Chapter 4

  The frakin plan

  “So this is the only known image of your target.”

  Fregley waved his hand in the air and the image slid into view. It appeared to be the very cliché of a wizard but blurry, very blurry. Cliché as in he had long dark blue robes and a blue wide brimmed pointy hat exactly like you see in any movie ever streamed over the galactic net. Long gray hair, bushy gray eye brows, a pointy nose and a long gray beard that flowed over his shoulder as if the old man was running against the wind. Below that pointy nose was a mouth filled with white teeth that were clearly visible because the old man had literally turned to smile up at the security camera as he ran past it.

  “His name is Long Dong Chong,” Fregley said. “Yea not his real name. Obviously it’s a bullslag alias but that was the name he used when he checked into the casino satellite above the Suzba system.

  “how did he get through security? Wizards are banned from every casino right?” Matt quipped as he pointed at the old man on the holo screen

  “yea, wasn’t the pointy hat a dead give away?” Dan said looking at Matt as he held his hand out gesturing towards the screen.

  “Obviously he didn’t look like that when he checked in. This is what he looked like when he checked in.” Fregley’s hand swiped again and the image on the screen was replaced with a non descript, plainly dressed middle aged human Asian man wearing thick gold rimmed glasses. The ancient gold earth watch was the only indication of the man’s wealth.

  “well then how do they know the wizard is the crook?” Matt questioned

  “Because this isnt the first casino he has hit. Always he checks in as a as some non descript wealthy business man from some well to do planet, with credentials that always check out. Then somehow he breaks into the vault without setting off any alarms, taps into the main frame, downloads the entire register and then vanishes with millions of sots. When they go back and check the guest lists the business men he uses as cover are the only ones unaccounted for.

  “pwew” Matt exclaimed at the staggering amount sots. Just one score and he would be set for life.

  “How many times as he hit the casinos?” Dan asked.

  “They think 3 in 3 years.”

  “Wait he hit three casinos in 3 years and took them for millions of sots? Why haven’t we heard about it?”

  “You have, the Fort Mont Spring colony and the Delegot above Azor 2.”

  “Yea I remember those on gal news but they caught the guys and it wasn’t for millions either.”

  “yea” Dan snapped his fingers as he remember the news feed.

  “One of the guys was caught in the act and never got away with sots.,” Dan said.

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  “Oh yea, that was all fabricated.” Fregley said casually.

  “woe. You’re saying?” Matt asked eyes wide in surprise

  “yep the syndicate hushed it all up, it’s a black eye for them. They are kings of the underworld and someone robs them blind then gets away Scott free? They didn’t want anyone getting ideas that they had gone soft.”

  “and they are just now putting a bounty on this guy?”

  “yea, they wanted to handle it internally but after this last hit the bosses changed their mind. They want this guy brought in so they can, you know, question, him. Fregly held up two long green fingers making quotation marks in the air before continuing;

  “Find out what he did with sots, retrieve them if possible, find out who his accomplices are, then make a general all around example of him.”

  Dan stood and walked closer to the image of the the Asian man on the galley wall. Swiping over the hovering image he changed it to the smiling old wizard. The image was blurry, the robe and hat barely discernable as if the old man was moving so fast that the camera couldn’t track him. He took a hold of edges of the image and spreading his hand he enlarged it until the face was visible, the only part of the image that wasn’t blurry. The man was old but not asian. His eyes, they looked young, innocent, mischievous, energetic, happy, maybe slightly crazy, like a highly intelligent kid playing a naughty game knowing he just got busted and not giving a slag. He pushed the image back to its original size, behind the blurred figure of the old wizard Dan could clearly see the blurry background of the casino.

  “So no one saw the old dude, dressed in wizard robes running through the middle of the casino?”

  “Not a person, and this time they were ready for him. The syndicate bosses spared no expense hiring the very best security analysts money could buy and these guys figured that the only way anyone could of done the job like the first two casinos had to either be a inside guy at the very top levels or a wizard. The bosses had already “questioned” all the people in charge of the casinos” Fregly used the air quotes again shuttering at the thought.

  “So they went with the wizard idea. The security analyst consulted with some scholars of magic types and came up with ideas of types of spells he could of used, shape change, walk through walls, “speed burst””, the air quotes again. So they installed a bunch of sensors that measured all kinds of slag including wind turbulence from extreme speed and high speed cameras. And well , this time the old bastard set off several alarms. The place was going total lockdown before that image was captured.”

  “And he still got away?” Matt gasped

  “Yea and what’s crazier is that they put armed guards in the vault and not a one of them saw anything either.”

  “One more question Fregly. You said that the syndicate was keeping this inside? I assume that means they were sending their own teams after this guy?”.

  “Yea until the last heist, now all gloves are off and we can make some serious sots, we are going to be rolling in it.” Fregly’s little arms moved excitedly as he spoke.

  “What happened to those teams Fregly?” Matt looked up at Dan and then at the screen.

  The toad didn’t say anything for a few seconds before continuing as if Dan had never asked the question.

  “I mean guys, you have no idea it’s not just the absurd bounty it’s the syndicate owing us, you know, we will get first choice of all contracts, no bids no..”

  “What happened to the teams Fregly?”

  Sighing loudly Fregly looked back at the screen, “no one knows”

  “god damnit Fregly!”, Matt exclaimed shaking his head at the totally frakd situation.

  “what makes you think we have a chance in the gravity well of a dying star to do something highly trained syndicate teams couldn’t? Dan asked incredulous at the absurd idea.

  “ cause we got a plan.” Fregly said.

  Matt stood to his feet and both he and Dan started to protest loudly. They stopped abruptly as an absolutely beautiful woman walked up to stand beside Fregly. . She shimmered, like she was a hologram, but a highly defined hologram the realism of which neither bounty hunter had ever seen. She was smiling warmly as the toad man look up at her, his arms out stretched as if in presentation .

  “And we got an ADA”. Fregly said