I think we could all use a vacation, now that I can afford one. What do you all think?” Mr. Dester sat back in his chair, and lit a cigar. His 800-newdollar suit looked strange on a man I had last seen wearing dirty coveralls and sweating in a field under bright sunlight.
    I was sitting with the whole Dester family in a nice restaurant in Tarkin. Although I Destiny and I had already made our decisions to continue robbing banks, we would never hurt for money. Colony worlds inevitably produce some new millionaires, and I already had personal contacts with more than one. Destiny’s family would never be short on cash again, unless her father made some really stupid business mistake. There were enough minerals in the asteroid belt to last for many generations. Besides the Desters, I was the adopted son of Howard Wingate Bates, the governor of the planet. And through him, I had an indirect link to Michael Hubbard Cyr, since Harry had met with him several times.
    Most people would never figure Destiny and I to be criminals, living in a money-laden atmosphere like that. Sure, a lot of rich kids rebel against the ways of their parents, but not when they’ve been working out in the hot sun for ten years, and all of a sudden find themselves surrounded by money.
    Mrs. Dester was about to answer her husband when Destiny broke in, “That sounds like a great idea, Dad! Where do you want to go? I can get half-price spacefare for the whole family, and 25 percent off for Philipp, if you’ll let him come.”
    Mrs. Dester said, “We know a lot of people and things to do back on Sixxle. And it’s been ten years since we’ve seen it, dear.”
    Everyone looked expectantly at Mr. Dester, except me, because I was trying to act like I wasn’t interested, and Norman, who argued, “Dad, I don’t think I want to go back there. I don’t remember anybody there, and besides, it probably hasnt changed much since we left.”
    Norman’s older brother Jeffrey broke in, “Norman’s right. Sixxle is most likely just as we left it. We’re the ones who’ve changed. We’ve grown, experienced new things, and made a home and a business for ourselves. We’ve made new friends and new lives, on an open and free world. there’s nothing for me there.”
    The oldest of the four children, Allen, spoke up. “Well, Jeff, I agree with you, but Mom’s got a point too. If she wants to go there, let’s go. Remember, she spent her whole life there; the rest of us just happened along later.”
    Mrs. Dester said, “Honey, I think the kids are right. All the people I can think of that I’d want to see... well, they probably won’t understand us. We would be telling them our farming stories, about how we built our own house and mining business, and how there are less than a million people on this planet. We might find them unchanged — just a little older — while they would find us to be drastically different people than we were ten years ago.”
    Norman broke out with, “I want to go to Paradise! I’ve got a friend at school who’s from there. He says—”
    Jeffrey and Allen interrupted with the planets they thought would be cool to visit, and all three boys were talking at the same time.
    Mr. Dester held up his hand. “Hold on there, boys. there’s a difference between a family vacation and a sightseeing tour. I don’t know if I’ll feel up to traveling the whole time we’re gone; I’ve been working ninety hours a week for the last eight months, and I’m tired. I finally have an assistant that I trust to run things for three weeks or so, and I just want to sit by a pool somewhere on a planet with a low-radiation sun and enjoy the singing of the birds and such like. Destiny, you have all the brochures and information at work; why don’t you bring some home tomorrow, and we’ll look them over. And, yes, if Mr. Bates will give his permission, Philipp will be very welcome to come with us.”
    “Daddy”, Destiny said, pulling a paper brochure out of her purse, “I think I’ve found a place that we’ll all like.”
    “What? You mean someone already beat me to the idea? Where, dear?”
    The three boys were quiet now, looking at their sister. Mrs. Dester raised her eyebrows, still a little depressed after her thoughts of her home planet, but willing to listen to new ideas. I perked up, not having known that Destiny had already thought that far ahead. Of course, I should’ve known; she’s never been one to just go along for the ride. My girl is always on top of things. I knew that if and when we got married, she would be the one in charge. Of course, she’s never made my decisions for me, but she can usually present an idea in a way that I’ll agree to it.
    She winked at me, like I already knew about the planet she had selected, then opened the pamphlet. “They say that Paradise used to be a planet with a lot of beaches and nice hotels, and honest casinos, and beautiful sunsets and all that. But now it’s crowded with almost 200 million people — the second most populated planet that we know of, and there are factories all over the place, and everyone says the tourist spots have been overrun with corruption.
    “But there’s another planet that’s just like Paradise used to be, two or three hundred years ago. Justine is its name, in the Betelgeuse System. Humans first landed there in 2399, but the Kelvod people discovered it in 2301. The whole planet has a population of about 8 million Kelvods and less than 10 million humans, since the Commission has been hesitant to colonize worlds that are already occupied. There are nice hotels, beaches, pools, mountains, rivers, casinos, amusement parks, nature walks, sports centers, all kinds of stuff. And no taxes, since the Commission’s not directly involved.
    “And it’s a lot cheaper than going to Paradise. The Paradise tickets cost more for two reasons: one, the place is so popular and everyone goes there, so the prices are jacked up. Two, the ships have to make a double Jump to Paradise, since there are two suns of almost equal size, and the margin of hyperspace error increases drastically. Justine has just the one big sun, Betelgeuse, and they don’t advertise nearly as much as Paradise does. Besides, the galactic basketball championship is going to be there in a few weeks.”
    She looked around the table. “So, what do you think?”
    Allen looked thoughtful. “I’ve never seen a Kelvod in person. That might be neat.”
    Jeffrey snorted, “You’ve never seen a Granger or a Stranger either! What does that have to do with it? I want to see the games.”
    Norman defended Allen. “The Kelvods are the only race we know of that ever colonized another solar system without hyperspace or some kind of star drive. They launched out of Kelv in nuclear-powered rocket ships. Those people were in that ship for four hundred years before they found Justine.”
    “That’s not right, son”, Mr. Dester disagreed. “The Trayaks first colony ship had no star drive either. But that’s not the point. As long as it’s a good place to relax and kick back, it sounds good to me. What do you think, honey?”
    “What’s the gravity like?” was the only question Mrs. Dester asked.
    “Seventy-nine percent of Galactic Standard”, Destiny answered.

