Black Dawn (31 page)

Four weeks, one rescue, two skirmishes and absolutely zero
clues later, it did indeed feel like they had been at it for a long time.
Coy’s desire to find the Boogeyman and put a stop to all of the destruction was tempered only by the fact that if and when they did find
him, it didn’t have a single notion how to stop him. Especially if there
were pirate forces at each of the three bases equal or larger than the
BlackFleet.

“
‘ You want to be the vigilantes of the universe? Then give
me a fleet to do it with!’ “ Ken Butler had complained many months
ago.

Now Coy had to admit, he was right. They needed a fleet. A
large fleet. Large enough to deal with three war fronts at the same
time. And an idea was beginning to grow as to exactly how to do it.
But first they would need a lot more information about the bases. Hell,
any
information about the bases was more than they had now.
* * * * *

Dickenson was found, verified as being Fleet material and set
up on the Transit station in the Tai Han system without much trouble.
Within a week of his employment covert messages began arriving
documenting the numbers and types of ships and personnel that were
passing through the station. If his personal opinions of some of said
‘personnel’ were anything to go by, these could indeed be some of the
attackers they were looking for.

And if this base was indeed still active, then they might surmise that the other two were as well. Due to their locations, however,
getting information would not be as simple as setting a spy up behind
a lounge piano.

Lamont sat in its quarters having yet another strategy meeting
with Butler, Michaels and Schiff when the door buzzer sounded. Asch
responded as usual and returned escorting a subdued looking Aziza. He
hesitated at the sight of the other senior officers before continuing on
into the room and over to Lamont.

“
What can I do for you, Lieutenant?” Coy asked, knowing
quite well the only topic that was likely to bring Aziza here. It had not
told anyone outside of Butler and Bon of Devyu’s offer, and hadn’t
been planning to at this time.

“I…”
he began, and swallowed. Then he held something out to
Lamont. “Here, sir.”
Coy reached for the data disk. “What’s this?”
Devyu took a breath, but didn’t seem to be able to speak.
Its hand froze as the implication sunk in and for a moment the
two of them both held the small disk. Carefully Coy took it, forcing
itself to breathe normally. The Boogeyman, sitting there in its hand. It
looked back up at Aziza. “Just like that?”
The young lieutenant swallowed again. “Hardly, sir. I…I disobeyed you, sir. I didn’t wait. I thought if I could do this for you…” he
stopped again.
Butler, the only other one in the room with any idea of what
was going on swore softly. “What do they want?”
“It, ah , seems, they know our methods of operation.”
“They want a Favor,” Coy realized.
Aziza nodded.
“And…?”
He took a breath. “And the rest…I can handle.”
Michaels and Schiff both sat absorbing the whole, tense, interplay without a word. They knew that they would be informed of anything they needed to know - eventually.
Lamont and Aziza looked at each other for several minutes.
Finally, Coy said, “I don’t take lightly the risk you exposed yourself to
for this. I also don’t take lightly the fact that you did not follow my
instructions.”
“Yes, sir,” Dev answered weakly.
“The two, I believe take care of each other. I can think of no
more effective discipline.”
“Yes, sir,” he repeated.
“Which leaves this,” Coy held up the disk. “The answer to all
of our proverbial prayers?”
“It isn’t as much as I would have liked to… I thought maybe
he could give me something more specific. But I guess this guy is pretty good at staying hidden…even from his own kind.”
Coy nodded understanding. “In other circumstances I would
publicly commend…”
“I would like for this not…” Aziza interrupted, then paused.
“To be common knowledge?” Coy finished for him and he
nodded. “Request granted. Outside of the people in this room, only
Captain Bon is aware. I will keep it as limited as I possibly can. But..”
it stood up to look him eye to eye. “every time a ship docks safely in
port at the end of its journey, I for one will know who helped make it
possible.” Its expression softened for the first time in the conversation.
“Dismissed, Lieutenant.”
Aziza snapped off a perfect salute and exited the quarters, head
a little higher than when he came in.
Coy waited only until the doors were closed behind him. “Captain Bon, Commander Vennefron to my quarters, please.”

