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“The goon squad—they used to be my soldiers. Now they’re Bennett’s enforcers.”

  “Only a few are doing her dirty work. The rest are just pulling guard duty. They’re following orders,” Eric said. “Still, none of them will get wind of our operation. We’ll stick with people whose loyalties we can be sure of.”

  “We need to start by arresting First Admiral Bennett,” Lance said. “Then we need to round up the goon squad and keep them under control until a new commander can be appointed.”

  “What happens if this all goes to hell?” Eric asked.

  “I suspect Senator Kase will deny any knowledge of our actions, and we’ll be thrown to the wolves,” Lance said.

  “And if we win?”

  Lance chuckled softly. “Define win.”

  “I mean, if we succeed at meeting our objectives,” Eric said.

  “I have Senator Kase’s word that we’ll be out from under SACOM, like the old days.”

  “Do you trust him?” Eric asked.

  “I see a job that needs to be done. Soon, Bennett will be the supreme ruler of Caldon. With all of SACOM at her command, she won’t be satisfied until she rules the galaxy. She needs to be stopped. My reward will be to see order restored,” Lance said. When Eric continued to stare at him without saying anything, he added, “No, I don’t trust Kase.”

  “Nor do I,” Eric said.

  * * * *

  Georgia Bennett glared into the camera of her data unit. “Lieutenant Stevens, why haven’t you fixed the problem with the tracking data? So far, all you’ve given me is excuses. I want results!”

  “Yes, ma’am. The database has been scrambled,” he replied.

  “Then unscramble it!” Bennett screamed.

  “Our best people have been working on it for more than a week without success.”

  “Then restore the database from backup,” Bennett said.

  “We don’t know where the backup is, ma’am. It’s off site somewhere, for safety reasons, and we don’t know how to access it,” Stevens said.

  “What about the data center employees? One of them scrambled it. Surely, they know how to unscramble it. If not, they must know how to access the backup. Do I need to replace you with someone who knows how to properly motivate people?” Bennett asked.

  “Well… the thing is… all the employees have left,” the lieutenant said.

  “Then round them up and bring them back!” Bennett yelled. “You have a team of armed soldiers under your command!”

  “I don’t know who they are or where they live. The personnel records have been erased… all of them… back to the founding of the company. I can’t name a single person who has ever worked here,” Stevens said.

  Georgia rubbed her temples for a moment and sighed. “Yes, you can. You know the former director and where he lives. Your people escorted him home. Escort him back, find out who works there, and round them up. I want that tracking data corrected immediately. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’ll send someone to get him right away,” Stevens said. To his relief, the screen went blank. He exhaled loudly and leaned back in his chair. Then, recalling the first admiral’s use of the word immediately, he quickly grabbed his data unit and summoned his security chief. “Walter, I have a mission for you. Gather your team.”

  * * * *

  A SACOM Security truck drove up Planson Drive and stopped in front of number 214. Two armed soldiers ran to the front door while two others ran to the back. Second Lieutenant Walter Pierce climbed out of the truck and casually walked to the front door and knocked. After a moment, he knocked again. When no answer came, he tried the knob, but it was locked. Taking a step back, he kicked the door, shattering the doorjamb. Splinters rained across the living room. “Oh, look, he left the door open,” he said. He stepped inside, followed by Corporals Heller and Jensen. “Find Harrison, but don’t hurt him,” Pierce ordered. The pair split up and began methodically searching the house.

  The soldiers at the back door peered through the window into an unoccupied kitchen. Private Kettering turned the knob, and the door swung open. Turning to Private Bell, he said, “Wait here, and make sure nobody gets past you.”

  “But we were told to cover the back door and wait,” Bell said.

  “What, and let Heller and Jensen get all the credit for capturing Harrison? Do you want to be in the report as one of the two who waited on the back porch while he was taken into custody?”

  “Well… no, but… we have orders,” Bell mumbled.