*

It was decided that the vacation would take place at the end of summer, right before Destiny, Norman and I started back to school, and it would last two and a half weeks. I found out from Destiny that since Justine was a fully self-sufficient planet, they imported nothing, and exported mostly tourism. So, there would be several wealthy banks there, where we could trade in the rest of our Colonial Credits, and maybe even start a few accounts.
    Since I was fifteen then, I got a work permit. The lady at the permit office was a little hesitant to give it to me; the under-age work permits are supposed to be for families with hardships, such as colonial farmers who arent quite getting along. I explained to her that I was bored, since school was out, and I didn’t have anything to do. Having a job might keep me out of trouble. I was about to call Harry, when she went ahead and gave me the permit, explaining that minimum wage was lower for underage kids. She said Persiphone’s new minimum wage was two newdollars per hour, but it was 1.5nd per hour for me. I told her that was okay; I just needed something to keep me busy.
    I got a job at Mike’s New & Improved Supermarket on Third Street, packaging groceries. Mike’s was the first store in Tarkin to offer the service of bagging groceries for customers, and he wanted it to go over right, hoping to bring in more business. After one of the other bag-boys had trained me in the fine art of putting a customers’ groceries in bags and taking them to the car, Mike himself had a talk with me, in his upstairs office.
    “Philipp, I’m curious. What do you need this job for?” He was puffing on a big cigar, homegrown.”
    I told him the same thing I’d told the lady at the permit office.
    He laughed. “That’s good enough, I guess. But I want you to know I won’t tolerate laziness. I know you’re the governor’s son and don’t really need the money. Usually, I like to hire people who really need the money, so they’ll stick around for a while and do good work. If I catch you standing around, you’ll be gone, okay? When you’re on my time clock, I expect you to pretend like you really need the money.”
    I never could pretend that I needed the money, but I did good work. By the end of the summer, Mike had given me a raise to two newdollars per hour, and I was learning how to build and fill the displays at the end of the long aisles. When I left the job to go on vacation with the Desters, he promised me I could come back to work, part-time, during the school year, if I wanted.
    Yes, I know some people — even Destiny — thought it was a little morbid for me to work at the same location where my parents had met their death. Maybe I felt I was closer to them that way, knowing that somewhere near the front of the store, a cleanup crew had wiped up my parents remains. Sometimes, I even fancied that a few of their molecules were hanging around the store, watching over me.

