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  "I needed that money for an investigation," he said, his face unreadable.

  "What, the pirates don't give you any money, so you just stole from me?" Lyssa smiled, her voice dropping lower. She knew she was walking on thin ice now. If she ventured too close to talking about Razia, he might recognize her.

  She was surprised when a voice deep down wished he would.

  "Watch your mouth, Lyssandra," Jukin seethed. She obviously struck a nerve. "Sister or no, I can and will throw you in jail."

  "I would love to see you try." Lyssa smiled, her fingers itching to grab her Razia C-card. She wanted to throw it in his face, to tell him and everyone in this building that she was really Razia the bounty hunter.

  It wouldn't just ruin his career, it would be the scandal of the century. Jukin Peate, famous for his unending quest to eradicate the universe from all pirates, and his own sister was one of them. The thought made her burn happily inside, knowing that she could make him feel the same way she did all those years ago, when she begged him to save her life on Tauron's ship and he left her.

  She wanted to make him hurt as bad as she hurt when Tauron died.

  She wanted to make him hurt as bad as she did right now, knowing that her own brother didn't care enough about her to recognize her.

  Jukin had continued his assault while she had been lost in her own mind. "You've always been a spoiled little brat. A night in jail would do wonders for you."

  "Be sure you throw me in that pirate jail. I hear they've got a great breakfast," Lyssa replied without missing a beat. She was in his face now, as much as she could be with the height difference between them. He didn't cower, continuing to snarl at her as ferociously as she was to him. She was almost daring him to recognize her, as her secret was precariously perched on the tip of her tongue.

  Jukin, however, blinked first.

  "Get. Out."

  "Fine," Lyssa said, straightening up. "But know this: I'm going to get my money back if I have to break into the Universal Bank and steal it from your account myself."

  And with that, she turned around and marched out of his office, so wrapped up in her own anger that she barely noticed Lizbeth Carter seated on the other end of the table, a perplexed look on her face.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  "You look awfully sneaky," Harms said, eyeing Razia curiously. "I don't like it when you look at me like that."

  She had marched directly here from Jukin's office, barely remembering to stop off in a restaurant to quickly change into her black tank top and cargo pants. It wouldn't do for Harms, or any of the other pirates, to see her in a lab coat and glasses on this planet. But Harms, the pirate informant and Razia's sounding board, would be able to help her get back at her stupid older brother. Even if he didn't know he was.

  "Tell me how the Universal Bank works," Razia said, leaning across the table.

  "Why." It was more a statement than a question.

  She shrugged. "Curious."

  "Whenever you're curious, I get heart palpitations," Harms said with a hint of accusation in his voice. "What are you after?"

  "I…want to know if there's a way to transfer funds from one account to another," Razia asked, barely able to contain a smile. How delicious it would be to transfer Jukin's entire life savings into her Razia account. She didn't even care if she left a paper trail. There would be nothing he could do, no charges he could bring against her.

  "Yes, of course. Just call the bank. Although there will be a record of it, so I suggest that you don't transfer into that damned secret alias you have—"

  "How about a transaction, but one party doesn't know about it?" she said, swirling her orange-tinted water in her hands. "As in taking money from one account and putting it in mine…"

  "So, stealing money?" Harms asked, eyebrows raised. "That doesn't sound like you."

  "Let's just say, this person has it coming." Oh, and they would all know soon enough whom she was going to target.

  "Warranted or not, you can't do that." Harms' voice snapped her from her reverie. "Stealing money is not included in the pirates' agreement with the Universal Bank."

  Razia was ready for that answer. "So, how about if I covered my tracks? I know there's a way to completely erase transaction histories."

  "Darling, darling, darling," Harms' tone was forceful. "You are toeing a very thin line. You can't tamper with bank accounts."

  "Why not?"

  "Because that undermines the very purpose of bounty hunting." Harms sighed. "Imagine if everyone had the ability to erase transaction histories—you'd never be able to find another pirate again."

