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being unloaded from the shuttle and wondered if there
was anything in the shipment worth stealing. The problem wasn’t getting the
stuff; that was easy if you had the balls. The problem was getting it sold.
There weren’t that many people on-site yet so there wasn’t much of a market.
Most of the stuff was building materials and supplies anyway; nothing that
snapped anybody’s socks. There was plenty of other stuff like clothes and
kitchen shit coming down, but the things you could buy for practically nothing
didn’t make good contraband, especially in a small market like this one— not
now. Plus, there was always the risk you could wind up selling a box of plastic
plates to the guy who reported it missing after you stole it. The community was
too closed, and there just weren’t enough people yet.
    He ambled toward the dock to get a closer look at the new Number
10's.
    You never knew.
    He didn’t get too close to the containers—that would be too
obvious. He walked over to the dumpsters and checked to see how full they were;
that was his job after all. He picked up some packing material and scraps of
shit from around them and tossed them in, while he sneaked glances at the
containers. He knew the color codes on the sides pretty good.
    Same old shit.
    He swept the smaller stuff up into a pile, scooped it up with his
hands and put it in the dumpster.
    There. Nice and neat.
    An Expeditor drove toward him with a lift stacked with containers.
Geary stood back and watched, then started giving useless, joking hand signals
as the driver placed his load.
    Down. Down. Up a little. Come on. Come on. Down. Down. That’s it.
    He smiled at the kid driver.
    “Perfect, man! That’s perfect!” Geary said.
    “Couldn’t have done it without you,” Eddie Silk said.
    “You guys got a lot of stuff coming down, huh?”
    “A lot ,” Eddie said.
    “Anything worth stealin’?” Geary said with a big, crooked grin.
    “Nothing I’d steal,” Eddie said smiling back. “Where you from?”
    "Fuji."
    “Hey, me, too. I don’t think I saw you there, though.”
    “Well, I was there—I swear to God, I was, officer.”
    “It’s a big place,” Eddie smiled.
    “Yep.”
    “Do you know Tap Porter?”
    Geary cocked his head, just a little, like a dog that’d heard a
call to dinner.
    “Do you?” he asked with a smirk.
    “Yeah, he’s a good friend of mine,” Eddie said with an even bigger
grin.
    “No shit. Ain’t that a coincidence?”
    Tap Porter had been the biggest fence for stolen goods on Fuji.
Anybody who was in business on the planet knew him.
    “What’s your name?”
    “Eddie. Eddie Silk.”
    “Hey, I’m Del Geary,” Geary said and stuck out his skinny hand.
When Eddie shook it, the fingers felt like stiff wire.
    “Glad to meet you,” Eddie said.
    “How long you been here?”
    “Couple of months now. You?”
    “A week, give or take.”
    “Hot sonofabitch, ain’t it?" Geary said.
    “Yeah. Damned if it ain’t,” Eddie agreed.
    Geary figured this could be a real stroke of luck if the kid was
willing to play ball. He couldn’t do any better than to have a partner who
could give a personal inspection of the manifests of every Number 10 container
that came down. Their business relationship was already taking shape in his
mind. The kid could tell him where the goods were and when the best time to
snatch them would be. He could snatch the stuff and store it, keeping the kid
in the clear. The kid could stay away from the docks and the warehouse and keep
the suspicion off himself.
    Perfect.
    “You got a crew?” Geary asked.
    “What kind do you mean?”
    “A crew, you know, more guys like yourself,” Geary said acting
stupid.
    “Yeah. I got a lead deal when I signed on.”
    Eddie looked over his shoulder and gave a wary look around.
    “Hey, that’s great,” Geary said.
    “But I don’t like too many partners. Sometimes the fewer friends
you have the better. What about you?” Eddie returned the