*

Most of the money that we were transferring cross-planet went into Destiny’s bags, although I carried about a million of it. It wouldn’t look right if I brought as many bags as a young woman — that’s one thing that’s never changed, I guess.
    We left both our stolen guns and the dart gun buried in waterproof bags in the mountains.
    New Planet Spacelines was a great way to go — the only way to go from Persiphone, since the other spacelines hadnt begun to move in yet. The ship was big, new, clean, and well equipped, which makes a difference. Even with hyperdrive, it takes a few days to get from one system to another, and it helps the morale of the passengers if they’re in a nice ship. We rode out of the Hollis System enjoying the company of the other young people on the trip and watching Persiphone shrink from a huge spherical sun to a tiny dot of light, just before we Jumped. Of course, I’d Jumped before, once on the Jeffries from Tuf to Blabrow, and once on the Skelton from Astropolis IV to Persiphone. But I had been only five years old then, and didn’t really remember it. I didn’t feel a thing when the spaceliner went through hyperspace, although some people on board said they got a little sick. I was up and eating a full meal a few minutes after the Jump.
    We watched Betelgeuse swell in the view screens, until we could see Justine. She was indeed a beautiful planet. There were two main continents, one populated mostly by Kelvods and the other predominately human. By a stroke of luck, the ship’s time (Galactic Standard) was almost the same as Justine’s main city, so there was no time-lag upon our arrival, like there had been when we departed from Tarkin.
    The age laws were very loose in Carmenghia — Justine’s largest city, as were quite a few other regulations. Anyone older than sixteen could go anywhere and do anything. Anyone under the age of sixteen had to be accompanied by someone — anyone — over that age. The law wasn’t strictly enforced, however. Any establishment that served liquor merely decided for themselves whether or not a certain patron was older than sixteen.
    Modesty laws were not what we were used to, since most colony planets are very conservative. At the spaceport, we immediately saw men wearing only minuscule shorts, and woman wearing the same, their upper bodies covered only in body-paint or colorful adhesive material.
    Mr. Dester did pretty much as he had said he would, and his wife joined him beside the hotel’s pool almost every day. It was the one place they could accept the lack of clothing. Allen, Jeff, Destiny, Norman and I took one tour to the Kelvod continent, New Kelvod. There a nice female Kelvod gave us a tour of some of the farming communities, and showed us the exact spot where the first Kelvod ship had landed. There was a memorial plaque there, as there were on most planets, commemorating the first touchdown. A perpetual hologram floating above the memorial sight depicted the first ship’s crew.
    Back on the human continent, we saw risqué movies, swam nude in the tame ocean, gambled at the casinos, ate at nice restaurants, and watched some of the basketball championship games. The two conference champions, one hailing from Maze and the other from Turner’s Planet, were duking it out in a nine-game series for the Galactic Championship.
    When Destiny’s three brothers all went to the final game, she and I sneaked off to downtown Carmenghia, to visit banks. We had decided to split our money into several different accounts, of slightly differing amounts. Feeling slightly foolish, I wore only a pair of shorts and comfortable, form-fitting slippers, while Destiny wore a thong and body-paint. At my insistence, she added coin-sized stickers to her nipples. Still, I couldn’t help drooling over her, and noticed that many other men gazed long at her supple form. These were tourists. The native humans didn’t seem to think anything about it.

*

How much?” The pretty girl behind the desk looked stupefied when Destiny had mentioned depositing half a million newdollars. She put a shocked hand to her painted chest.
    “Is that too much?” Destiny asked, while I looked around, acting bored.
    “Oh, no”, the girl replied. “Not at all. It’s just that, well, it’s not often we find people as young as yourselves with so much money. Where did you get all that?”
    “Are you new here?” was all Destiny said. “Can I speak to your manager?”
    “Well, there’s no reason to do that. I can handle the transaction. I was just curious.”
    Destiny looked at her and smiled. “I’m sorry, miss, I didn’t mean to be rude. Look, there are a lot of casinos around. A lot of wealthy people visit your city, I’m sure. I would just like to deposit my money in your bank, since there’s been some trouble in the Hollis System. I’m sure you’ve heard. We had two banks robbed recently, and I don’t feel comfortable putting my money in them.”
    “No I hadn’t heard”, the young woman replied. “But it makes a lot of sense. I think you’ll be happy with our bank, ma’am. We don’t ask for any identification when making deposits, and to withdraw, all you’ll need is the code word and number. Does that sound all right?”
    We repeated that scenario with only minor variations at eight different banks, depositing half a million or so newdollars in each one, cashing in our colonial credits for the more common currency. The only problems we ran into was deciding what to do with Destiny’s empty bags. At first, we were going to drop them in a dumpster, but we elected instead to buy new clothes with some of the money we had kept out for ourselves. We filled the bags with our new purchases. I thanked my lucky stars that Destiny’s parents weren’t snooping types.
    I spent the last two days at the Mirage Casino and Resort with Destiny, drinking a little, and gambling a lot. That’s when I decided never to gamble again, unless I left most of my money at home. I had started with a thousand newdollars, won eighteen thousand, and left with about ten. Not ten thousand, you understand, just ten.
    I used that ten to buy a box of new darts for our tranquilizer gun. I’m not against gambling on moral grounds. I think it’s a fun and relaxing way to throw away your money. But don’t count on getting rich. Don’t leave your wife and kids hungry while you spend the last of your life savings at a casino. For some people, it can become addictive and destroy their lives. I prefer to bet only on things where I have a reasonable chance of winning.
    At least when you bet on a ball game, there are only two possible winners. In a casino, your odds are much worse.

