Chapter 34

"I trust you Henry," he said, seconds before he was hoisted aboard the pinnace. He gave me the standard open mouthed, incredulous look.

"You don't look as stunned as Frank did. Come over here and sit down." He ambled over and looked at the odd seat and sat.

"Would you like to see below us?" He nodded his head.

"Carlton, would you give us a stern view." The state shrunk, and then the country did the same. We came to the top of our curve and descended. "Carlton, a bow view, if you please." The clouds below got larger and larger, till we came out directly over our target. When the ship settled, I helped John down the ramp.

"What the hell were you doing, Henry? Didn't you kill enough yesterday?" Came from Susan. Susan was by herself, because she did not want the girls to see.

"Susan did you see all of the fight? The start of the first one?"

"No, I came in as you were killing some men."

"A young mother and her baby were being forced into the alley. I knew what the men planned for both of them. You tell me. Should I have turned away?" Susan cried at the thought, and hugged me tight.

"I was just so scared, thinking that you were getting so used to killing."

"If the girl was only hassled, I would have watched to make sure she wasn't hurt. If she was going to be pushed around, then I would only use my hands and feet. She and her baby may not have lived, and the rest of the gang was just as bad."

"I am sorry. I know you think a lot before acting. Will you forgive me?"

"I will think of a suitable punishment, tonight. By the way, I want to introduce one of the best men to have at your back, during a fight. This is John Marks. John, this is my wife-to-be, Susan Tran." They shook hands, almost as if everything were normal.

Later John asked, "Where are Frank and Carl?"

"Carl is at home with his family, and Frank is getting new legs. He lost his to diabetes."

"That is good. I need some work on mine. It doesn't work as well as it did, when it was new."

I took off all of my clothes. "John, see how my legs are a little pink, and the hair is on the short side. Look at my left arm and you can see that it is the same. About four weeks ago, some hostiles came into our system. Their ship was full of the bodies of intelligent, kind people, and the persons that ran the ship, were eating them. Carl and I went out and took out the ship, and it was placed in orbit the other side of the moon."

"You... You did that? The world is going crazy, trying to get a handle on this. If you can do that, why do you need an old cripple?"

"I am not finished. Anyway, I lost both legs and an arm. Completely shot off. Carl lost most of his leg, but managed to carry me back here, and we grew new limbs. Frank's legs will be his own flesh and blood."

I got the look. "I want you to get the same treatment, and get all your diseases cured. Then you can fight a lot harder than you saw me playing with the gang, then you will be ready to take on the big boys. Four men are not enough. I need lots of the nastiest mother-fuckers that you ever saw. Will you help me save this system, and our world?"

"If I can be like you, then I am signing up."

We walked towards the tanks. "Mom says you will only need a few days to get you back into shape. Do you want to start now?"

"Ya," was all he said, as Mom put him out, and into a tank next to his friend Frank.

Susan said, "We should have asked him first, if he knew any others that would help us."

"We can still look in his mind, and find out." After a few seconds I said, "John does know a few that would fill the bill."

"Wait, 'fill the bill'. Let's advertise, and pick the ones we want. A lot of mercenaries might jump at the chance to sign up. There are not that many wars around, to keep them employed. Tuska's money will be doing some good after all."

"How are you going to get the money? With that much money, I think even the banks would get larcenous."

"I think Mom can help. Mom, how long does it take to alter my facial features, and change my fingerprints?"

"Five hours for a dramatic change, and two for a minor one."

"I want to go after the money, and I don't want people looking for Henry Buchanan after. When can you help me?"

"You can get in the tank now."

The next morning, I was in Switzerland with a few million dollars from Tuska's house. I entered four banks and found out about their rates and procedures for withdrawals. I started four accounts with four different names.

Moments later my sombre black suit was out of place in the Bahamas. I hired a large delivery truck to drive me for the day. The driver accepted a thousand dollars for his utmost assistance. I went into the bank and left the driver down the street, in a café. The wired money had come to this bank. I asked to see the manager.

He gracefully asked if I wanted some refreshments, while looking into the account. They tried to find my identity, through the hidden camera, and the paper, that now had my prints. They stalled for fifteen minutes till I threatened to walk out on the floor, and tell everyone how their bank was trying to rob me. Four people hurriedly came and counted out two hundred million dollars in cash, on the counting machines. The manager was very insistent that I get ten or twenty security people. He would even offer their service free, so I would not be robbed.

"I have my own security coming. I would thank you, to just see to the money loaded onto my security vehicle. An army could not take it from me," I assured him.

The manager thought that all of this was bravado, and got a hidden recorder, to get me stating that I did not want his further help.

When the money was being counted by machine, for the fourth time, I asked to use the bank computer. In the privacy of a small room, I transferred all but one million to the four banks in Switzerland.

When all was in readiness, I stepped out, and the delivery truck pulled up. The guards opened the doors to the smell of fish and rotten vegetables from past loads. Their questioning eyes asked if this were right. With my nod, they threw fifteen sacks of money in the back.

Francis' eyes bugged out, as he saw the bags being loaded into his truck. I could see him start to shake in excitement, hoping to get a portion of the load. Good old Human avarice, I was prepared for.

I signed a form in triplicate, that the money had been put into my care by the bank's authorities. I thanked the manager, and even shook his hand. "I would be happier with you, if the money had been handed over sooner, after you had gotten all of the necessary security codes. I may continue to use your bank, but I think you will have to improve your policies."

"But sir, it was for our concern for your money that we do this."

"Don't compound your error by lying to me. I know that you were working with foreign governments, when your charter says that you are independent."

He was at a loss for words, and I turned to the guards. The security detail had been good and I thanked them as well with a handshake and a thousand dollar bill to share.

