"...let me see what I can do, I shall have a word with the Governor..."

The words bounced around in your head before they completely registered. Either this man was a good liar – he was, that you knew – or he was telling the truth. Vinda had rarely lied when he could avoid it; the truth was so much more … bendable and durable than an outright lie.

“The execution is scheduled to happen in twenty minutes Vinda. But then, I suppose you would be able to pause it, temporarily, at least.” A cruel smile twisted your lips, and you continued to stare at the richly dressed man before you. He was a suspect, still.

No…

If he had gone through all the trouble of having you framed, sentenced, then moved over to death row, would he truly have bothered to come and see you?

And few men had the ability to make the blood in their face drain away. A sign of true shock, that.

“If you would arrange for the termination to be .. terminated, I would be grateful” The sound of your voice going through the intercom system was tinny, yet it hopefully conveyed of how grateful you would be.

If Vinda was not the one who set you up…

For the first time in months thoughts raced through your head, thoughts of revenge. If you ever found the man who did this… then they truly would have reason to prosecute you.

Vinda's brow became lost in a deeply undulating land of entrenched worry lines as he listened to Mr Richi words...

The Vinda-Corp CEO, was sure he could sense an underlying mistrust that seemed to eminate from the man before him, but under the circumstances... who could blame him?

With a furtive nod , Vinda exhaled a far reaching swirling mist of cigarra smoke, as if deliberating the mans dilemma. Grunting in acknowledgement, he removed the Cigarra from his mouth, then spoke, his voice calmly measured...reassuringly so.

"...rest assured George, I shall do everything in my power...."

With that , the Businessman exited the room leaving the prisoner alone to contemplate , just what exactly that would constitute.


Outside the meeting room

"...how did it go?.."

Vinda glanced up to Achinta as if noticing him for the first time, the Android had noted the businessman had seemed to be deep in thought...
As he replied, Vinda's eyes narrowed slightly...

"...get me the Governor...now"

Orron III System

As the shuttle smoothly re-entered real-space, Kaneda observed the green and blue orb that was their destination, and regarded it with a certain amount of trepidation...

The last time I had come here...

He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, and concentrated on focusing himself to the situation at hand.... there was a good chance this could all turn out to be a complete waste of time...

..but then again...

Kaneda's thoughts turned to the Ambassador sat beside him, Vinda certainly thought highly of him, but no-one was above suspicion , not even Kaneda himself...

Vinda-Corp had learned some tough lessons from the past...

Turning to face the Ambassador , Kaneda spoke , with the slight hint of a smile across his lips...

"...how you want to go about this?

...the front way?

...or the back?..."

Aron thought a moment.

"We should go in the front, not arouse suspicion. Routine, you know? But, most certainly, we don't shout our purpose to the planet."

“Look, here, here’s the paper. See?” Lebenan pointed to the signature. “Signed, sealed, and delivered from Vinda Corporation Headquarters. I only passed the order on.”

Lebenan’s palms were surprisingly dry for the tenseness of the situation he was in. Seth Vinda, paying a visit was a rare thing. But an angry Vinda, that was a rare, dangerous thing.

“The stamp is from the top office, only the department heads have it. It’s the general stamp, how should I know who signed it. All I know is, I received an order to change this man’s sentence from life, to immediate execution. Why, I don’t know. I don’t question the authorities. Top office orders are never questioned.”

Vinda grabbed the flimisplast documentation handed to him, and leafed through it as the man spoke...
...his eyes quickly scanning the details..

...changed from life, to immediate execution??...

The CEO's frown deepened more....something was seriously wrong.

After surveying the signature, Vinda glanced back up to Lebenan, as if reading the man's face for signs of deception, then thrust the documents into Kas's hands....

"...I want the person who signed this document...see what you can find out..."

Nodding , Kas took a moment to study it himself , before grabbing the attention of an aide.
As the two walked away purposefully, Vinda turned back to face Lebenan...

"...there has been a serious miscarriage of justice here, and I want that man released..."

One of the Governor's aides, a rather gaunt, skinny looking individual, interjected, and by doing so caught an icy glare from the Vinda-Corp businessman...

"...he was tried , convicted , and found guilty under Brentaalian law, and as such , new evidence must be bought to light in order to declare a mistrial...."

The aide shifted uncomfortably under Vinda's scrutiny, and the Governor followed up promptly...

"..he's right, we can't release him, but, we can grant him a stay of excecution, pending new evidence.....I take it you have new evidence?..."

Vinda, replied without flinching...

"...yes..."

"alright, then , his excecution shall be suspended , but under the law, you only have three days with which to submit new evidence to the courts before the stay is anulled.....shall I contact the chief justice?..."

Vinda simply nodded.. slowly taking it all in...

"..then if you'll excuse me, I shall report to the cheif justice..."

Bowing slightly , both Lebenan, and his now nervy looking aide, quickly took their leave.

Sighing deeply, Vinda ,( still holding his Cigarra), rubbed his brow with his thumb as he considered the situation...

...why would someone want to do this?...

but more importantly...


...who?...

