"All of it," Megarea said in a small voice.
"All of what?"
"All of everything. We found all his hidden accounts as well as the open ones, and we, well, we sort of cleaned him out."
"You-" Alicia gurgled to a stop, and pregnant silence hovered in her stunned mind. But then her closed eyes popped open as panic cut through her shock. "Good God Almighty, Megarea! What do you think he's going to do when he figures out we robbed him?! We can't afford that kind of-"
"Peace, Little One. He will not realize we were to blame."
"How do you know?! Damn it, who else is he going to suspect?!"
"That I cannot tell you, but it will not be us, for the theft has not yet occurred. Nor will it … until he orders his first off-planet credit transfer to one of his drug-distributing, cronies. Megarea was very clever, and I rather expect-" the Fury's dry delight was unmistakable "-that he will suspect whichever of his fellow thieves he has attempted to pay."
"You mean-?"
"Exactly, Alley. See, what'll happen is the first time he orders a payment to one of the accounts I listed in my program, it'll automatically dump every credit he has into the transfer and then reroute it. His payee won't see a centicredit, but the program'll bootstrap itself-and the transfer-through his starcom, then transmit itself back out. And it'll erase itself from each system it moves through till it reaches its destination, too."
"Oh, Lord!" Alicia moaned, covering her eyes with her hands. "I never should have inflicted you two on an unsuspecting galaxy! Just where-if I dare ask-will this wandering program finally end its criminal days?"
"It'll probably take it a while to make connections, but it's headed for Thaarvlhd. I set it up to open a numbered account when it gets there."
"Thaarvlhd?" Alicia repeated blankly. Then, "Thaarvlhd?! My God, that's the Quarn Hegemony's central banking hub for this sector! Damn it, the Quarn take money seriously, Megarea! Violating Thaarvlhd's banking laws isn't a harmless little prank like murder!"
"I didn't violate a thing. They're used to orders like this one, and I included all the documentation they need."
"Documentation?"
"Sure. They don't care about names, but I included everything they want on human accounts: your retinal prints, your genetic pri -"
"My prints?!" Alicia yelped. "You opened an account in my name?!"
"Of course not. I just explained they don't use names, Alley. That's why they're so popular."
"Sweet Suffering Jesus!" Alicia never knew exactly how long she sat there, staring at nothing, but then a thought occurred to her. "Uh, Megarea."
"Yes?""
"I'm not condoning what you've done … not condemning it either, you understand, or at least not yet … but I was wondering… . Just how much did you two rip him off for?"
"Hard to say, since we don't know exactly when the program'll trip."
"A rough estimate will do," Alicia said in a fascinated tone.
"Well, using his last two years' cash flow as a basis, I'd say somewhere between two hundred fifty and three hundred million credits."
"Two hun … "Alicia closed her mouth with a snap. Then she began to giggle … giggles that gave way to howls of laughter. She couldn't help herself. She leaned forward, hugging her ribs and laughing till her chest hurt and her eyes teared. Laughing as she had not laughed in months, with pure, devilish delight as she pictured ultra-civilized Edward Jacoby's reaction. And she'd thought they couldn't hurt him! Dear God, he wouldn't have a pot to piss in, and he'd never even know who'd done it! She pummelled the deck with her feet, wailing with laughter, until she could get control of herself again, then straightened slowly, gasping for breath and mopping her eyes.
"I take it you are less displeased than you anticipated?" Tisiphone asked mildly, and Alicia giggled again.
"Stop that!" she said unsteadily. "Don't you dare set me off again! Oh. Oh, my! He is going to be upset, isn't he?"
"It seemed an appropriate-and just-way to deal with him."
"Damn straight it did!" Alicia shook herself, then straightened sternly. "Don't you two think you can get away with something like this again-not without checking with me first, anyway! But just this once, I think I'll forgive you."
"Yeah, for about three hundred million reasons, I'd guess," Megarea sniffed, and Alicia dissolved into laughter once more.
Chapter Twenty-four
The assembled officers rose as Rachel Shu followed Howell into the briefing room. More than one set of eyes were a bit apprehensive, for the intelligence officer had just returned from meeting Control's latest messenger, and Howell's people were only too well aware of the casualties they'd taken on Ringbolt.
Howell took his place at the head of the table and watched his subordinates sit, then nodded to Shu.
"All right, Commander. Let's hear it."
"Yes, sir." Shu cleared her throat, set a notepad on the table, and keyed the tiny screen alive. "First, Control sends us all a well done on the Ringbolt operation." Breath sighed out around the table, and Howell smiled wryly. "He regrets our losses, but under the circumstances, he understands why they were so high, and it appears both our primary and secondary missions were complete successes."
She paused, and Howell listened to a soft murmur of pleasure walk around the room. How many of those officers, he wondered, ever really spent a few hours thinking about what they'd done? Not many-perhaps none. He certainly tried to avoid the memories, though it was growing harder. Yet it was often that way. There were things he'd done in the service of the Crown which he tried just as hard never to remember. This wasn't that much different, he told himself, and pretended that he didn't know he lied.
Of course, much of their pleasure stemmed from the fact that they'd expected to be reamed. A pat on the back always felt better when one had anticipated a rap in the mouth. That much was the same as in the Fleet.
He let the murmurs run on a moment longer, then tapped his knuckles on the tabletop. Silence fell once more, and he nodded to Shu.
"Preliminary evaluation of the captured data," the commander continued, keying the advance to display the next screen as she picked up her report again, "indicates we probably secured more from Ringbolt than we would have from Elysium, and our financial backers are delighted. Control asked me to tell you all that their support has firmed up very nicely once more, and that most of them seem convinced we know what we're doing after all.
"On another front, the Ringbolt attack has apparently produced the desired effect in the Senate and Ministry. Control didn't want to come right out and say so, but he seems confident that ONI and Marine Intelligence on Old Earth are coming to precisely the conclusions we want, and pressure from the Senate is growing every day. Best of all, public opinion here in the sector itself is shaping up very nicely. 'Panic' might be putting it too strongly, but there's widespread anxiety and an increasing perception that the imperial government is powerless to stop us."
Shu touched the advance key again and allowed herself a small frown.
"We do have one unanticipated complication. Apparently, one of the people killed on Ringbolt was Simon Monkoto's brother Arlen." Howell sat a bit straighter and saw others do the same at mention of that name. Shu saw it, too, and her smile was wintry. "We all know Monkoto's reputation, but his outfit isn't up to our weight even if he knew where to find us. The problem is that he's calling in a lot of debts from his colleagues, and most of them are angry enough over Ringbolt to throw in with him even if they didn't owe him. Among them, they may be able to assemble an independent force that is a threat, and because they're independents, Control's ability to track them will be much lower than for the regular El Grecan Navy. On the other hand, they are independents. Their fleets represent their working capital, and they can't tie them up indefinitely on this kind of altruistic operation."