Chapter 28
City
of Dublin, Ireland
Earth Alliance
"You owe me ten
credits." Francis O'Leary beamed at his friend Dermot. "You
should've known better!"
Dermot reached into his pocket and
pulled out a gold coloured coin, dropping it on the desk. "Don't
you ever get sick of yourself?"
"Grapes a little on the sour
side?" Francis teased. "Come on, the Earth stock exchange was
easy!"
The two young men were sat in a small café in one
of Dublins ancient streets nestled amid the relatively calm
metropolis. The café had been born centuries ago as an old
internet venue where people could surf the world wide web without
needing a home computer, as technology evolved so too did this
establishment now offering the latest communications systems and
access to the galaxy net, successor to the world wide web. They were
in a corner of the room and at this time of day there were only five
other patrons all well spread out.
"Fine, maybe I'm a little
slow for thinking that the stock exchange central computer would have
provided a hard challenge to hack into." Dermot grumbled. "You're
only showing off because that girl keeps looking at you."
"That
is not true!" he answered quickly, annoyed his friend had spotted
the truth. "I just think a fool and his money should always be
parted."
He quickly closed down his connection, he had no desire
to actually do anything with his access to the stock exchange, he
wasn't some anarchist or malicious hacker wanting to bring down
society, it was just the thrill and the challenge of proving that he
actually could beat the defences. And more than a little of it was to
impress the young raven haired woman two screens away. While he was
obviously trying to play it cool he kept throwing glances her way and
noticed that with increasing regularity she would look over to him.
It had brought out the show off in him.
"Don't look." Dermot
whispered. "But she's on her way over."
Francis froze solid,
acutely aware that his body temperature just shot up ten degrees. His
head was held rigidly pointing at the screen and keyboard and he did
nothing until the young woman spoke.
"Hi there." She said with
a smile.
"Oh hey," Francis looked up at her, praying he wasn't
flushed pink. "How are you?"
"Pretty good." She answered,
he couldn't quite place her accent but it wasn't local. "I just
caught a look at your screen and wondered what you were doing?"
"What
him?" Dermot cut in. "Nothing."
"Because it looked you
were slicing into a major commercial computer system." The young
lady said. Again Francis froze, managing a thin smile. "Which is
pretty cool." The very attractive girl smiled, and Francis actually
exhaled in relief.
"Oh well yeah it is." He chuckled. "I
thought you were the police for a second!"
"Ah come on." She
said mischieviously. "You ever seen a police officer this good
looking?"
Francis had absolutely nothing in his seventeen year
experience which could even start to answer that. "No." he
managed weakly.
"So you looked like you got in pretty easy."
She pulled up a chair beside him, a slight floral scent accompanied
her which Francis guessed was perfume. She looked a little older than
him, possible a university student from a different city. It would
explain the accent. "How did you do it?"
"Ahh, that's the
secret." Dermot said. "He won't even tell me how he…"
"It's
all in this box." Francis blurted. "Just here." He pointed to
an assuming black plastic box attached to the side of his
terminal.
"Five years and you never told me that!" Dermot
fumed, shooting a harsh glance at the pretty girl. "Doesn't take
much to turn your head! Stupid hormones."
"What does it do?"
the girl asked oblivious to Dermot's comment.
"Everything,
first of all it prevents this line being traced." Francis said with
enthusiasm. "Secondly it tells me exactly what sort of encription
pattern the target system uses, and that in turn allows me to predict
how the code will change and slip in."
"So the box doesn't
do all the work?" she said. "You're still the one who finally
breaks in?"
"That's right." He smiled. "It's a gift,
my tutors don't know I do this but they know I have a natural
talent for numbers. Figure it'll make me a lot of money one
day."
"Especially if you hack into a bank and give yourself a
million credits." The girl suggested.
"Oh no, no I can't do
that." Francis shook his head. "Well I could, but I won't. That
money belongs to someone and I'm no thief, I just like to know that
I can."
The girl looked at him for a little while. "My name is
Jennifer."
"Francis." He smiled to her. "You're not from
around here?"
"Just passing through." She smiled. "So you
like a challenge?"
"Very much."
"What's the most
secure system you've beaten?" she asked.
"Hmmm." Francis
thought for a while. "Probably the Earth Alliance Treasury
department, where they keep all the tax records."