  "What if someone was doing it anyways?" Razia's face grew more serious.

  "Then they'd be in a heap of trouble, and not just from pirates. The Universal Bank is the reason why we have a stable system of government. If everyone were to lose faith in the integrity of their record keeping…" Harms said, watching her. "So don't even think about—"

  "I'm not…" Razia sighed, trailing off. She wanted him to understand—but how was she to explain that Jukin Peate stole five billion credits from her? Jukin Peate had no more quarrel with Razia than any other pirate; she'd have to tell Harms about her other life. She didn't quite trust him enough to keep that secret, not when his line of work was selling pirate information to other pirates.

  "What are you thinking there, missy?" Harms smiled at her silence. "I hope you aren't going to get mad at me again."

  She smiled sheepishly. It had taken her almost three weeks to work up the courage to come back to his table after their nasty fight. She sat in his booth for five silent minutes, trying to figure out the words to tell him that she was sorry, she valued his guidance, and that he was right. But, happily, Harms simply took her hand and told her that she could apologize by never ignoring his advice again.

  "Come on, Raz. I thought you were done with this attention-seeking stuff, huh? You're a top pirate now, one of the best bounty hunters."

  "Yeah, except I don't know if you've noticed, but there hasn't been a single announcement put out about any pirate I've captured." Razia sighed, effectively distracted from thinking about Jukin's bank account. "Dissident isn't posting them."

  "Now why would he do that?" Harms asked. "You captured Cree Hardrict last week, didn't you?"

  "Did you see an announcement about it?" Razia asked, hopefully.

  "Well, no. Sage told me, but—"

  "See?" Razia huffed. "And nobody's put any more money on me since I kidnapped V—Jukin Peate's brother."

  "So? You've still got fifteen million on your bounty?" Harms smiled. "Still in the top twenty?"

  "For another year or so, then it'll expire," Razia mumbled, biting her lip. "I'm just worried. I don't want to go back to being in the six hundreds again…or worse."

  "You've got a whole year to plan for that, and that doesn't mean going out and doing something stupid," Harms said, squeezing her hand. "Aren't you going to this meeting tonight?"

  Her head snapped up. "What meeting?"

  "Didn’t Dissident tell you?" Harms said, although he probably very well knew that Razia had no idea what he was talking about. "Some guy asked all of the runners to gather their top pirates tonight to discuss something secret."

  "No, he didn’t tell me," she growled, her blood beginning to boil as she let loose another rant. "I don’t understand why, after all of this time, he still continues to think that I am unworthy of being included with the rest of his pirates!"

  "You know I can’t reason with you when you’re like this," Harms said, sounding quite like he was more amused than annoyed. He tapped something into his tablet and sent a message over to her.

  "What?" Razia said, looking down at her mini-computer

  "That's the name and number of one of the waitresses in the bar where the meeting is to be held. She’s the one who told me about it, and she’s one of my best informers." He smiled. "Tell her I sent you. If she can get you in, she will."

  "Really?" Razia blinked at hi
m. "And you aren't going to tell me why it's a bad idea, or how Dissident would be pissed, or anything like that? Just giving me the name of your informant and sending me on my merry way?"

  "Breaking into a secret pirate meeting is less dangerous than breaking into the Universal Bank," Harms replied simply. "Lesser of two evils."

  "Are you trying to…" Razia said, her hackles raising. She stopped mid-sentence as he gave her a knowing look. After taking a deep breath, she simply smiled, thanked him, and left to find his informant.

  ***

  Harms’ informant Ina was probably once very beautiful, but years of smoke, stress, and working in a bar had aged her prematurely. That, however, was not the reason for queasy feeling in Razia's stomach as they stood in the alley behind the bar where the meeting was to take place.

  Ina was waving around one of the most grotesque outfits that Razia had ever seen. The black skirt was barely a few inches long with a chiffon underskirt that puffed it out even shorter. The top wasn't much better, a black, stretchy material that seemed about four sizes too small. If Ina's outfit were any indication, Razia would barely be covered.