When everyone was present and seated around the table, Coy
ceremoniously inserted the coin sized disk into its vidcom. It sat for a
few moments, silently digesting the information displayed.

Bon looked across at Butler and frowned in inquiry. Ken just
pursed his lips and nodded in Lamont’s direction, indicating that they
would know soon enough.

“This is a record of an individual’s activities in the shipping
industry going back about five years. Notice the last data coincides
nicely with our estimation of when the piracy began. My friends, for
all practical purposes, we have found the Boogeyman.”

“
Do we have a name?” Michaels asked.
“The name Dyvees seems to be on more documents than any
other, but what that means, your guess is as good as mine.” Coy looked
bemused for a second. “Interesting old Earth reference, though.”
Ken looked up from reading at that. “Reference to what?
Something important?”
“It is the name traditionally given to a man who preferred
wealth above all else.”
Ken stared a moment. “You mean there’s someone besides you
who knows all this Earth trivia?”
Vennefron was much too focused on the information before
him to even notice the exchange. “Still, how..?” he sputtered, as he
read.
“He did it,” Bon said without inflection. “He got this
from…them.”
“Aziza?” Michaels asked. “What did he do?”
Bon clenched his hands, noticed it and made himself stop. “He
sold his soul to the devil.”
“Don’t be melodramatic,” Ken protested. As one movement
everyone around the table turned to look at him in disbelief. “What?!”
he asked innocently.
“I gave my word that his method would not be open for discussion, only the results,” Lamont said firmly, squelching any more
questions.
Vennefron for one was quite satisfied with devouring those
results however they had been obtained. “Are we sure, I mean absolutely sure this is him?”
Coy nodded and highlighted something on the screen. “Here is
the top of the pyramid of companies he owns. I’m sure it branches out
from there to include smaller companies all over the Region. I am also
convinced that we are right about his motives. He owns shipping rights
on every planet. And when anyone threatened any of that profit by
coming up with a competing manufacturer, booking agent, or ship design, he stopped them.
“The amount of pressure and/or malice used was probably relative to the stubbornness of the competition.”
“But no one seemed to know why they were being attacked,”
Butler pointed out. “At least that’s what they told us.”
“I don’t think they did. If he had told anyone what they were
doing to upset him, he would have had to admit to owning everything.
So he just, shall we say, persuaded them more indirectly to continue
using what they always had.”
“That’s why some of the hits were people like government officials who were just out with their families or something. He wanted
to replace them with people who wouldn’t change things.” Schiff
guessed.
“Commander, see if you can plug up any of the gap between
the company names we have at the bottom of the list and these names
at the top. It would help in the last stage.”
“Stage of what?” Butler asked carefully.
Coy leaned back and regarded them all. “Look at what we
have. A: The Boogeyman is out to continue his grip on the entire Beta
Region by controlling absolutely every interplanetary transaction. B:
He is doing that mainly by means of fear, using various pirate and privateer organizations. C: Said pirates and privateers are at least somewhat organized and using three main bases of operation in order to
cover the most area of the Betan sphere. D: That’s where we need to
hit them in order to stop them.”
Everyone assimilated this for a moment.
“Three bases,” Schiff said.
“With five ships and a handful of
fighters.”
“Hardly.” Coy looked directly at Ken Butler. “If we’re going
to be the vigilantes of the universe, we’re going to need a fleet. A really big fleet. Really bigger than us,” it quoted.
“But no one is going to loan us a fleet that size,” Michaels began.
“No one planet would, no,” Coy switched the Boogeyman
temporarily off of their screens and replaced him with some names and
numbers. “These are the planets we have done ‘business’ with that I
believe we can trust. This is the size of their forces. Most are, unfortunately, rather small. But combine even a ship or two from each with
the Fleet and…”
“And we have a war machine,” Michaels came as close to
smiling as he ever did.
“How are you ever going to get some of these people to work
together?” Ken asked, “We’ve just spent a good part of the past two
years pulling some of these guys off of each other’s backs!”
“Don’t be melodramatic,” Bon told him, re-entering the conversation at last. Coy held up its hand to stop the debate before it began even as Ken opened his mouth to retort.
“Trust me, we’ll be brainstorming that one in due time. Right
now, our main goal in life is to gather as much data on the bases as
possible. The only chance we have is in surprise. And for that we need
information. Here is what I had in mind…”

