* * *
Morgana and I arrived at our berth just as the last of the cargo we had brought with us to Toula was being carried away by a ground transport. Stacked to one side were the twenty unmarked cargo cases we were to transport off planet for our mysterious clients. Each container was over six meters long by two meters wide by one deep–too large to be easily handled by manual lifters. I looked up and saw that the main cargo bay doors were open on top of the ship. One of the loading arms had been deployed, its clamps swinging into position above the first container. Squinting against the brightness of the sky I could make out Jimmy Hunter, the sniper for our new tactical operations team, manning the loader controls. I had no doubt that Chris had picked him for that duty so that he could keep an eye on things. Down on the ground Lucky was standing beside the stacked cases directing the loading arm. As soon as the first container had been locked onto he motioned to Jimmy to take it away and came over to us.
“I see our cargo has arrived,” I said.
“It got here about ten minutes ago,” Lucky answered. “What is it?”
“I have no idea,” I said, watching as the loading arm slowly swung the first container around to lower it into the main hold. Lucky’s eyes widened but he didn’t say anything. “Get them loaded as quickly as possible. We’ll be lifting ship as soon as we’re refueled.”
“Aye, Captain.”
I knew that he had a lot of questions but I couldn’t explain anything while we were exposed out here. I turned and headed up the boarding ramp with Morgana keeping pace beside me, leaving Lucky to finish with the cargo. When we reached the top of the ramp we walked directly into the main airlock. Both the outer and inner airlock doors were open while we were grounded and we passed directly through and into the ship. We were greeted inside by Bruce Stone, the tactical team’s demolitions expert, who was posted at the airlock to make sure that no unauthorized persons boarded the ship.
“Welcome back, Sir, ma’am.” Try as I might, I could not get any of the new crew to call me by my first name, even within the privacy of the ship. Since we were on a covert mission I had been able to convince them to refer to me as sir instead of Sire or Your Highness, but even so you could practically hear the capital ‘S’ whenever they addressed me.
“Hi, Bruce. Would you find Barney and tell him to meet us in the main cargo hold. I have something I need his help with.”
“Yes, Sir,” Bruce said as he reached for the comm panel.
I started for the hold immediately, my mind churning. Morgana knew my moods and she let me to brood silently as we headed toward the main hold. I was bothered by those containers. Obviously they contained some kind of contraband, and we weren’t going anywhere until I knew exactly what it was we were carrying.
We reached the hold quickly, entering just as the loading arm was lifting away from the first of the shipping containers it had lowered into position. The case was secured with a combination touch pad and sealed with a red sticker bearing a scan-bar code. I circled it once but found no other markings.
“Do you think we should open it?” Morgana asked, reading my intention.
“We have to. There could be anything inside.” At that moment I was remembering another shipping case we had taken aboard half a year ago, one that had been rigged to destroy the ship.
Morgana squatted down and examined the touch pad. “If Pennyworth is as good as he’s supposed to be, he should be able to open it without too much trouble.”
“As long as he can do it without Smith’s people knowing we’ve been peeking at the goods,” I said.
“If I can’t do it, it can’t be done,” a voice called from the doorway behind us.
Barney Pennyworth was of average height and build with a head full of frizzy, mousy brown hair and dark eyes that always seemed to be sparkling with secret amusement. He ambled into the hold and glanced at the shipping container.
“Bruce said you were looking for me, Sir,” Barney said, as he stepped up beside the container. “Is this the job?”
“That’s it. I need to see what’s inside without anyone knowing it’s been opened. What do you think?”
He shrugged. “Let’s take a look.”
Barney set down the tool kit he was carrying, studied the combination keypad briefly, then slowly made his way around the container as he ran his fingers along its surface, his eyes scanning every centimeter. As a materials specialist with the Royal Intelligence Agency, Barney had spent years designing and building specialized equipment to meet unique needs. But his expertise extended into other areas as well. His file indicated that he was also a genius at figuring out ways around the tightest security measures. During his time with the RIA he had helped our people to infiltrate some of the most secure locations on a dozen worlds, places that most people had written off as impossible. To Barney, impossible simply meant a more interesting challenge. His philosophy was that if a man could design a security system then he could find a way around it.
He completed his examination of the container quickly. “I thought you were going to have a challenge for me. I can have this open for you inside of five minutes and no one will ever know we even touched it,” he announced confidently. “The only problem I might have is if there’s some kind of hidden trip switch. I don’t see anything on the outside that looks suspicious but I can’t be sure until I run a full scan.” He knelt down by the container and opened his kit to pull out a portable scanner.
