Abby dropped me off on Depredides, just like I paid her to. She even booked me into a cheap motel which would give me lots of places to run to, and she did that free of charge.

  Because we’re friends, she said, even though we both knew she’d be running an auction to give away my drop point, in seventy-two hours’ time. She’s a transporter; it comes with the territory, and I couldn’t pay for an extension to her silence.

  Friendship and business, we both knew where the lines met, and, because of friendship, we didn’t hold our business actions against each other. We’d travelled across several systems, fast enough to avoid both Delight and Mack, and get me out from under Odyssey’s radar. As a situation, it wasn’t going to last, but I was going to make the most of it while it did.

  Before I left the hatch, Abby removed the extra locks she’d put on the links Mack, Delight and Tens had added to my implant.

  “What you’ve got should last for a while,” she said, “Especially as you’re out of range. Try and stay that way.”

  I paused, on the steps leading from her cockpit down to the tarmac, reached up to touch her hull. I had no words for what I felt, but she seemed to understand.

  “Safe travels,” she said, and slid the hatch door shut.

  She retracted the stairs, as soon as I’d stepped off them, and I heard the engine note start to build. I didn’t look back as I hurried away, not even when I felt the wash of her engines as she took off. When I reached the edge of the tarmac, she was just a twin-starred speck, retreating to the void above.

  “Papers,” said the man behind the counter, and I realized I’d forgotten to plan one, important aspect of my arrival.

  Damn. I’d thought that had been part of Abby’s service.

  It was too late, so I gestured at the computer terminal.

  “It was a late notice trip,” I said. “The company rerouted me. They should have forwarded the paperwork to your department.”

  He didn’t look impressed.

  “Name.”

  I struggled to keep my features bland. Fuckit. I hadn’t thought of this. Why hadn’t I thought of this? I thought fast, instead.

  “I’m under cover. Need to pick my dossier up. Are you sure my picture doesn’t call up anything?”

  “Which company do you work for?”

  And I felt color rise to my cheeks, was left with my mouth open and nothing to say.

  “Abby!”

  “I did not think you were this unprepared. I am sorry. You do not have enough to cover the cost of a new identity.” At least she sounded contrite, rather than amused.

  Double the damn. If I’d been thinking I would have thought of this myself, would have found a different path off the tarmac, not waltzed straight up to the guys who were likely to put me into a database that would totally wreck Abby’s auction.

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  “Honey, you put it that way, and I’ll give you all the help you need.”

  Her words brought a small smile to my lips.

  “And I thought you were supposed to not be in my head anymore.”

  The Human-Transfer’s presence in my implant was smiling; I could feel it.

  “Dasojin,” Abby said, sidestepping my comment. “That’s the company you work for.”

  I’m pretty sure the man behind the counter was about to summon local law enforcement, when his computer screen flashed, but I was already speaking.

  “Dasojin,” I said. “Sorry. I’m new, and the trip, and all the last-minute changes…”

  I let my voice trail off, as though I’d just noticed he wasn’t paying any attention, made my voice breathy with desperation. Not that that was a hardship.

  “Is there anything there for me?” I asked anxiously. “Under Dasojin?”

  He flicked a glance up at me, and then back to the screen.

  “Must be your lucky day,” he said. “Miss…”

  “Dasoto,” Abby supplied.

  “Dasoto,” I said, then blushed a bit more. “This is awkward; they just pinged my implant—wanting to know where I was.”

  The guy smiled, and his fingers rattled over the keyboard in front of him. Beside him the desk-top printer started to work. I watched as he pulled an identity card and several sheets of paper off the machine, wondering how Abby was going to deal with any incoming searches that might hit the system before the three days were up.

  “They’ll be gone by morning,” she said, “Along with any footage from the security feeds. I am well able to protect my own interests.”

  “Welcome to Depredides, Miss Dasoto,” the man said, standing up to pass me my papers. “The cab rank is to your right as you leave the terminal, or there’s a bus downtown leaving from the street out front.”

  “Take the bus,” Abby said, “And buy yourself a comms link to the local network. You can get directions to the motel, then.”

  “Thank you,” I said to the guy giving me my papers, before heading for the exit.

  “And thank you, too,” I added to Abby. “How much do I owe you?”

  “You saved the auction; you didn’t have to do that.”

  “It made my life easier, too.”

  “Let me think on it.”

  “Fine.”

  I reached the exit, and saw the bus stop. It was, as the man said, right in front of the terminal. What he hadn’t told me was that it was too big to miss. Depredides wasn’t a backwater world; it was populous and well-developed, and exactly the right place for a girl to disappear into…if no-one knew she’d arrived there, in the first place.

  “Business is business.”

  “I know, Abs. Which bus?”

  I didn’t realize I’d spoken out loud, until one of the people waiting for the bus gave me a strange look, a comfortably-built woman with dark hair drawn back into a severe bun.

  “Only one bus, love,” she said. “Leaves every half hour. Goes to Downtown. After that, you take a high-rail.”

  I nodded.

  “How do I get on-line?” I asked.

  She was middle-aged and round-faced, and I figured she was more bored than nosey.

  “You just in?”

  “Does it show?”

  “Little bit.” She pointed. “There’s a comms terminal over there. Don’t use Pennedix. Corrupt as they come, and lousy coverage.”

  “Who’d you recommend?”

  “Welliger. Good coverage. Okay service. Top security.”

  I sent Abby the names, and waited.

  Neither. Both are suspect. She must be an agent for Welliger. I’m with Masquerade.

  Damn, but she could have told me that, before I asked. I headed for the comms sales terminal, but the bus pulled in, and I didn’t want to wait another half an hour.

  “I’ll get one in the city,” I said, when the woman who’d suggested Welliger asked me how I’d gone.

  She pulled a face, and watched me board the bus, and I wondered exactly how I was going to erase myself from her memory. If she was touting for new customers for Welliger, and this was a regular beat, then she’d be able to confirm my landing to the first investigator who asked.

  Maybe I should just have gotten the subscription, before catching the bus. It had only been a half hour, after all.

  I sighed, settling into a seat behind the driver.

  If wishes were horses, right?

  I slumped in the seat, managing to look at the back of the partition keeping the passengers away from the driver, and keeping half an eye on what was happening beyond the window, and still noting the other passengers as they boarded.

  There was no one I recognized, but I only relaxed when the door closed, and the bus pulled out. After that, I paid attention to what I could see of the city, trying to decide if I wanted to try and make it my home, while I went about making a living.