The clock showed 02:23. Amara squeezed her eyes open and shut a few times to shake off the tiredness. The room was dark, the outside blocked off by heavy curtains and tinted windows.

She reached over to the nightstand and gestured the light to dim up slightly. Her bedroom was spacious and sparsely furnished, with a large wooden bed sitting low on a wide frame. A thick carpet covered the floor of the other half of the room. A single painting hung over the sideboard opposite the bed, showing the landscape of Erulas as it was before the capital city filled the plains.

Amara set up, leaning her back against the plush head rest.

„Who is it?“, she asked in a slightly groggy voice. Only the top members of her government and a select few other important people would be allowed through by the Home AI at this time of night.

„Gordon Fleills“, the computer voice answered.

„Right“, Amara said, shaking off the last remnants of sleep, „Voice only“

„Hi Amara“, Gordon came through, „Sorry to wake you up. We’ve got him. I promised results and I might be two hours late, but we found the spider in his web. Don’t know if I should say more. We are at the police HQ. Want to join?“

Amara’s eyes widened, then she smiled: „You bet. On my way.“

„Brilliant.“, Gordon answered, „All the laurels go to Tonya, she’s here as well.“

Amara got up while finishing the call in a few words. She gave her husband a kiss and a quick hug before she got up and left the bedroom to get dressed. Tonya Ulgar, minister of internal affairs. As the formal head of the police she was of course involved in the part of the operation that was inside Erulas. Which meant the head was on planet.

Amara got dressed quickly while weighing in on these and the other clues that Gordon had dropped. He was right to be careful. To their knowledge, the listening posts had been shut down, but the speed and ease that the enemy had demonstrated giving up what certainly took years to establish could mean that there were backups in place. Better err on the side of caution.

A few minutes later, she was in her shuttle and flying towards the police headquarters. She had set the car to discrete priority - the traffic control system would make sure she had priority, but without moving traffic explicitly out of her way. The president late at night would raise eyebrows for anyone watching her, no need to alarm them even more.

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Just under twenty minutes after Gordon’s call, Amara met him in a secure meeting room inside the police HQ. Tonya and several high-ranking police officers were with him. Empty snack boxes in the trash can near the door and half-empty bottles of various drinks on the table made it obvious that they had been here for at least a few hours.

Several displays on the video wall showed documents, personal profiles and a map with three flashing dots. Amara pointed to it and sat down: „Bring me up to speed.“

Gordon waved over to Tonya: „Your operation, your credit.“

Tonya Ulgar was a petite young woman who was often underestimated. Underneath the girly exterior that made it seem she would be more at home in a luxury brand dress than a uniform was an accomplished detective who had worked her way up the institution with keen insights and sharp deductive skills.

„Joint operation“, the corrected Gordon, „also with the cooperation of Dephyr and Dangorod agencies.“, she turned to Amara, „The corporate structure spanning not just our three planets but several other human regions was impenetrable. So we turned our attention on the question who could set up such a structure. We identified several law offices and consulting agencies specializing in these areas and looked at the documentation for the suspected front companies.“

She sat down and brought up a working document to the video wall. It showed a network of companies and names interconnected with a mess of colored lines. She continued: „I can get into details later. The short of it is that with the help of the other governments, we could identify three law firms that were deeply involved in creating this structure. Each a disconnected slice, but enough that they had to know someone was at least trying to dodge taxes. So we raided their offices in the evening and put pressure on them. About one hour ago we finally got some of them to talk. One here on Erulas, two on Dangorod. Once they had given us something, people on Dephyr also took a deal to be witnesses.“

Amara nodded approvingly, „Good work, Tonya, and exceptionally quick.“

„I have excellent people working for me.“

„So“, Amara asked, „who is the spider?“

Tonya looked puzzled for a split second, then gave out a short laugh. „Right. Yes, that is a fitting term. We tracked everything back to Fyfe Sirling, an entrepreneur and investor. Set up his first company aged 19 and sold it for a million two years later. That was sixty years ago. He went broke twice in that time, but always bounced back. Today, he is one of the 500 richest men on Erulas. Still nominally runs four of his companies and owns majority shares in seven others. Many of his companies span the entire Junkstorm. Three have their official seat on Dephyr, one on Dangorod.“

Amara let all that sink in. So her own planet was at the heart of this entire issue. She had not expected that, but it made things easier.

„You have teams en route to apprehend him?“

„Yes“, Tonya confirmed, „To all his official residences and offices. His private yacht is in the space port, so he most likely is on the planet.“

Gordon stepped forward: „They should be in position any minute now. We thought you would want to watch this.“

Amara smiled and turned her head towards Gordon: „I most definitely do.“