“What if you do find something?” I asked.
“In that case it’ll take six minutes.”
Morgana’s phone beeped just as Barney began running the hand held device over the case. She moved aside and put on her earpiece.
After listening for several moments she said, “We’re back aboard now. I’ll tell him.” She removed her phone and turned to me. “We just got that information you asked for on Capital Investments.”
Barney would need a few minutes to run his scan so we stepped over to the comm panel mounted on the bulkhead beside the doorway. Morgana accessed the file that had been downloaded into the ship’s central database and opened it. A moment later her father’s recorded image popped up on the screen.
“That’s an interesting company you put us onto,” Morgan began without preamble. “At first they seemed like just another financial institution until we started doing some digging. I’m afraid that what I have for you is only a preliminary report, but I thought you’d want to know what we’ve learned so far. It seems that Capital Investments was taken over a number of years ago by another corporation. Nothing so unusual about that except that my people are having trouble tracing through the tangle of corporate connections to find the actual owner. So far we’ve uncovered a number of shell companies which seemed to have been created for the sole purpose of buying out Capital, each of which has turned out to be a dead end. I’ve got some of our best people working on the problem and I’ll contact you again as soon as they learn anything else. I’d be interested to hear how you stumbled onto them in the first place. On the surface they seem like an ordinary bank, but the more we look into them the dirtier they look.”
Morgan then launched into an overview of what they had learned so far. The more I listened the more I could feel my brows knitting together. The image I was getting was one of a company that had built itself up by exploiting the financially vulnerable. Capital Investments had started out as a minor lending company a little more than ten years ago. It had found its niche by extending lines of credit to people with poor credit ratings. By charging high interest rates to its roster of high risk customers and then raising those rates every time a customer was late with a payment by as little as even a single day, the company was able to quickly build up its financial legs. After a few years the company had branched out into banking. Although it still maintained its credit division, for the past several years the bulk of its business had been focused on investment ba
nking.
While none of this was illegal, the one incongruous fact was the large number of corporate accounts the bank had managed to land with some of the most prestigious companies in the kingdom. Capital’s client list read like a who’s who roster for the top most profitable transnational corporations in existence. Normally these were companies who wouldn’t have anything to do with a fledgling financial institution like Capital. Old money tended to trust its financial security to well established institutions. A new company like Capital Investments hadn’t been around long enough to have developed a reputation among the big corporations, yet several of them had a large bulk of their assets invested with them.
After we finished listening to Morgan’s synopsis of what he had learned, we spent some time skimming through the records he had forwarded along with his report. Capital’s assets had grown exponentially since the company moved into the field of banking. It currently boasted branches in every system of the kingdom and had even begun to spread into other nations as well.
“It looks like Capital Investments is working some back room deals,” Morgana observed, mirroring my own thoughts.
“It certainly looks that way. Did you notice the report on its holdings? They’ve already taken over a number of smaller banks that were floundering due to the recession. If they keep going at this rate they’ll be a real monster in another couple of years.”
“Monster is the right word,” she said. “They can’t be generating all of this revenue legally.”
“I agree. Something about them smells wrong. But there’s nothing in any of the information we have so far that’s clear evidence of illegal activity. Even our dealings with Mr. Smith weren’t technically illegal. We’re just going to have to wait and see what else pops up.”
“Excuse me, Sir,” Barney called.
I glanced across the bay and saw that he had managed to open the shipping container. The top had been swung back on its hinges and I could see two long, cylindrical shapes inside.
“I think you’re going to want to take a look at this,” he said. Although he spoke calmly, there was a note of tension in his voice.
I shut down the comm panel and we walked back over to the container. My breath caught in my throat when I saw what was inside. In the crate were twin metal cylinders which tapered to chiseled points at one end. I didn’t need more than a brief look to know what they were. I shot Morgana a glance and could tell from the surprised look that sprouted on her features that she recognized our cargo as well.
In the container was a pair of rapier missiles.
The uniquely shaped nose cones on the missiles were specifically designed for a single purpose—to pierce the hulls of warships. This allowed their high yield, shaped charges to explode inward and cause the maximum damage to an enemy vessel. Rapiers were more commonly known as ‘ship killers’ because a direct hit from just one of these missiles could easily destroy a ship the size of the Prometheus.