Chapter 22

Epilogue

It was a couple of weeks later that I was summoned to Privateer Corps HQ. Quinn Taylor asked me to bring the ladies as Councilor Estebahn would be present. This was fortunate for me since I still hated the drive through the city and they would keep me calm. We hopped into a vehicle and were driven to HQ.

There, in a large set of offices in a high rise near the Senate Building, we were led to a briefing room. There, Taylor and Councilor Estebahn were waiting and watching a newscast on a holo-display. They pointed to it and we watched.

The big story that they were covering on the newscast was a series of arrests all carried out virtually at the same time. Executives from several corporations, security personnel in several systems, people from all over the Empire had been arrested for conspiracy by Privateer and Intelligence personnel. A spokeswoman for Empire Intelligence couldn't comment on the ongoing joint Intelligence-Privateer operation but said they expected more arrests in the coming days. When the newscasters started repeating the same information again, Taylor shut off the display.

The ladies and I were stunned to say the least.

Taylor and the Councilor looked at us and Councilor Estebahn told us what was going on. "When we searched Devon Broussard's residence, we came up with enough information to start putting things together and under interrogation Broussard provided even more. Broussard had ties to several corporations that wanted unrestricted access to a couple of planets for their resources. These planets were under environmental protection at the bequest of the residents. The Empress had seen no reason to overturn the protections so rejected the corporations' requests."

I thought about it for a moment before saying "You're shitting me. This was all about greed?"

Taylor nodded. "We're talking of potentially trillions of credits in resources. Recent scans with some new equipment show some massive deposits of precious minerals and rare materials. The minerals and materials are critical to the corporations, not to the Empire. If it had been on dead worlds, there would have been no problem. The only way to extract it profitably on these worlds would have destroyed massive areas of the environment."

Councilor Estebahn said "They were looking for ways to pressure the Senate to overrule the Empress. We don't think all of them realized how out of hand it had gotten until it was too late. Others were so blinded by greed that they'd do anything to get the Senate to cave."

"What about Broussard, Dad?" Anna asked.

"Ah, yes. Devon Broussard wanted you for two reasons. First, he and his co-conspirators wanted you as leverage against me. The second is a bit of hypothesizing on the parts of the interrogators and some psychologists; they think he wanted you because you could convince me to support him as next in line to lead the Empire. He's convinced that he could persuade you to do so."

"Is he crazy? No one would ever support him!"

"Oh, yes. He is quite delusional on that account."

I shook my head. I still couldn't believe that this whole thing was about money. True, huge gobs of money, but still ... I guess it was because I was happy with what I had that I couldn't understand it.

I was contacted by Quinn Taylor a week later and again I was driven to the city, this time alone. I had a feeling that I was about to get my follow on assignment and while I was happy to be getting back to work, I was worried about how this would affect the women and me.

An hour and a half later I was back at the estate. I'd told Sam not to say anything to the women and that we'd break the news to them together. We gathered in Councilor Estebahn's study, the five of us, Anna, Katherine, and Mari looking worried, Sam and I quiet.