"That's
pretty serious." Jennifer nodded. "I read the best protected
system is the EIA central computer."
"No kidding!" Francis
chortled. "Completely unbeatable. They have a totally isolated data
core, you can't hack in because you would have to be actually in
the same room as it to try."
"Wow, guess that is secure."
She raised an eyebrow. "What about the military?"
"Much the
same from what I've read. Planetary defence grid, fleet order
system, battle net." He listed off the main use of computer
controls. "Even the datalinks between warships are only on for a
fraction of a second at a time, just long enough to receive burst
orders."
"But what about non frontline systems?" she asked.
"Like payroll, or personnel files?"
Francis paused. "Well,
maybe."
"Frank, I wouldn't." Dermot said. "The military
have better computers than the stock exchange, they might beat the
box."
"They can't beat the box." Francis scoffed. "You
want to see inside the Earth force main net?" he asked
Jennifer.
"Yeah, I really do." She flashed a dazzling smile.
"But only if you can do it."
"No problem." He began typing
quickly. "lets see what we're up against."
"Look Frank,
this is a mistake, you shouldn't mess with the military." Dermot
persisted. "You heard about that guy in Canada?"
"What guy?"
Jennifer wondered.
"He tried to crack the Earth force system,
apparently he actually managed it and got into everything, fleet
deployments, budget, he even had access to the satellite defence
grid."
"Come on Dom, you now that's crap." Francis was
typing with hectic speed and total concentration. "It's
impossible."
"Yeah well this guy supposedly did it." Dermot
continued. "Anyway he's real happy with himself, then BOOM!" he
clapped his hands, not noticing that the sudden noise which startled
most people didn't even cause Jennifer to blink. "His house gets
wiped out. Officially a prototype cruise missile malfunctioned and
accidently struck his house, but we all know that when the government
found its system hacked they took measures to silence this
guy."
"Wow." Jennifer said in awe. "And you got proof for
this?"
"Proof?" Dermot frowned.
"Yeah you know, the
stuff that makes the difference between factual stories and
bull?"
"Well, I mean the government covered it up." Dermot
said hastily.
"How do you cover up a fifty foot hole in the
ground?" Jennifer giggled. "You'r emaking this up!"
"I
am not!" Dermot said defensively. "Right now the orbital defence
grid is locking on, I can see tomorrows headline, 'Poor students
killed in accidental satellite misfire.' Mark my words."
"You're
so full of crap some times!" Francis grinned. "Hey, there we go."
The screen was suddenly filled with rotating rows of numbers. "That's
the code."
"That looks really complicated." Jennifer
squinted.
"Oh it is, but it all follows a pattern. All I have
to do is spot the pattern and jump ahead." He stared intensely at
the screen for a minute, though it could have been an eternity for
the people watching. Then he rapidly typed in a sequence of numbers
then pressed enter. An instant later the numbers disappeared and a
basic interface was revealed. "Voila."
"This is it?"
Jennifer said with a smile. "Earth force central index?"
"Yep,
but only the second line functions." Francis explained. "The
actual military systems are beyond hackable."
"That satellite
is firing." Dermot grumbled.
"Whu don't you go get us all a
coffee?" Francis suggested. "Go on, here." He handed back the
ten credits. "That should just cover three Coffees."
The
friend grunted then got up and went for the bar. Jennifer smiled and
nodded at the screen. "That's real impressive."
"Thanks."
Francis smiled impossibly wide. "What do you want to look
at?"
"They can't trace us?"
"They won't even know
we're here." He said confidently.
"Cool, let's look at
personnel records." She said. "Like a general."
With a few
taps of the keyboard he entered the records storage and came up with
a vast alphabetical list of every member of Earth force. "Damn
that's a big list."
"Lots of little soldiers out there."
The girl stated. "Can I pick one?"
"Sure, go ahead."
Francis leaned back. "What do you fancy?" he hinted subtley.
She
leaned past him to get closer to the screen, moving much closer to
him and near enough s they were almost touching. This was turning
into a very entertaining day. "That one." She clicked a link.
"I
see this soldier shares your first name." Francis remarked as the
file opened. "Want to see a picture?"
"Yeah." Jennifer
leaned back again. "I really think you should open the
picture."
"Alright then." He found the control and opened
it. "Well then Commander Jennifer Sakai, what do you look
like?"
