Page 9

Halima raised a brow, her interest piqued. She leaned in again, her eyes glittering as she anticipated more schills. ‘Another target?’

He shrugged. ‘An old friend who’s been missing for some time.’

She caught the fleeting sorrow on his face and must have felt pity for him. ‘Oh, go on then. I won’t charge you for this one. It’s on the house.’

He gave her a grateful look, then pulled up the holo montage he always kept on the ready.

Her pupils widened in recognition while her face hardened with caution.

In that instant, Riv’s heart slammed in his chest.

He reached out and nabbed the elfin woman’s arm. ‘You know her. It’s in your eyes.’

She started at the roughness and the rapid change in his demeanor. ‘Let me go,’ she warned.

He lifted his hand away and apologized, ‘Pole. I need to know where she is.’

Halima was now wary, giving him a cold look. ‘Who wants to know?’

‘As I said, I’m an old chum.’

It was a mistake to have insisted on the friendship angle.

Halima’s face turned hostile, her eyes cutting through his lie. ‘You know what, stranger-with-the-schills? The one you seek is a lone wanderer with no friends except for us. Plus, your story doesn’t add up. While miners have the cash to flash, they don’t spend it on buying data, so I think you’re a bounty hunter with a shit guise as an info broker, a spy.’

He’d been rumbled but had zero control over the surging emotion within him, the desperation of wanting to know more after years of nothing. ‘Hey,’ he rasped. ‘I’ll pay you well for anything more you can tell me.’

He was on the verge of begging.

Halima’s jaw clenched even harder, resolve set in her eyes. ‘Fokkoff, stranger. I won’t entertain your bullshit because I prefer to protect my patrons from the likes of you. Shoulda’ gone with my gut, not to help you. It would be best to quit while you’re ahead and get the hell out.’

She turned towards the door and nodded to her burly Ccyth man. He came striding over in seconds, his bejeweled face tight with tension.

Riv sighed. He’d pushed his luck too far.

He held up his roughened miner hands in the air. ‘Relax, buddy. I’m leaving.’

Halima shot him a hate-filled glare. ‘Out!’

By now, a few of the punters were looking their way.

Including the intense gaze he’d sensed on him earlier. It stabbed even harder, and the hairs on his neck rose.

As he stood, he did a casual sweep of the room. His eyes fell on a dark, hooded figure in the shadowed recesses of the establishment.

Got you.

It was the samekinaiwho’d been following them in the skiff.

He released a cloud of metanoids, commanding them to anchor onto the stranger’s robes.

Once he left the place, they’d transmit their location to him and give him a closer look at the unknown lurker, who appeared very interested in him.

Riv slammed back the remainder of his whiskey, gave Halima a sloppy grin, and lit out of the bar.

The Ccyth guard growled as Riv tracked past. ‘Make sure you don’t return, stranger. My woman doesn’t like you, which means neither do I. Find someplace else to haunt and never darken our doors again.’

Riv strolled away, seeming nonchalant at being kicked out.