The sun rose and one by one each crewmember woke up and began eating breakfast at the table behind the seats at the front of the ship. Michael woke up and Sheerya, Ellop, and Tiki were already sitting around the table. “Good morning Michael, would you like some breakfast?” asked Sheerya.
“Sure, what did you make?” asked Michael.
“Just spacebugs last I made a few sleep cycles ago,” said Sheerya.
“Oh thank you, that would be great,” said Michael.
Sheerya stood up from the table and walked to the kitchenette pulling a hot pan off the cooktop. Sheerya’s spacebugs were one of the better meals Michael had tasted since entering Nova Galactica. Sheerya handed Michael a plate of the bugs still hot and steaming. “Thank you,” said Michael accepting the food.
Michael took a seat at the table and began eating his spacebugs as Tiki and Ellop had a quiet conversation. “Hey guys, where’s Azav?” asked Michael noticing he wasn’t in his seat.
“Don’t worry about him. He probably just went to get some fresh air,” said Ellop.
Michael tried not to focus on Azav’s absence as he ate his spacebugs. Quiet chatter broke out once again in the room before the sound of the door opening disrupted the discussion. Azav boarded the ship not even dusting off his clothes this time. “Where were you?” asked Tiki.
“Just giving my mind a break from contemplation,” said Azav who was clearly drained as he put his arm up against the wall.
“Also, Tiki, your drone arrived,” said Azav.
“Oh, that’s right,” said Tiki excitedly standing up and leaving the ship.
Tiki entered the ship once again holding the clothes in her hands and handing them up on an overhead bar. “Attention everyone, we’re going to have a meeting in just a moment, so get ready I was up all last night coming up with a plan, so be prepared,” said Azav sitting in his chair and leaning back.
After about half an hour if getting ready and dressed everyone reconvened to hear Azav explain the plan. Azav explained the plan in his typical fashion and tasked Michael with waiting in the ship and alerting if he saw any suspicious activity while the other crew members entered the Tower of Blood in order to infiltrate the computer database. Everyone except for Michael left the ship in their formal attire with their coats and ties. After what seemed to be an hour or so the crew returned to the ship with computer files saved to a harddrive. They boarded the ship and Tiki unlocked the information revealing the files. Following the money on the screen it was traced back to some resorts. “Well, this doesn’t tell us anything, this money just comes here from illegal means and goes to some type of resort,” said Tiki.
“It’s money laundering. The dirty money from the crimes is put through a business and counted as profit so that it’s harder to tell it was obtained through illegal methods,” said Azav.
“Resorts… like the one on Tribabi?” asked Sheerya.
“No, couldn’t be. That’s too far,” said Azav.
“What about… the Pirate Islands?” asked Ellop holding the brochure Azav had thrown the day before.
“The Pirate Islands. Yes, that makes sense, it’s on this planet, that’s would be a perfect resort to launder money to,” said Azav.
“Right, so what was all of that yesterday about the ‘never going to the Pirate Islands’?” said Ellop.
“Well, count yourself lucky we are doing as you wanted all along,” said Azav.
Everyone took their seats and the ship took off to Pirate Island landing only a few minutes later. “Huh, looks a little different than on the brochure,” said Ellop noticing the colors of the vegetation were a lot less vibrant than those on the pictures.
“Well, that’s to be expected. It’s not a legitimate business,” said Azav.
“I guess,” said Ellop shrugging.
“Hey Azav, I found something interesting. I did a little more digging and I found coordinates here on the Pirate Islands,” said Tiki.
“Any information of what they’re for?” asked Azav.
“It’s the main resort building it looks like,” said Tiki.
“Right, I’ll navigate there then,” said Azav.
A few minutes later they had arrived in the vicinity of the main resort building. “You guys stay here, me and Tiki will take a look inside,” said Azav referring to Ellop, Sheerya, and Michael.
