Chapter One

At first the place seemed of limitless dimensions; a vast cavern housing crouching monsters attended by murmuring shadows the whole slashed with vivid beams of light which held trapped and glowing stars. Then, as eyes adjusted to the relative dimness, things took on a hard reality. The light was from the sun shining through transparencies set in the curved roof, the stars were drifting motes of dust, the monsters heaps of crates, bundles, bales, the murmuring shadows buyers, sellers, agents, porters, watchful guards. Things to be expected in any high-security warehouse and, while larger than most, that on Arpagus followed a common pattern.

"There!" Lozano Polletin lifted a hand, a finger pointing. "The cargo. Just as I told you."

He moved towards it, aggressive, assertive, a man past middle-age, of medium build, his lined, cynical face dewed with sweat. His clothing was not ostentatious but the rings he wore hinted at his wealth. An entrepreneur who operated with a shrewd appreciation of relative values. A gambler who had lost more than he could afford.

"Two hundred units." He halted beside the pile and rested his hand against it. "Individually packed and direct from the Matsuki-Taru. Sealed, branded, tested, guaranteed. A fortune."

Dumarest studied the heap aware of others sharing his interest; a checker, a guard, some porters slowing their progress towards a dealer who snapped his fingers with impatience. Behind him an inspector hovered in anticipation of a fee-bearing summons. To his right a flash of brightness became a woman wearing metallic fabrics, her hair a helmet of russet flecked with gold. One who vanished into the shadows as Dumarest returned his attention to the cargo.

A potential fortune as Polletin had claimed and he had the chance to share it. An opportunity it would be foolish to miss; the man had clear title and had been blunt over his need for a partner. The cargo was as he claimed. "What about transportation?"