Denise paid for them and they left. As they left Pogo came up to her.

"The price of protection is very high here."

Denise nodded.

Huntly said,

"We have to get to Captain Beighur. He is at the Union of Sol Embassy on deck 199."

"Well, let's go and talk to him," said Linda.

"We can not go up to deck 199 without an invitation. The elevator checks everyone's bioelectric scan and if it does not have authorization for you some concord marines come and escort you off."

"Well, let's call him", said Linda.

"I have been trying for two days. He will not return my calls." Denise pushed her way out of the group and towards a vid-com. She said,

"He better be available for me."

The computer connected Denise to the Union of Sol Embassy. A receptionist answered and said Captain Beighur is in a meeting and cannot be disturbed. She leaves a message to have him call her at the Pacific Plaza Hotel. Then the group decided to go to the plaza and look around. They wandered from store to store. Linda noticed a flower shop and said,

"Oh, I love flowers! I have a huge garden back home. I would love to go and see what kind of flowers they have out here in the Verge." The walked in and Linda at once started to look at all the varieties they had. Linda was talking to a young woman about the different flowers when Aleerin came to Denise and grabbed her hand. Denise looked down at Aleerin and said,

"What is wrong? Don't you like flowers?" She could now see the fear in his eyes. Denise followed his gaze to two men in the back of the shop. She crouched down beside him.

"Do you know those men?"

He nodded his head yes and said quietly,

"Statement: Bad/evil men from down/below on planet. Saw/viewed them at party/social gathering at Silver Comet."

Denise looked at the two men and noticed they were both in delivery uniforms. She motioned for Pogo. When he came to them Denise said,

"Please take Aleerin outside. There might be some trouble." Denise moved and watched the two men as they watched Aleerin walk out of the shop., They made their way to the back door in a big hurry and Denise followed quickly behind them.

The two men made their way around the building to where they could see Pogo and Aleerin. The two men just watched for a couple of minutes while Denise moved as close as she felt she could without alerting the two. As she got into position the two men both pulled out guns. Denise did not wait to see who they were going to shoot. She moved and fired at the closest one. The blast of compressed air hit the man right between the shoulder blades. It knocked him flat on the ground and she watched his head bounce on the side walk. She kept moving and had her gun up to the back of his head. She said,

"You're friend is not dead, but if I shoot you at this distance," she pushed the muzzle into his neck before continuing,

"Now tell me who the target was." The man squirmed to get away from her, so she pushed the gun deeper into the neck and the man stopped. She asked the question again and this time the man answered,

"We need the boy back. The Syndicate has put a ten thousand dollar bounty on his head."

"Why is he worth so much to them?"

"I don't know." Denise continued to push the gun into his neck and said,

"Wrong answer."

"No, no, wait! I did hear something. Supposedly the boy is the only one who can get it to work. They cannot find another Mechalus to try it so they need the boy back."

Denise then hit him in the base of his neck, knocking him unconscious.

She then walked out of the alley to Pogo and Aleerin. At this point the rest of the group came out of the flower shop with Linda talking a minute about the different flowers. Connor was politely listening and the rest were just wandering around. Denise waved to them that they were leaving. Pogo walked up beside her and said,

"I am glad you got there on time. We must get the boy to safety." Denise smiled and they walked back to the hotel. They walked in and the Assistant Manager came over at once,

"There is a Captain Beighur waiting for her. He has been most insistent that he be told as soon as you arrive." Denise looked at Huntly and smiled. Then she turned back to the Assistant Manager and said,

"Where is he?"

"He is in the lounge. He wanted to wait in your rooms but I told him that was not possible."

"Yes. Thank you. I will take care of it." She then turned to the group.

"Pogo, you take Aleerin upstairs and keep him safe. Yalp, you and Huntly come with me to see the good Captain." The rest of the group looked even more confused.

Denise, Yalp and Huntly walked into the lounge and found Captain Beighur sitting at a table. They walked over and before they could even sit down he said,

"Where the heck have you been?"

Denise sat down, signaled for the waitress, ordered a drink then nodded for Yalp and Huntly to order. When the waitress was gone she turned to Captain Beighur.

"We went shopping. There is a lovely flower shop here." Beighur's face went red and he was about to explode. Then he took a couple of deep breaths, then said,

"Well, that's nice, but could you tell me about your scouting party on Penates?"

"Yes, but before we get into that we need a safe place to stay. I did not know it until a few minutes ago. We now have the key to the Worm Hole Generator. We liberated a young Mechalus. The two Syndicate thugs who just tried to steal him back told me Aleerin is the key to the whole thing. So we need to get some place where the Syndicate can't get at us."

Yalp turned to Denise and said,

"What thugs? And how come none of us knew about this?"

"It was sort of a rush thing. I thought it best to get back here,"

Beighur interrupted by saying,

"OK, I can take you to the Embassy then we can got to the Administrator. His name is Kyle Wakefield. I will set up an appointment for tomorrow morning once I knew you were here." Their drinks showed up and Huntly proposed a toast.

"To kicking some Syndicate butt!"

They clinked their glasses together and drank deeply.