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joint.
    Navarre could handle him. Hadiiye turned to study the rest of the space. And the men subtly adjusting themselves as if violence was imminent.
    Because seriously, if you needed five to take on the two of us, your boss needs to hire better goons.
    And that was what they were. Goons. Second–rate, muscled thugs guarding a restaurant that specialized in French cuisine. On a station dedicated to being a criminal marketplace. In the middle of nowhere.
    Hadiiye smiled to herself, then let it encompass the men around her. Once upon a time, a young Shepherd named Wilhelmina had taught close combat techniques to younger students, mostly girls, preparing them to go out into the oh–so–dangerous galaxy and preach the Word. She had the reach for it, too, with legs longer than some people.
    Behind her, the bartender grunted something rude.
    Navarre responded in French, which apparently surprised the bartender almost as much as it did Hadiiye.
    “I don’t care what you think, peasant–boy,” Navarre growled softly. “Your job is to send a message to Captain Tamaz. If you can’t handle that, I’ll have one of these puppies here do it, instead.”
    Around them, the punks tensed, but that was the way hackles came up at being insulted, rather than about to attack. Indignant shock.
    “What message?” the bartender asked with an accent better suited to one of the harsher slums of Paris. How had he gotten out here, so far from Earth?
    But then, how had Hadiiye? They were all far gone from home.
    The assassin fixed her steely eye on each of the men in turn. It wasn’t exactly a dare. It was worse. It was a woman simply laughing at them as the junior varsity.
    “My name is Navarre,” the once–and–future Science Officer said condescendingly. “I want to talk about the woman from Neu Berne. He’ll understand. Right now, we are going to have dinner at Galileo’s. Good day.”
    Navarre appeared in the corner of her eye, already moving towards the door at a sharp clip. Hadiiye smiled once more at her prey and followed the man out the door.
    Part Four
    “How did you know where to go to find him?” Wilhelmina asked. She was still Hadiiye, but they were in a lovely bistro specializing in traditional Italian peasant food. There was enough music and chatter to keep their conversation private as long as they were careful.
    The food was excellent.
    “While we were inbound, I made a few calls. You were in the shower,” Javier replied.
    Except it wasn’t Javier. It was still Navarre , a hard, cold, pirate son–of–a–bitch that looked more like the man who had stood on her deck with Captain Sokolov than the goofball who had awakened her from a magical sleep.
    At least she had finally gotten her kiss.
    “You know people at Meehu ?” Wilhelmina was shocked.
    He hadn’t mentioned anything. She had been prepared to wing it, knowing they had a few days to scout before Sokolov would arrive.
    This creature named Navarre wasn’t waiting.
    “I’ve been through here before,” he replied, in a tone that didn’t suggest further questions on the topic.
    “So what’s your plan, Navarre?”
    She was still a little lost in this century. Certainly, humanity hadn’t changed much. But she’d never been a criminal element before. Fun, but a bit unnerving. Navarre was an interesting, if unsettling companion.
    “We have a two or three day head start,” the hard man across from her replied. “He won’t start getting prepared for Sokolov just yet, probably figuring that the captain couldn’t react so quickly. We’re going to get close to him first, find his weaknesses, and exploit them.”
    Navarre leaned forward and put both elbows on the table, resting his chin on crossed fists. His eyes grew even harder.
    “It will probably be necessary to kill people before we leave this station, Hadiiye. Are you at peace with that?”
    “I think so.”
    “No,” he replied flatly.
    It was the tone that chilled her. Up until now, this had