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materials?”
    “And if we did, Mr. Auric?” she asked.
    “I am a merchant, command centurion,” he replied, ingratiatingly. “I would like a chance to bid before my competitors arrive. They will circle you like sharks.”
    She smiled broadly at the image. Perhaps guppies threatening a shark. But it would be impolite to point that out to him.
    “Well, sir,” she said with a smile like a mousetrap, “if you hurry, you should be able to get there in time. My first officer is unloading four Mark 2 shipping containers at Landing right now. The contents of all four are identical, and prices are Freight on Board from Ladaux , with a standard drayage fee to Ramsey , non–negotiable. Buyers will be allowed to purchase exactly one container.”
    He blinked as if she had slapped him. No, sucker–punched him in that ample stomach. She had, in her own way. He certainly paled.
    “You’ll pardon me a moment, please?” he said, already turning away from her and pulling out a pocket comm.
    Jessica watched him walk towards a corner, gesturing wildly as he walked. All she could hear were hisses and mumbles. She smiled at Marcelle and began to make her way back into the mob over by the buffet.
    “A moment, Command Centurion?”
    Jessica had already forgotten about the merchant.
    He had one hand extended, as if he was about to grab her by the arm at the very moment when both his manners and his survival instincts kicked in.
    She eyed him from under a heavy brow. Stories of David and Goliath flashed through her mind. Apparently in her eyes, as well, because the man stepped quickly back a half–stride.
    “Were you successful, Mr. Auric?” she asked innocently, letting the sudden rush of adrenaline ooze slowly away.
    “I will know in a few minutes. Thank you. Though I must say that was hardly a fair way to handle it.” He seemed put out.
    She laughed out loud. “On the contrary, had there been more than two major shipping houses on Ramsey , including Auric and Sons, I would have had to hold a lottery and let random chance determine things. This was perhaps the fairest way. Certainly the most ethical. You and each of your competitors will have the exact same goods, at the same prices. And we will post those prices tomorrow for everyone.”
    She watched his pupils surge and then shrink.
    “But that’s not how it’s done,” he whispered urgently.
    Jessica took a step closer to the man. She came up to his shoulder, but he shrank back anyway.
    “It is the way I do things, Mr. Auric,” she snarled quietly, looking up at him. “Ethical and above board. If you have had bad experiences with my peers, and I suspect you have, given my own experiences with some of them, I invite you to take it up with those people when you next see them.”
    She stared at him, daring him to speak, or even breathe, wrong.
    After a moment, he seemed to deflate into himself. “Touché, Command Centurion Keller,” he said, visibly relaxing. “Well played. You must understand that it is very rare for me to run into one of you Fleet types who understands business . Fewer still who see Lincolnshire as anything other than the backwoods, and the locals here as rubes to be fleeced.”
    She relaxed as well, but stayed close enough to speak quietly. “Two of my uncles own farms on Ladaux , Auric. Working family farms, not latifundia .”
    “Something else we have in common, then, madam,” he replied with a smile.
    He paused, as if looking for the right words. Marcelle shifted slightly in her peripheral vision, now less likely to swoop in on the poor man if he provoked her.
    “If I may, Command Centurion?” he whispered politely, with a previously unheard urgency.
    She nodded, keyed back up. This was probably the entire reason for the previous conversation.
    “Regardless of what you hear from other sources,” he continued obliquely, “all is not well in Lincolnshire , or even just Ramsey . A visit to Sarmarsh IV would probably be an interesting and