Solbidyum Wars 3: Pirates of Goo'waddle Canals (35 page)

“You do not mind if I check this currency,” she said as the brought out a small scanning device.

“Not at all; please do,” I said.

The woman ran the scanner over the currency several times to make sure of her readings.  “Well,” she said as she turned around to face us.  “This certainly seems to be in order.”
She walked around her desk and removed a small data disk, handing it to me.  “I think you will find everything in order here.  She is yours, or I should say, your employer’s.”

Marranalis reached over and took the disk from me.  “If you don’t mind, we’d like to check the documents before we leave.”

The woman’s face dropped for a moment before she regained her composure and said, “Certainly.  I think you will find everything is in order.”

Marranalis pulled a small scanning device from his pocket and examined the cube.  I didn’t even know he had brought one along.

“Everything appears to be in order,” he said to me.

“Well, then,” I began, “I think our business here is finished.  Jenira, let’s get you out of here and back to see Tanden.” Jenira was practically jumping out of her skin with glee as we walked out the front door.

The trip back to the house was anything but quiet.  Jenira must have asked one hundred times, “Are you really taking me to Tanden?” and “Is Tanden alright?” Tanden, on the other hand, didn’t know his sister had been found or that we were bringing her back to him. 

When we finally arrived at the estate and we took Jenira into the room where Tanden sat playing a game of chess with Padaran, Jenira let out a high-pitched scream.  “Tanden!”

Tanden looked up with pure shock in his face.  Suddenly, he leaped to his feet and both he and Jenira raced across the room into each other’s arms.  They hugged each other tightly and cried as we watched.  I felt a hand slip around my waist and Kala’s head rest on my shoulder. 

“Tib, I think this is about the greatest thing you have ever done.”  She kissed me on the cheek.

You would think after all that had happened in the previous days that things would have settled down a bit.  First there was the flight to Goo’Waddle with the problems between the cloaking device and the courier band on Kerabac’s wrist.  Then there was the rendezvous with Agama and his men, followed by the rather unfriendly visit from the Brotherhood, only to be followed by the Ruwallie Rasson.  There also was the strange encounter with Andy, the android, who mysteriously disappeared, and from whom we had not heard anything since.  Padaran had since firmly established himself as the leader of the Ruwallie Rasson and Tanden and his sister were now back together.  What more could happen?

That night, for the first time in weeks, Kala and I made love.  She seemed to be even more passionate than ever before – and insatiable.  The lovemaking and play continued well into the morning hours before we finally drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Kerabac met me as soon as I came down the stairs.  He called me outside to the patio, away from the bug in house.  “Tibby, today is the deadline date that the Brotherhood gave us to turn over the ship.  What do you think will happen?”

“I’m not sure, but I do know we’re not going to let them have the ship!”

“I could get some of the Ruwallie Rasson to guard the place here for us — that should keep the Brotherhood out,” Padaran said.

“Yeah, but it would probably keep Logden out as well.” As we spoke, we noted a small but well-appointed boat pulling up to one of the docks at the front of the estate.  “It looks like we have company,” I said.

“It’s Agama and his men,” Kerabac noted.  As the group approached the house, they noticed us on the side patio and diverted their route to walk directly toward us.

“Kerabac,” Agama said, “you are looking well.  I heard you had some problems, but you seem to have handled them.”
While he greeted Kerabac, he was also looking around the property rather intently, especially noticing the newly replaced windows and doors.  “Word has it that the Brotherhood is not too happy with you.  I also hear tell that you had a run-in with the Ruwallie Rasson cartel, and that they were not too happy with you, either.  But you seemed to have resolved that issue to your advantage.  Oh, congratulations to you — Padaran, isn’t it?  I hear rumors you and Kerabac are now partners and that you now are leader of the Ruwallie Rasson.  I never thought I would see the day a white man would become their leader.”

“You came all this way to congratulate us?” Kerabac said in a joking tone.  “That was really nice of you, Agama.”

“Actually, we came to discuss some other business.  We hear the Brotherhood is planning on making things difficult for you — in fact, rumors are circulating that they want to kill you.  So we’re thinking you might be planning on leaving Goo’Waddle real soon.  We happen to have a need for someone to transport a colleague of ours — sort of a courier, like you.  Only he won’t be needing a courier band.  He needs to make a long trip to the other side the Federation, and we hear that you’re familiar with that side of space.  We‘re hoping you would be willing to transport him there in exchange for a significant fee.  Of course, it would be dangerous… and we need to you get him through the Brotherhood blockades.  Since you‘ve done it once, we figure you can do it again.”

“I don’t know, Agama; that’s a mighty long trip.  It could take over a year to traverse all that distance; I can’t afford a whole year out of my business to just transport one person.”

“Not even for, let’s say, 20 million credits?”

“Twenty million,” Kerabac said with a shocked look.  His acting was superb.  “What makes him worth twenty million?”

“Let’s just say that there is someone on the other side the Federation that has a need to see him really badly.”

“I see.  And does this man have a name?” Kerabac asked.

“Yeah, he’s got a name.  But that’s on a need-to-know basis and you don’t need to know.”

“So how are we supposed to talk to him then if he has no name and he is on my ship for year?”

“OK, you can call him…ahh, call him
Sol
...  Yeah, call him Sol,” Agama said, grinning and puffing out his chest as if he had just said something really smart.

“Let me talk it over with my associate and my crew,” Kerabac said, as he motioned us over to the far end of the patio.

“What do you think, Tibby?” he asked.

“It sounds to me like he is in league with Logden.  It would make sense — if Agama and his brother have been smuggling goods from Ryken to Goo’Waddle in the past and Logden was also a pirate and smuggler, he may have worked with them before.  He may have approached them for assistance in getting off the planet and past the Brotherhood.  It’s obvious from what Agama just said that they’ve been listening to everything going on in that room, like we thought.  I say we go for it.”

