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as we
knew, none of the Orion Arm Local Powers – our interstellar neighbors – had
that technology, perhaps not even the Tau Cetins, so the chance of mankind inventing
it in the next hundred thousand years was zero.
    “If I had that technology, I’d
sell it myself.”
    “Then I’d have to marry you, but
only because you were the richest man in the galaxy!”
    “If I were the richest man in the
galaxy, I wouldn’t need to marry you. I’d just make you my concubine.”
    “If you had that many credits,
I’d gladly settle for concubine.”
    We exchanged a long look, for a
moment enjoying just being in each other’s company again, then I asked, “So
what are you doing here?”
    “Looking for work,” she said
innocently, although the way she avoided my eyes told me she was lying through
her teeth. “And you?”
    “The same, looking for work.” Now
we knew we were both lying. “What happened to those oxy runs you were doing out
to the Kazaris Belt?”
    “The miners started haggling,
trying to drive the price down.”
    “So you threatened to cut off
their oxygen supply if they didn’t pay up?”
    She shrugged helplessly. “What’s
a girl to do?”
    I glanced at her screen, seeing the
contracts she was considering. Data dumps, protein packs, fishing and mining
equipment, all going to the same place: a frozen hell hole I’d been to once
before and never wanted to return to. “Planning on doing some skiing?”
    “No, just killing time.” She
switched off her screen and retrieved her skipper’s tag a little too quickly.
    “Why do I get the feeling you’re
hiding something from me?”
    She gave me a sultry look. “As if
I have anything you haven’t already seen.”
    Marie always used sex like a
weapon, but I enjoyed her games so I didn’t care. “Seeing you naked and knowing
what you’re thinking are not the same thing.”
    “No, but they’re close,” she said
and kissed me on the cheek. “Got to run, Sirius. I’ll see you soon.”
    Not giving me a chance to ask
where she had to run to, she hurried out, giving me a wave at the exit before
vanishing. I stared after her a moment, smiling to myself, then realized I’d
forgotten to DNA lock her! Stalking my lover wasn’t what threading was meant to
be used for, but where Marie was concerned, I needed all the help I could get. Forgetting
to lock her made me realize how out of practice I was with the technological
wonder hidden throughout my body. On the chance she was a known criminal, I
checked the list of Humanity’s most wanted, but Marie wasn’t listed. I’d have
been surprised if she was. She’d cross the line if the reward was worth it, but
she was way too smart to get caught.
    I recalled Lena’s warning about Marie
being my weakness and wondered if she’d been aware Marie was heading for Hades
City. Surely Lena would have told me if she’d known, so I figured her comments were
simply the result of the mind probe, not intel on Marie’s movements.
    My sniffer scanned the data node she’d
been using, found dozens of DNA traces, although none of the female signatures were
Marie’s. She hadn’t worn gloves, so there should have been traces where she’d
touched the data node console, but there was nothing. Marie must have been
wearing skin seals to mask her DNA, which made no sense. Simply docking her
ship revealed her identity to the entire city.
    I logged into her data node and scanned
the register of ships in port, but the Heureux wasn’t listed. Either she was on someone else’s ship or she was using a fake
registry – which was against Society rules. Marie smuggled a little – we all
did – but using a dummy registry in a port as big as Hades City was risky. She’d
need a good reason for taking such a risk, which for her would be nothing less
than a mountain of credits.
    Wondering what she was up to, I took
the walkway back to the spaceport. As mole-ports go, Spaceport Hades was a busy
place: berths for hundreds of ships, all