Mitchell's Revenge
Town of Noo, on Tarasov, the Laika System

Yuri Orlov could feel the furyrising in his throat as he read the dispatch from his agent at Standing Pointrefuelling hub.

The ship that his youngest daughterwas working on had vanished from its dock for no apparent reason. The ships’ manifest indicated that Tatiana wasone of only three crew on board at the time of the disappearance. Yuri was notan even tempered man at the best of times, and he was now badly agitated. Basedon the report in front of him, he could only assume that his daughter was dead.

“Aargh!” He yelled at the walls ofhis office. “This was no accident. I know it. I need more information.”

He got up from his desk and stalkedacross the room to the window. He stood there, rubbing the back of his neck andgazing down at the steaming waters of Lake Ladogat in the distance. The steamcreated a grey pall over the deep violet waters of the lake.

“The springs must be active today,”he thought as he stared at the lake. It was fed by intensely hot thermalsprings that made swimming impossible. Early colonists of the planet Tarasovlearned the hard way to stay clear of the steaming waters. And the threat of aswim in Lake Ladogat meant that Yuri usually got what he wanted from the peoplearound him.

Yuri Orlov was the head of theIntergalactic Mafia, or IGM as it was more commonly known. His home base washere at Noo, an obscure small town many kilometres from Tarasov’s largest cityof Achernar. The large country style homestead was positioned at the top of a gentlehill with panoramic views across the undulating auburn coloured fields thatrippled towards Lake Ladogat. He could see for kilometres around from here andfelt quite safe from unexpected visitors. There was no creeping up on the Orlovhousehold.

The perimeter of the property wassecured by long range cameras and an EM field that prevented people fromgetting in and out. This protected the homestead from unauthorised landings onthe roof or in the fields around it. It also protected them from other dangersthat lurked on the planet. The whole family understood the securityarrangements, and even though it was a nuisance most of the time, they acceptedYuri’s paranoia as normal.

An assassin would have to travel avery long way to try to kill the mafia boss. Despite this, three attempts hadbeen made on Yuri’s life in recent years. Each had occurred when he wastravelling from one of his enterprises to another. He had survived all of them.

His darkly handsome face was ruinedby a badly healed scar that ran from his right temple, past his ear and down tothe shoulder. That one nearly killed him, largely due to the fact that he’d hadto wait some days for medical attention. He could have the scar repaired if hereally wanted to, but he wore it like a badge of honour, a warning to the next wouldbe assassin that he was hard to kill.

His dark hair was thick and wavy, andhung to his shoulders. His keenly observant brown eyes missed nothing. Hisdaughters, Tatiana and Natasha, had inherited his dark good looks and tall slimbuild. But his son, Anton, had inherited his mother’s white blond hair and blueeyes, and looked nothing like his father. He was tall and fine boned, andhighly intelligent, like his two older sisters. His son’s appearance was amatter of great disappointment to Yuri. He thought a son should always looklike his father.

He heard the door to the officeopen and turned to see his wife Daria standing silently in the doorway, tearstrickling down her cheeks. Her short blond hair was standing on end and her eyemakeup was smudged. She looked at Yuri, her blue eyes failing to conceal thepain she felt at the news she had just received.

“You got it too, then,” he said,walking towards her. She nodded and stepped, sobbing, into his arms. He huggedher close and stroked her hair trying to push the blond ends back into placearound her face.

“We don’t know for sure yet,” hesaid, soothingly. Daria continued to sob, her slight frame shuddering as shedrew breath.

“Whoever did this has to pay,” shesaid so quietly that Yuri almost didn’t hear her. He looked down at her insurprise.

“What did you say?” he asked, stillstroking her hair. She pushed away from him and looked directly up into hisface.

“Whoever did this has to pay,” shesaid flatly. Yuri was shocked. With the exception of his daughter Natasha, thewomen in his life were not violent or cruel. That was his prerogative. He knewhe would make whoever was responsible accountable for his daughter’s life oncehe was sure of the facts and not before.

“Not until we know for sure,” hereiterated, looking down at Daria. “I’ll get in touch with Natasha. She mayhave heard something where she is. Or she can at least replace out for us. You getAnton to scan the police frequencies, see what information we can pick up fromthem.”

He grabbed a tissue from the box onhis desk and dabbed at his wife’s cheeks. Daria took it from him and rubbedmore vigorously at her face than he was prepared to do. The lines of mascara faded. She sniffed loudlyand looked back at him.

“I know,” she said quietly. “Amother knows these things. Tatiana is dead. I can feel it. But I will do as youask. I’ll speak to Anton now.” She moved back the way she had come. She pausedat the door.

“Then we will make a plan,” shesaid, and headed towards Anton’s office.

Yuri turned back to the window asshe left. As he looked across the fields he thought about their first meetingnearly thirty years ago. He knew of Daria Safronov through the ballroom dancingfraternity their families were part of, but they hadn’t met until they werenearly twenty.