  "If you want in, that’s what you have to wear," Ina said, shoving the clothes at Razia.

  Gingerly, Razia took the hanger and couldn't hide the disgusted look on her face. The outfit smelled like smoke and booze and shame.

  "And you’re sure nobody will recognize me?"

  "Nobody will be looking at your face," she said frankly, tossing a blonde wig at Razia and walking back inside the bar.

  Razia stared at the ensemble, sickness rising in her throat. She had prided herself in never, never, debasing herself to get information or to capture a bounty. She had never worn anything other than her tank top and baggy pants. She had never even…

  But there was a meeting.

  And it was going on without her.

  With a final glance to the ratty blonde wig, she swallowed her pride and the contents of her stomach. She put on the clothes behind the garbage bin, and balled up her long hair and pulled the wig over it. She used the camera on her mini-computer to make sure none of her brown hair was visible under the yellow strands. When she caught sight of herself, the device nearly fell out of her hand.

  Wearing the wig and the sneer of disgust from her outfit, she looked exactly like her eldest sister Sera.

  Shivering, she swore to herself to never die her hair blonde.

  "Are you coming?" Ina barked at her from the other side of the door. Razia adjusted her bust and pulled down her skirt as low as it would go, and then confidently walked into the kitchen.

  Ina thrust a dull silver platter in her hands and commanded her to follow. "You’ll be serving drinks, it’s the easiest." There were women on the other side, pouring a bevy of colored drinks into differently shaped glasses. "Just fill up with whatever the barman gives you and walk around the room. When you’ve got an empty platter, go back and get some more."

  "Sounds easy enough," Razia said to herself. Two young women walked out of a swinging door, dressed the same as Razia and holding the same sort of dull silver platter. They threw their platters on top of a window, and someone behind the counter began putting different drinks on them. Razia adjusted her skirt and queued up behind them, and, once they left, pushed her platter up where theirs had been. After hers was filled, she took it with one hand. Struggling for a few minutes, she got the hang of the balance and walked through the swinging door.

  In contrast to the bright kitchen, this room was very dimly lit—only one low light over a dirty table in the middle of the room. She couldn't resist the smile that grew on her face.

  It truly was a bounty hunter's paradise.

  Jeam Bullock, Eli Stenson, Flynn Sloan and a couple of Dissident's favorite pirates. Max Fried, Olvire Gongago, Jarvis Loeb—Protestor's best pirates—all seated together at another table with…

  She had to hold in a gasp as she passed by the table.

  The runners were there.

  Her eyes swept back to the table where Stenson and Sloan sat and, sure enough, there was Dissident. All of five feet of him. He was hunched over the table, his yellow skin sagging off his bones. He looked most unhappy to be there, too.

  She spotted two older men at other tables that she didn't recognize, and assumed they were Protestor and Contestant. Although, she did remember Insurgent, and she averted her gaze when she passed by his table. He had been the mastermind behind a pirate shakedown the year before, his son VJ undercover as Santos Journot. Razia had been the only one to see through the ruse, and turn him in. Though she didn't see the younger man; but he'd been awful quiet since she'd exposed his little charade last year.

  Instead, she saw two other men she didn't recognize. They were also dressed in nice suits, unlike the rest of the pirates who wore raggedy and stained shirts covered in dust from the planet. The two men were deep in conversation, ignorant of the rest of the room. Razia strained her ears to hear their conversation.

  "From the lists that the runners gave us, we’re only missing one or two pirates," the bald one said. Razia could make him out the easiest, because the scant light in the room reflected off of his hairless head.

  "One or two pirates I can deal with," said the other, a shorter man with black hair. "We’ll give them a few more minutes, but after that, I want you to tell Sam to close off the doors."

  "Is the ship ready?" the bald one asked with a furtive glance around the room. "I don’t want any delay after the meeting is over."