The image of a young raven haired woman blinked up on
screen, it could have been a mirror reflection of the girl sat next
to him. "Wow, you two really look alike, is she a relation or…"
finally his brain got the message. "Oh hell no."
"Oh hell
yes." The girl beside him said.
"This isn't happening."
"I
think the word you are looking for is 'Busted.'"
Francis had
no idea what to say, so just dropped his head on the desk. His
parents were going to kill him.
Brakir
Homeworld of the
Brakiri
Paul Calendar watched hyperspace morphing around the
small convoy through the windows of the observation deck. Most Earth
built warships didn't have windows and their hulls tended to be
just pure slabs of armour, though some of the older designs still had
the occaisional viewing port to give the crew something to look at
besides bulk heads. Still the ship he was on right now wouldn't
strictly be considered a ship of war by most people in the Earth
Alliance military and so one or two windows didn't matter all that
much.
"We're coming up on the gate." The voice belonging to
Leo Vinetti announced. "Turned out okay didn't it?"
Paul
shrugged in answer. The trip had been uneventful, not even raiders
had taken a chance on them even though a shipment of weapons would be
a hugely tempting target. Of course none of that surprised Paul, he
knew the real danger and consequently the reason for his exorbitant
fee would emerge when they dropped into League space proper and
entered Brakiri orbit.
"We'll need a couple of hours to
unload, then we can head back for Earth." Vinetti continued. "A
cake run, all these ships provided good insurance."
Which again
was only true so far. Twelve well armed Belt Alliance escort ships
would make raiders and small militaries back off, but if they ran
into the Dilgar it would still be a lot like shooting fish in a
barrel. Paul still wasn't sure why he'd picked this assignment in
the first place. Both Jors and Toby had initially been slightly in
favour of coming with him, but the risks had proven too great and
they had decided to stay home and work on the still damaged Space
Race. Paul didn't blame them, but when they tried to convince
him to also stay he refused siting the contract was too good to tun
down. It was certainly a good contract, but perhaps not as good as
he'd prefer to believe.
"Well I guess we're being paid for
the job huh?" Paul said with a glance. "Maybe I was wrong."
"Easy
money." Vinetti grinned, then held onto a nearby cord as the ship
began the transition from hyperspace. The tunnel opened up in front
of the Belt Alliance convoy with the distant orb of Brakir itself
just visible in the distance. The first thing Paul noticed was a huge
build up of traffic on the far side of the gate, the convoy had to
take a sudden turn to avoid running into an ungainly looking
transport ship.
Vinetti swore loudly as the ship turned sharply.
"Haven't they heard of traffic control!"
Paul was forcibly
trying not to laugh, not out of amusement but because that was the
only reaction his shortwiring brain could manage. "Here we go
again."
"Huh?" Vinetti frowned.
"Refugees Mr Vinetti."
Paul said with enthusiasm. "Refugees. They won't really care
about traffic control, just running away."
"Refugees? From
where?"
"Yes Mr Vinetti, for the third time, Refugees." Paul
spoke as if to a child. "My guess is they're fleeing something
big, wanna put some money on what that could be?"
Vinetti's
eyes grew wider as he put all the pieces in place. "An
invasion?"
"Bingo." Paul smiled. "Now I suggest we get the
hell out of here."
"Yeah…" Vinetti said absently, his
words separate from his thoughts. He wasn't a telepath but Paul
guessed Vinetti's head was filled with Dilgar battleships "I
better get up to the bridge and see what's happening."
"Yeah,
you go do that." Paul encouraged. "And then we should really run
away, you don't want to meet the Dilgar."
"Right, yeah."
Vinetti was still distracted. "I'll be back."
Paul returned
his attention to the window as the businessman left. The scene was
becoming depressingly familiar as the gunship he was on slid into
orbit alongside the convoy it was escorting, just another two dozen
vessels amid what seemed like thousands. He was able to spot a few
warships in the distance but most vessels seemed civilian in nature
and all were loading up with shuttles from the planet. Utriel,
Ssumssha, Tirrith and now Brakir, all planets gripped in panic and
full of people trying to run from the coming maelstrom. Most of them
didn't have a chance of escape and looking at how sparse the
defences were they didn't have much chance of survival either. He
felt pity for them, but mostly he felt an empty darkness growing
inside at the thought of the Dilgar heading this way. It was an
intense and primal sensation.