“I agree,” Padaran said.  “The longer we wait, the more difficult this is going to become.”

“Marranalis, what are your thoughts?”

“I agree with you, Tibby.  When he was searching for a name to call Logden, he went with Sol.  Clearly he was thinking of the solbidyum and thought he was being clever.”

“Yeah, I caught that.  One thing disturbs me, though.  They say they want you to carry him all the way across the galaxy.  That doesn’t make sense to me.  I don’t think they would trust Logden with a three-way split and let him make the trip all by himself, leaving them behind with no guarantees.”

“I suspect you’re right, Tibby.  What do you think they’re planning?”

“My guess is they plan to meet up with him someplace outside of the area after we get them past the Brotherhood blockade, possibly not until we get somewhere inside Federation territory, where they’re less likely to encounter any more Brotherhood ships.  At that point I suspect that Logden plans to pull a stunt like Lexmal did when he took over the
TRITYTE
.  Then they’ll all get together on a larger ship, more suited to Agama and his brother’s tastes, to make the rest of the year-long journey to wherever their destination is.  So…this means they’ll have to follow us in a second ship when we leave.  They’ll be stopped by the Brotherhood, of course, but once Logden and the solbidyum are not found, they will be right after us again.  They’ll probably wait a few days before contacting Logden to make his move.”

“What’s to keep Logden from making a run for it once he’s off-world, if he were to gain control of our ship?”

“Who knows?  I suspect that he needs them to complete the solbidyum sale.  Even with a three-way split, he would have more money than he will ever use in a lifetime.  Or maybe they plan to put a courier band on him.  I think we should tell them we will accept the deal, but for 40 million credits, since the conditions of this job require us to proceed without knowing why it is so important that he get off-world in secret and without understanding what dangers we face.  No doubt they will try to bargain it down, but don’t go less than 35 million credits.  If they accept that, I think we can be pretty certain that Logden and the solbidyum are the cargo.”

We walked back over to where Agama and his men stood.  Kerabac began, “Since we are expected to complete this escort without knowing the identity of the man we are to transport or the final destination or, for that matter, the risks we face from the Brotherhood, should they succeed in intercepting us, we feel we cannot possibly do it for less than 40 million credits.”

“FORTY MILLION!” Agama shouted.  “That’s preposterous!  Absolutely no way! Even if we had that kind of money, we would never agree to that.”

“What would you agree to?” Kerabac replied.  “Considering that 20 million will not get your friend Sol off this planet on our ship.”

“Mmm, 30 million – that’s the max I can go!”

“Thirty?
You’re asking us to risk our lives and livelihood for at least a full year… for reasons that we do not know, to a destination we do not know, and at the wrath of the Brotherhood, as well.  We cannot possibly do it for less than 40 million,” Kerabac retorted with a stubborn look on his face.

“OK….32 million, I will go to 32 million, but that is all the money I can pay you! That is a fortune; you and your crew will never have to work again.”

“Make it 35 million and we have a deal.”

“Thirty-five?  I can’t pay you that now; you would need to wait until you have reached the destination for that amount.”

“OK then…32 million when we leave here, and the remainder at the other end,
before
we deliver your friend, Sol,” Kerabac stated.

“Deal,” Agama said.  “We’ll need two days to get things arranged.  In the meantime, I suggest you stay out of the way of the Brotherhood; I fear they fully intend to do you some serious harm later today.  If I were you, I would get out of this place.  I’ll contact you in two days, so be prepared to leave immediately thereafter.”

After Agama and his men left I said, “You know, I think he is right.  We need to get out of here before the Brotherhood shows up.  A confrontation now could jeopardize our mission.  It’s time to get ourselves to Tondor’s estate inside the Ruwallie Rasson sector of the city where the Brotherhood is not welcome.  I have no doubt that his compound remains under heavy guard at all times, so we should be safe there for the next few days until it’s time for us to make our get away with Logden and the solbidyum.  It would be really difficult for the Brotherhood to reach us there without starting a war.”

Padaran then politely stepped forward to join our conversation.  “Sirs,” he began, I believe this plan will also give me an opportunity, as the leader of the Ruwallie people and cartel, to get some things in place that will solidify the new conditions for the Ruwallie Rasson so they don’t revert back to their former ways.  I need to appoint someone to be my voice here after we leave.”

“Then it’s settled.  Get everyone together, let them know we are leaving and to gather up any items that we brought with us from the ship.  Anything we purchased here stays here.”

“What about Tanden and his sister?” Marranalis inquired.

“They go with us to Tondor’s estate.  We need Jenira to tell us where we can find their father so we can give him money to pay off his debts.  We need to see if we can get the entire family together and get them on the ship.”

“I’ll get Endina to search for their parents as soon as we get into the new place.  She may have already made some progress on this issue,” Marranalis said.

Padaran made a call to Tondor and notified him that we would be moving over to his estate that morning.  Tondor insisted that we use the luxury transport which was now Padaran’s property, and said he was dispatching it to us with a security detail as they spoke.

While we waited, Padaran, Endina, Sokaia, Marranalis and Kala checked around the estate to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind that might reveal our true identities and purpose.  While they were engaged in that task, Kerabac and I got in touch with the
RASSON BEDAN
to let them know we were relocating and to find out any news that we may need to know.  Because the ship was inside the local solar system, we did not bring a DSC system with us to the surface — mostly to prevent its discovery if we were captured.  However, the
RASSON BEDAN
did have a DSC system and was in touch with what was happening throughout the galaxy.