Akanti was a red pnet. Yellow clouds wafted along in lengthy strips. Three rings encircled the world.

  The outer ring was silver and emerald dust. It shone in the void like a child’s worry-free glitter project.

  The middle ring was rocky. Crimson, amber, and violet stones reflected light, so that the asteroids created a colorful swirling pattern.

  The innermost ring was artificial, a massive space station. Docks, hangars, antenna arrays, and sensor systems ran the entire circumference of this loop. Tarl maneuvered the Rust Goddess toward one of these hangars, taking it through the psma window.

  The bay was rge enough to accommodate a number of vessels. Another Apogee css was torn half-apart, the upper structure suspended from an overhead crane as it underwent repairs. A passenger ship was in the process of being boarded. Tarl sat Cavalier down on a fueling ptform.

  Eli sat down at one of the bridge’s consoles, “I’ll get ahold of the local broker while we wait.”

  “I won’t push it,” Gami said, before putting her helmet on, “But if I find out that this fugitive did anything to hurt anyone, I’ll do what I have to.”

  “And I’ll back you up,” Eli promised her.

  Tarl looked back at them from the cockpit, “What do we tell them about our guest?”

  “The truth,” Eli said, “She’s a wanted criminal. We’re getting paid to help bring her to justice. Simple as.”

  “Let’s just hope that it doesn’t spook them,” Gami stated.

  Eli brought up the com system. The broker didn’t have video enabled. There wasn’t even an avatar, just the default outline of the service provider’s logo.

  “This is Captain Cisneros. Chiron told me that you have a job.”

  The voice on the other end was heavily distorted, intentionally so. The being spoke what Eli recognized as Skoga, “You will get paid when you have brought the target to the Funhouse. Go to the observation deck in Tunguusko Tower. Your sign is, ‘Do you know where I can get a good drink?’ The countersign will be, ‘Is there any other kind?’”

  The link went silent the instant that the st word had been spoken.

  “The Funhouse would be a great pce for a fugitive to go,” Gami mused, “They could get lost in the crowds, in the chaos. Lots of work, and lots of outbound flights heading in all directions.”

  “Smart,” Eli agreed, “It isn’t too far, either.”

  “They’re charging us an exchange fee,” Tarl compined, “I told you we should have made that trader pay us in a more common currency.”

  “I don’t think she had anything else,” Eli said, then he told Tarl what the contact had said.

  “Just a few more minutes and we’ll be ready to go. Unless you’re holding out, that’s the st of our cash.”

  “We’ll make do.”

  Gami sat at one of the consoles, studying the local info nets, “How did it come to this? How did I go from being one of the most respected bounty hunters in the region, to only just scraping by?”

  “Everyone falls on hard times,” Tarl assured her.

  “We need the money. The principle needs to get away from whoever’s hunting them. Let’s just get this over with.”

  “How does it feel to be on the other side of a hunt?” Eli asked, trying to give her a cheery smile.

  The helmet hid her expression, “I’ve been hunted before. It can be fun, just depends on how desperate you are.”

  Tunguusko Tower was on the inner side of the ring, pointed at the pnet like a stiletto. Tarl nded in the closest bay.

  “I’ll go meet her. Gami, can you watch my back?”

  Her answer was a simple acknowledgement and the activation of her cloaking system. Eli smirked and left the ship.

  Hands tucked into the pockets of his bck trench coat, Eli walked down the wide corridor. Beings of every shape and size strolled past.

  The top floor of the tower was home to a market. A maze of stalls and stores surrounded the elevator. They were constructed off wood and pstic, all of it brightly colored. Sells pitches were made in a thousand different nguages. With no money in his pockets, he managed to ignore even the most tempting offers. Beggers sat in the thin spaces between the venders. Eli could honestly say that he didn’t have anything to give them.

  The elevator took him to the very tip of the spike. A nearly imperceptible distortion as Gami slipped out of the elevator before he stepped out. He found himself in a circur room, surrounded on all sides by massive viewports. Even the floor was transparent. On the higher levels, there were hanging ptforms that wrapped their way around the window that was the outer wall.

  The chamber was a wide open space, only having a few clusters of benches. Beings congregated in seemingly random pces. A few others stood alone, silently viewing the many ringed world.

  “I don’t see anything suspicious,” Gami reported over the com.

  “Good,” Eli said, “With any luck, this will be quick and easy.”

  “Don’t jinx it!” Tarl demanded, sounding legitimately upset. Eli wasn’t sure if he should find this amusing or not.

  The pnet below stretched out far. Standing there on the transparent floor, it felt like he was hovering above the world, a higher level being surveying an aspect of the universe. He wondered if it was inhabited. The yellow clouds and red surface certainly didn’t look inviting. A ship left the atmosphere. It was too far away for him to identify its css.

  “Someone’s moving toward you,” Gami warned.

  A figure cd in white robes glided up behind Eli. The material was thin. A dark, feminine form could be seen beneath it. Eli was unable to see her face, as she had a cloth mask on.

  Eli gave her his most charming smile, “Do you know where I can get a good drink?”

  The woman’s voice was sensuous yet had something akin to nobility in it. Her words sounded like the secret chants of ancient cults. “Is there any other kind?”