"Paul?" a communication panel on
a nearby wall buzzed to life. "You still there?"
"Still here
Mr Vinetti."
"Its true, planetary aerospace control just told
us their colonies fell this morning. The Dilgar are heading this
way."
"Of course they are." He grumbled. "Couldn't wait
just five hours could they?"
"I asked what they were doing and
the guy was a little coy." Vinetti continued. "I think their
ships took a real pasting. They aren't going to have much left to
stop the Dilgar conquering this place."
Which left the Brakiri
with two fates, either the Dilgar would enslave them like they did at
Tirrith, or exterminate them like they did at Utriel. Not much of a
choice. "There isn't a whole lot we can do." Paul said. "Maybe
offer to take some refugees back on our transports?"
"Sounds
fair, I mean it's the least we can do right?" Vinetti replied.
"I'll arrange for the drop then we can get out of here."
The
transmission ended, and Paul returned to observing the scene outside.
It was chaos, and compared to the ordered nature of the Abbai
planetary defences seemed to be a real bad portent. The Brakiri were
going to have a rough time coming up.
Three hours later Paul
was floating into the command room of the gunship, one of the
Vindicator class it was roughly equal to a light cruiser in
terms of firepower and protection, something which the more
reactionary Earth Alliance senators had suffered a small fit over.
The Earth Force joint chiefs were however less concerned, even the
biggest Belt Alliance escorts were still no match for a dedicated
Naval ship and they were happy to let the BA run its own escorts,
saved the military having to put its own ships on escort duty. The
small bridge was focused on Mr Vinetti and the vessels commander
hovering by a communication terminal.
"You wanted me?"
"Hey
Paul, we got a little trouble." Vinetti waved him over. "I
thought with you being the League expert you could help."
Paul
made his way forward and hooked his boots into a fabric stirrup on
the floor, like all human ships the gunship was lacking in gravity.
Only Earth Force one and a very small number of incredibly expensive
space liners used rotational sections as part of their hulls to
simulate gravity, as a rule most humans just learned to live with
weightlessness and for veteran freight runners or warship crew zero G
became like second nature. Captain Grozny made space for him and Paul
was greeted by the annoyed and very stressed looking face of a
Brakiri military officer on the view screen attached to the
communication console.
"What's the problem?" he asked
Vinetti.
"This guy won't give us clearence to leave."
Paul
turned to the screen and put on a genial expression. "Brakiri
control, this is Belt Alliance ship Guardian requesting
permission to exit the jump gate."
"And as I told your
colleague, it is denied." The officer returned angrily.
"It
might not be wise to hold us here!" Vinetti chipped in.
"Please
boss, let me handle it." Paul edged him back, the man was clearly
anxious not to be here when the Dilgar arrived. "We're a neutral
party, if you are holding us here without good reason it will sour
relations with the Earth Alliance."
"Perhaps." The officer
said dismissively.
"Well considering we just brought you enough
guns to take over a planet I'd say human friendship is quite useful
to you, especially now you're in a war and you'll be wanting more
and more weapons."
"We appreciate the assault rifles, but they
won't stop a planetary bombardment." The officer spat. "Now if
Earth had sold us Warships like we asked…"
"Hold on there,"
Paul cut in. "We don't make policy, we aren't part of the
government. We just want to head on home now we've risked our butts
bringing you guns."
"Yes, how very noble of you to risk your
lives for the huge amount of money my superiors are paying you."
Paul
grimaced, so much for the moral high ground. "This isn't our
war."
"No, but when the Dilgar arrive and begin
indiscriminately killing everything that moves perhaps then it will
become your war?"
"Now wait a minute!" Vinetti shouted. "You
open that gate or…"
"Boss, Please!" Paul stated firmly.
"I'm on it." He then returned his attention to the officer.
"You know this is higly illegal."
"Somehow the letter of the
law doesn't matter much with a Dilgar fleet heading our way." The
Brakiri officer stated. "These are desperate times."
No
kidding, Paul thought. "The Earth Alliance won't be
happy."
"Good, let them send a fleet to escort you away."
The officer said. "Anything which brings warships into orbit will
help us. We need every ship with a weapon to protect this world, ours
and yours. Frankly I wish there was another way, but we need to
defend our world from annihilation! What can you say which will make
me go against that?"