*

On the way back to Persiphone, in a different ship, Destiny and I met in one corner of the ship’s recreation room, and brought up a chessboard on the tables holographic surface. I knew just enough about the game to move the pieces correctly, so I was content to lose to her while we went over the code words and code numbers for our eight accounts. I found that it was easy to remember all the numbers and words, but the hard part was to associate the right word with the right number.
    As soon as I was sure we had it down, she shoved the paperwork into the trash chute, and moved her queen. “Checkmate.”

*

It was after the return Jump that we heard about the Sleebbs. The scout ship McRay had been following a pre-planned route from star to star, so it was fairly easy to retrace her path. The all-purpose cruiser Dragonius II had done so, finding the McRay’s remote beacon still pulsating in the outer reaches of the last system she visited, later to be called the Iakola System. There, Dragonius II fought a minor skirmish with an alien vessel, and returned to Nubase to report.
    For the entire trip into the Hollis System, all we saw on the screens were news reports and discussions about the incident. One officer in the Tuf Space Patrol said it was time for war, since a vessel of humankind had been unnecessarily provoked and had been forced to defend herself. A historian said he was anxious to study this new race, to see if we had finally discovered the race that had chased us off our planet of origin. A Trayak politician from New Earth scoffed at this in his strange rendition of Galactic Standard.
    “The human race has complaining been for almost 500 years that they chased away from Terra were”, he said. “First, accused my people they did, saying criminals were we. We them fought for 90 years, thinking they were the ones who attacked us had. After this misunderstanding, termed popularly ‘The War of the Deadly Misunderstanding’, was resolved, should we not now wait before conclusions we jump to? Why permit another race indignities to suffer, without first researching, and collection more information?”
    An official from the Colonial Commission cautioned all viewers not to get too excited. “This new system is a long way from here”, he said. “The crew of the McRay was in the business of cataloguing worlds for distant future use. Humans will not colonize many of the suitable planets found by the McRay and her sister scout ships for centuries or more. All of these star systems are hundreds of light years from the nearest human world. There is no cause for alarm.”
    I wasn’t too worried about the war that people said was coming. I knew, of course, that our militaries were mostly untested in real conflict, and that some race — possibly the Sleebbs — had devastated our race once before. We had only recently passed the 10 billion-mark, which was barely more than the amount of humans that had been alive before the Exodus from Terra. But, for some reason, that warlike race had not returned to our area of space. Some historians and military experts said it was because they had expended their entire fleet of warships when they attacked the first time. Besides, I knew that the human race had already survived that worst possible scenario, and I figured we would survive the next one.
    It seems like every so often a new problem arises, and weeds out a large portion of humanity. The Great Flood had come, according to Destiny’s Bible. Then the Ice Ages, according to science. A few centuries before humankind left Terra, there was a horrible plague that swept that world, killing millions. Composed of malaria, smallpox, yellow fever, the bubonic plague, influenza, Aids, and others, the Plague had devastated humankind, leaving scars on our history. Each time, thousands or millions died, leaving the human race smaller and more fit for the next struggle.
    It was similar to a computer game I played once, at an arcade in Tarkin. I had to play through the first levels, avoiding unknown pitfalls and enemies, while learning how to use the controls. If I survived that first level, I went on to the next, harder level. Each level allows the player to gain new weapons, supplies and skills that will help him in the next level.
    If a war with the Sleebb peoples was the next level for the human race, then I guessed we were ready. Many of us might die, and some of our cities might get destroyed, but we would live on, and make something better of ourselves.

