As they set down on top of the Legal Building, Rick was delighted to see Tim standing there waiting on them to return. He had a bag in each hand and was standing next to a Wilson heavy fighter.
Rick got out and went over to Tim followed by Bannic. Tim said, “Here are your travel bags gentleman.” He handed one to Rick and Bannic. “I put your data pad with all the information Bannic gave us just in case you need to review it.”
“Good, Thank you Tim. I don’t know when I’ll be back. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Yes Sir.”
Rick climbed into the heavy fighter. It had four seats. One for the piolet and co-piolet and two for the gunners. Rick and Bannic took the gunners seats. Rick wondered how he was always given just what was needed. The strangest part was, how did Tim know that he would be taking Bannic with him.
On the trip up to the ship, Rick thought about how he would be handling Collier once they had him in custody. The ‘how to’ and ‘why for’ went rolling around in his head like a marble in a bowl. He was jarred out of his thoughts by landing.
As the canopy opened, he saw Jennings waiting for him to arrive with a smile on his face. Rick got out of the fighter and came up to Jennings. “Permission to come aboard Captain?”
“Granted,” said Jennings as he stuck out his hand.
Rick shook his hand and said, “Captain, I would like to introduce you to Mr. Graham. He will be providing technical support on this mission. Mr. Graham this is Captain Jennings.”
“How long until we get underway to Three Worlds?” said Rick.
“Just as soon as I get back to the command deck.”
“Great, Captain can you have someone show Mr. Graham to some guest quarters? I would like to go over some mission details with you.”
Jennings nodded and yelled out, “Officer of the Deck!”
A young officer ran up and said, “Yes Sir.”
“Would you please show this man to the guest quarters.” Pointing to Bannic. Then looked at Rick and said, “If you would follow me please Sir.”
Rick followed Jennings to his office. It wasn’t until the hath was closed that Jennings said, “We aren’t going to Three Worlds are we?”
The way the blunt statement was made gave Rick reason to respond in kind. “No. We are not, but how did you know?”
“I knew the second the CEO’s Coltran shuttle requested docking instructions.”
“That means the entire ship knows that we are going to the Coltran corporation.” Rick was concerned about that fact. But there was nothing to be done about it now. “Well I said that if I needed something I’d ask for you personally.”
“Yeah but you also said that you would keep me out of it.” Both men laughed. “So, what’s the mission?”
“We have an extraction mission. We’ve tracked down Collier.”
“Wow,” said Jennings. He seemed to be impressed. “That didn’t take long. Where is he?”
“He’s on the planet Horse.”
“And that would explain the Coltran shuttle.”
“This is what I need you to do. Make the first jump like you are heading to Three Worlds. Then change course and head for Horse.”
Jennings reached over had hit a button on his desk. “Captain to command deck,”
“Yes Sir.”
“Set course for Three Worlds. Make the first jump as soon as you are ready. Do not make the second until I arrive on the command deck.”
“Understood, leaving orbit and preparing for the first jump.”
“Very well, Captain out.” Then he turned to Rick. “Okay, let’s go over the mission details.”
“Well, all we know for sure it the money trail ends at Horse.”
“Then we don’t even know if he is on the planet?”
“With 480 trillion credits, I’d say he is there. We just need to nail down his location,” said Rick.
“Yeah, with that much money, I don’t think I’d go far myself. How are we going to find him on the planet? That would be like looking for a drop of water in a lake.”
“True. That’s why we have Mr. Graham. He can find Collier as soon as we get into orbit. He will access the local net and track him down.”
Just then the lights went dim and then brightened up again. “That would be the first jump,” said Jennings.
Rick continued. “We would have done it from home, but we didn’t want Collier to know what we were up to.”
“Do you think Collier’s rebellion is that widespread?”
“I do, and what’s worse is that they are true believes in the cause. And that makes them dangerous.”
“Wow,” said Jennings. “I’m going to tell you something. Right now I have a lot more respect for our new CEO.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because one of the first things he did as CEO was put twenty shock troops on my ship. These are battle hardened veterans that are mean and nasty and at this moment I’m glad to have them on my ship. You’re going to need them.”
“How did Hobbs know that I would be using your ship?” Rick was amazed.
“Well from the word I got from around the fleet, the CEO put troops on twenty ships. None of the Captains were happy about it. It just happened to my ship that was at home when you needed one.”
“So let me tell you what he said to me. ‘As a Director you will soon learn to be prepared for any eventuality’. It sounds to me like he had been preparing from the moment he took office.”
“And that’s why I have more respect for him,” said Jennings.
Rick smiled thinking the same thing. “I’m going to need your help making a battle plan once we find Collier. Right now we need to get this ship turned around.”
“Yes Sir,” said Jennings and turned and left his office. Before he shut the hatch he said, “The yeoman will be standing by out here if you need anything.”
“Thank you Captain.” With that Jennings shut the hatch. Rick was left alone with his thoughts.
Rick was troubled by the amount of money Collier had stashed away. While Rick wasn’t sure about the cost, he guessed that a Destroyer class ship was about one trillion credits. That meant Collier could buy or have built 480 ships like the one Jennings commanded.
While Rick didn’t think that would happen. Collier could still amass a sizeable fleet. A fleet that could rival any corporation. But only one. If Collier’s ultimate goal was galactic domination, he had to keep the conflict going. What was his plan?
Rick realized that his mind was running around in circles again. There was nothing for him to do until he had Collier in hand and could question him.
He went to open the hatch and said to the yeoman, “Would you please take me to the guest quarters?”
“Yes Sir. Follow me.”
As the got to the room Rick found that Bannic was asleep. Rick realized that after doing nothing for a while this must have been a very busy day for him. Instead of disturbing Bannic Rick lay down on his bunk and started thinking about all the possibilities with Collier. Things that could go wrong and how to prevent them from happening.