  Kettering rolled his eyes before turning and stepping inside. From the porch, Bell watched as his partner moved about the room.

  Kettering looked under tables and inside large cabinets. Opening a door, he found a well-stocked pantry, also unoccupied. An arched opening led into the dining room while another opened onto a hallway. There were no hiding places in the dining room, so after a quick check, he moved through the kitchen and into the hall. As he looked into a room across from the kitchen, a movement to his left caused him to spin around, neurodart pistol raised. Corporal Jensen stood at the end of the hall, her pistol aimed at Kettering. Both soldiers lowered their weapons. “The kitchen and dining room are clear,” Kettering whispered as he pointed to the archway. Jensen nodded, turned, and proceeded up the stairs. Kettering stepped into the room and searched it.

  “The house is empty,” Corporal Heller said as they all stood in the living room facing Lieutenant Pierce.

  “Interrogate the neighbors. See if anyone knows where he went. Ask if he has any friends or relatives in the area,” Pierce ordered.

  * * * *

  “I’m afraid we haven’t found him, yet, sir,” Lieutenant Pierce said.

  “Did you check with his neighbors? Maybe he went out for groceries,” Stevens said.

  “We questioned the neighbors. Nobody knows anything. In an upstairs bedroom, there was a set of luggage with a medium-sized suitcase missing. Some of the dresser drawers were open and everything was jumbled. I think he grabbed what he could quickly and then left,” Pierce said.

  “He could have gone anywhere,” Stevens said.

  “If the tracking data wasn’t scrambled, we could find him,” Pierce said.

  “If the tracking data wasn’t scrambled, we wouldn’t need him!” Stevens yelled. “Find Harrison! Do whatever you have to. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, sir,” Pierce replied.

  Stevens’ hand was shaking as he closed the comm link. First Admiral Bennett was going to replace him if he didn’t get this whole mess straightened out quickly. He didn’t want to think about what she would do to him after that. She might even turn him over to Zorbas. He’d heard stories about the man that made him shudder. He sat looking through the office window at the restaurant across the street. After a moment, an idea struck him. Lunch! The employees ate lunch. Quickly, he opened a comm link to Pierce.

  “Lieutenant, forget about Harrison for now. I want you and your men to visit every restaurant within walking distance of the data center. Ask about data center employees and get as many names as possible. If we can find just one of them, we’ll find the others.”

  “Yes, sir. We’re on our way,” Pierce said.

  * * * *

  General Nelson’s comm unit chimed. Looking at the node address, he held a hand up to Major Anderson, who immediately fell silent. Opening the link, Nelson said, “Hello, Admiral Bennett.”

  “Lance, I want you to send someone to the data center to relieve Lieutenant Stevens. I want that tracking database repaired, and Stevens can’t even find his employees,” Bennett said.

  “I will personally pick someone who can get the job done and send him over immediately,” Nelson said.

  “I want results, General, not excuses. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am. You will get results,” the general said with a smile.

  The link closed.

  Eric shook his head and laughed. “Talk about good timing!”

  Lance smiled. “Get Lieutenant
Fowler in here. I’ll give him some instructions, and we’ll send him to the data center. Then I’m going for a short walk to get some fresh air. This is going to buy us some time, Eric.”

  Eric nodded. “We can give her people the run-around for weeks just by playing with the tracking data.” Picking up his data unit, he summoned Lieutenant Fowler to his office. “We need to send a squad along with Fowler. Stevens may not want to step down from his new post. Even if he goes quietly, I want to replace all the goon squad with our people.”

  “Good point,” Nelson said.

  There was a knock at the door. “Enter!” yelled Anderson. Lieutenant Fowler opened the door and stepped in.

  “I have a job for you, Lieutenant,” General Nelson said with a smile.