*

That fall (2515 GS), I entered the 11th grade, and kept a part-time job at Mike’s Supermarket. Destiny kept her job with New Planet, and went back to school, taking Advanced Self-Defense and Fighting Tactics, along with several business classes, working toward her degree. Mr. Dester returned to the asteroid belt, just in time to take credit for a new lode of important minerals. Harry traveled from city to city, meeting with town leaders in Batesville, Helmston, Babcock, and the new town of Midway. He took me with him on one weekend trip to Basplace, the new home of the Cyr Corporations Headquarters.
    At Basplace, the professionalism and the symmetry of everything there impressed me. Every building was shaped differently, but they all fit the city plan perfectly. The farms were marked off in perfect squares, the grass trimmed very short, the guard fences brand new, very high, and walked constantly by very lethal-looking guards. While I was touring — under guard — Harry met with Michael Hubbard Cyr, who was easily the richest human alive.
    I was shown a luxury factory where the most expensive Cyr cars were built — the limousines, the armored cars, the government official transport vehicles (GOTVs).
    They say that the Cyr Corporation was begun by one man, a distant ancestor of Michael Hubbard Cyr. Legend (and some history) says that the same man who started the Cyr Corporation had once been heroic fighter pilot for the Federation Military Service, back during the Ninety-Year War, when we were fighting the Trayaks and Grangers.
    I was impressed by the richness of the place, and determined to someday rival Cyr in wealth.
    Over winter break, Destiny and I robbed the only bank in Helmston, and the tiny Savings & Loan in Babcock, the total from both banks netting less than 200,000nd. We wore masks, gloves, and used our dart gun very effectively.
    Harry set up a special police task force to investigate the continued bank robberies. Chief Donovan was asked to head up the task force, and rewards were offered to anyone who could help out significantly. Quite a few people came forward, giving their accounts of the robberies, but the stories were all so different that no conclusive evidence could be drawn from it all.
    In the spring of 2516, I turned sixteen, and was given another raise at Mike’s Supermarket. Destiny turned nineteen shortly thereafter, and stayed on with New Planet Spacelines. Jeff Dester sold the remaining half of his farm, and joined Allen and their father in the asteroid belt. Norman got a part-time job working in the Tarkin office for his dad’s company. He cleaned the bathroom, mopped the floors, emptied the trash, cleaned the parking lot, etc., but his father signed his paychecks, and as soon as he was eighteen, he planned on going into space.
    Mr. Dester’s company, along with four other brand new mining companies, began to plan a new space city in the asteroid belt, so the families of the mining crews could live nearby. Mr. Dester hired a well-known architectural firm from the older worlds to design the station. He said he wanted the design to be similar to that of Nubase, in Tuf orbit, since that city had been built for expansion. He didn’t want a space city that would soon become overcrowded and dirty, but rather one onto which new additions could be built. Nubase was comprised of a central sphere, with transport tubes running outward from it, linking it to expansion living spheres. New globular stations could in turn be added, in an outward-growing group of massive metal balls.

*

Married? Married? What have you been snorting?” Destiny looked at me across the table of our new favorite restaurant, Millicent’s Diner. “Don’t tell me you’re feeling guilty about what we’ve been doing?”
    “No! No, Destiny. I don’t think I’ve ever felt guilty about anything I’ve done, except hit that poor guard and his boss over the heads with that pipe. I just thought that’s what you might be thinking, and, well, I thought I would put it into words for you, now that I’m old enough.” I sipped from my dazzlewater.
    “Oh.” She grinned. “I was worried that you were saying we’ve got to get married, or it’s over. Since you put it that way, maybe I understand. We’ve been together for two whole years, except for that little Donovan thing—” we both grimaced “—and it’s all been great. I can’t imagine another guy being better for me than you, Philipp, even if you are a little dense sometimes.” She caressed my hand on the tabletop.
    “Ahh! True love!” We both jerked upright, only to find our waiter standing there, holding the check. “How wonderful”, he went on, “to see two young lovebirds making eyes at each other across the table of a romantic diner. So, which one of you gets the check?”
    I took the check, paid him, and waited while Destiny tipped him the full amount of the check, and then watched him walk away. This big-tipping policy was making us quite popular at some of the restaurants and theaters around town, although we didn’t go out a whole lot. When we did walk in, though, we got quick and friendly service from the staff. It’s amazing how much better waiters will treat their patrons, if they’re being paid well for it.
    Destiny returned to our subject of conversation. “Philipp, if you want to get married, then wait until I’m done with college, and you’ve turned eighteen. At that point, if you still think that’s the right thing to do, I’ll do it. And I’ll stay with you until we die. I just think it’s unnecessary; I know you love me, and you know I love you. I mean, I’ve never even seen you look at another girl. We’ve been together since you were a skinny orphan and I was still developing breasts.”
    “And develop is certainly what you’ve done, girlfriend.”
    She ran a hand slowly down the curved front of her blouse, and winked at me. “I’m not the only one, Philipp. Look at you. It’s too bad they don’t have rugby on Persiphone yet. Or football. You’d be great. I’ll always feel safe with your strong arms around me.”
    That reminded me of something she had been nagging me about. “Speaking of my strong arms, you keep saying I need to take that fighting class you’re in. Do you really think I need to?”
    “Yes. Philipp, almost everyone in the class is female, but I’ll bet every single one could take you down before you landed a punch.”
    “Why would I want to punch a girl?”
    “That’s beside the point, Philipp. Remember what Billy did to me?” I saw the fire in her eyes, and nodded. “It can never happen again, Philipp. I’m ready now. In a hand-to-hand fight, I can lick just about everyone I know, except my teacher, and maybe one other girl in my class. But if someone of your size and strength knew what I know, you’d be indestructible. Just think about it.”
    “You really think anyone of those girls could take me down?”
    “You wanna try?”

