Chapter One

The haboob was two days old, a relentless blast of scorching air which tore fragments of rock from the lunar landscape, pulverizing it down to dust.

The dust was an ocean around the three prospectors and the small jetwing in the canyon, clutching at their face filters, screaming about their suits and equipment. Two crouched behind a slab of basalt, cradling charged particle rifles, anxiously scanning the murk, bracing themselves against winds coming from all points of the compass. A third man moved along the canyon, running a probe across the desert floor. A light began to blink on a handset.

“Got something, gents,” he said into his helmet mike. The searcher knelt, brushed sand from a tiny screen. He grinned behind his face shield. “Got a strong reading here. Who has the sonic lance?”

One of the watchers clambered over a pile of rocks to study the screen. “You real sure, Curio? The last scan turned out to be a cavern filled with dried mud.”

“Certain as I’m ever going to be, Jax. Gimme a little space and I’ll find out what’s down there.”

He tucked the stock of the lance under his arm and pressed the trigger. A beam of light struck the ground at his feet, lighting the surrounding gloom with purple effulgence.

“We better hurry,” Jax cautioned him. “We only got another few cycles before the Ferals get a fix on us.”

A green light lit on the lance, followed by a shrill keening.

“Zog’s ass, look at the readout,” Curio exulted. “It’s an aquifer for sure.”

Jax peered at the screen. “Hot damn. How many gallons of water we got down there?”

“Lemme see…” He made adjustments of the probe. “Looks like about a thousand gallons. Not too bad.”

“Picked up some movement out there about eight o’clock,” crackled in Curio’s headphone. The third man gestured down the canyon.

“What did you see?”

“I dunno. Saw a couple of shadows moving around by them boulders.”

A high-pitched whistle rose above the storm. The three prospectors froze while they realized without a shred of hope that one or more of them would be dead.

“The jetwing. Make for the jetwing!”

The first windspear struck the man beside the slab, eviscerating him at a speed approaching ninety kilometers. A second took Jax before he had run fifty paces, slamming him to the ground with a flurry of sand.

Curio threw himself behind a basalt spire and wedged himself beneath it, embracing the rough stone like a lover.

“My God, my God,” he gibbered, fumbling for the charged particle rifle strapped to his pack with terror-clumsy fingers.

He twisted around for a hopeless glance at the jetwing, a million kilometers away.

A rising whine sung a duet with the wind. The final windspear came from nowhere, passing through Curio to embed itself in the rock behind.

Curio gazed at the shaft jutting from his chest with a detached stupor. He considered the crude wings set in soapwood bound by lashings of gut. How in Zerid did they get them sticks to hit those speeds, he mused while the haboob grew darker around him and his eyes continued to stare sightlessly at nothing.

The sandstorm continued, moaning along the canyon, worrying the basalt spires. Sand began to pack drifts around the three bodies, covering the abandoned jetwing while night descended to swallow everything with darkness.

~ * ~

City Shelter for Displaced

Or Abandoned Children

Haboob City,

Planet Dustball

August 11, 2310

“You are looking to adopt a child, preferably female, in the near future?” asked City Shelter Director Mrs. Rusch to the young couple perched nervously on the edge of their chairs before her desk.

“Yes, we do, hopefully soon,” Ms. Sneed replied. “Do you have, um, a selection to choose from?”

“Unfortunately, we do,” Mrs. Rusch sighed. “The last attack from Umas raiders resulted in a large number of orphans. What age groups are you interested in?”

“We think somewhere around the age of ten might do,” Mr. Sneed replied, squeezing his wife’s hand. “This would put us past the diaper changing and midnight feeding chores.”

“I believe I might have someone in mid.” Mrs. Rusch turned a viewer on her desk around to face them. “Here is a ten-year-old girl whose mother was killed in a starfreighter explosion and her father died as a result of a jetwing crash. Her name is Nai Crandell.”

Both Sneeds studied the image of a strangely beautiful child having silvery hair and pale violet eyes. The eyes were looking out of the screen with an oddly reptilian stare.

“She was originally adopted by an elderly couple who passed away and she was returned to the Center,” Mrs. Rusch continued.

“This kid looks kinda different,” mused Mr. Sneed.

“Oh, her mother was part Eu.”

“Part Eu?”

“A humanoid race from Sheridan’s Planet on the Outer Rim.”