It always came back to the fact, until they knew where Collier was at there was no real way to make any plans about capturing him.
It wasn’t until he heard the buzzer that he realized how much time had passed. Rick opened the hatch. The young man was standing there said, “Sir the Captain would like me to escort you to the command deck.”
“I take it we have arrived at Horse?”
“Yes Sir,
Rick went over to shake Bannic. “Get up we have a job to do.” Bannic just opened his eyes. And it seemed that he was wide awake. No grogginess of being half asleep. One moment he was asleep the next he was wide awake.
“Please lead the way,” said Rick to his escort.
As they arrived on the command deck Jennings said, “Good you’re here Director. We have pulled into a parking orbit. So, how are we going to find Collier?”
“Give him whatever he needs,” said Rick pointing to Bannic.
Without missing a beat Bannic said, “I’m going to need a computer station hooked into the local data net and your scanners.”
Jennings seemed amused at Bannic’s straightforwardness. “Mr. Henry.” An officer came over to the group. “Mr. Graham this is Mr. Henry. He is my science officer.” The two men shook hands. “Mr. Henry, give him whatever he needs.” Henry showed Bannic to his workstation.
“You know,” said Jennings. “It’s not going to take them very long to realize that a Wilson Destroyer is parked in orbit.”
“I honestly don’t think we will be here that long,” said Rick. “Mr. Graham has a talent...”
“Damn!” said Henry. Jennings and Rick looked over in that direction.
“Mr. Henry?” said Jennings with a tone of disapproval. Both he and Rick went to the science station.
“Sorry Sir, we found him.”
“What!?” Jennings was surprised but Rick was not. “Where is he?”
“He is in an underground habitation complex just outside Oracle.”
“Are we sure it’s Collier?” Jennings seemed like he didn’t want to take any chances.
“Yes Sir. Life signs match what’s on file. It is him.”
“What is he doing?”
It was Bannic that answered that question. “My guess is that he is sleeping. For him it is the middle of the night.”
Jennings turned to his executive officer and said, “Get Lt. Stanton to my office in the ten minutes.” He turned back to Henry, “What is the local tine where Collier is at.”
“It’s 3:14 local time,” said Bannic. “Collier rarely sleeps more than six hours at a time. If he keeps to his normal habits he went to sleep at 23:00. That means you have one hour forty-six minutes before he wakes up.”
Jennings gave Bannic a speculative look. Rick got the impression that he didn’t know what to make of Bannic. “Very well. Send the complete scans of the complex to my office. Make sure to include all access points.”
“Yes Sir,” said Henry.
“Director, if you would please accompany me Sir.”
“I think we need Mr. Graham to come along.”
Jennings looked suspiciously at Bannic but said, “Very well. Let’s go.”
They stepped into the Captain’s office and with the hatch closed Jennings said, “Would you mind telling me how you found Collier so fast?”
Rick would have intervened, but he wanted to know as well.
“As soon as I got onto the local net I found the main account. I noticed that he was funneling money into a smaller account. As I looked into the smaller account I realized that he was using it for living expenses. I traced the expenses he was making on a regular basis. That’s how I found the habitation complex he had been living in. It gave the address and the room number.”
Rick noticed that Bannic conveniently left out the fact that he setup the accounts he had been talking about.
“You got all of that in two minutes?” said Jennings.
“It wasn’t that hard. He has no clue that we know where he is. As a result he wasn’t trying to cover his tracks. In fact he seems to be spending his money very freely.”
“The question Rick wanted to know was, “What is he using the main account for?”
“Some years ago he bought a machine shop and warehouse. That main account is currently being used to buy raw materials. I’m going to assume that it is for the machine shop.”
As Bannic was speaking the buzzer sounded. Jennings went to open the hatch.
“You wanted to see me Captain?”
“Yes I did, come in,” said Jennings. With the hatch shut he continued. “Lt. Stanton it’s time to put your men to work. We have a retrieval operation for you.”
“It’s about time, Sir,” said Stanton. “Who it the objective?”
“Steve Collier.” Jennings went to his desk and projected the scans of the habitation complex on the wall. There were two views one from the side and one from the top. Both had a red dot on them. “That red dot is your target. You have one hour thirty-two minutes from right now to retrieve your target. The clock is ticking on this one.”
Stanton studied the scans for a moment. “Sir, I don’t see how this could be done. The nearest access point is over a kilometer away. I don’t think planetary security is just going to let us in locked and loaded. If we cause a commotion the target will get away before we have a chance to get him. If we go through channels it will take time.”
“It wouldn’t matter anyway,” said Rick. “If we go through channels the target is likely to hear of it and escape.”
“There is a way,” said Bannic.
Everyone in the room turned to look at Bannic, but it was Jennings that asked, “How?”
Bannic got up and pointed at the small shaft that went from the top of the complex to the surface.
Stanton object almost at once. “We can’t use that. First it is little more than an air shaft. It’s a three-hundred-meter drop. Even if we do use it to get in, how are we going to get the target out? On top of all of that the shaft is only big enough to let one person pass through at a time.”
“Just use the ladder,” said Bannic. “Collier had that built as an escape route if he was ever trapped.”
Stanton looked at Bannic with suspicion and said, “How good is your intel?”
“Very,” said Rick. “And Lt. Stanton, we need Collier alive.”
“I’ll do my best.” It seemed that Stanton didn’t take too kindly about receiving orders from civilians.
“I’m sorry,” said Jennings. “I failed to make introductions. This is Director Thompson, and we need Collier alive.”
“Yes Sir. Stun only.”
“Good get your men on the flight deck in ten minutes. You can brief them on the way down to the planet. Dismissed.”
“Yes Sir,” said Stanton and then left the room.