*

I lay on my face, gasping, about ten feet from Lt. Col. (ret.) Jason Quivers. Rolling over onto my back, I looked up at him. “That’s pretty neat. Show me again.”
    “Are you sure, Phil?” The soft-spoken Quivers gave me a hand, pulling me to my feet. “That didn’t hurt?”
    “It hurt, sir. My father used to say, ‘no pain, no gain’. I reckon I’ve found that to be true. If it doesn’t hurt a little, then I havent learned anything.” I swung at him again, this time feinting first with one hand, then power-driving with the other. When I regained my equilibrium, I noticed that I was lying on my face, gasping, about ten feet from Quivers.
    “Okay. I’ll sign up.”

*

School ended soon after that interview and I went back to full-time at Mike’s, mostly in the afternoons and evenings, so I could take the summer classes taught by Colonel Quivers. Destiny took the classes with me, as did about ten other girls, all of them repeat students.
    Quivers told us stories about his time as an infantryman in the Yurple Militia, and later when he was an instructor. He told us stories about bars, and nightclubs, and dark allies, and all kinds of improbable situations. But the stories began to sound increasingly true as the class went on.
    I sparred with Destiny (both of us wearing pads and helmets). I sparred with the other girls, and with Quivers. I spent more time on the floor and nursing my wounds than anyone.
    And Quivers claimed to be going easy on me.
    I remember the first time I actually landed a punch on him. There was the loud thump of my fist slamming into his head, and a sharp gasp from the girls in the room. Colonel Quivers rolled backward and landed on his feet, facing me, with his guard up.
    “All right”, he said, without even breathing heavily, “I guess it’s time to get tough on you.” And he did. It was another three weeks before I hit him again. That time he was out cold. From then on, I never hit him again. It wasn’t because I didn’t try to; he never let me. I fell more times in the remaining two weeks of summer than I had in the whole time I was learning to walk as an infant. I landed on my rump, on my head, on my back, on my chest, on chairs, on other people. And I started to learn how to fall as Quivers did, rolling back to my feet.
    After that time I knocked him out cold, he wouldn’t let me spar with the girls anymore, although Destiny and I would sometimes play at it in our spare time. Usually, we just practiced holds and throws, but every now and then we really got into it. One time, she landed a nice shiner on me, and I fell to my back, feeling for blood or broken bones. She landed on top of me, kissing my face, and holding me.
    “Oh, Philipp! I’m so sorry. Here, move your hands, baby, let me kiss it.” I think the best sparring partner is the one who will kiss it and make it better after they’ve given it to you good. Especially if that partner is Destiny.
    On the last day of class, Quivers pulled me to one side, and spoke in a low voice. “Philipp, I’ve enjoyed working with you this summer. You’ve shown me that I need to brush up on a few things, and that I’m starting to get old. In this business, youth and speed will eventually overcome age and experience, especially when the youth is quickly gaining experience.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “I know you’ve got to finish up high school, and all that, but I hope you’ll try to find some time to work with me in the evenings. I see a lot of potential in you, and I haven’t had enough time to give you very much personal instruction in just this one summer.”
    He waved his hand around the room. “In just three months’ time, you’ve absorbed more punishment than these girls could possibly take. When you started, anyone of them could take you down at any time, but now the situation’s been reversed with most of them. How would you like to learn some more martial arts? Like Aikido, karate, tae kwondo, and such like. This judo stuff will keep you safe on the street, from muggers and so on. But I can teach you a lot of offensive things that may really come in handy, as long as you don’t get careless.”
    “I think I’d like that, sir.”
    He gave me his personal phone number, and told me to call him any evening during the school year, and he would meet me for personal instruction, free of charge. I got the feeling that while he had become quite popular on the campus, he was a little lonely, and was looking for a male friend. I thanked him, and entered one last sparring session with him. The girls gathered around, and watched him throw me around for a while. When we finally ended in a stalemate, they all applauded, and Destiny kissed me full on the mouth once I got untangled from Colonel Quivers.