Mr. Sneed’s brows contracted. “You mean to say this child is only part human?”

“Well, yes, if you put it this way. She seems quite bright, although at times she displays degree of aggressive tendencies.”

“I don’t think we have any interest in adopting a non human child,” Ms. Sneed huffed. “The very idea.”

“I quite agree,” said Mr. Sneed sternly. “So, what other children do you have available?”

Mrs. Rusch deleted Nai’s face from the screen and punched up another.

“Very well, here is a cute little girl in the eleven-year-old range named Kaitlyn. She’s very well behaved apart from minor bed wetting and anger management issues…”

~ * ~

She was at it again. Tormenting the little dwarf boy in the nursery. Nai hated watching the bigger girl push and call him names.

“Hey, short brains, how tall are you?” Kaitlyn sneered as she shoved Troll to the floor. “About four feet tall? I didn’t know they could stack poop that high.” The gaggle of children around them- tittered.

From the carpet Troll looked up at Kaitlyn wearing an expressionless face beneath a tousle of black curls.

“Don’t like being shoved, huh?” Kaitlyn continued. “Maybe you’d like to get your smelly little butt off the floor and do something about it?”

“That’s enough.” Nai stepped between them, looking up at the bigger girl. “Leave him alone.

“Well, if it isn’t the little half-breed come to rescue the runt,” Kaitlyn snorted.

“I said, leave him alone,” Nai repeated.

“Or you’ll do what?” She held a fist before Nai’s nose. “How would you like a knuckle sandwich, half-breed?”

“It looks like we’ll be having lunch together.” Nai’s pale violet eyes radiated cold fury. The next moment Kaitlyn was flailing backward from a straight right to the chin.

“You little bitch!” Kaitlyn screamed, a trickle of blood running from her lips. “I’m gonna kick your ass to the moons.”

She scrambled to her feet, was knocked down again, got up and grappled with Nai. Around the nursery they battled, with cheers from the other children.

The nursery room door opened. Mrs. Rusch entered, escorting the Sneeds.

“…and here we have the playroom where the children gather to have fun, learn and interact socially with each other…” She stopped in mid stride and stared. Cheers of the onlookers died away.

Amid the wreckage of broken desks and toys was Nai, astride Kaitlyn with her fist upraised in the act of delivering another punch to Kaitlyn’s bloody and tearstained face.

“Hmm. So martial arts are part of your child care program?” Mr. Sneed observed drily.

~ * ~

City Center for Displaced

Or Abandoned Children

Haboob City,

Planet Dustball

April 19, 2318

Nai waited before the desk of the City Shelter Director. Mrs. Rusch dropped the stack of folders she had been sorting and looked up.

As usual, she could see Nai was regarding her with a feline stare, certain she had been ordered to present herself to receive a dressing down for some violation of Shelter rules. Nai was the top offender of this category.

Studying the girl Mrs. Rusch had to concede that reaching adolescence enhanced her strange otherworld beauty. Silver hair hung to her waist and the rough school uniform did little to conceal her shapely curves. A lovely child, if it were not for the latent menace in those eyes…

“You wanted to see me, Mrs. Rusch?”

“Yes, I do. As you are perhaps aware, you have reached the age of eighteen and Shelter regulations require you are to be discharged from this facility as an unadoptable orphan.” She smiled bleakly. “I suppose it would be appropriate to wish you a happy birthday.”

Nai favored her with a faint smile of her own. “I guess this means a party for me with cake, ice cream and all that?”

The jibe was ignored. “No, what this means is you will be escorted to the Haboob City Hostel today by Mr. Lupo, our handyman. There you will be given a small subsistence retainer and a list of all available jobs for you to apply.” She waved a hand toward the door. “The very best of luck to you, Ms. Crandell.”

Nai shrugged and turned to go. Reaching the door, she looked back at the Director.

“Thanks for everything, Mrs. Rusch. It’s been fun.”

As the door slid shut, Mrs. Rusch frowned.

With that attitude this girl as no idea of what is ahead for her in Haboob City.

~ * ~

The hovercar sped down the dirt road, raising a plume of tan dust behind it. Nai slouched in the seat beside Mr. Lupo, watching an endless panorama of sculpted basalt and arroyos sporting twisted cacti with arms reaching upward like green scarecrows.