Orron III

Data-Centre



"..you are clear to proceed...follow me"

As the two men's security details checked out , both Kaneda and Aron followed the security droid down the massive centre's corridor's , the steady tide of security personnel , and staff seemed to be neverending.

Normally Aron would not have been able to access the building had it not been for Kaneda's high level security clearance, a fact that had not gone unnoticed by the Ambassador, who seemed to be sporting a confused expression...

Clearly he hadn't expected to be able to just walk through the front door...(so to speak)

Kaneda guessed what Aron was thinking, and offered a pre-emptive answer to a question he could sense was coming...

"...the front way's too easy...the back way's more fun..."

(the Section Operative grinned towards the Ambassador).

"..but you were right about not attracting attention..."

Kaneda had not been back to Orron III, since Vinda-Corp had liberated it from the CSA's clutches, Section, had found the huge , vast suppositories of knowledge astounding.

The CSA had been extremely busy, they had files on nearly every wealthy businessman within the sector, not to mention bank details, assets...and of course, insider intelligence.

Section's intelligence personnel were still combing through the wealth of information stored inside its computer archives...

..and they were having a field day...

Kaneda followed behind Aron and the droid, his ever watchful gaze observing all that passed by him, and after a short walk , the droid swiped a card through a lock on a hefty looking door, and stood to one side, as it opened slowly...

"..you can access the main terminal here..."

"...can I ask what information you require?.."

Kaneda, paused for a moment, and after casting a glance towards Aron, replied cautiously...

".. company registration details..."

Nodding , the droid scurried over to a terminal and accessed the correct mainframe via it's scomp adapter....

"...I hope you find what you are looking for..."

With that it scooted to one side and made its way out of the room, leaving the two men alone to investigate...

Aron felt a little out of place. What was he now? A spy? A "Section Operative" carrying out an Intel mission for VC? He hoped he got a raise for this...

"Okay, Kaneda, we'll start with the magic word."

Aron typed as he spoke.

"Amcron."

Kas flipped over the flimsyplast document Vinda had just handed him, scanning it absently while listening to the discussion between Vinda and Lebenan. The flimsyplast was the standard high-level holo-encoded flimsy; only the top four offices received the stuff. For “Official Business Only” was printed on the boxes, using it for figures or doodling was not recommended.

Someone with access to this…

As soon as he had thought of it, he discarded the idea. Almost everyone in the Central Office had access to this flimsy, it wasn’t guarded or restricted. Just a fancy letterhead for top office employees, nothing more.

Turning to get the attention of the closest aid, he ordered the man to carry the flimsy out and have a high detail scan set to the Central Office for immediate analization. Probably a useless action, there was no way to trace it, really. It was routine though. The best bet would be to find the courier who sent it, and work their way backward from him.

The heated protest of one of Lebenan’s aids caught Kas’ attention, and he returned his attention to the conversation at hand.

"...he was tried , convicted , and found guilty under Brentaalian law, and as such , new evidence must be bought to light in order to declare a mistrial...."

Why would someone protest so about a stay of execution? Everyone is interested in seeing justice done, but when the sentence is changed from life, to instant death… why would this man be so indignant that such an oddity would be questioned?

Frowning, Kas murmured an excuse to Vinda, and exited Lebenan’s office. Moving down to a lift, he gradually made his way over the plush carpeting that seemed to be absolutely everywhere here, and to a com station. After few minutes finagling with the operator, he managed to obtain a direct call to Bonadan.


“This is Vent”

“Vent, Katta.”

“Oh, hello Mr. Katta. How are the Brentaal prisons doing today?”

“Fine, fine. The inmates look like they’re having a blast.”

“Great! Always good to hear… what can I do for you? Are you having trouble there?”

“A little… it appears Vinda has met up with someone he knew from a long time ago...”

“What kind of trouble is that?”

“The man is on death row.”

“… … Ouch.”

“Yes. Vinda is not very happy about the situation. I’m not even sure if he knows the man, but his reaction to seeing him was … startling. His sentence was changed from life to instant execution a few days ago.”

There was pause on the end of the line.

“That’s …. Odd”

“It gets even stranger. The order came from the Central Office.”

“Nothing strange there Kas. They usually do…”

“Our Central Office.”

“Oh… … … I assume you’re sending me a copy of the order?”

“Yes.”

“I will start a trace.”

“Thank you, try keep it quiet, will you?”

“Yes. Also, before I forget, ‘Skopos checked out early today, something about … a cough? I didn’t hear exactly.”

“Hmm… well, make sure those papers get filed, and looked over.”

“No problem.”


The com line terminated, and some spare credits were spit out of the change hole. Leaving them there as a bonus for the next user, Kas headed back the way he had just come mulling over the strange twist this routine trip had taken.

‘Skopos stepped off the transport shuttle with a breeze in his step. He was nearing completion, it was ll coming to head.

Flipping a few coins to some small alien kid in return for the relief of not having to carry his bag, the Vinda Co exec headed up the stairs into one of the many Data-Center outlet buildings positioned around the planet. While not as good as the actual datacenter, an outlet provided complete read only access to all the files.

Which was good enough for him today.