"We don't have to find them," said Chubs. "We just have to know where they're going and be there first, waiting for them when they arrive."
"We don't know where they're going," said Lem. "I told you. They didn't exactly leave a forwarding address."
"But we do know where they'll go eventually," said Chubs. "Weigh Station Four is the only outpost this far out. All the families and clans go there for supplies. El Cavador headed out into the Deep, so they obviously don't yet know what's in our files. As soon as they figure out what they have, they'll rush to Weigh Station Four and try to sell the schematics on the black market. That's the only place even remotely close to here where they can do that."
"They could head back into the inner system," said Lem. "Maybe they won't go to Weigh Station Four. Maybe they'll think they'll get a better price closer to home."
Chubs shook his head. "Not families. You have to know how these people think. They don't take risks like that. Most of them came out to the Deep to get away from trouble. When they try to sell, they'll use a reliable source, someone they trust, someone they use often. That's more important to them than getting a better price. They wouldn't fly down to Mars or the Asteroid Belt. A, it's too far, and B, they'd want to stay as far away from corporates as possible. They took something of ours, and they know we'll want it back. Believe me, they'll play it safe. Weigh Station Four is where they'll go."
"Fine. But how will we recover the data?"
"The same way they took it from us. We'll hack their ship and steal it back. And maybe erase their servers in the process, just to be certain."
"They could have moved the data onto a mobile device, a portable drive or something."
Chubs shook his head. "Families use handhelds. Old models. If they want to port the information, they'd use those. But the handhelds are rooted to the ship's main servers. When we wipe the servers, we wipe the handhelds, too."
"It's not flawless," said Lem. "They still could have the data stored somewhere else."
"Maybe," said Chubs, "but I doubt it. We'll never be one hundred percent sure. Hitting their servers is as close as we can get."
Lem considered this a moment then realized a snag. "It won't work," he said. "If we go to Weigh Station Four, they'll see us. They'll see the ship. It's not a very big outpost. They'll know we're waiting for them. They'll turn tail and run."
"They won't see us," said Chubs, "because our ship won't be there. By the time El Cavador arrives, we'll be heading back to Luna."
"Then how will we wipe their system?"
"We'll leave Podolski. He's the only one of us that can do this anyway. We drop him off at Weigh Station Four and have him stay there until El Cavador shows up, which, after all, could take months. We can't hang around that long without arousing a lot of suspicion anyway. But Podolski and a few security guys can blend in. We'll even dress them up as free miners so they don't draw attention to themselves. El Cavador arrives. Podolski swipes them. Then he and the security team hop on the next freighter to Luna. Simple."
"Podolski will never go for this," said Lem. "We're essentially banishing him to a dump outpost. He'd make a stink about this with corporate."
"No. He won't," said Chubs. "All we have to do is convince him that this whole thing is completely and utterly his fault. He's not doing us a favor. We're doing him a favor."
*
They brought Podolski into the conference room and had him stand at the end of the holotable. Lem put on a grave, disappointed face while Chubs stood over in the corner, arms folded across his chest, scowling, playing bad cop. The idea was to unsettle Podolski immediately, and Lem could see by the man's expression that it was working.
"I've just informed Chubs here of our dilemma," said Lem. "I've tried to keep this quiet for as long as I can for your sake, Podolski, but I can't put it off forever. We need to address this issue."
Podolski shifted his feet, uncomfortable. "Issue, sir?"
"Don't act like you don't know what we're talking about," said Chubs. "El Cavador swiped our files on your watch. This was supposed to be the tightest firewall in the solar system, and a bunch of ignorant gravel suckers waltzed in here and cleaned us out. You screwed us, Podolski, and I'll be damned if I take any heat for your mistake."
Lem thought Chubs was laying it on rather thick, pointing and nearly shouting and even turning red with anger, which Lem found particularly impressive--a man who could do that on command belonged on the stage. But it seemed to be working. Podolski recoiled a step and held up his hands, palms out, in a gesture of surrender.
"Wait. Hold on a minute. You can't peg this thing on me."
"We can't?" said Chubs. "Then who's responsible? The cooks? Janitorial? Or maybe you think Mr. Jukes here is to blame. Is that what you're saying?"
"No, no, of course not," said Podolski.
"The firewall is your territory," said Chubs. "That's what this company pays you for. It's your job to keep this ship as tight as a drum. Perhaps you've forgotten what we're carrying on this vessel. Maybe it simply slipped your mind that the schematics and notes and research for the gravity laser, the most expensive prototype of any tech this company has ever developed, I might add, is on our servers. Did you forget that, Podolski?"
"No, sir."
"You didn't?" said Chubs, feigning surprise. "Well, that's astonishing. That boggles my mind. Because I can't fathom why anyone would allow a group of uneducated free miners to steal that information from us, knowing how valuable it is."
"I don't know how it happened," said Podolski. "Nobody's cracked us before. We're impenetrable."