Behind the flippant façade she displayed before Mrs. Rusch she was filled with gloomy apprehension. Strangely enough, despite her unwelcome presence in the Shelter she felt somewhat homesick. The years spent after being adopted by the elderly couple, the Gootches, had long since become a fading memory.

One memory was embedded in her mind like a splinter of glass. What few scraps of information she was able to pry from a reluctant Mrs. Rusch to confirm her belief, was that her mother, Falle Crandell, was sentenced to ten years for document forgery and skipping bail on a murder charge. At the completion of her sentence, she was being returned to Dustball in cryostorage for reactivation when the starfreighter was attacked by a Umas raider.

Nai and her stepfather, Elmer Gootch saw the ship crash, jumped on their sandcrawler to search for survivors. There were none, only a cryocapsule containing a frozen but still living inmate. Nai spotted an identification plate on the capsule.

INMATE 18547 FALLE CRANDELL

SENTENCED ON PLANET DROPOFF

TEN YEARS CRYOCONFINEMENT

SLYTHON PENAL FACILITY

It was her mother.

When Elmer sent a stunned Nai back to the sandcrawler for tools to attempt resuscitation the starfreighter exploded in a massive fireball.

As her stepmother, Gertrude, died earlier, Nai was returned to the Shelter with the knowledge that her mother was a convicted felon. Nai was not sure how she felt about this. Perhaps one day she would get the whole story and find out whether Falle, her mother, was a good or bad person.

Nai had been aware she was about to be cast adrift when she reached eighteen. She gave a great deal of thought to what she might do when this happened. As a friendless outcast she spent long hours at the Orphanage Information Center, devouring books and study discs. She turned to Lupo.

“How long will it be until we reach the hostel?”

Lupo looked away from the long road ahead and grinned. “I’m not taking you to the hostel.”

“You’re not? Where are we going?”

“The hostel is a bad place for you to be, kid. Drug dealers, hookers, water thieves, other types of losers.” He shook his head with disgust. “Old lady Rusch knows this but doesn’t care.”

“You’re taking me someplace better?”

“Yep. I got an old girlfriend in Haboob City, owes me a few favors. You’ll be fine there until you get your feet on the ground.”

“I guess so,” Nai replied doubtfully.

She never liked or trusted Mr. Lupo. There were rumors at the Shelter regarding his attraction for the younger boys.

“Now, let me give you a tad of advice when you get to Haboob City. You got the list of job openings from Mrs. Rusch?” he asked, looking at her on the seat beside him and stroking his bushy mustache.

“Yes, I do.”

“Okay. When you apply, don’t let on you’re part Eu. Just say you got the silver hair because you’re an albino.”

“Albino, Huh? Yes, I got it.”

Nai already guessed her treatment as a half-breed at Haboob City might be the same as she experienced from other children at the Center.

“The city is full of what they called on Old Earth as rednecks,” he said.

“I think I’ve heard the term before,” Nai agreed. “In fact, I think a few of my fellow orphans will probably grow up to be them.”

Lupo gave her a wink and an encouraging grin.

“You’ll do fine at your new job in Haboob City, kid.”

~ * ~

At last, they left the desert behind and drove into the city. It was much as Nai had seen from pictures at the Center library. A resemblance to a frontier town of the Old West on Earth with crumbling modern buildings hinting of former opulence. A few of the houses lay in ruins, indicating past attacks by Umas raiders and as yet unrepaired.

They continued down the main street, Nai gawking like a tourist. Battered hovercars and dusty terratrax were parked by seedy storefronts. Townspeople wandered down sidewalks or loitered on benches before shops. She noticed almost everyone was armed with force pistols or assault knives.

A hovertruck pulling a tanker whined into view. On its sides were the graphics of Aurumite Corporation. Immediately, the swinging doors of a bar were thrown open and a group of men wearing coveralls emerged and began throwing rocks. They continued tossing rocks and abuse while the hovertruck continued up the street.

“What was that all about?” Nai asked.

“Those unhappy guys throwing rocks are residents of Haboob City,” Lupo explained. “Aurumite Corporation owns the major aquifer on this side of the planet and as a monopoly they charge pretty much what they like.”

“How much do they have to pay for water here?”

“Their water bills suck out about half their paychecks. Even when they give up showers, flushing the terlit and the odd drink of water,” he snorted. “There used to be an old song: ‘I owe my soul to the company store.’”