"Not a thing." Paul admitted. "This
convoy that brought the weapons, ten of the ships are just civilian
freighters, We're letting them take on refugees. Will you let them
leave?"
"We will." The officer nodded. "The gate is being
used to let civilians out, send your ships but we cannot let your
escorts go. If you make for the gate we will fire on you."
"We
understand." Paul looked to Vinetti who was on the brink of
screaming. "Good luck with the defence, Guardian out,"
"What
the hell was that!" Vinetti exploded. "You were supposed to get
us out!"
"Moses himself couldn't lead us out of this
crap-fest!" Paul snapped back. "Did you hear that guy? They are
so short on ships they are forcibly keeping any armed vessel here!
That means us!"
"But that's wrong!"
"They don't
care boss." Paul explained. "Its Armageddon for these guys, and
we just got ourselves a ring side seat. How's that danger money
looking now?"
"We need to go!" Vinetti chose to ignore him.
"Sneak through the gate!"
"The gate is guarded by gun
satellites." Paul sighed. "We'd be dead before we got close.
They're only letting the freighters and refugees go."
Vinetti's
expression suddenly changed. "Well maybe I should transfer over to
one of those ships, let the company know whats happening?"
"Oh
no way!" Paul laughed. "You ain't going nowhere. You got us all
into this and you are damn well going to pay for it with the rest of
us."
"I'm not a fighter!"
Paul leaned closer. "Learn.
The Dilgar are good teachers to learn from."
"Oh no, no no
no." Vinetti moved back wards for the door and Paul decided to
ignore him from this point on.
"So what we got Captain?"
Grozny spoke with curt professionalism, a former Earth Force
officer he was one of the better Belt Alliance commanders. "We have
two Vindicators and eight Harrier gunships, plus two
standard carriers." He listed. "Gives us three Delta Squadrons
and one Starfox squadron all told."
The Belt Alliance fighters
were no match for Starfuries but compared to the Brakiri ships they
were reasonably capable. The Delta-V class fighters were almost trade
marks of the Belters, triangular shaped light fighters with particle
guns and the provision for missiles. Their big advantage was their
atmosphere capability, which also made them popular with Raiders. The
Starfox was a little larger and based on a shrunk version of the old
Flying Fox class Starfuries used by Earth Force all of three decades
ago, again they were below EA standards but were durable and well
armed with guns and missiles. Unfortunately in Pauls opinion the
Dilgar would tear through them in minutes, not just because the
Thorun fighters were hideously effective but also because for all
their training and enthusiasm the Belter pilots were still mainly
civilians with only a tiny handful of EA veterans in their
ranks.
"Not much is it?" Paul said plainly.
"Against an
invasion fleet?" Grozny raised a thick eyebrow. "Not much at all,
we're escort ships not combat cruisers."
"Don't suppose it
matters much now." Paul grimaced. "I'll try and work a way out
of this, but until then I suggest you get ready for a fight."
"Will
the Dilgar fire on Neutral ships?" Grozny asked with concern.
"It's
what they do." Paul answered. "If its alive they kill it, simple
as that."
"We really stumbled into this one." The grizzled
officer said.
"We did, and now we gotta stumble out." Paul
spoke confidently. "Just make sure we live long enough first."
Dublin,
Earth.
Police Head quarters.
For Francis O'Leary a dream
had morphed horribly into a nightmare. From trying to impress a not
unattractive girl he had managed to get himself thrown in jail on
charges of digital crime and accessing state secrets. He couldn't
guess exactly what the punishment would be but everytime he closed
his eyes he saw a courtyard full of butch and lonely convicts waiting
for him. He really, really needed to escape.
The door to the
holding cell clanged open and a uniformed officer urged him to stand.
"You have some people wanting talk to you." He said. "They're
wearing black suits so I'd be careful what I said. Wait for your
lawyer son." He advised good naturedly then escorted him through
the station. He came to a small interview room occupied by two men
seated at a desk and a woman stood to one side, the woman who had
brought him here.
"Thank you officer." She said. "We'll
take it from here." As the police man left she nodded at a chair on
the opposite side of the desk. "You should sit Francis, this is
serious stuff."
He pulled up a chair gingerly as the two dark
suited men watched him. The one on the left was a stocky built man
probably in his forties with black hair, the other was a Korean about
ten years younger and much leaner. "Mr O'Leary." The stocky man
spoke. "My name is Victor Chapel, this is Mr Leong and you already
know Miss Sakai."
