Captain Overboard: A Lesfic Space Opera (Black Flag Book 7) by Rachel Ford

Author:Rachel Ford [Ford, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-25T16:00:00+00:00

Lieutenant Richards thought we were going to get ourselves killed. She made that obvious during the conversation that ensued. Admiral Meddling’s take was slightly more nuanced.

He thought we’d most likely get ourselves killed, but we might just take out Templeton., which he would count as a win. A point he also made clear, all the while warning us that, should we commit any crimes during our pursuit of Maggie, we would be liable for full prosecution.

He wanted maximum deniability. But he also wanted us to remove a threat that had outfoxed the law.

Which was fine by me. Whatever it took to get the information we needed.

Aldridge Templeton was the money man behind Frontier’s Edge and a dozen other front businesses and criminal enterprises. He had more blood on his hands than an Esselian wolf. He was also a sitting senator, who had managed to outwit the Justice Department at every turn.

Meddling showed us the data they’d collected on Templeton. The dead bodies piled up like confetti around the man, but he somehow always managed to retain his deniability. When people agreed to testify against him, they either changed their minds or they died.

Tragic housefires, accidental falls, remorseful suicides, mysterious poisonings, and vehicular malfunctions stacked up around him over the years. Either he was unluckier than a swarm of black cats and broken mirrors on a Friday the 13th, or he was a damned effective master criminal.

With the budget to payroll his criminal activity. Meddling showed us financial statements from various Union banks, and then a slew of documents from financial institutions outside the Union.

“Don’t ask how we acquired these,” he cautioned. “They’d never hold up in court, and it almost cost a man’s life getting our hands on them.”

I didn’t know if they were worth a man’s life, but they certainly painted an interesting story. According to his financial documents – his tax statements and Union bank records – Aldridge Templeton was a moderately wealthy man with a variety of legitimate business interests and investments.

According to these new documents, a client known as A.T. could have bought multiple Union worlds without significantly diminishing his holdings. What he paid in bank fees could have financed some Union worlds. But it would be money well spent, if he wanted to avoid troublesome questions.

Questions like, where did the money come from, and where did it go. Plus, funneling the profits from illegal ventures into external accounts meant evading taxes, in a quasi-legal fashion.

“This doesn’t prove Templeton is a criminal,” Ria said after going through the financial documents. “Lots of people have accounts outside the Union. If he’s earning the money out there through ventures based outside Union territory, legally, it’s untaxed income.”

“No. But all the dead bodies he’s amassed over the years paint an interesting picture, don’t you think?” Richards asked, contemptuously.

“My point is, none of it is proof conclusive.”

“Obviously. Or else he’d already be in prison. Our point is, it’s too many dead bodies, and too many secret accounts to be a coincidence.

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