The transfer of the money went quickly. ​Within moments, Gideon Goldbody was the richest man on the face of the Earth.  

     "Now." The Prime Minister's voice no longer had the tone of someone who wanted to "negotiate". "Return the remainder of the hostages. We're sending escorts to Pete's Peak."  

     "Where I'll have my people blow them out of the sky. You don't have a clue about what's really going on, do you?"

     "I..."  

     "Good-bye, fool." Goldbody disconnected direct communications. His next move, he decided, would depend on what was happening below on Earth. If Adam Forwarder had, at last, been destroyed utterly, he'd wait an hour before he executed the next phase of his plan. He'd let a million people live another hour. But, if by some miracle, Adam managed to survive...

     At any rate, first things first.

     Goldbody's next communication was with someone he spoke to very rarely. As supremely arrogant as Gideon Goldbody was, he still cringed in fear at the thought of this being he now spoke to. "S-Sir?" he began.

     "You have it?" a deep, strange voice asked.

     "Y-Yes, sir."

     "It's in your account?"

     "Y-Yes, Sir."

     The voice's reply was not an audio one. Gideon looked at the total of his private off shore account. Half a trillion dollars. A five followed by nine zeroes. Then he watched as each of the numbers disappeared until only a single zero remained. 

      Goldbody waited a respectful thirty seconds, then asked, "Will there be anything else, Sir?"

      No response. The correspondence, apparently, was now officially over.

​     Okay, back to the plan. Where was he again? Oh yes, if Adam Forwarder had, at last, been killed he'd...no, no, forget all of that. Just get on with it. 

     Into his com, he said to one of his associates, "Squirt the Gun."

     "Sir..."

     "Now. This instant. I'll be back on Earth within the hour."  

CONTINUE