Friday. 11:40 Grissom Building, Conference Room 4A

“Door is locked, room is in quiet mode and the line is encrypted.” John said.

“John, my team is wondering where about the roughly nine billion credits are. They can’t determine why it’s not accounted for.”

“That’s… Weird…” John shrugged as he let the words hang.

Director LeCroix pinched the bridge of his nose. John’s habit of kleptomania didn’t just push the boundaries but pissed all over them. This was the most egregious case he had seen John commit by a significant margin.

“Need I remind you who you’re dealing with?”

“Nah, let’s say they put two and two together and accuse me. What’s stopping me from really going after them again except it targets their personal accounts and investments? They move against me again and I’d actually bankrupt them the next time.”

“That isn’t the point. This wasn’t to enrich you.”

“I do believe I was owed a proper apology for their stupid stunt in the spring. And here they were planning another attack on me this fall. I certainly feel like I was owed this penalty and this group needs to be put in its place.”

“John, this is the last time you get away with a stunt like this.” Director LeCroix was shaking his head.

“I’ll include it in the details next time.”

LeCroix just sighed. “The group is in utter chaos. They haven’t been able to track where the money has been sent yet. Their attempts at tracking the money have stalled out. The money being deposited in other accounts was a nice touch, everyone is blaming one another for what’s happened. We are however seeing new messages from upper leadership that strongly suspects we were involved; your name has also been dropped as a possible accomplice.”

“Well let’s face facts, there aren’t many people that have the resources to pull a stunt like this. The rank and file in their group won’t be up to speed with those at higher levels and will do plenty of damage for us. Plus, they can’t file fraud claims with their banks either. There’s no way to substantiate any fraud since our transfer requests look official. Almost all of that money was kept on the downlow. It’d be way too damn risky to take that up in an official stance.”

“I’ll let you know if we need anything else but consider this a job done. Can’t say well done because of this skimming nonsense.”

“Have a good one Director. Knowing these asshats, it’ll be sooner than later.” John ended the call.

John smiled as he left the room. What he wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall of any of the admirals or captains they had targeted. The amount of panic and blaming one another would be epic to witness. The best part about the whole mess was the amount of money he fleeced from all of them. And while it was likely they’d eventually finger Intelligence and himself, it also showed what they would do if this group continued to push his buttons.

12:00 Cafeteria

“You have no idea how glad I am that it’s Friday.” Andern smiled as he sat down.

“Only four more classes to go.” Kevin took a bite of his sandwich.

“I have thirty minutes of work to get our big group project done then I can submit it. Going to take care of that before I join in on cornhole this afternoon.” John had already finished his sandwich. “Hey, think they’d freak out if we get a pool table moved into that lounge?”

“You can do that?” Kristin asked.

“John can find a way to do damn near anything. The problem is he never asks himself whether or not he should do that.” Jessica shook her head.

“The answer is no. Obviously.” Alice elbowed him in the ribs lightly.

“Hey, topic change. When you two getting married?” Thomas asked.

“Thomas, that is an excellent question. John, would you care to answer.” Alice smirked as she deflected the question to John.

“Well dates haven’t really been discussed besides within like three years. So sometime between tomorrow and three years from now.”

“So, you haven’t actually picked a date yet?” Nathan had to get involved in this conversation.

“Correct. As you all know twelve-to-sixteen-hour days don’t make for much free time to figure stuff out like that. Though we haven’t had a conversation about it at all. So, there’s that too.” John just shrugged.

“We are probably going to discuss wedding plans over Thanksgiving and probably more over Christmas break.” Alice smiled.

“Who’s your best man?” Andern asked.

“Did you not hear the ‘we have no plans’ I just said seconds ago?” John shook his head.

“And there ends this topic today. Thanks, Andern.” Kevin laughed.

The group laughed and started to pick on Andern. They were talking about the game that was happening tomorrow. John and Andern both were not feeling comfortable with their opponent. John was admittedly way too excited about the tailgating food. There were several regulars that bring all forms of BBQ.

The discussion then veered into BBQ. John was absolutely addicted to smoked meats. It was the best way to cook the food. Alice didn’t mind it but didn’t want to eat it every single day. The rest of the boys were generally siding with John.

“I’m just saying the ultimate sandwich they made last year was amazing.” John said.

“Agreed.” Kevin, Thomas, Nathan and Andern all said in unison.

“No, nothing about that sounds good.” Jessica countered.

“It’s on a ciabatta bun, has cheese, brisket, pulled pork, and chicken on it. It’s like the ultimate BBQ sandwich.” John was having no luck in converting the girls to the goodness that is BBQ.

“Ugh, I’d say I’d hear you getting fatter for eating a sandwich like that, but you don’t get fat.” Alice shook her head.

