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Carboni calmly spoke of selling him into slavery, it was made all the worse by the knowledge that he had come to the one sector of space where it was legal for him to do so. “The We’Oxcas on the other hand, they might pay enough to make it worth selling you to them, probably not the full amount, but they’ll certainly pay a lot more than the Kargans, maybe even as much as seventy five percent of the debt.
    “You’ve not heard of the We’Oxcas? I suppose that isn’t such a surprise, given you aren’t from this sector,” Carboni remarked. “It doesn’t really matter that you don’t know who they are, or what they do with the people they buy. All you need to know is that thanks to the debt you owe I own you, and if I choose to I can sell you. I have no wish to do that however.”
    “Then what are you going to do with me?”
    “Make use of you. It’s your choice of course. I offered your brother a chance to work off his debt, and I’m now offering you the same chance. Andrei took the deal and then turned around and disrespected me, which unfortunately led to his death; I trust you will not be so foolish.”
    What Carboni had said didn’t immediately sink in, and when it did. “You had my brother killed!” Step surged to his feet. He immediately regretted the hasty move, not just because his drink sloshed over the side of his glass, soaking his hand; his damaged ribs made a painful protest.
    “No, Mr Velkin, I had your brother punished, just as I would have had anyone else who disrespected me, and tried to cheat in my casino, punished. My men were as overzealous with your brother as they were with you however. It’s a shame, but your brother did bring it on himself.
    “Now, I am not an unreasonable man, so I am going to give you tonight to consider my offer. You can either agree to work for me and pay off the debt, or I can sell you to the We’Oxcas and clear the debt that way. Let me know tomorrow.
    “Crezia,” Carboni raised his voice so it reached his daughter in the kitchen, “show Mr Velkin out, and give him a coms card so he can contact me when he’s made up his mind.”

 
    Chapter Eight
     
     
     
    When he was returned to the station’s main concourse, and left there by Crezia Carboni, Step was reminded of how long it had been since he last ate, and that he had missed his previous chance to eat thanks to Carboni’s thugs. The aroma of food assaulted him from all directions, touching off a noisy protest from his stomach.
    Without a clue what sort of place it was, or what it had on the menu, Step entered the nearest place that served food. He found a seat at a table and ordered the first meal on the menu screen, without even looking to see what it was.
    He was still hungry when he finished his mystery meal, but no longer starving, so when a careful examination of the menu revealed he couldn’t get food to take away there he paid his bill and went in search of somewhere he could. It didn’t take him long to find a suitable place and he joined the queue of people waiting to be served.
    The servers were efficient and it wasn’t long before he had enough food to ensure his stomach would be full until morning, at the earliest, and he was on the move again.
    Step ate his second meal while at a public terminal, which he used to access both the local, and the galactic net. The cost of surfing the local net was reasonable, but access to the galactic net came at a cost he would have baulked at, if he hadn’t been in desperate need of the information he was looking for.
     
    After about an hour and a half of searching, which was interrupted only by a quick departure from the terminal to discard his rubbish, Step had what information he could find. There was plenty of information on the We’Oxcas, on both nets, and what he read of the genetic experimenters and organ harvesters made it clear he didn’t want to be sold to them. Even if he were able to escape from them he would almost certainly be