I closed the back doors of the truck, and only latched it without even a seal or a padlock. Then I climbed into the passenger side of the truck, and told Francis to leave the city. "Sir, was that money that was put into the back of my truck?"

"About two hundred million in American dollars and other currencies. Does it bother you? It is only paper."

"Yes sir. We may be robbed," Francis said as his shaking hands allowed the truck to move erratically.

"Do not worry. That can't happen."

"How is that?"

I read in his mind of various ways to separate me from the money. He was about thirty, tall and slim. Not bad shape, for a civilian. I was amused with the way his mind worked. His only weapons were a club under the seat, and a switchblade in his pocket. "I kill people that deserve it."

His erratic driving became even more irregular. Coming around a corner, too wide, he caused an accident in a small neighbourhood. An antique Volkswagen Gulf came to an abrupt stop, at our bumper. I got out and surveyed the damage. Two passengers of the car got out too, and shook their fists and yelled at Francis. The fender was pushed in and the truck bumper was over top of the one on the car, locking them together.

I came around to try to quell the argument. Francis was completely out of sorts. The money and his scheming, then the accident was too much for him.

"Gentlemen." Then more forcefully, "Gentlemen." They now looked at me. "If I pay for the damages to your vehicle, will that settle the argument?"

"Ya, Mon. But it cost a lot to repair my car."

I opened my wallet and gave the driver three one thousand dollar bills. Their eyes lit up at the amount I had. The money he got would more than cover the car. It was in great shape, and a lot of love had gone into its maintenance, but the money would more than just repair it.

"Carlton, When I put my hand under the front bumper of the truck, I want you to assist with the tractor to separate them."

"Yes Sir. Understood sir."

I bent over, and with one hand, picked up the truck without any exertion of my muscles, and pushed it back a metre, to the screeching of the back tires. The tires gripped the hot dirt road, and scored shallow ruts about a metre long, and the chassis bounced, on its suspension, from the short fall as I released it.

It was easy to read in the driver's mind, and knew the demands he was about to voice. They died very quickly, and he was now very happy to have three thousand, and his life.

I stepped up on Francis' side of the truck, and asked him to move over. He was about to object, then thought better of it. Twenty minutes later we were in an uninhabited section. "Carlton you can begin now."

The back doors opened slightly, and all the bags flew out the door and disappeared into the ship. The doors were then closed as before. I stopped at the next intersection. "Thank you for your help Francis. Here is something for your nerves, and remember that honesty has its own rewards," I said, as I handed him, an additional five hundred dollars.

"Go back to town, and take your wife and family out," I said as I walked back down the lonely road. Once around a bend, I disappeared. On the screen in the ship, I could see Francis jump out of his truck and search for the money bags.

On the way back home, I gave a lot of thought to our other problems. "Mom, do you know why the Dogfaces came on the course they did, and what brought them here?

"The weapons that were used on the moon radiated a fifth dimensional component. If the ship or a sensor array were within four light-years, it would have registered the events. The Dogface course would bring it to the matter transmitter. My study of the destroyer shows that they are only using Tandra technology. Many portions of the computer contain things that would be of no use to them."

"Like what?"

"Military regulations, personal communications, and Tandra cultural documents."

"Tell me about the matter transmitter."

"When the base was shut down, the transmitter was shunted into a fold in space. This one had the added benefit of negating time. The unit should be as good as the day it was put away."

"Would they want the matter transmitter?"

"Yes, there is a very complex computer that they would want to strip for parts."

"What parts?"

"The crystals in the computer are very valuable. A crystal the same size of the one that now houses me, has the value of the destroyer without its computer."

"Shit, I had no idea they were that valuable. Could you make a large one, to go into your hull?"

"I do not even know how they are made. The trade in crystals is what made the Tandra prosperous, and this is what fuelled our expansion into the galaxy. The crystals have various amounts of impurities of different kinds. This variation is what governs how they will be used. All the crystals in a computer are the same, with the exception of the impurities."

"You improved your crystal?"

"Crystals are very complex, and this factor follows into all five dimensions, that is why you felt odd when entering the computer. It is this passive quality of them that allows us to see these other dimensions, even if it is imperfect. I took the basic material, and added it to my own. It took over a thousand years to get even a small portion fully integrated. I did this many times, and it still took the same amount of time for each."

I remember walking down the aisle on the moon, and indiscriminately taking any crystal I wanted. If a ship was valued at only a larger sized crystal, then I must have taken a true fortune.

"I am starting to worry more about the Dogfaces returning. I would like to awaken some of the sleepers, to help get your hull repaired. Can you come up with a list of the ones that we can use, and leave the troublemakers to their naps?"

"I have the names of twenty three, for the first phase, and thirty for the second. I believe, that you can now feed this many."

"Did you find out anything new, about the AI, or the Dogfaces?"

The AI is about to break and tell me everything. The Dogfaces are only a little more intelligent than Humans. And like Humans, do not actively use their mental powers, except for their elite. It is the elite that run their society. They all have a natural shield that blocks me reading most of the deeper thoughts. If I had one of their privileged classes, I could find out how its block functions. Their home grown equipment is very crude by Tandra standards. One of the reasons you defeated them so easily, was because their shields overheat, and they must be de-energized to cool"

"Another thing I found, one of the Dogfaces, in stasis picked up a virus that the medical section could not remove. A technician was also infected, and both had to go into stasis. I am trying to find out where the virus originated, but will find out soon. The last body is one that is even insane, by their standards."

"If they use Tandra technology, how is it that they did not cure the disease?"

"Not all organisms are completely removed. Some linger, and must be removed when they get troublesome, again and again."