“My superior metabolism is quite awesome.” John smiled and got up. “Well, time for class. Cya in four hours.”

The girls just rolled their eyes at him. The boys laughed and were all as excited to get that sandwich in the morning. But everyone was looking forward to what was happening in four hours.

“I have no idea how I fell in love with, well that.” Alice laughed and was pointing at John.

The girls laughed and then whispered things. John didn’t know if he had wanted to hear any of that, but it sounded like he was being made fun of somehow. He just shrugged it off and headed off to his Differential Equations class.

18:00 Lounge

“Dinner was tasty, and our group project has already been graded. Fuck yeah.” John was playing Thomas in a game of cornhole.

“I still can’t believe no one has said we can’t do this down here. Like they are freaks about conformity except for cornhole.” Kevin laughed as he was trying to find something good on TV.

John had a puzzled look on his face and stopped the game. “Wait, don’t we have Monday off?”

In their haste the group forgot about Labor Day. Heads were looking back and forth at one another. Everyone was thinking that was a stupid question but stopped before saying that because he may have been right. Kristin broke the confused silence by looking at the calendar.

“Yeah, we’re off Monday. How did we forget about this?”

“I blame school in general.” John said as he airmailed another shot.

“Ok look dickhead, you haven’t missed a single airmail all game. How the hell.” Thomas was getting irritated at John’s accuracy.

“So, his accuracy with guns has transitioned over to cornhole. Your list of skills and talents is as diverse as it is terrifying.” Jessica laughed.

“Go back ten feet. I bet you don’t airmail this round.” Thomas was pointing at John.

“Oh, it’s a bet now. What’s on the table?” John absolute lived for competitive bullshit like this.

“I’ll get the alcohol for fall… Nope, nope and nope. That would make me broke. Let’s go out for lunch on Monday, you and Alice’s lunch is on me.”

“Done.” John smiled, then annoyed Thomas by airmailing four shots in a row.

John looked at Alice, she was giving him a dirty look. ‘There was no cheating involved, don’t give me that.’

Alice laughed first, though not at what had happened. The rest of the group started to laugh at Thomas. Thomas demanded he throw from another ten feet back. John had two airmails and another two that sild into the hole.

“Rule number one is never bet against John doing anything.” Theresa said laughing. “That was a stupid human trick, Thomas.”

“FUCK!” Thomas shouted. “Well, a bet is a bet. Where are we going for lunch on Monday?”

Brian walked in halfway through that madness and was caught up by the group. He was laughing at his boyfriend freaking out over cornhole.

“Your idea, your call.” John said.

“Alright I’ll figure something out.” Thomas shook his head.

“Ok, we’re tapping you both out.” Nathan and Kristin got up and wanted to play.

John sat down next to Alice. He gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“You even corrupted Kristin with this stupid game.” Alice was grinning.

“Yeah, but it’s fun right?”

The group laughed. Alice wasn’t far off. Cornhole was on the TV for the better part of six month before anyone played it. But it wasn’t just the group of friends. The whole damn platoon is hooked on the activity.

An administrative junior officer walked into the lounge. “Cadet Leif, call for you.”

“Roger.” John smiled inside; he knew what was coming.

John followed the officer down the hallway to the office, when they entered, the officer said. “The call is in the first conference room.”

“Thanks.” John pulled out his tablet and activated the secure room feature.

It disabled all recordings of the call on his side. Once the call would start it’d disable it on the receivers end too.

“Good evening cadet. Do you know who I am?” A gravelly sounding voice spoke.

“Third Fleet Admiral Uriel Petrov. Don’t suppose I get a prize for that, or do I?” John grinned

“No, you don’t. Your tone is disrespectful, you’d best change that when talking to me. I’m aware of what you and your friends and Intelligence did. You will help us get the money back.”

John looked down and saw his tablet had given him the green light. This call was now being encrypted and the recording on the admiral’s side was shut down without his notice.

“Well let’s just level set everything. This call isn’t being recorded on your end.” John held up his tablet which showed the video feed from the hallway outside the admiral’s office. “The lieutenant outside your office that is waiving his hands trying to get your attention. You can read the message now if you want. By the way, I’ll be controlling the outgoing coms to your office and that door isn’t working again until I say so.”

The look of surprise on the admiral’s face was something John was going to relish for a long time.

“My tone will remain until you and your ilk call off your attacks against me. You disrespect your station by attempting to ruin a cadet’s career and life for the horrific offense of wanting a career.”

“You dare lecture me?”

“Yeah. You failed to kill my career in the spring. And you clearly didn’t learn any lessons from that. Only twenty-eight careers ended with one being put to death. Y’all are poking the bear again and it’s getting really fucking agitated.”

The admiral was clearly not used to being talked to in such a disrespectful way. “I will do everything in my power to destroy you.”

