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hand and her face crumpled.
    Whining sobs emerged from her.
    ‘It looks like you had a very successful night indeed, Jamie.’ Victoria said rather smugly, taking a sip from her tea.
    Jamie looked at her in obvious confusion. ‘I just tried to help yon wee lassie, that’s all.’ He looked to Wina for support.
    She merely shrugged and turned her head away haughtily.
    ‘There, there, my dear.’ The Doctor was doing his best kindly uncle act. It wasn’t helping the inconsolable Santi. He frowned, and then brightened as an idea struck him. He withdrew his recorder from a pocket and began tootling imbecilically on it. At first. Santi stared at him incredulously as if he were mad. Then her face split into a broad grin and her eyes lit up with joy.
    ‘Aye, well, that thing obviously has its uses sometimes, I suppose.’ Jamie commented grudgingly. He approached Santi, who gave him a filthy look. The Doctor put his recorder away.
    ‘But why did ye attack me, lass?’
    Santi looked as if she were in danger of whining again, but resisted the urge. ‘You make Santi’s boyfriend leave her,’ she hissed. ‘Now Santi all alone.’
    ‘Well, Jamie, it seems like you enjoyed a very busy little Highland fling last night, doesn’t it?’ Victoria was delighted at both her own wit and the look of embarrassment on her companion’s face. She was suddenly struck with inspiration –
    and was even more delighted at the mischievous impulse that drove her to ask: ‘Perhaps you can make up for causing so much misery by inviting your other friend to accompany us to Papul?’ She resisted looking at Wina as she spoke, but knew the girl would be bristling. Which was, of course, exactly why she had made the invitation.
    Jamie looked helpless; the Doctor dithered for a moment, glancing between Santi and Wina, but then his innate chivalry came to the fore and he beamed at Santi.
    ‘I think that’s a rather splendid idea. Would you care to join us on our little expedition?’
    Santi wiped drying tears from her cheeks and looked at these strangers – this very odd bunch of people who had interrupted the flow of her life so dramatically. She thought about the offer for a moment. She thought about Pan. If she stayed here, she would see him every night, and that would only make her feel worse. She saw the amused faces of the slowly dispersing crowd. They would remind her of her humiliating outburst only too often in this small community.
    Lastly she looked at Wina. The Indoni’s expression positively dared her to accept the Doctor’s offer.
    She smiled.
    ‘Santi come.’ she said, and there it was. As simple as that.
    It was so easy to change your life.
     
     

Chapter Three
    It was hot. Sweating, headache, dry-throat, no-air hot. But then it always was on Baru, apart from the rainy season, and even then the rain only lasted for approximately one hour every day.
    It was so hot, he could barely think.
    He staggered towards a cafe where a bright-red awning promised some little relief from the evil sun. It looked private enough as well: he was the only customer. He ordered a beer from the Indoni waiter and when the little man had disappeared back inside the dark bowels of the cafe, he took a small device from his pocket and thumbed a stud on the side.
    A small screen blinked up, a repeated message rolling across the surface. He grunted softly, but he had been expecting this. It had only ever been a matter of time.
    Locate and terminate.
    No problem, he grinned to himself and killed the message.
    ‘You’re late. Sabit the Rabbit’s got a brief for us.’
    Pan frowned at his colleague as he entered the stationary cruiser. He swung himself into a cabin seat and lit a cigarette.
    He didn’t bother answering Clown, who really didn’t care either way and merely stepped towards the cabin console and flicked the intercom on.
    A monitor popped into life and the face of the Indoni President appeared. The image flicked with recorded abstractions,