The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison: Call Sign Reaper (39 page)

“Buddy, I wouldn’t move a hair if I was you. Slowly hand your pistol to the woman with the black hair and open the door. Then bring your buddy inside,” she said.

He did exactly what he was told to. He pushed open the door and pulled his partner in by the shoulders. Ben stood looking in the open door, not letting the Andrea walk in.

“E’Aria, clear the room in case there are another couple of guards standing inside,” Ben said. There were two Trillond guards. They gave up their positions too soon when she walked in. Ben stunned one and Andrea stunned the other. They collected their weapons. He pushed the doors shut behind him and propped two chairs against them to keep them shut.

“You two, move these two over against the wall, sitting up,” he ordered. “Okay, let’s see who is all here.”

The prime minister was with three others, including the runaway from the morning. General Grey and Emily were also there with two others he didn’t know. These two didn’t wear any uniform.

He walked up to the group of people.

“Right now I don’t care why you are here. The first thing I want to know is whose people are climbing all over my hangars. We have pictures of them and the sheriff is a personal friend, so he may have them locked up. When I find out I will have my attorneys contact you. They can add it to the ongoing suit I have against the military.”

“How was that, dear?” he asked Andrea.

“You know whose people they are already,” she said.

“Yes, but she is going by the book and keeping silent. I don’t know the two suits, do you?”

“Nope,” Andrea said. “I’ve never seen them before.”

“I’m going to find out who they are,” he said. Everyone could hear their conversation. He turned to the suits.

“You, with the suit five years out of style,” he said. “You stay seated. You, with the 3000-credit suit. Get your ass over here right now.”

“And if I don’t, what, will you do shoot me?” the suit asked.

“Should I shoot you?” Ben asked. “I mean, this is your idea. I was just going to break your leg and beat you senseless. Tell me, what is your part in this?”

“I’m a senator from Athena.”

“Really, and how long have you been a senator on Athena?”

“About 15 years.”

“Who was the senator before you?”

“Jamison was the senator, but he was killed.”

“Oh Mr. Senator, I do want to talk to you.” He looked at Emily. “Em, that leaves you and the general. Are you going to tell me why you’re here?” he said.

“Yes Benjamin,” she answered. “It’s simple. You could have said no to everything we are here to ask. You are a loose cannon and I wanted some intel on your ship.”

“Okay,” he said, “well you and the general get your shit and get out. If we need either of you I will send someone for you.” They got up from the table and walked towards the door.

“The senator doesn’t know anything about your parents,” the general said.

“Really? How do you know?” Ben got in the general’s face. He lowered his voice. “The colonel seemed to know a lot about what happened, and said others did too before I fed him to the Cjittan as a snack. Are you one of those who knows something about it, General? Did you have a hand in it? What did you gain?”

The general was ashen and looked like he would have a stroke. “You might want to be gone far away before I’m done with these talks,” Ben said. “Em, you can stay or go depending, on what the last 15 years have meant to you, but I don’t want you in here right now. If you stay we will talk later.”

“Ben, the Allond have invited The Alliance to send some diplomats to a peace conference they are going to host in their system. They specifically requested that you bring them and attend. We would like to get some numbers from you on how many people we can take,” Emily said.

“Captain, how many can we transport comfortably for a two to three week trip?” Ben asked E’Aria.

“Not counting the crew, I would say 50, but I would rather have less,” E’Aria answered.

“When is this going to take place?” Ben asked.

“In roughly five weeks,” Emily said. “But to get an exact departure time we need to look at the star charts on your ship to make calculations.”

“I will have E’Aria make the calculations and let you know. Most of the ship is off limits to all of you,” Ben said.

“I will give you a copy of the message from the Allond,” the prime minister added.

“Yes, we can do that, Prime Minister,” Ben said. “Now to be crystal clear, if you bring guards they will be unarmed on my ship. We are going to store all weapons in a locked room. If we run into a problem, we will hand them out. No exceptions and don’t try anything stupid. It’s a long cold float back to wherever you came from, plus you’ll be dead. My ship, my rules, and my captain will enforce them. The captain and my wife will answer any questions you have.”

Ben walked out. He felt pretty good about a trip into unknown space. Once this was over, he was going to work on another project. He was going to find out what had really happened to his family.

Thank you for taking the time purchase to read The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison Book 1  Call Sign Reaper. 

I hope you enjoyed it because Ben and Andrea will be back with the rest of the crew in Book Two Reaper Inc.

I look forward to reading your reviews and feel free to visit us at www.facebook.com/tawright.reaper