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Dominguez ’ s had bought tickets for.
    After leaving Captain Burleigh in UNEC offices, Letsego had changed into his street clothes. He had then rushed to the turbolift bank and took the management lift down to the surface. Conway had met him there.
    The other members of the surveillance team were already shadowing the targets. Including Letsego and Conway, there were five of them. Corporals Yang and Jankowski were well seasoned in the art of covert surveillance. Corporal Smith was new to the team but had shown promise in the past few months. Letsego had full confidence that these men could have executed this mission without his involvement.
    The team ’ s safety net was Sergeant Gio. He was up in the Skyhook controlling the drones and any electronic monitoring and hacking. That was where Letsego should be, but he could thank Burleigh for that.
    It had been easy following the targets down into the train station. It was really the only logical place for them to go, whether they were who they said they were or not. The train station was too small for the whole team to operate in. Letsego and Conway had gone in alone. Letsego had walked around the lobby once spotting Mr. Dominguez in line for the ticket kiosk and Mrs. Dominguez on a bench. Letsego had quickly called Gio, getting him to hack into the ticket kiosk. Unlike the camera networks, most financial nets were interplanetary. Gio only had to create a backdoor for himself and he was in.
    Letsego had watched Dominguez from afar, waiting for him to have his turn at the kiosk. When he did Gio was all over it. Dominguez paid for his tickets in cash, but it didn ’ t matter. Gio watched the transaction take place. He saw the tickets that were purchased. Decham. That was where they were going.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

5: Forgotten Civilization
     
    The train ride to Decham was long but uneventful. Alana and David passed the eight and a half hours doing nothing in particular. They were good at that after their journey on the Gold Rush . The train pulled into Decham around nine in the evening, even though the sky was still the same crimson twilight that always existed in the Dusk Zone. The entire planet used Earth Standard Time in order to provide some semblance of normalcy for the inhabitants.
    David and Alana got off and headed for the cab stand. They made little attempt to mask their movements. David kept his eyes open for the man he had seen in Mandell City, but it didn ’ t matter. There was no question that the Peacekeepers were following them, whether they could see it or not. David didn ’ t want to waste the time or effort to shake them. They would do that at the Skull Pit.
    Decham was far more run down than Mandell City. Unlike the unofficial capital of the planet, the war had not been kind to Decham. Once a thriving Japanese Klyston refining town, Chinese artillery had leveled all the factories during one of their offensives. Now it was little more than a hub for foodstuffs and supplies heading to mines and outposts on the dark side of the planet.
    Alana and David caught a cab to the hotel district. They needed a place to rest for the night hours. The streets were crowded with pedestrians and illuminated by colorful signs with large Japanese characters on them. The settlement was one of the few places in the galaxy where the Japanese culture still thrived.
    They soon found a seedy hotel with a neon vacancy light. Compared to the other venues in the area it looked cheaper, filthier, and less inviting. Just what they wanted.
    David walked into the lobby. There was no one behind the desk so he rang the bell. As he waited, he looked around. The place looked dilapidated. The stairs in the lobby were crooked. He watched some type of rodent scamper across the floor. He doubted the place was even wired for cyber.
    It took a minute, but eventually and elderly Asian man came out of the back room. “ Yes? ” He asked with a heavy Japanese accent.
    “ I