*

All of a sudden, I was preparing to enter my last year of high school. Mike (my boss) gave all his high school kids that last weekend off, as a special favor, and I did what I do best. Destiny and I robbed another bank. Our sixth, if you count that reaching-over-the-counter thing when I was thirteen. This time, we did it in Tarkin, in broad daylight.
    The weekend before, Destiny had dyed her hair black, colored her eyes brown and worn very nondescript clothes. She had taken the public bus to Batesville — they were running two or three times every weekend then — and shopped for a used car. She had paid cash for a 20-year old Cyr farm truck, and then driven around to various hardware stores, buying a box of ammo at each, and a few boxes of tranquilizer darts.
    For her trouble, I had promised her 60 percent on our next take. She frowned at the suggestion. “Philipp, we haven’t really kept track of how much money is mine, and how much is yours, have we?”
    “Well, we’ve always counted and divided after each take, baby.”
    “Right, but we’ve always put the money in the same place, and we both have all the account information on Justine, right?”
    “Yeah...” I wasn’t sure where she was going with it. Maybe I was a little dense. “And we’re planning on spending our lives together, right? I mean, the last time we talked, you were saying something about a big farm on a new planet...”
    “Yeah.”
    “So don’t worry about the percentages, and who gets what. It’s all ours, okay?”
    “Okay. Sorry, baby, I wasn’t thinking.”
    “Just be sure you start thinking when we’re in the middle of the action.”

*

We hit the biggest bank in Tarkin, at high noon on Saturday. Four armed guards, eight cameras, a lobby full of customers, and a lot of money. Just around the corner, out of sight of the street, we put on our gloves and masks, and loaded our guns. Destiny carried her little dart gun, and I had the two Jenkins & Wesson .45 automatics stuffed in my belt. Four loaded clips filled my back pockets, for a total of 90 bullets, if you count the ones already in the guns.
    ‘Let’s go”, I said.
    We came around the corner, and hurried to the front door. Coming in, I pulled out my two guns and hollered, “Everybody, GET DOWN! This is a robbery!”
    Some of the customers started dropping to the floor, while employees and guards went wild. Destiny started dropping them like flies with her dart gun. I fired two shots into the ceiling, to let everyone know that darts weren’t the only things flying through the air.
    That’s the only thing that saved us. One guard had his gun in his hand, but once he realized that I was willing to fire, he dropped it. Destiny started taping up the downed guards and some of the employees while I had one of the female customers put all of the guards’ guns into a canvas bag.
    When she was done, I handed the bag to Destiny and pointed my big guns at one of the tellers. “Where’s the manager!” She promptly fainted.
    Another teller pointed to the rest rooms. I almost gave up. I could just picture the manager sitting on the pot, calling the police on his personal phone. I handed one of the real guns to Destiny, saying, “Sandy, I’m going in. Watch the door.”
    She nodded, her new red hair dangling purposefully out from under the back of her mask. As I headed for the restroom, I heard her ordering the same customer I had used with the guns to start taping up all of the male customers and employees. I stepped into the rest room.
    Just as I had feared, the manager was standing there holding his phone, talking quietly. I raised my gun to his head; he dropped the phone. I pointed the gun down and shot the phone, splintering it into hundreds of tiny plastic pieces. “Get out there and open that vault, before your face starts to look like that phone.”
    He got. Destiny kept her lady servant busy taping up all the customers, shouting, “Tighter! If you can’t get it any tighter than that, and he gets out, I’m going to have to shoot him! You don’t want that, do you? Then tape him tighter!”
    I took the manager to the vault, which he opened quickly. I held the gun to his head while he dumped stacks of bills into bags I handed him.
    I followed him out into the lobby, letting him carry the four bags. Then I heard the sirens. “Sandy! Lets get out of here!”
    She peeked out the door. “Oh my god, Karl! they’re coming!”
    The manager picked that moment to drop the bags. “Pick them up, scum!” I pressed the barrel of my gun into his temple, and grabbed him by the throat with my other hand, still standing behind him. “Walk!” I used the bulk of my body to push him toward the door. Destiny took my cue, and grabbed her woman servant — the only other person left untaped — and got behind her.
    When I stepped out of the door, police cars were whizzing to a stop in front of the bank.
    I took the gun away from the manager’s temple and fired in the general direction of the cars, heading toward the corner, walking backward, pulling my hostage in front of me. Destiny pulled her hostage along in the same fashion.
    The police were pulling their weapons, and shouting. I heard Chief Donovan’s voice over them all, “Hold your fire! Watch the hostages!” He was drawing his own weapon.
    I fired several more shots in their general direction, not aiming at any of them, and Destiny did the same. I heard our slugs hitting their cars, and ricocheting wildly. I whispered loudly into my hostage’s ear, “Stay with me, and don’t drop those bags, or you’re going to get it.”
    Donovan yelled through his megaphone, “Don’t go any further! If you lay down your weapons now, and let the hostages go, it’ll go easier on you in court! Don’t try to fight this out. You’re surrounded!”
