Chapter 2

We needed some practice. Aha Jorse's penthouse was about 150 stories above the artificial surface of the artificial planet named "Capital." {By the way, Capital refers to money, not government!} We needed to practice our landing and rappelling down the side of the building where we intended to break in. None of us had any mountain-climbing experience, but the advanced equipment available on Capital made that a non-issue. However, we did need to practice using it before we committed our lives to an untried stunt.

Rik found a building we could use for practice, so, after some intense instruction at the store where we purchased the gear, we were transported to a tall building with wind conditions similar to those we could expect at Aha's residence. We had a coach with us and it advised us to stay on the windward side of the building, so that any wind would tend to push us into the building, instead of away from it. With a few hours of practice, our coach said that we were as ready as we could get with the time we had for practice. We thanked it and were transported home to perfect our plans for the kidnapping of Aha.

We had no detailed plans of Aha's residence, but we did know in general terms how it was laid out. Our biggest worry was that each room was known to have its own gravity generating field {the advantage of having gobs of money}, so we could expect a weight change every time we stepped through a doorway.

We used what had become our usual division of labor: Cicero and Augusta were our pack mules, Julia was our demolition expert, I was the leader, and the rest were the warriors. All of us could do the other's jobs in an emergency, but this was our starting point. We didn't expect to have much demolition to do after entry, but Julia came prepared.

We traded in our lethal weapons for stun guns for this raid. It wasn't that we were adverse to killing any goons we might encounter, but we needed Aha alive, at least for a while, so we didn't take any chances. I, for one, felt uncomfortable without the bang of my usual weapon, but I would survive the deprivation in the short term.

We had one big advantage: Aha was nocturnal, so that we could make our entry during the day when we could expect him to be asleep. This helped during the entry phase of our operation, since we didn't have to fumble around in the dark. Of course, our enhanced vision could have compensated for the low ambient light, but why use it if we don't need it?

Finally, we were ready. We transported to Aha's building and set our equipment up on the roof. We followed Julia over the edge as she went down to blow out one of the windows in the servant's quarters. She found an empty room and, by using specially shaped charges and timed explosions, she was able to blow in the window without having any glazing fall to the ground. Arthur was the first one through and stood guard while we scrambled through the blown window and shucked our climbing gear. So far, so good, we had our beachhead!

Each room was soundproofed, so we didn't attract any attention when we broke in. Most of the servants were of the same species as Aha, so they, too, were asleep. At this stage, we expected to encounter only the occasional guard, so we were careful, but not overly so. The layout of the rooms was pretty conventional; we followed the hall to the stairs leading up to the kitchen.

We found one guard dozing at the foot of the stairs and Arthur quieted him with a stun shot. This was supposed to put him out for two hours; surely, that would be long enough for us to complete our mission! Arthur led the way up the stairs and stunned another guard at the top. We were very lucky so far!

As we stepped into an unusually small room at the top of the stairs, we were dropped to our knees by a very high gravity field. An alarm went off at the same time, loud enough to wake the dead! We shut down our hearing sensitivity enough to muffle the alarm and Julia blew open the locked door to the kitchen.

We stumbled through the doorway as shots were fired in our direction. Amy, Jim, and Arthur returned the fire with their stun guns as I turned to the gravity control panel beside the door we had just come through. I set the gravity control to maximum; no one was coming through that room any time soon! With our rear temporarily protected, we concentrated our fire on the goons who were shooting at us.

We were hit by the occasional bullet, but our hardened skin prevented penetration. We'd be sore later, but we would worry about that, then. I ordered Augusta, Julia, and Cicero to keep back while Justina tried to flank the gunmen in the door. She managed to get a good firing angle and silenced the last of the men at the door in only one try.

We rushed out to find Aha before he had a chance to escape. We ran from room to room, flinging open doors, and occasionally getting shot at. None of the hits made any difference to us and we stunned our assailants as we found them.

At last, we found Aha. He was crouched behind his bed with a gun in each hand. In his arrogance, he had made no plans for an emergency escape, thus he was trapped by our surprise entry. Compared to our enhanced abilities, Aha's species suffered from a bad case of slow reflexes, so Justina was able to jump into his room and shoot him with a reduced stun charge before he could pull a single trigger.

We all entered the room and Arthur stood guard to be sure we weren't interrupted. I disarmed Aha and removed the trunk from Cicero's carrying straps. We laid the trunk on the bed and placed Aha in it while he was still paralyzed by the stun ray, but not unconscious. We wanted him to know what was happening to him so that his claustrophobia would get the full benefit of the situation.

We closed and fastened the lid of the trunk. I then opened the small access port Cicero and I had configured. This port was only large enough for him to see a very narrow field outside when it was opened; he was completely sealed off from the world when the port was closed, except for a few air vents and either end of the trunk.

Aha was conscious enough to understand me when I said, "I hope you are comfortable, Aha, since you are going to be in there for a while!" I could see his pupils dilate with fear when I said that, and I am sure that he would have screamed if he could when I closed the port to seal him in the trunk.

Jim and I repositioned the trunk in the carrier on Cicero's back and we prepared to leave the penthouse. We found the stairs and started down. Augusta was carrying the field detection device and told us as soon as we were far enough down the stairs to be outside the transporter dampening field. I signaled to Rik and we were transported to the warehouse hideout.

By this time, Aha had recovered enough to be banging around in his trunk, but we had reinforced the walls so that he was very unlikely to break out, even with strength augmented by his panic. He was likely to subject himself to severe bruising, but we didn't care about that. We let him be for another half hour, and, by this time, there was a steady, heavy banging on the walls of his prison.

I opened the port enough to let him see me for a minute or so, and then I closed it again. This caused the banging to become even more frantic and I let that continue for a few minutes. This time, when I opened the door, he screamed, "LET ME OUT OF HERE!" I closed the port and we went to the other side of the room for coffee.

After coffee and sweet rolls {a wonderful invention}, I went back to talk to Aha. The banging had tapered off a little; I suppose that he was getting tired. As soon as I opened the port, he shouted, "LET ME OUT OF HERE, YOU BASTARD!"

I answered in a calm voice, "Shut up and listen. You are staying there until we get the results we want. Do what we want and you will get out; otherwise, you'll stay there, for all we care!"

"Please let me out. I'll do anything you want!"

"I know you will! Let's start with the location of Tar Orlo's child. Tell us where to find the child."

"NEVER, YOU BASTARD! YOU CAN'T INTIMIDATE ME!"

I didn't say anything, I just closed the port. The furious banging on the walls of the trunk resumed immediately. I ignored the noise; I sat down and had more coffee and another sweet roll.