I had to work very hard during the evening performance to put all the disquieting events of the day out of my head. I succeeded—but it was not easy. Still the audience liked it, so I had not done too badly. We cleaned off the makeup, changed, and caught a cab back to our hotel. The message light in the room was blinking so I touched the button for the voice mail recording.

“Hi folks James here. I hope that all is fine with you. I’ve got my tickets and I’m on my way. I couldn’t get a direct flight to Fetorr so I’m not sure when I will get there. But my spacer leaves in a few minutes, bound for Helior. And I’m bringing a new and much improved computer with me. I’ll let you know my ETA as soon as I get it. “

“The reinforcements are on their way,” I said as I reached for the booze bottle. And stopped. Things were getting very complicated and I did not need to complicate them even more with a thick head. I had a small dry sherry and a cigar instead. Gloriana rattled her quills enticingly, so I reached down and scratched her behind the ears. I felt a sense of impending doom and I did not like it. Angelina must have seen my expression because she sat on the couch next to me and took my hand.

“You are looking pretty grim, dear husband. Want to tell me about it?”

I gave her a hand an appreciative squeeze and polished off the sherry.

“If I look grim it is because I feel grim. I am possessed by the feeling that events are out of my control. When, as you know, I am used to being in charge of things, being in control of my own destiny at all times. That is not happening now. Just look at the disasters and near-misses that have occurred since we arrived on this depressing planet. First Kaia’s bank is robbed and Bolivar is charged with the crime. Admittedly we did spring him from the hoosegow-but now he has to hide out in the freak show until James gets here. Then the second bank heist, on a bank we know that Chaise secretly owns-with a planted stainless steel rat left at the scene of the crime. Next the police are investigating me and have pinched every bit of my almost-legal identification. All in all the back of my neck feels quite warm and I am sure that it is from hot breath. So I ask myself. Is all this aggro worth a measly four million credits a day?”

“And what does myself tell you?”

“It tells me to cut and run.”

“Will you?”

“You betcha. There are a lot of other ways to earn money-both legal and illegal. I would feel a lot better if we pursued some of the other possibilities rather than having ourselves in hock to Chaise.”

“Shall I pack the bags?”

I shook my head no.

“Not until after tomorrow’s matinee. In the midst of all this rushing about I have come up with one solid fact. Puissanto, the suspect we have come here to investigate, is not as simple as he pretends to be. I want to find out who or what he is. When he is onstage tomorrow I’ll be tapping into his computer.

As soon as I know that, we get offplanet—and take Bolivar with us.”

“Two things that bother me about this. The police have your papers-and Bolivar has none at all, as well as being a . refugee from the local disgusting form of justice.”

“You are speaking to the master forger himself. Not a problem. I’ll get new papers done in the morning for both of us. And the second thing?”

“Do we leave James here to carry the can after we are gone?”

“No way!” I poured another sherry, downed it in a gulp. “With our new and accelerated schedule we may be gone before he arrives. If we forget the complicated plan of him theoretically taking his brother’s place in the bank-why then there is no reason for him to come here at all. We stop him before he gets here. I am afraid that the fourmillion-credit-a day job is turning into a nightmare. What did he say his first stop was?”

“Helior.”

I grabbed up the phone. “I’m going to get a message to him to stay there until we arrive. There are enough people in the soup now without adding another one.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” A bubbly porcine snore sounded from the direction of Gloriana’s basket. “Let us emulate that dear creature and get a good night’s sleep. I think we are going to need it.”

We did. And after breakfast next morning Angelina went off with a purse filled with cash to find a crooked travel agent. Or is that an oxymoron? I used some of the portable radio’s hidden talents to fake up our identification documents. I had prepared the ones that we had used to reach this planet; it was easy enough to alter the standard forms to effect a safe exit. I was finishing this task when Angelina returned and waved a thick envelope in the air.

“Done. The most time-consuming part of it was fighting off all the types who found me attractive. Six of them are sleeping peacefully but one, I’m afraid, is in the hospital.”

“I am sure that he deserves to be there.”

“You don’t know how right you are. A bent taxi driver took me to a bar where he assured me the local mafia hung out. He was right. The one in the hospital is the ex-bodyguard of the local capo. He was so impressed that he offered me the bodyguard’s job. It is nice to be appreciated. When I assured him that I was not a police spy, and that my fondest ambition was to shake the soot of this planet off my shoes, he contacted associates who specialize in the transport business.”

“Transporting what?”

“I hesitate to think. But in the end a deal was done. There are three tickets here on the midnight hovertrain to Mtumwaport. An industrial city known for its pollution and high death rate.”

“Wonderful! And why are we visiting this holiday city?”

“Because it is right beside the industrial spaceport for that area. And we are listed as crewmembers on a steel freighter that leaves the following day.”

“Sounds a winner. Our jobs?”

“I’m an assistant cook. You and Bolivar are engine-room artificers.”

“Will we have to work our way to the stars?”

“Not after I have given the captain the second half of his bribe.”

We packed a single bag each; everything else would be left behind. Gloriana watched all this with close attention, then made an interrogatory grunt. Angelina frowned.

“Do we take her with us?” she asked.

“When they discover that we are missing-why a couple traveling with a porcuswine would be, how should I phrase it, pretty memorable.”

“You are right, of course. But if leave her here, why her fate is pretty certain.”

It certainly was. I looked down at this endearing creature and saw in my mind’s eye a vision of a side of bacon.

We will put the decision off until later,” Angelina said.

“No-we cannot! Call a pet supply, get a dog carrier. We’ll put her in that, take her with us. We cannot leave her behind.”

We reached the Colosseo early. I was dressed for my performance and waiting in the wings when Puissanto started his act. I had timed him at exactly thirty-one minutes. Now I started my stopwatch and walked quickly to his dressing room. Once I had locked myself inside I took the documentation from my pocket and turned on his computer. It was a cheap production model with a security code that was very easy to bypass. Within ten minutes I was in. I put the stopwatch where I could see it and went surfing through the files. Mostly spreadsheets and financial returns. There were some mighty large sums being processed here-but no clue how our strongman had anything to do with all this.

Ten minutes to go. I sweated as I scrolled through another directory, it was time to get out of here. I felt the cool air on my neck.

Cool air!

I spun about and there was Puissanto standing in the open doorway. Terrifying little red eyes gleaming. Closing the door behind him.

This was a nightmare come true. Locked in a room with this monster.