There was bound to be a caf that would take a chance on new-to-the-world wait-staff, right? Or someone who could do with a kick-ass administrator, or receptionist, maybe? I mean, all the skills Odyssey had packed into my skull were great, but I’d seen the kind of life that led to, and I was pretty sure I wanted no part of it.

  On the other hand, waiting tables, greeting customers, and high-speed data-entry would probably pay nowhere near as much, and I was going to need funds to disappear long enough for Odyssey and Mack to stop looking. I wondered which one would stop first.

  Before I’d met him, I would have said Mack, but now I wasn’t so sure. His communications specialist, Tens, had been pretty sure Mack would come after me, had promised to help him do so. I’d wished them luck, but maybe I shouldn’t have. What I knew about that crew said they probably wouldn’t need it.

  Damn.

  I thought about that for a long minute, recalling how much Abby had charged to get me here, and what she might cost to set me up with a new I.D. It was hard to decide whether I should stay, or get off-world just as fast as I could. I tried to figure out which one my pursuers would bank on me doing, and figured I’d have to take both options—at the same time.

  Everyone needed a data specialist, right? And this world had one moon and two satellite cities in orbit, and that was just what I’d seen coming in. It also seemed pretty industrial. I mean, the road in from the starport was lined with rocket repair companies, places that catered to biospheres and life support, dried goods and raw material suppliers for ship-board fabricators and galleys. The place looked more like a transport hub, than any world I’d seen…which wasn’t a lot, but still…

  Getting off world should be a piece of cake. And so should finding a business that wanted something found. I just had to figure out where the want ads were placed—and how far off-world I wanted to go, before I came back. The advantage of a planet was that there was always room to run. On a sat, ship, or asteroid…not so much.

  And I’d spent pretty much most of my life on planets. I knew planets—which was probably a very good reason to not stay…although anyone who knew me, knew I’d spent most of my life on planets, and was contrary enough to not stay on one, just because...

  It was starting to look very much like a case of damned if I did, and damned if I didn’t, so I was doubly damned whichever way I chose.

  I guess the only question was how to work out what Mack and Tens were likely to choose, and if the chatter on a planet was going to be better for hiding my implant’s signature than getting some more distance in space. I watched the world speed up as the bus took a turn onto the high-speed freeway to the centre of the city.

  The other factor that might affect me was also how much I’d been noticed…and by whom. The woman at the bus terminal was a certainty, and so was the man at the arrivals counter. Both had good reason to remember me, one as just a frustration, and one for all the wrong reasons. Clearing the security footage and logs might not be enough.

  “It will get us to the auction,” Abby said, and I sighed.

  She was right. It would do that, and that was all she needed.

  Actually, it was three days. The girl who’d snuck aboard a freighter smuggling slaves would have been lost—but I wasn’t that girl any more. I had training, and resources.

  I needed to get to the bank, and clear my account. Abby might have been nice enough to set it up and deposit the change from our transaction under a new name, but it was just another way to trace me. I could only hope the account was in the name of Dasoto, and not Cutter, but Abs wasn’t stupid; I could rely on that.

  Abby was silent, and I wondered if she ever did anything to increase the chances that the data she sold bore fruit. When she remained silent, I sank into my own head, and took a closer look at my implant. I found each outside link, and checked it, but I could not find hers. Even though, I knew she had one.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Perhaps it was occasional, something in the coding that let her communicate whenever she needed. Would she use it to track me, too? I wondered if she was offended, or if I’d just imagined our friendship, but I couldn’t open communications to ask. In every way I knew how to check, Abs had vanished completely from my head, and taken her implant link with her.

  At least I knew I was on my own, which was exactly how it should be. I should be feeling relieved, not…mildly depressed. I sighed again, and tilted my head back to the window. The bus had slowed, and was edging its way across to an off-ramp. Outside, the industrial warehouses and iron-bound fences had been replaced by high-rises decked in strings of light, office windows shining in constellation in the late afternoon dusk.

  Dusk?