  * * * *

  Lance Nelson exited the base and walked up the sidewalk along Water Street. Two blocks up, he crossed the street and entered a small coffee shop. Nodding, he waved to the owner as he walked to the rear of the shop. He opened a door and slipped into the storage room. Pulling out his personal data unit, he opened a link to Clarice Jones. After a moment, she answered. “Lance, is there a problem?” she asked.

  “I need you to go back to the data center.”

  “No way. Things there are beyond my help,” she said.

  “I’m in charge now. I’m sending a team of my people over there. We need to throw Bennett a bone. We need to restore the tracking data, only I want to make sure the data for certain people is a complete fabrication. I want Bennett’s people to waste a lot of time on nothing.”

  Clarice smiled. “I can do that. Give me the details.”

  “Lieutenant Fowler is on his way to take charge now. He has the details. See him, and then get to work fixing the database,” Lance said.

  Clarice nodded. “I’m on my way.”

  “How is Harrison?” Lance asked.

  “My father is taking care of him. He’s put him up in his guesthouse,” Clarice said.

  “Good. Let Fowler know if you need anything. Oh, and Fowler is taking a new security team with him to replace the Goons. You and whoever you bring in to help should be safe.”

  “Thanks. I’ll work alone, initially. It’s all my software screwing with things. I can fix it in a matter of minutes, but I’ll need to write and test the code to hide the people you want to keep hidden before I repair the entire system. I don’t want data center employees looking over my shoulder while I work,” Clarice said.

  * * * *

  Clarice Jones approached the main entrance to the data center, eyeing the soldiers cautiously. She didn’t recognize any of them, which was reassuring—the transition of power must have been completed. She handed her badge to a soldier and waited as he examined it.

  “Lieutenant Fowler is in the director’s office. He’s expecting you, ma’am.”

  “Thank you,” Clarice said as she took her badge and entered the building. Relief rushed over her. She trusted General Nelson, or she wouldn’t be here now. However, things didn’t always go as planned, and she had just bet her life that his people were now in charge. She smiled as she climbed the steps to the director’s office.

  Knocking on the doorframe, she waited until Lieutenant Fowler waved her into the room.

  “Ms. Jones, it’s a pleasure to meet you. General Nelson said you would be arriving,” Fowler said as he pulled a memory card from his shirt pocket. “He asked me to give this to you. It contains a list of names and instructions for how the general would like their tracking data to be reported.”

  She took the card and nodded. “That shouldn’t be a problem. If the list isn’t too long, I can probably have things sorted out and working again by tomorrow morning.”

  Fowler smiled. “Excellent. Do you need any assistance?”

  “No, sir. Although I would appreciate it if you could send some refreshments down to my workstation. I ran out of the house as soon as the general contacted me, and I didn’t want to stop on the way to have lunch,” she said.

  “I’ll send someone down in a few minutes to get a list of things you would like, and I’ll have them procured and delivered to you quickly,” Fowler said.

  “Thank you, sir. I’ll just run downstairs and get started.”

  When Clarice reached the main foyer, she looked through the windows in the entry doors and quickly ducked behind a pillar. Pierce and his thugs, the very group she and her coworkers had attacked, were talking with the soldiers on guard duty, and the other goons did not look happy. She guessed that they were being told that Stevens had been relieved of his duties here, and that they, too, were no longer assigned to this facility. Raised voices were muffled by the heavy doors, but the anger behind them was obvious. To her relief, the goons turned and left, climbing into their truck and driving off.

  Clarice realized she was shaking, and she wished she had asked Lieutenant Fowler for a personal guard. Stepping out from her hiding place, she took a deep breath. The goons were gone, and Nelson’s people were in charge, now. She had a job to do and, quite possibly, the safety of everyone on Caldon depended on her doing it quickly and doing it well. That was a sobering thought. She turned and ran down the corridor that led to the workstation room.