Francis nodded. "So who are you
people?"
"We work for the government." Chapel answered. "And
we've taken an interest in you and your little activities."
"I
swear I didn't mean any harm." He said sincerely "I was just
testing!"
"We tracked you Francis." Jenny said. "You did a
good job hiding your tracks, real good in fact, but your system
wasn't unbeatable."
"It wasn't easy though." Leong spoke
for the first time. "And we'd really like to know how you made
your little device."
"It's my own design, made from just
regular items. Nothing illegal." He said quickly.
"But you
used it illegally." Chapel spoke in a calm but cold voice. "And
that'll get you fifteen years in jail."
"Fifteen years!"
he stammered. "No way!"
"We found a record in your black box
of the systems you broke into." Leong produced a list. "Some of
these are breaches of planetary security, that explains the severity
of the sentence."
Francis' mouth was moving but no words were
coming out. This was just way too much.
"You will go to jail if
this goes to court." Jenny stated. "But this doesn't actually
need to go to court."
Francis looked up and traced his gaze
across the three people. "What?"
"We might be willing to
overlook your transgressions if you decide to pay your debt to
society another way." Chapel explained. "We might have one or two
things we'd like you to do."
"Like a job?"
"Like
one." Jenny nodded. "You could also call it a challenge." She
smiled a little, remembering that beating challenges had been
Francis' main reason for breaking into computer systems in the
first place.
"Why don't you look at this?" Leong took blue
box the size of a shoe box from beside his feet and slid it over to
Francis. It was a small computer with a screen on the top. "Just
press the screen to turn it on."
Francis activated it and saw
the light blue screen come to life, he was surprised to see the
writing on the screen was in an alien language. "I don't
recognize these symbols."
"They're numbers." Leong handed
him a sheet of paper. "That converts the alien symbols into our own
numerals."
He took the sheet and looked at the screen, lining up
what each symbol was. "What do you want me to do?" he asked, kind
of guessing the answer.
"Just access it." Jenny answered.
"It's encoded but I'm interested to see how you handle the
challenge."
"Okay." He began picking numbers off the screen,
using the touch controls to select the symbols. As he did so the
symbols began cycling making the pattern even harder to grasp. "This
is pretty smart, a cycling code. Unless you find the master sequence
its almost un-crackable."
The three suited people watched
closely as Francis wrestled with the box, after ten minutes he
finally gave a quick shout of triumph. "Got it."
"You got
it?" Leong sounded a little surprised.
"Sure, take a look."
He passed it over. "What is it anyway?"
"Just a little
something I brought back from my travels." Jenny leaned over to
look at the screen. "A souvenir."
"Miss Sakai," Chapel
stood. "Let's have a chat."
Together they left the room,
allowing Leong to grill Francis as to how he cracked the code so
quickly. Jenny closed the door behind her and noted that the corridor
was empty. "So what do you say?"
"I think he has potential."
Chapel nodded. "Leong seemed impressed."
"It took our expert
an hour to get into that Dilgar computer, he did it in ten
minutes."
"Like I said, potential." Chapel repeated.
"I
think we should give him a chance." Jenny recommended. "We still
have the intercepted Dilgar communications stored in the Persephone's
data recorder. Their military grade encription is a hell of a lot
tougher than that little blue box."
"Dilgar are smart."
Chapel admitted. "They'll appreciate how important it is to have
secure communications."
"And we know how vital it is to beat
them." Jenny said. "This kid could really help us. Put him in
Leong's team and see how he does."
Chapel nodded. "Okay, but
he'll need a chaperone for a week or two until he gets settled. A
familiar face."
"What me?" Jenny frowned. "Boss, I'm a
field agent not a Nanny!"
"And the Director told you to take
it easy for a while." Chapel chided. "So you can sit around at
HQ, handle paper work and keep an eye on this fella. Then go back to
risking your neck."
"I look forward to it." She said with
faux anger. "Fine, so we're recruiting him?"
"Yeah, why
not." Chapel shrugged. "Might as well."
Jenny lead the way
back into the room, feeling quite cheery. "So Francis, about that
job."
"You got a job?" Gerald O'Leary sounded
surprised. "Really?"
"Yes dad, really." Francis answered.
