CB: Cat and Mouse, -XIX-

"ISSP hailing the Bebop. Jette, are you there?"

"Bob? Is that you?" I receive the affirmative answer. "It's the same place I've always been, what's got you in such a ruffle?"

"Your partner's apparently gotten in over even his head this time. When was the last time you saw Spike?"

"A week and a half ago. He took off after some woman. I never found either of them after that tip you sent my way."

"Say what you like, but I know you were there, Jette."

"Think what you like." I turn from the viewscreen and lean against the railing next to the observatory windows.

"Well I got a little bit of scratch on that girl you said he was following. Your friend, Faye. Valentine."

"What made you look into it?"

"The same reason I sent you the heads up about the Syndicate activity on Ganymede," Bob says. "Anyway, Miss Valentine, was in cryogenic sleep since an accident that happened just about half a century ago. And Valentine's not her real family name. It took some digging, since most of the records from that era were lost, or covered up."

"Covered up?"

"Your partner's hot handed girlfriend isn't who you think she is. A lot of people went to trouble to make sure she wasn't traced to that hospital."

"So. Are you going to tell me what you know, or are we going to have a circle of a conversation that goes nowhere?"

"Her real name is Faye Kaplan. Her family was connected with the group that funded the gate experiments seventy five years ago, and they made a lot of money on it."

I ponder that statement, but he goes on.

"The family was very wealthy, and young Faye was the jewel of her father's eye, so to speak, or at least from what records I've found. Everything was going fine for them, until an accident on a space ship, which killed her mother. That was the same accident that forced young Faye to be put in cryogenic sleep."

"There's more?" The pause is pregnant and expectant. I ask.

"The Kaplan family went on to found the strongest branch of the Syndicate."

". so you're saying Faye is.?"

"A distant grandmother of the current heads of the White Tigers, perhaps. She wouldn't be much more than a figurehead, if they even remember that she exists."

"I wouldn't be so sure that they don't."

"I wonder if the reason they're after her has to do with something that Mr. Kaplan, the original one, did with part of his resources."

"Huh?"

"Apparently there's a part of the Kaplan fortune that was either invested in something fifty years ago, or hidden in some account that none of the current family members know how to access."

"It would certainly explain their sudden urge to rekindle family ties." I ponder that for a long moment. If this is true, and Bob wouldn't call me if it wasn't, then it means that I just sent them into the worst situation possible. If that's true then I've just written them off and I-

"Jette?"

"Huh?"

"You seem pretty pensive all of the sudden. Something wrong?"

"Nothing. And I'll forget you said anything. All the same, thanks for the info."