The Commander Read Online Free PDF Page B

Earth’s Planetary Defense Force. His mission is to develop space travel for your people, establish ties with potential allies in this part of the galaxy, build a suitable force to meet the alien invasion, and then engage and defeat that enemy.”
    “Cool.” Annie looked at Luke expectantly. “So, what’s next?”
    Luke was astounded by her unruffled acceptance of the situation. Was it the naïveté of youth or an incredibly adaptable mind? It didn’t matter. At least he had a partner.
    “I need money I can spend,” he answered.
    “I can handle that. It’ll take a few weeks. I think it would be smart if you have a corporate structure; easier to keep it legal. There’ll be a lot of paperwork to create the necessary shell companies. I assume you want me to handle the details?”
    “Absolutely. It’s your baby. Do whatever you need and keep me in the loop.”
    # # #
    Two months later Luke sat behind his office desk and watched Annie disembark the chartered Gulfstream 450. She thanked the crew and walked toward the airport terminal. She looked a lot different these days, at least outwardly. The running outfit was gone; in its place was something chic from Burberry.
    In the past few weeks she had worked wonders. The first day following their trip to the moon she had Luke load twenty of the gold bars onto the floorboard in the back seat of his pickup.
    “JP Morgan in Seattle has a concierge banking service for all the dot.com millionaires,” she explained. “They’re used to dealing with newly-rich young people. These bars will establish my credentials. After that, they’ll take care of the rest.” She covered the bars with a blanket, took his pickup key and drove off.
    She was right. As she explained on her return, “When you put five hundred pounds of gold on a banker’s desk, they get interested really fast.” Once their account was opened, Annie visited the Seattle branch of the law firm Hawley, Hepworth & Kidwell. By the time she got back from her first trip, she had created a new corporate entity, Professional Design Engineering Firm, LLC. She even had a logo created. It was a blue globe on a black background overlaid with a hand grasping several drawing pencils. The corporate name was inscribed below the globe. The acronym, PDEF, was printed across the top.
    “This is just subterfuge, though,” she explained. “The parent company is the real PDEF. Here’s that logo.” It was the same graphic except the hand had been replaced by a mailed fist grasping bright yellow lightning bolts. The name at the bottom was Planetary Defense, Inc.
    “Remember?” she asked. “George said you were the commander for Earth’s planetary defense.” She laughed delightedly at his approval of her ideas.
    While Annie was arranging their finances, Luke spent his time on two tasks. The first was fairly ridiculous. He visited every restaurant in Reno and Las Vegas, both plain and fancy, and ordered everything on their menus. He told the various food service employees that he was photographing all the dishes for a glossy new publication. The waiters didn’t really care; he tipped well so they were satisfied.
    In reality, Luke was using the hand-scanner from Sam to add each menu item to the replicator database.
    Although he felt absurd going about the task, he knew that failing to provide appetizing meals would be cause for mutiny. He had eaten enough MREs over the years to understand that a varied and pleasing cuisine was crucial for the long-term satisfaction of remotely stationed employees. By the time he finished, the moon’s replicator food menu was more than respectable.
    When not visiting restaurants, he worked with a marketing agency in Seattle to develop a corporate website for PDEF, complete with photos of Moonbase’s residential accommodations and stock images of smiling, happy families. The website described exciting research projects with descriptive language like for the good of all mankind , and career