  When her workstation had finished booting, she inserted the data card and opened the only document it contained. It was a table of names, identification numbers, and instructions for handling their tracking data. Nolan Ethan Peters and Megan Joy Carson were never to appear on Caldon, and their positions since returning from Zebulon a few weeks ago were to be erased. Whoever they were, the general obviously wanted it to appear that they were permanently off world. Louis Zorbas was to permanently disappear, also. Ethan Vincent Peters was to have his true position reported, but Nelson wanted the ability to make him disappear instantly, if needed. Clarice continued down the list, and she suddenly smiled. First Admiral Georgia Bennett was to disappear instantly on Nelson’s command. That will be my pleasure, General, she thought.

  She quickly went to work setting up the special processing routines for the people on the general’s list. Making people vanish was easy. Putting in the software hooks to make the others vanish on command would take a bit of work, but she was sure she could have it all done by the end of the day. If everything went according to plan, they would have the rest of the technicians back at their workstations in the morning, or the following day at the latest. She smiled at the thought that she could make Bennett vanish without a trace. Whatever General Nelson had in mind for her, she hoped it would happen soon.

  * * * *

  Lieutenant Fowler walked along the row of workstations toward Clarice. An empty juice bottle and a few empty food wrappers littered the desk next to her. She glanced at him briefly and continued her work. “You know, it’s nearly seven o’clock. You should go home,” he said.

  Clarice shook her head. “This is too important. I’m going to finish this if it takes all night, and it probably will. We should bring the rest of the technicians back the day after tomorrow. I can’t run this place all by myself.”

  “I assumed it ran itself, actually,” Fowler said.

  “A system of this size takes a lot of work,” she said.

  “Surely an AI could handle this.”

  “An AI would use too much computing power. This system is all about speed of handling enormous amounts of data. When something goes wrong, or when minor bugs need to be repaired, humans can handle those tasks better.” She pointed to her head. “Our neural network doesn’t load down the system the way an AI would.”

  “I see. Well, I’ll be glad to bring everyone back if you can tell me who they are,” the lieutenant said.

  “The personnel database will be restored in the morning, after I test my modifications. General Nelson said that nothing was to be restored until these changes were functional,” she said.

  “In the meantime, can I bring you something to eat? You’ve been at this for hours, and it’s past dinnertime.”

  Clarice sighed and looked at
the lieutenant. “Yes, that would be wonderful. There’s a sandwich shop up the street called Nero’s. I’ll have the number five with coffee, black.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a few credit chips.

  “Put your credits away; this is on me. I’ll be back soon,” he said as he turned and headed for the door.

  * * * *

  “Got it!” Clarice yelled. Startled, Lieutenant Fowler nearly fell out of his chair. He looked at his watch, rubbed his eyes, and looked again.

  “It’s six in the morning,” he said with a yawn. “When are you going home?”

  “Me? I have work to do. What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I have an excuse—I fell asleep. Besides, I thought I should make a contribution by being available for an emergency sandwich run,” he said with a smile.

  “Well, you didn’t make my work any easier. I’ve been fighting to stay awake all night while listening to you snore!”

  “I don’t snore,” Fowler objected.

  “Yes, you do. Loudly,” she said.

  “Is it working?” he asked.

  “Yes. I just fixed the last bug. We’re ready to restore the system.”

  “Good. I’ll inform General Nelson,” he said.

  “Then you can start contacting the other technicians. Tell them to report to work tomorrow.” She handed him a piece of paper. “I’ve made a list of three people I’d like to have in here this afternoon, if possible. Start with them.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Fowler said with a salute.

  “Please,” Clarice added.

  “I shall give it my full attention… after breakfast,” he said.

  “Well, of course. It’s six in the morning; you can’t call them now,” she said. “Can you bring me some breakfast, too? There’s a diner down the street.”

  Chapter 17

  Nolan tried to sit up. His face contorted in pain and he tried to yell, but nothing came out. He rested his head on the pillow again and tried to speak. After a few tries, he asked, “Where am I?”