  I leant back and checked out the time on the bottom of the screen showing the bus’s progress. Well, at least I knew we were nearly there; I just hadn’t banked on it being dark when I arrived. I needed to find a comms outlet, and an office for the bank where my money was residing.

  And perhaps in reverse order. There was no point in buying a comms pack with funds from an account that could be traced. I needed a cred stick, something that couldn’t be traced.

  I pondered how to do that, as I poked at the communications networks I could sense around me. The companies only provided anchor points and gateways.

  I wondered if it was possible to make a hole into the system, so I could move incognito inside it. The speakers inside the bus came on, as soon as I made my first tentative investigation of the net’s protection systems.

  “Access to the planetary net can be granted by the following companies: Pennedix, Welliger, Masquerade, Hermes Inc. or Depredides United. Attempts to access the net outside these avenues are a federal offence and will be prosecuted. Communications sales points for the legal vendors are available at each transport terminus. I repeat…”

  Well, that was fast. I tuned out the message, and contented myself with looking out the window. I hadn’t even seen whatever it was I’d pinged. Which told me their security was good, maybe even Tens good. I wondered who was providing it.

  I was still wondering, as the bus pulled in, and took my time getting off the bus, glad of the other passengers who hurried to disembark as quickly as they could. When half of them had gone past, I stood, and waited at the edge of my seat. Four passengers ignored me; the fifth waved me forward with a brief hand gesture and a polite smile.

  “Thank you,” I said, and my gratitude was no pretense.

  It was also short-lived. I’d no sooner stepped into the line, than a hand snaked around my waist and rested on the flat of my stomach, pulling me back against Mr. Polite. It was accompanied by the unmistakable pressure of a gun barrel pressed in tight to my spine.

  Warm breath tickled my ear, with words designed to carry.

  “Come on, sweetheart. I’ve picked us the perfect hotel.”

  I just bet he had. Nothing like a romantic cover to hide the fact you were abducting someone.

  I took a breath to reply, but the barrel dug a bit deeper, and his next word was for my ears alone.

  “Don’t.”

  I forced my lips to form a smile instead of words, and managed a wave to the driver as I let my ‘companion’ guide me out of the bus and down to the sidewalk.

  “Straight ahead, and into the building with the red stripe on the door,” he said, and curled the hand on my stomach into a fist that included a good chunk of my shirt.

  His breath tickled the hair at the back of my neck, and not in a good way. I was considering folding up in mock collapse…until I felt a click, and heard his voice murmur, again.

  “That was the safety. Any sudden moves, and you’ll be in a regen tank for a week.”

  A week. I couldn’t afford that. I almost wished Abby was still in my head, and then I was glad she wasn’t. I’d given her the auction, and she’d given me the start I needed. It wasn’t her fault I’d loused it up by poking the local communications net, instead of buying a comms package like she’d ordered.

  I went towards the door with the red stripe. It belonged to the towering glass fa?ade of an imposing office block. I figured that, for it to be in the centre of the downtown district, it was either government, or corporate. Given what I knew of the universe at large, it had to be corporate.

  Since he’d picked me up on the bus, the guy with the gun was probably connected to the comms net security team. I could either try to run, or see where things went. Maybe these guys needed a retrieval expert…

  All around me, people went about their business, no one seeing the hand curled at my midriff…or seeing it, and choosing not to intervene, if they did. Since my unasked-for-escort’s grip didn’t loosen, and I didn’t know just how light the trigger was on the gun in my back, I went through the door.

  Nice that it opened automatically.

  Not.

  Butterflies danced through my gut, spiraling up into my chest, and I forced my breathing to remain calm. Employment. Right? A new beginning. If I could convince these guys I was worth taking on, instead of shooting.

  The room narrowed, almost to a point. I guessed it looked like a giant teardrop on the floor plan. There was a large reception counter spanning the far end. Its ends guarded gateways to three doors leading from the centre of the room. The counter, like the floor, gleamed ebony, screaming polished marble and wealth.