People are often surprised to discover that many
of the agreements and deals that have a great effect on many others are
all too often made in dimly lit bars and restaurants.
-Varman Rouge's 'Mega Corporations and Governments. The Slime Chase.'
Alpha Centauri III had been one of the very first planets to be colonized by Terrans, using one of the first warp drives, back when such drives had had a nasty habit of occasionally destroying the ship using them.
It had been a grand dream to build a civilization using all that had been learned from the past mistakes made on Earth.
They had learned well and their mistakes were therefore much grander than any of the ones Earth had boasted of.
It was a dirty planet with crowded cities, undeveloped farmland, high crime rates and few useful industries to boast of, and one of those was organized crime.
The city of New Toronto was one of those cities that was primarily based around organized crime. It also had a large number of five star restaurants and very nice bars, all controlled by the Yakuza. If one was brave, or perhaps foolish, enough, or if they had enough bodyguards, they could enjoy possibly the finest dining in all of UG space.
Bann Takmal placed his utensils across the fine bone china plate. He wiped his mouth with his napkin, smiling. The 3WA liaison officer had found the meal particularly enjoyable. His lovely dinner companion could not say the same.
Catherine Sato was with United Galactica Intelligence. Usually when she and Bann met it was he who had to do the cajoling and buy the dinner, but not this time. She needed a big favour from him, or more to the point, from 3WA. It was obvious to Bann that she was not impressed with the current situation.
"Thank you for the most delicious meal." Bann smiled.
"Stop your gloating Bann, it's unbecoming," Catherine said tartly. "Miss Jiinas needs help. Help that only your organization can provide."
"Why can't you do it? I mean, UG intelligence has its own resources, resources that should be more than up to this."
"We'd rather not be directly involved," Catherine said hesitantly.
"Neither would we," Bann told her.
"Well we can't get involved. We are having enough trouble with all the damn Mega Corporations as it is. If we help the owner of one directly it will cause all kinds of problems. At this point we can not afford to take sides, not until the United Galactica is in a greater position of strength."
"So you want 3WA to do your dirty work for you. You know as well as I do 3WA was formed as an answer to threats that could threaten the entire United Galactica. While I sympathize with Miss Jiinas I can not authorize 3WA trouble consultants for use as bodyguards."
"Tamikia Jiinas is a very powerful woman. She has connections throughout the business community as well as the governments of many planets. Do you realize how much of a danger that represents if it were in the hands of a person with a less favourable opinion of the United Galactica? And it will not be the first time that you've involved yourself in this sort of thing. There was all that stuff with Dragon Industries a few months ago."
"That was different."
"Sure it was."
Bann leaned back in his chair. "Okay. You don't actually know if Miss Jiinas is in trouble. So what you really want me to do is to authorize trouble consultants to provide protection on a hypothetical basis?"
"More or less," Catherine said.
"I'm not really convinced, but I will run a check to see if any trouble consultants can be spared. Even if they are assigned to Miss Jiinas we'll probably pull them out after a short time. Unless of course we find something that does indeed represent a credible threat."
He pulled a computer from his briefcase and plugged the interface cable into the neural socket at his left temple. He had no real need to run the check. 3WA had been keeping an eye on Tamikia Jiinas for quite a while. The Central Computer had been suggesting a 3WA investigation for almost a month. He was not about to let Catherine know that.
A few days ago he had had travel suggest Beronvas to the Lovely Angels as a nice place for a rest. Throwing in a refit for their ship at the planet's shipyards had ensured they would go. Costly, but worth it.
Bann worked on his tax returns for almost ten minutes before looking up at Catherine.
"You're very lucky, as is Miss Jiinas. We have two trouble consultants who are available, on Beronvas no less, which if I recall is where she is residing at this time. Unfortunately one is currently convalescing. It would be against my better judgement to activate them at this time."
Catherine had frowned slightly when Bann had told her that there were already consultants on Beronvas. She smiled warmly. "Bann, you know I wouldn't ask you to do this if it wasn't important, and I hate the idea of making you activate a hurt operative, but this is very important."
Bann stared at his computer keyboard for a minute, looking as if he was in deep thought. He was actually trying hard not to smile. Being one up on the intelligence agent was a rare occurrence for him.
"Okay. I'm still not sure there is a problem but you seem to think there is. I'll have one of our courier ships make the run and deliver the messages, more secure then FTL communication." He winked at her.
It only took him a few seconds to uplink with the courier ship that sat in high orbit awaiting his go signal. Once done everything went forward without his assistance. He turned his attention back to his taxes and spent several more minutes on them.
"Okay, that's taken care of." He pulled the interface cable from his neural jack. "The Angels will be on the case in about seven hours."
"The Lovely Angels, the Pair!" Catherine said, sounding horrified. "I wanted you to protect Tamikia, not get to her first."
"Chill." He smiled. "You should know that most of the things the press reports is just hype. They've never failed to solve a case." He put his computer back into the briefcase.
"I have a very bad feeling about all this," Catherine told him.
"Such is life." He stood and moved around the table to pull the chair back for her. "Let's go."
The intelligence agent tossed a handful of universal credits on the table to cover the tip. She preceded Bann out to the cloakroom and then into the well lit and protected parking lot.
Now that he had finished with all the games Bann found his eyes drawn to Catherine's rather attractive figure. Dealing with the pretty agent was one of the more pleasant aspects of his job.
"What are you doing tonight Catherine?"
"Why?" She pulled on her leather jacket.
"Like to spend the night together?"
"Maybe." She straddled her motorcycle; her skirt rode up her legs. Bann did his best not to stare. "You're not planning on leaving halfway through after getting me all fired up are you?" She arched an eyebrow.
"That wasn't my fault, I didn't want to leave," he protested.
"Well do you think that practical, little car of yours can keep up with my baby?" She laid a hand across the gas tank of her red racing bike.
"You'd be surprised." He smiled.
"The next shuttle for the ship I'm on leaves in about thirty minutes. If you're on board it..." she trailed off suggestively.
"Sounds fair."
"See you there." She pressed her cycle's starter and raced out of the parking lot, her hair streaming out behind her. Catherine did not believe in helmets. It was a bit of suicidal stupidity that Bann found so charming.
He tossed his briefcase into his car and jumped in after it. He was moving at a good pace before the car's door was even fully closed. His only real worry was what medical was going to do to him when they found out he had taken Yuri off the injured list.
He would worry about it tomorrow.