  "Everything is set," the dark haired man replied quietly. "The kitchen is adequately monitored, and we’ve placed several guards at the door."

  Razia slowly walked away, before they noticed that she was listening to them. If the front doors were barricaded and the kitchen was guarded heavily, she would have problems sneaking out if she were caught.

  Dropping the rest of her drinks in the trash can, she walked back into the kitchen, on the hunt for an exit strategy, should she need one.

  Her eyes fell on the bar, the tables in the center, the heavy iron pans hung up on the wall. She walked over to the door she had come in and cracked it open.

  "Where're you goin'?" a gruff voice said behind her.

  "Nowhere!" Razia squeaked, jumping around to see a giant guard-like man peering down at her. "Smoke break?"

  "Ain't nobody's leaving until this meeting's over," he said, roughly pushing Razia out of the way and walking out the door, presumably to stand guard in alley.

  "Shit," Razia cursed. She spotted a half-open door on the other side of the kitchen. As she approached it, hoping it would lead to another exit, she heard a hurried whisper.

  "Both Harman and Alfr Jos are here."

  Razia blinked and leaned in closer. She recognized that voice.

  "The meeting is set to start any moment now, more details—"

  Razia swung open the door and put her hands on her hips. Hunched in the small food cupboard wearing a dark brown wig was Lizbeth Carter, the annoying government worker, talking into her mini-computer to record her words.

  "I was...looking for some more glasses," she fumbled, getting to her feet and putting her mini-computer behind her back.

  "Never mind that. I thought I told you to stay away from pirate activities?" Razia raised her eyebrow.

  "What are you doing here?" Lizbeth said, recognizing her.

  "I asked you first."

  "You asked a rhetorical question," she snapped back. "Shut the door if you’re going to stand there."

  "Why should I?"

  "I would leave if I were you," Lizbeth said, slipping her mini-computer between her breasts. "This isn't something that a bounty hunter needs to get involved in."

  "And some government investigator who can barely hold her own in a fight should?" Razia asked, looking her up and down.

  Both jumped when a voice spoke behind them.

  "The meeting is starting, if you’d like to listen in," Ina said quietly, leaving the door open behind her.

&nb
sp; ***

  Razia slipped quietly back into the dark room, blending in with the wall as much as possible. Lizbeth had come out before her, carrying drinks, but there was no movement in the room, so she assumed that Lizbeth had planted herself against the wall much as she had. The low light in the room had become, if at all possible, even lower, hanging over the giant circular table in the room. The hands and faces of some of the more important pirates and the runners were visible, as were the two gentlemen that Razia had heard talking earlier.

  "Well now, we’re all comfortable? We’ve all got a drink to keep us company?" The bald one was speaking loud enough to be heard, and yet at the same time very softly. He had stood up, so only the gray uniform was visible in the low light.

  The man with the black hair cleared his throat and unfolded his hands. "Gentlemen, before we begin, I must stress the severity of our original request that this meeting remain known only to those of us in this room." Razia realized with a jolt that more giant, Dal-Jamus-sized guards were stationed all around the dark bar. "Our association with a high ranking government official necessitates this secrecy, and we do hope you'll honor it."

  She shifted uncomfortably.

  "As most of you know, there is an election coming up—"

  "You don’t say!" someone piped up from the side of the room.

  "An election?" That was Costa Enoch, Razia had captured him not even a month ago.

  "No kidding?" Jeam Bullock guffawed from the table where Dissident sat.

  "Quiet!" Dissident snapped, smacking Bullock from across the table. Razia couldn't help but smile. Dissident did know how to keep his pirates in line.

  "And we’re here to inform you that the current administration is about to change, and we would like your assistance."

  "We can’t just go cutting checks to political parties." Insurgent leaned back in his chair. "We have to know there’s something in it for us."

  "What’s your stance on that numbskull Peate?" Protestor asked. "The current administration has been very easy to work with. We might not give you our vote if we feel you don’t have our best interests at heart."