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“RHODIUM PIRATES” — Chapter 40 — Poachers

by Omar Fink 2021

• 40 — Poachers

[MINING HABITAT NAVO VILLAGE AU 2.8]

Dante Vector leaned back in his piloting sling in the CCN, “So, I’m very grateful for your help in setting up the front group to buy this hab for me. It was important to me that it was not directly connected with either me or the history of Vectorville while we were negotiating price.”

Billy Street grinned at Vector, “No problem. That was why I was sent here.”

Vector continued, “And I’ve named it ‘Navo Village’, after my girl, Rebecca Navarro.” He grinned.

Billy asked, “That’s the one everybody just calls, ‘Becca’ right?”

Vector nodded, “That’s right. She likes that nickname. But the real reason we’re talking now is because I’m hoping you can help me finalize the sale of my old hab, ‘Vectorville’ to the miners being represented by Lewis Barton, that guy everybody calls ‘Sonny’ over with the RATS crew. You work with them, right?”

Billy nodded, “Yes, I’ve worked with RATS for several years now, and know Sonny well. You should know it is primarily him that you will be negotiating the price with. He has some miners, and RATS crew backing him, but this purchase is his baby, and the big decisions will be made by him.”

Vector smiled, “I thought so. See Billy, your input can be quite valuable to me. Zorba told me about you in glowing terms, and said he’s worked with you for many years. That’s quite a recommendation, considering it’s coming from the richest man in the Solar System.”

Billy shrugged, “Never use those words to Zorba. He craves recognition, and after you work with him for while, it becomes quite clear that being the richest guy around is clearly one of his goals, and yet he claims to despise being called that.”

Vector nodded, “Noted. So what is Zorba’s interest in this transaction. Why did he send you to help me?”

Billy leaned forward, “Zorba has always been interested in getting involved in every aspect of the business community he operates in. I don’t know exactly how you fit into that profile, but I can assure you, he always has some angle he’s working. I have worked with him for many years, mostly as an information researcher and consultant, but also some special assignments that involved under cover work. My point in telling you this is that I know how thoroughly, and meticulously he sets up all of the deals he makes. He must see more potential for you to play a larger role in his enterprise than any involvement in this relatively simple transaction. You follow?”

Vector grinned, “That sounds promising. I hope you’re right. If we can get this sale done, I’m planning on moving the hab somewhere near to AU 2.8 to be close to the main traffic routes in the middle of the Kirwood Gaps at AU 2.5 and AU 3.3.”

Billy nodded, “Zorba told me about your plans, and I’d guess that has some connection to some of his plans.”

Vector rubbed his chin, “Alright, let’s drop all pretense and just speak frankly. If you’ve been working as a spy for Zorba for years, I’ll be needing to trust you like he does.” He looked over Billy for some kind of acknowledgment. Billy just smiled, so Vector continued, “You must know the rumors that Vectorville was the pirate base are true.” Again he paused and looked closely at Billy. Billy was listening intently, but showed no other reaction. Vector raised his chin a bit, “The pirate operation was very lucrative while it lasted, but that confrontation with the Earth hab was just too much. Becca and I have plans to revamp the entire operation, and make it even more productive and much safer than outright pirating. We already have plans in place to built a network of rocks that we own the prospecting rights to, and stations we plan to either build or acquire. This network will provide the means to covertly move contraband materials using mostly bots and standard guidance packages.”

Billy grinned, “You’re moving from piracy to poaching. Interesting. This is why Zorba is watching closely.”

Vector nodded, “I’m sure you’re right, even though we’ve tried to keep this under cover, that can be difficult considering the type of characters we need to deal with. They can usually be bought without too much expense. So, the basic idea is two-fold: we’ll hijack some goods in transit by extracting the payload while it’s in motion, and leaving the transponder intact and the trajectory unaltered. We already have all the tech and specialists in place to do that without being discovered.”

Billy frowned a little, “Aren’t you worried about being seen by long range scans, like radar and even optical scopes?”

Vector shook his head, “I said we have everything in place. That’s why we need the network of rocks and stations. There will be blind spots, and spots of what they call simultaneous congruence where two similar objects are so close together they cannot be distinguished one from another. That creates a window of opportunity that we can use.”

Billy nodded, “I see.”

Vector continued, “Once we’ve picked off the ripe targets we select, we can use the same concepts to inject the stolen goods back into the transportation network without being observed. We’ll use some forged transponders, and some hacked database records as needed, but in the end, the goods will go to our buyers instead of their original destination.”

Billy was nodding again, and smiling, “That should work. At least for a while. After some time, you can expect to attract attention, and it will become more problematic.”

Vector was nodding now, “We anticipate that and will be ready for it. Also, we’re creating a smugglers network of pirates and thieves and fencing operations.” He looked sharply at Billy who did not react. He continued, “We’re thinking about creating a franchise network.”

Billy raised an eyebrow.

Vector smiled at the reaction, “We think the franchise angle will transfer risk away from us, but still leave us with plenty of profit opportunity. We can charge a franchise fee for setup, and then collect fees for resources, and perhaps also a small commission on franchisee profits.”

Billy picked up a plastic game cube from the table surface nearby and balanced it on one corner on one of his fingers, “Sounds like a full service crime enterprise.”