A booted toe slid roughly beneath her right shoulder to flip her over onto her back. "You see, Justin. I told you she had a surprise for you." Noton's words had an ominous undertone. "Sneaky as a Javelin,this one."

Kym looked at Justin, but the alley's feeble light backlit him so that only his silhouette was visible. Yet, she almost felt Justin's fury. Rage gathered in his dark outline like lightning within a thunderhead. He hugged his left arm to his chest. My God,Kym thought. He's the one who hit me from behind. That hand!

There was agony in Justin's halting words. "Where were you just now? What were you doing?" His voice begged for any shred of a believable story, but the anger that shuddered across his shoulders threatened to mock anything she might offer.

Kym looked down at her feet. "I was ... I just wanted ... I was just having coffee!"

Noton's laughter stung like a neural whip. "We'll have to peel you like an onion to get the truth, won't we? That little bistro is a place where Davion agents get orders. Don't bother to deny it. Tsen Shang has already confirmed it for me."

Justin's silhouette grew taller and his hands dropped to his side. "What were you doing there?" His voice no longer begged for excuses. It demanded compliance. "Answer me. "

Kym darted a glance at Noton. "Don't believe him, Justin. I love you and Noton is the one who .. . Unngghh."

Justin's left-hand slap fractured Kym's jaw with a loud crack. "Whore!" he shrieked. "You worm your way into my confidence, into my heart, just so you can steal my very life from me!" Justin's metal fist rose again, but he stayed the blow. "You manipulated me—not for yourself and what you wanted—but for them!"He stabbed a finger back toward the bistro and, beyond it, to the Black Hills.

The first burst of pain had shocked Kym into utter clarity of mind, but its echoes nibbled at her sanity and devoured her confidence. The fears held at bay during months of balancing on the razor's edge of an undercover assignment finally overwhelmed her. The stiff defiance in her body melted. She curled her legs up toward her chest and hugged them with a low moan.

As she lay there, Kym heard the click of a pistol being armed. The she felt the cold metal pressed to her temple. She waited helplessly, knowing that there was no deliverance from the despair and terror that engulfed her.

"No!" Justin's voice reached out and touched her. Though she recognized it, she understood that it would never again soften with any trace of his former warmth and affection. "No, you will not kill her. Take this whore to the Davion representative on this world. I have a message for him—and for her other masters."

She sensed Justin's presence. She could smell him, and for a moment, the scent brought back vivid images of their love-making. As his hand, his human hand, settled on her shoulder, she screwed her eyes shut even tighter. His touch would never again have the intimacy or gentleness of a lover's. As it would have just an hour ago.

"Hear me, Judas, and carry my message to your whoremasters, Prince Hanse Davion and Quintus Allard." Justin paused as he gathered his thoughts. "You have driven me from you, yet you seek to maintain your hold upon me. I am not yours. I have never been yours. I will never be yours. Spare me your lies and plots and false information. You refused to call me friend, now know me to be your worst enemy."

33

Tharkad

District of Donegal, Lyran Commonwealth

24 April 3027

The clerk at Meier-Star Travel answered the holophone with a smile frozen on her face. "Meier-Star Travel. From A Place to Zwipadze, we'll get you there. And how may I help you?"

Melissa, her hair hidden by a brown wig and her gray eyes by dark contacts, smiled. "I wish to book passage to New Avalon."

The clerk nodded. "Direct, cruise, or local?"

Melissa paused as though considering the alternatives. "Direct would get me there in three weeks, correct?"

The clerk's fingers skittered across the terminal's keys. In response to her inquiry, data rolled through the text window beneath Melissa's picture. "Yes, three weeks. Is speed urgent, or is this more of a pleasure trip?"

"A vacation, I think, but I do have to get to New Avalon by July or August." Melissa shrugged and smiled innocently. "I've never really traveled between stars before."

The clerk nodded. "Many of our customers are out for the first time. Direct will get you there in three weeks, but the cost is prohibitive."

The girl glanced as Joana Barker's credit history rolled past on the screen. "You pay more for less time in transit. It would cost over 100,000 Kroner."

Melissa's eyes flew wide open. "Can't afford that! Not on my teacher's pay."

"Well, a local trip will never get you there by summer." The clerk typed some more, then smiled. "1 can book you passage on the Monopole Silver Eagle.It's a MonarchClass DropShip that's been refitted for extra luxurious travel. It will get you to New Avalon within your timeframe and also give you a chance to see places like Skye, Terra, Fomalhaut, and Mallory's World."

Melissa frowned. "All those stops, and we still get there in time?"

The clerk smiled reassuringly. "Monopole owns the DropShip, but jumps from star to star aboard independently owned lump-Ships. This gives Monopole access to a far larger fleet of Jump-Ships than one firm could ever hope to put together. Because the JumpShips are waiting insystem when you arrive, you pass through the recharge points quickly. That's how you'll have time to explore the interesting worlds."

Melissa nodded. "It sounds perfect."

The clerk frowned. "The Silver Eagleleaves in two days. Is that a problem?"

Melissa shook her head. "Not really. What is the cost?"

"Moderate. Luxury passage is 20,000 Kroner, but we can get you a private room for 8,500 Kroner."

"Splendid!" Melissa clapped her hands.

The clerk nodded as data on Joana Barker again flickered across the screen. "Your tickets will be waiting at the spaceport. The Silver Eagleleaves on April 26." The clerk hit the "Enter" button on her terminal and locked in Joana Barker's passage among the stars. "Enjoy your trip," the clerk told her.

The data, recorded in a dizzying array of 0s and Is, shot through fiber optic relays, flashed into Tharkad's central computer, then shot toward the Monopole corporate computer. There it triggered a program that immediately billed Joana Barker's life savings (leaving her 5,000 Kroner to spend on the trip). It kicked 850 Kroner to the Meier-Star Agency, then sped Joana's data to the Flight Engineering Section.

Flight Engineering sifted Joana Barker's data to determine her physical needs and possible stresses on the journey. It sent off her medical history to anticipate possible needs for medicine so that the appropriate drugs could be added to the ship's pharmacy. Meanwhile, the history of food purchases she'd made from local stores and a catalog of meals she'd recently eaten in restaurants sailed into the Culinary Division. Her preferences for food and any possible religious taboos on certain foods were checked against the planned menu. The results of these calculations were added to the mass of data that slowly shaped the trip's final menus.

Joana Barker's height, weight, social status, and age landed in the Housing database. Her mass determined whether her room would be toward the DropShip's core or out on the fringes, to keep the ship properly balanced for transfer from one JumpShip to the next. Because of her relative youth—which the computer believed to be 25 years—she was berthed on one of the more active decks.