on him and he was forced to admit that they were ingenious in how they had done it.  The box had been measured with a mass scope from a distance and its weight matched what his source said it should have weighted.  His source had told him the contents weren’t valuable and he should ignore the box but he had to destroy the convoy after his failure to get the code; he had quickly set up the ambush.  He decided to retrieve the safe’s contents because a lot of effort had gone into protecting it.  It appeared he had no way of knowing if his source was right about its value; the contents were gone.  “Contact the Romanovs and set up a trade for the body.”  His assistant nodded and Blakely lowered his eyes as he walked away.  Someone had pulled a fast one.  He intended to find out who did it.

• • •

Leo turned the black vehicle into the armored entrance of the Treasury and was stopped by two giant robots.  “State your business!!”

Leo looked at the closest robot and said, “I am here to make a deposit for Romanov Industries.”

The Robot scanned the vehicle and said, “Move the vehicle inside the two main blast doors.”  Leo nodded and moved the vehicle forward until it passed through two giant heavily armored crash doors.  He stepped out and saw Ana standing beside a tall distinguished looking bald man. “It appears you were right about the convoy being attacked.  Thank you for convincing me and my sister to not go with it and take other transportation.”

Leo tilted his head, “I could hear the blasts over at the main highway.”

Ana turned to the bald man, “Please check the contents and make sure they meet the agreed on value.”

The three men in the vehicle pulled the casket out and opened the lid.  The Bald Man lifted a device and scanned the inside.  “It appears you are three ounces above the agreed on price.”

Ana shrugged, “Serge wanted to make sure there was enough to meet the criteria in the event market prices fluctuated.  Put the surplus into my account.”

Leo watched Ana handle the transactions and he could see she had done things like this many times before.  She stood about five feet seven inches and her black hair was tied back in a ponytail.  She was slightly overweight although her bust was small.  Her brown eyes were bright and she talked…a lot.  It was clear she was accustomed to having her way.

The bald man nodded and handed her an electronic clip board, “Please sign the spaces with an X next to them.”  Ana signed and the man said, “The funds are now available to you for electronic transfer to the seller.  The funds will be held for two days to give you time to insure what you are purchasing is what the former owner claims.”

“Thank you.”  Ana turned to Leo, “And thank you.”

“That’s ok.  It’s been nice doing business with you.  See you later.”

“Leo!”

“I’ve thought about it, Ana, and I’m not going to work with you on this.  That attack on the convoy makes it a certainty that there is someone inside your company’s inner circle that is trying to stop this new company from being created.  I have other things to do and can’t afford to be constantly looking over my shoulder.”

Ana called out to the bald man and he turned around and walked back to her, “Kenneth.”  He turned back to her.  “Put the additional funds from the excess Trillium in to this account.”  She handed him a slip of paper.  He lifted the clipboard and punched some numbers on it.  He handed her an electronic card and said, “Done.”

Ana turned to Leo and held the card out to him, “Take this.”

“What is it?”

“Fifty million credits in a blind account that no one in my company knows about.  Use it to bring John Blakely to justice.”  Leo’s eyes narrowed and Ana said, “You’ve proven yourself to me.  If you need more, contact me on this number and I’ll transfer more in to the account.”  She handed him a slip of paper.

“Ana, I really don’t think your life is worth much right now; if you can’t immediately find the one who used the pirates, you will be a target.”

“That’s why the inventor of the teleportation technology demanded that we purchase it from him this way and keep his identity a secret.  He figured out that he wouldn’t live long if he tried to develop the technology on his own.”

Leo stared at her, swore, and said, “You’re dead if I walk away.”  Ana’s eyes narrowed and she tilted her head.  Leo stared at her and then said, “What did you mean that Serge was your husband?”

“Actually, Serge wasn’t on the liner.  The man that was killed was a man cosmetically changed to look like him and he was my husband.  Serge is still alive and in hiding until this issue is cleared up.”

Leo chuckled, “And you have the authority to just hand over fifty million credits?”

Ana smiled, “I am his daughter.”  Leo blew out a breath shaking his head.  “What are you thinking?” Ana asked.

“I actually thought that Serge Romanov was quite the consummate idiot placing himself and his family in that much danger.  It appears I was wrong.  You should come with me until this mole is found.  I’ll try to keep you safe until they are uncovered.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because I agree with you.”

“What do you agree with?”

“That Serge will let everyone around him die before he gives up this company or any of his wealth.  He could use you as bait and I suspect that is exactly what he’ll do.  However, you’re free to go and I honestly hope you do.  I don’t really want the aggravation.”

“I looked up what a Purple Card Warrior is.” Ana said as she stared into Leo’s eyes.

“And?”

“I think I’ll be safer with you.”

“Then let’s go.”  Leo turned and headed toward the blast doors.  Ana looked at Kenneth, “Tell whoever calls that I’ve gone to find out what’s going on.”

Kenneth nodded and said, “Did I hear you correctly that he is a Purple Card Warrior?”  Ana nodded.  “Tell him I have a job for him if he’s interested.”

“I’ll be sure to do that.”  She turned and ran after Leo.  She caught up with him and heard him talking into a device, “What are you doing?”

“I’m transferring the money out of the account you put it in.  I’m sending it to a remote computer that will move it into an account that I’m certain can’t be traced.”

“You don’t believe me about the account?”

“I believe you believe it.  But Kenneth, whatever his last name is, doesn’t work for you and he will answer questions from those higher up in your company.”

“No he won’t.”

Leo stopped and sighed as he rolled his eyes, “Ana, money talks.”

“Kenneth will not tell anyone!”

“You’re certain about that!?!”

“I am!”

“Then three days from now, you’re going to try and contact Kenneth and we’ll see if he answers.”

She stopped walking, “What are you saying?”

“He’ll talk or he’ll be eliminated.”  Ana’s face turned white.  Leo looked at the device he was holding and said, “You have a personal relationship with Kenneth?”

“I do!”

“Then you should contact him immediately and tell him that the money has been moved and that you have no idea where I sent it.  That should prevent his death.”

“Just how certain are you about this?”

“Ana!  Wake up!  Someone has enormous power to do all the things that’s been happening.  He will be picked up!  Whoever is pulling the strings will demand to know where that money is so they can track where you are.  His life isn’t really important in the scheme of their tracking you.”

Ana took her communication device out of her purse and pressed button.  Kenneth didn’t answer.  She looked at Leo with wide eyes and Leo said, “Send him an electronic message, now!  It might save his life!”

Ana immediately started texting on her communicator and two hours later, Kenneth contacted her.  “Thank you!”

“Are you alright?”

“I am now.  I was called out of the building after you left and someone shot a dope-dart into me.  I guess they saw your message and decided I was a waste of time.”

“Kenneth, you had to be called out the moment we left.”

“I was and the message came from you.  That’s why I left right behind you.  Ana, ditch that communicator and stay safe!”

Leo looked at her and took the device out of her hand.  He walked over to rail-transport waiting for passengers to board and tossed it inside a car before the door shut.  He pulled her away and ran to the front entrance of a market across the street.  They stood next to the front glass and saw three Romanov Security Vehicles come roaring up and stop the transport as six men rushed inside it.  Leo pulled her toward the back entrance of the market, “Time for us to go!”