"Working for Universal Exports."
The warm living room of the
O'Leary household on the edge of Dublin was currently filled with
Francis O'Leary and both parents, along with Jenny and Victor
Chapel sat on the sofa together.
"Now, can I offer you guests
some tea?" Maureen O'Leary asked.
"Oh, that'll be lovely."
Jenny smiled. "What kind do you have?"
"Kind?" Maureen
asked. "It's just tea dear, we don't buy any of that fancy
stuff."
"Two cups will be fine thank you." Chapel answered
warmly. "With milk if you have it."
"Certainly." She
smiled. "Won't be long."
"So what job have you given my
boy?" Gerald looked over to the dark suited guests his son had
brought home. He shifted in his worn chair and tried to take the
measure of these people.
"Computer work." Jenny said. "We
need someone to set up a new system for us."
"Ahh, that's my
Francis!" Maureen called from the kitchen. "Always good with
numbers."
"Thanks Mom!" he answered a little embarrassed. He
was sitting very close to Jenny and was trying to appear grown
up.
"We were recruiting in the area and visited his college."
Chapel continued. "Every teacher recommended him."
"I see."
Gerald nodded and took a sip of tea. "Maybe all that time on the
net did you some good after all."
"Well done son." His
mother returned with refreshments. "You were doing work on the
computer, and your father thought you were just looking for
naked…"
"Mom, please!" he said through gritted teeth,
noticing Jenny stifling a laugh.
"So this job pays well does
it?" his Father wondered.
"Gerry!" his wife hit him with a
news paper. "It's not polite to ask that in front of his
employers!"
"Calm down woman." He grumbled. "it's a fair
question."
"It is." Chapel nodded. "You're son will be
starting on ten thousand credits."
"Not bad." Gerald
nodded.
"Which will rise to fifteen thousand per month after his
probation."
Both parents physically froze, quickly doing the
sums in their heads. "But, but… that's…"
"A hundred
and eighty thousand per year." Jenny said. "Our company believes
in rewarding talent."
"Holy…"Gerald began, only to be cut
off by his wife and the news paper.
"language!" she snapped.
"Oh my boy, you have done so well!"
"Thanks Mom." He
smiled.
"Now don't spend it on booze and whores." She
added.
"Wha… Mom!"
Jenny spluttered, not quite able to
hide her amusement.
"Mrs O'Leary, don't worry." Chapel
said calmly. "Most of it will be put in a trust fund until he's
old enough to spend it wisely. We'll give him a little allowance
and keep him safe."
"Our office is in Geneva." Jenny managed
to compose herself. "Just half an hour away on the HALO jet."
"Well
that's good." Maureen said. "At least you're not on
Mars."
"I'll be okay Mom, and I'll visit." Francis said.
"Just don't say things out loud in front of my boss in future,
okay?"
"Of course my boy, sorry."
"You did well son."
Gerald nodded. "I'm proud of you, done well for the
family."
Francis nodded in return to his father, quietly very
glad of the praise.
"Well we better be going." Chapel stood.
"Why don't you pack and we'll come and get you tomorrow. Don't
be late now." He smiled but the deeper meaning of his words were
clear.
"I won't be, I promise." Francis nodded.
"Glad
you took the job." Jenny smiled at him, triggering an uncontrolled
glee in the young man. "See you tomorrow."
Maureen showed them
out and then returned. "Well, they seemed a nice sort."
"They
are." Francis nodded. "I'll be doing good work."
"And
more importantly getting paid a fortune for it." Gerald chuckled.
"This calls for a drink."
"Putting your slippers on calls
for a drink!" his wife chided. "Gerald O'Leary you'll drown
in Guiness one day!"
"Then I'll die happy." He grinned.
"Come on son, let me tell you the secret of getting a
girl."
"Dad?"
"I saw you looking at that lassy you
brought home, not a bad looker. Looks like she keeps fit."
"You
could say that." Francis allowed.
"I'll get some clean
clothes for you." His mother said. "You're getting older every
day."
"Thanks Mom, I'll still be in touch."
"Course
you will!" his Father slapped his back. "Now, let me tell you how
I snared your Mum."
"It involved begging!" she called after
him with a cheeky smile, then went about clearing up the house. For
Francis the whole world had been tipped upside down in no time, but
secretly he found it really very promising.