    I didn’t hear any sirens behind me, but I looked anyway. It was a good thing I did, because two cops were coming up the alley down which I intended to go. I fired three shots in their direction, and then my slide locked open. I dropped the empty clip, and whipped another one in before my hostage could escape. But the two cops had taken cover. I turned the corner and flattened my back against the wall, keeping the bank manager in front of me. I heard Destiny firing shots toward the police as she made her way toward the corner. I was trying to count her shots, knowing that I was carrying all the spare clips.
    I could see the barrel of a gun protruding over an air conditioning unit in the alley, where one of the cops had taken cover. Then I saw the blood. And the other cop lying in the alley. I fired blindly at the air conditioner, until it suddenly exploded, throwing the man behind it into the wall, and tumbling him onto the ground. I threw the bank manager to the ground and grabbed the bags, stuffing all four handles into my left hand. “Stay down!” I shouted to him, and fired up the alley toward the cops in the street.
    Destiny came around the corner, literally dragging her hostage with her; I noticed that the slide on her gun was open. As she drew near, I slid an extra clip into her gun. She pressed the slide release switch, and resumed firing. Police officers were moving into position at the corner we had just come around.
    When we got to the next corner, at the back of the bank, she let her hostage go, and we ran for it, occasionally firing behind us. We turned several corners, ran across another main boulevard, and down another alley. It seemed that the city was full of sirens, and we could hear the cops on foot behind us.
    As we went around the last corner, where the getaway car was, I whispered, “Stick with the plan!” and stayed at the corner, keeping our tails at bay. Bits of brick were chipping away above my head as they returned my fire. Destiny ran to the car, set the controls, and hopped into the dumpster next to it, keeping the door held open.
    I fired two last shots toward the cops, and sprinted toward the dumpster. Just before I hopped in, I vaguely noticed the new car we had bought take off down the street, running on automatic pilot. I slid into the dumpster, pulling the moneybags behind me. Destiny let the lid come down.
    We sat there in the trash bin, ignoring the stench, trying not to breathe too loudly, and listening to the cops run around the corner firing at the rear of our car. They ran on down the street, shouting loudly into their police radios, and soon we heard sirens go by. It got really quiet on our alley, and really started to stink inside the dumpster.
    Destiny dug around in the dark, and found the airtight bag she had stashed there earlier. We pulled out two water bottles and two sandwiches, and commenced eating in silence. I kept watch through a couple of holes in the dumpsters sides, and we stayed there until dark. We ate another sandwich each, still in silence, and still wearing our gloves. We made sure all the trash from our sandwiches and drinks were tucked deep under the rest of the putrid refuge, then got out.
    There was no sign of the police. We guessed that they had found the empty car by now, and knew that we weren’t in it. But they would have no way of knowing that we were never in it. Surely, they would assume that we had jumped out along the way. Destiny hadn’t given her real name to the man from whom she had bought the car, and she hadn’t taken the trouble of getting the title changed over, or buying insurance. There was no trail leading it to us.
    Two streets over, we found her personal car where she’d left it, got in, and drove into the country. On a deserted riverbank, we burned the clothes we had worn during the robbery, along with the masks, the gloves, and the moneybags, after we transferred the money into new bags. I helped Destiny wash the temporary red dye out of her hair, and re-dye it as close to her natural color as we could. We tended the fire until I was sure that nothing remained. The ashes, I dropped into the stream, and then I washed my hands. We put the new moneybags in her car, just behind the seats, under a few sweaters, and went home.

*

I started the 12th grade two days later. Destiny started her third year of college a few days after that, still working for New Planet. I stayed on at Mike’s, working about fifteen hours a week. It was my first day back at school when I heard that Police Chief William Donovan had been killed in a shoot-out after a bank robbery in Tarkin. I kept my composure while in school, and then cried later, in my bedroom in the governor’s mansion. Destiny came over and consoled me, in the way that only a woman can console a man.
    I wasn’t crying for Chief Donovan. I figured any man that could spawn and raise a rapist son wasn’t worth much. I was crying for myself. I had killed a man. I hadnt intended to, either. I had only been shooting in the general direction of the police cars, trying to ensure our escape. I could see my dad, in my mind’s eye, shaking his head sadly.

*

That take was just over 4 million newdollars, the most we took for a long time to come. In fact, it was the most we could possibly take, unless we started taking bigger bills, or carrying more bags, or taking someone else into our confidence. Later in my criminal career, I had some other career criminals tell me that two people is one too many. I’ve had others say that a crew of four would have been better for some of our jobs: more guns and more arms. I think two is the perfect number; one alone leaves no one to watch your back. Extra people means extra leaks and more things that can go wrong. It also means smaller shares of the money.

Back to Table of Contents   Move on to Chapter 6