Daria was a champion dancer fromeight years of age, and Yuri was pulled into it by his friends when he was seventeen.He initially thought it was good way to meet girls. He didn’t realise it wouldtake control of his life almost completely. He was surprised to replace that he enjoyedthe dance. He became dedicated to his practice and learned fast. Within a year hewas competing in the local events.

He met Daria at a dance in Achernar.It was a fundraiser for a local family that had been attacked by the nightcreatures that roamed Tarasov. They had lost almost everything they owned. Thedance community rallied around them to help them get back on their feet. Thedancing families came from far and wide.

It was love at first sight for Yuri.In order to spend more time with Daria he suggested that very night that theycompete together. She immediately agreed, even though she knew he was not yet championshipmaterial.

Her mother coached them and theysoon became a couple to be reckoned with. Before long they were travelling allover the Laika system and winning major championships. Then they begantravelling to other systems and larger events. During the four years of theirpartnership they won every event they participated in. They were widely admiredwithin the ballroom dancing fraternity.

Towards the end of their dancingcareer Yuri saw an opportunity to make money from betting on the results of thechampionships. He studied the form of the couples obsessively, and before longwas winning big. He also took the opportunity to establish a not quite legalbusiness that revolved around betting and the Intergalactic Mafia was born.

By the time Yuri was twenty four hehad made enough money to start his first business, and to ask Daria to marryhim. After the years of high level competition she was ready for marriage andchildren. She agreed straight away. Construction of the homestead at Noo began.Daria insisted it have a ballroom attached to the house. She intended to keepup her involvement in dance by coaching the children of her family and friends.

As soon as the homestead wasfinished they moved in. Daria was already pregnant with their first daughter,Natasha. Tatiana followed three years later, and then Anton a long seven yearsafter that. Even though Yuri loved his daughters, he was desparate for a son. Dariaendured several miscarriages before Anton was born six weeks early. He spentthe first two months of his life in the main hospital at Achernar. He began tothrive only when Daria brought him home to be with his family.

When Natasha turned six, Dariabegan to teach her to dance. Natasha hated it from the start. She threwtantrums and screamed at her mother until Yuri intervened. His method wascommand and control. He told her to do as her mother said or there would be trouble.Until she reached her teens she was so terrified of him she did as she was told.

Natasha was naturally rebellious. Shewas brilliant at school. In her spare time she trained in martial arts,expressly against her father’s wishes. When she was old enough she tried anumber of times to leave the family compound to pursue her own dream oftravelling to new worlds. Each time her father’s minders caught her and broughther home. When she cold bloodedly killed one of the family security personnelshe finally got what she wanted. In an attempt to avoid the Tarasov justicesystem Yuri found her a place with his team on the IGM ship Zond and let hergo.

When Tatiana turned six she joinedher sister in the dance classes. She hated it too, but hid her feelings fromeveryone until she was old enough to leave home. Natasha’s behaviour made itmuch easier for Tatiana to reason with her parents. When she told them shewanted to leave Tarasov, Yuri helped her to replace work with Tigerline.

Daria kept her fury to herself. Shefelt that her valuable time had been completely wasted on her two daughters. Theyhad both shown talent and she believed that with the right partners they couldhave been champions, just like their parents.

She turned her attention to Anton. Hedidn’t mind the dancing, but he didn’t want to travel and compete. As he grewolder he reached a compromise that kept both parents happy. He danced with hismother in the ballroom every morning for an hour, and then spent the rest ofthe day on his work for his father.

Now Anton worked from the homesteadas well. He lived with his father’s disappointment in his physical appearanceevery day, but his mother’s nurturing nature had made him feel secure with hisown abilities. His slight stature and pretty features served as a disguise forhis intelligence. At eighteen years of age he was a coms talent rarely seen inthe Laika system.

Anton’s office was packed with themost sophisticated coms equipment money could buy. And some that it couldn’t. Hehad developed systems for monitoring intergalactic police frequencies, theirown shipping line operations and other businesses independently of the officialchannels. It helped his father maintain his grip on his legitimate operations,and often secured opportunities for the not so legitimate ones. It also enabledthe family to stay in touch with Tatiana, working on Ripley’s Revenge, andNatasha, travelling with the team on the Zond.

There mere thought of Natasha madeAnton shiver. She was the most ruthless, self centred person he had ever known.She was intelligent, beautiful, and vain. He was relieved when she left thefamily home.

Anton had no desire to spend hislife in space. Shipboard life made him anxious. He loved the freedom that hehad on Tarasov. He could walk in the fields in daylight whenever he wanted to,he could travel to Achernar at any time, and best of all, he got to spend timewith his mother whom he adored. His coms set up enabled him to stay in touchwith what was going on, pretty much anywhere, all the time.

The door to his office clickedopen, and Anton looked up into his mother’s tearful face. He too had read thedispatch and he knew full well why she had come to see him.

“Better get started then,” he said as she satdown next to him at the coms console.