Rebel stood before the assembled
Rook
crew, all anxiously
waiting to hear what he had to say.
“We have a special mission,” he told them, and watched the
enthusiasm ripple through the group. “This one is tailor-made for our
ship’s unique qualities…we’re going to contract out as a freighter hauling --- well, whatever we can.”
The ripple changed to a room wide thud of disappointment.
Then Sweggert perked up. “It’s a cover.”
Rebel smiled. “Thank you. Yes, a cover. We are going to patrol the asteroid belt outside of the DeGaulle system, attempting to
gather information on the pirate base there.”
“There’s a pirate base at DeGaulle?” Pierce said, the shock in
her voice evident.
“Not only a base. Possibly one of the Boogeyman’s hideouts.”
Another ripple. Eyes widened. Rebel could swear he almost
heard pulses quicken.
“Yes, ladies and gents, we are close. Very close to a direct
strike. And for that we need numbers.” Rebel turned on a holo map
of the asteroid belt. “The
Rook
will hopefully be able to make a slow
circuit around the area hauling between ore mining stations and
DeGaulle. You, in shuttles or
Talons
will be dropped off here and
there to hide and watch and listen. This is one where the Elite Corps
has to live up to its name. There can’t be any hitches. No mistakes. If
he gets wind that we’re this close the whole last year of investigation
goes out the airlock. Any questions?”
A few people had tactical questions about positioning the spy
ships, and a couple wondered about “one” of the Boogeyman’s
hideouts.
“There are three, as best we can tell,” Rebel explained. “Ours,
one by Tai Han, and one in the Thrackston Nebula.”
“Whew! The Nebula? How is the Skipper ever going to find
anyone in there?”
“Fortunately that’s not our job. Captain Hendricks, I believe,
will be working on that one.”
“What about Tai Han?”
“We have a spy set up there already reporting ship and personnel movements,” he switched off the holo.
“We’re going to have some company for the trip as well. Lieutenant Parker, JP Heyob and Major Michaels will be joining us. As
they are all legitimately retirement age, they suit the image of an old
freighter scrounging a living—just in case anyone gets too nosey. And
we will all be out of uniform for the duration. As of now we are
freighter 181 515 11, jointly owned and operated by our group of motley suckers trying to make an honest dollar.
“Now, dress down and prepare to leave the Fleet.”
“Aye, sir,” Sweggert saluted. “Motley it is, sir,” he added
winking at Pierce and Speed.
Rebel returned the salute deciding to let them enjoy the parts
of this assignment that they could. And hoping they would all live
through the other parts.

The
Nighthawk
flew cautiously around one boundary of the
Nebula, dropping unmanned recording drones. Once the
‘Hawk
was
safely away from the area, the signal would be given for the drones to
make their way to their designated observation point. This further lessened the chance of anyone noticing what they were doing. On the
“opposite” side of the mass, the
Karasu
was doing the same. The
Raven
and the
BlackBird
were in C space, staying out of sight this close
to a possible location of the Boogeyman himself.

Not that they were idle. Coy was using the time to personally
contact and invite the heads of state, Secretaries of Defense and/or anyone else with the authority, to come and confer about the pirate threat.
None of them were told, however, that others were coming as well.
The reality of a summit of the entire Region’s most powerful people
was considered a little too ominous to be chatting about over com
lines.

Of course there were a few that were definitely on the not-toinvite list. Such as Tauten Three, whom they knew to be in the Boogeyman’s pocket already. And Riga, and Styx whom they simply
didn’t trust. And there were a couple of other considerations as well.

Coy showed the guest list to Ceal Byars.
“Is there anyone here that you would rather avoid?”
Ceal swallowed and read the list carefully. “Are these all definitely coming?”

“
Sorry, yes. Is your uncle there?”
She nodded.
“I see. Well, we have two options, then. You can A: avoid the