Ellop turned on a television show while they waited for Azav and Tiki to return. It was some type of locally broadcasted police show. Except instead of always catching the criminals the police were incompetent at their jobs and would end up catching nobody in the end. Two episodes of the show played and everyone was making jokes of the stories as they could be watched almost as comedies with how bad the police were at their jobs. The door of the ship opened once again and Azav entered with Tiki closely behind holding another harddrive. “We hit another jackpot,” said Tiki.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Hey!” yelled Ellop as Tiki turned off the show in order to use the computer.
“Calm down, I’ll record the show so we can finish it on our way to the prison because that’s where we’re headed soon,” said Tiki confidently.
“What did you find?” asked Michael.
“Well, given that this is the main building for the resort they left a trail of money to our guy. The money from the resorts all trace to a bank account, we suspect it belongs to Titan. So, we sent his account 10,000 credits,” said Tiki before being interrupted.
“You did what?” asked Ellop surprised.
“We transferred 10,000 credits to the account,” said Tiki again.
“But why?” asked Sheerya.
“To give us a reason to be at the bank. You see, when we go to the bank we need a reason why we’re there, so we will be asking the bank to help us reverse a transaction. Now, they’re probably not going to be able to do much about the 10,000 credits, but it should buy us enough time for me to collect the last pieces of information to find out who the account is registered for,” said Tiki.
“Wow, you’re a genius Tiki,” said Michael.
“Well thanks, but it was mainly Azav’s idea, I just do the computer stuff,” said Tiki.
“Alright then, let’s depart for the bank. It’s not far from here,” said Azav who seemed to have a little more energy following the success in the resort main building.
The ship left once again and landed just about a minute later on the other side of the island where the bank was located. “Alright, all of us can go in for this one,” said Azav.
Everyone exited the ship and entered the bank which has some light brown stone on the exterior with big clear windows. Ellop admired the trees near the bank as they entered the building. Tiki took a seat on a couch they had in the waiting room and took out her laptop. They walked up to the counter and a bank clerk greeted them. “Hi, welcome to First Crook Bank where our rates are criminal. How can I help you on this fine day?” asked the clerk.
“Hello, I’m looking to undo a transaction. I just made it recently, but it was a mistake and I didn’t mean to send it,” said Azav.
“Oh, I see. Please log into your account and I’ll see what I can do,” said the clerk.
Azav scanned his Galactoband on the counter and the clerk looked through the recent records. “I see, was it this outgoing payment for 10,000 credits?” asked the clerk.
“Yes, that’s the one,” said Azav.
“Do you have a receipt for the transfer?” asked the clerk.
“No, I don’t have a receipt,” said Azav.
“Oh, I am so sorry. Without a receipt this direct transfer cannot be reversed,” said the clerk.
Azav looked over at Tiki who shook her head signaling she needed more time to collect information on the target bank account.
“Yes it can! You can reverse the transaction. They did it before in the past you can do it,” said Azav with more aggression to the clerk.
“Sir, I’m going to ask you calm down. We can put in a request for the credits to be refunded,” said the clerk.
“No, they’re not going to accept. That’s my money and I really need it back. I didn’t mean to send it to that account,” said Azav.
“Well, I am very sorry to hear that, but that’s why it asks you twice if you’re sure you want to send since it’s hard to undo,” said the clerk.
“It’s hard to do, but it’s not impossible. Please, you got to help me out,” said Azav pleading with the clerk.
Azav turned his head and Tiki nodded to him. “I’m really sorry sir, but without a receipt there’s nothing I can do. I can put in a request for them to return the credits, but I cannot promise they will give them back,” said the clerk.
“Fine,” said Azav.
Azav left the counter and the rest of the group followed him back to his ship. “Great acting Azav, I was able to view some information regarding the account. It included an address,” said Tiki.
“Excellent, send the coordinates we will go there,” said Azav.
Everyone entered the ship and buckled up to go to the next place. Once again it wasn’t far as the address was located on the same island along the shore. It was a large sprawling mansion surrounded by short pink grass. Azav decided to land the ship on the lawn rather than outside the gates and everyone exited the ship and walked up to the door. Azav took the lead and knocked on the large door made of wood. A large figure opened the door. It was Titan standing right in front of them. “Come on in” said Titan opening the door wider.