“Yeah, been doing an excellent job of that. Really, I mean that. Bravo.” John mockingly clapped at the admiral. “You can dispense with the theatrics and this pathetic attempt at posturing. You’re not scaring me at all. These attempts at threatening me will only produce more actions taken against your group.”

John smiled and leaned back in the chair. “But I’m sure your busy dealing with some bullshit you’d rather not deal with and honestly I have better things to do then get yelled at by an impotent bitch that believes they are in control of this situation.”

“Where is our money?”

John smiled. “I’d imagine not in your accounts if you’re asking me. It’s probably been transferred all over confederate banks and holding companies. Some of it would likely be out of circulation.”

“You will return what is rightly ours this instant you low born cur.” The admiral slammed his hands down onto the desks.

“Not with that kind of attitude. You can fuck off if that’s how you’re going to handle this negotiation.” John looked at his tablet.

The admiral took a deep breath and leaned his chin on his hands. “So, what is it going to take to make things right?”

“Well, y’all lost one percent of your money, that ain’t coming back. Under a few additional conditions the remaining amount could be returned to you. First, no action is to be taken against Commander Terry Robertson in your fleet. I know you’ve begun looking at impacting his career. Look at him in any way that was different than you looked at him earlier this week and there will be problems. That applies to his brothers as well.”

The admiral was about to say something. John put a finger up to shush him.

“Two, any attempts to even remotely come after Alice Robertson will be met with extreme violence. You have no idea what I’m truly capable of. I will be worse than the most vicious monster any of you can imagine. Thirdly you will continue to work with Global Electronics as you have before. Fourth, any attempts at retaliating against Intelligence will result in larger penalties. Finally, you lot give up on this personal vendetta against me. These are non-negotiable. Do you accept these terms?”

“No, I do not.”

“Well, in that case you can politely fuck off then.” John ended the call.

He took a deep breath. An inbound call came in almost immediately. John waited a moment before accepting it.

“Going to change your negotiating stance sir?” John smiled as he said that.

“Yes.”

“Good. Understand that any attempts at duplicity here will result in your whole damn group being exposed for the pathetic bastards you are. Are we clear?”

“Cadet, one day you’ll overreach.”

“Oh, that is one thing we can agree on. But not today. You on the other hand have already done that twice now and both times it’s been related to me. If I were you, I’d learn that lesson fast. And admiral, if you push me again, the kid gloves are coming off. The money will be in y’all’s accounts in twenty-four hours. Oh, don’t move that money. If I see a mass exodus to credit chits, the IRS is going to find out about all of this bullshit.” John looked at his tablet and activated the undo action with the VI, it had already started to replicate and began replacing the funds. “Admiral, now this is where I go on with my evening and you can kindly fuck off for good.”

John was flicking off the hologram as he ended the call. Another call came in.

“Hey Director LeCroix.”

“Was it wise to antagonize him?”

“It worked, didn’t it?” John chuckled. “This lot has never been challenged on a single god damned thing in decades. It’s pathetic.”

“The analysts that were listening in were laughing at the faces he made. I presume you started the replacement program.”

“Yup, should be done by tomorrow morning. Oh, I also sent you a load of new accounts that I found from these assholes.”

“I see that. Thank you.”

“Well, it’s Friday and it’s a three-day weekend so I want to get back to my friends. Always a pleasure sir.”

“Likewise. We will let you know if they start something anything else. At a bare minimum this should drive them back.”

John ended the call. He walked out of the room and thanked the officer that was working there. He headed back to the lounger.

“Why are you so damned happy?” Thomas asked.

“Got to tell some presumed big shot to fuck off. It’s always fun to do that.” John smiled as he sat down.

“It’s the little things in life, isn’t it?” Brian said.

“See, he fits right in with this motley bunch.” John said laughing.

The group laughed and continued relaxing. Cornhole was played until midnight when curfew was call. No one wanted to part ways, but it was time to head to their rooms and get some sleep. They could meet up in the morning and continue with unwinding. Everyone was looking forward to going to the game.

John held the door open for Alice as they walked toward their dorm room. “So, you going to tell me what all that was about.”

“The core fleets were readying another salvo at me. Intelligence caught wind of it and decided to strike first. And strike we did.”

“Let’s cut the details short, I’m not sure I need to get rolled up into your felonious proclivity.” Alice smirked.

“You know, you just called your fiancé, a man you claim to love, a felon.” John smiled back.

“Yes, yes I did.”

John held the door open for Alice. “So, what does that make you?”

Alice turned around and kissed John then said. “I must be a lovestruck fool.”

The couple laughed and went up to their room. When they entered their room whatever energy they thought they had was gone and they were dead tired. They crawled into bed to get some well needed sleep. The first week of the new semester was a busy one, and a sign of things to come.