In silence amid a cloud of dust from the passing hovertruck and tanker Nai thought this over.

She knew the Center far from the city was fortunate to have its own well, sold to them by water prospectors years ago. How bad were things here anyway? She had another question to ask.

“What exactly is this aurumite, anyway? I heard it was used in fusion reactors.”

“It acts like a kind of super vitamin for the reactors, jazzes up to triple their power output.” He hit the brakes as a horny male rockpup scampered across the street, chasing a squealing female. “The only place in the known universe what has aurumite is good old Planet Dustball.” Lupo started up the hovercar and pulled up before what was once a pretentious two- story building near the city center.

“Is this where your old girlfriend lives?” Nai asked, looping a small tote containing her few possessions over a shoulder.

“This is the place,” he grunted.

They exited the hovercar and mounted the steps.

Once inside, Nai found herself standing in an ornate lobby of red damask wall coverings under glass chandeliers. Sitting on satin couches scattered throughout the foyer were scantily-dressed women snuggling up to a mixed assortment of miners and nattily-dressed businessmen. She gazed around her with confusion.

“Your friend…lives here?” she asked.

“Actually, she runs this establishment.” He appeared to be exuding smug satisfaction. “Ah, here she is now.”

A large middle-aged woman was waddling down the hall toward them. She was attired in a lace gown which displayed chubby knees and an acre of breast cleavage.

“Judas, so nice to see you again,” she exclaimed, enveloping Lupo with her massive arms. She turned heavily mascaraed eyes to Nai. “Is this what you brought me this month?” She thrust out a paw to Nai. “What might your name be, sweetie?”

Reluctantly, Nai accepted her hand. “Um…I’m Nai. Nai Crandell.” She was becoming more and more nervous at the atmosphere around her and the way some of the men ensconced on couches were leering at her.

“I’m Gladys,” Lupo’s friend declared. “You can call me Madam.”

“Very pleased to meet you…ow.” Nai was about to retrieve her hand when she felt a sharp pain in her palm. Almost immediately she felt dizzy and the room began spinning crazily about her. As from a dense fog she heard Lupo talking with Gladys.

Very attractive girl, Judas. She looks…a little different from the others you’ve brought me.

Oh, she’s half Eu.

Really? I have a number of customers who enjoy sex with exotic females. I’ll have the staff lock her in a room until she recovers and is ready to go to work.

Okay Gladys, you owe me the usual finder’s fee plus expenses…

The voices faded away to a dark and silent void.

~ * ~

The room was dimly lit, with huge mirrors on the ceiling and red satin drapes hanging on the walls. Nai rolled over on the enormous heart shaped bed on which she had been dropped and rubbed the painful swelling on her palm where Gladys had injected the knockout drug. She groggily rolled off the bed and began an inspection of the room. As she expected, it was windowless with a heavy door locked from the outside.

This was Mr. Lupo’s little side business when he wasn’t working as a handyman. Selling girls released from the Shelter to a Haboob City brothel. So, she could expect the arrival of her first customer at some point.

Well, if Mr. Customer was expecting a fun time with a helpless and terrified young girl he was in for an unpleasant surprise, Nai decided with grim determination. She began a careful search of her prison for some weapon.

Crawling under the heart shaped bed she pried loose one of the steel supports. She hefted the heavy rod with satisfaction. Now she could deal with the situation to come. She took up position on one side of the door.

Nai didn’t have to wait long. She heard footsteps in the hall approaching her room and voices from beyond.

“Here is our newest arrival, Mr. Smegma,” announced a voice Nai recognized as Gladys’s. “As you are her first customer, you will be charged the premium rate, as we agreed.”

“Yeah, no problem,” a male voice replied. “You said she’s half Eu?”

“That she is, Mr. Smegma, and an eighteen-year-old virgin.”

“Hot damn, I can’t wait.”

“You have one hour. Enjoy yourself.”

There was a metallic clatter of a latch being unlocked. The door swung open and a man stepped inside. He peered around in the dimness, closed the door and advanced on the bed where Nai arranged pillows and covers into the shape of a sleeping form.

“Hey there, cutie-pie,” Smegma chuckled. “Wakey, wakey. I’ve got something nice and hard for you.”

“So do I, asshole.”

Nai stepped from her place beside the door and slammed her steel bar over the man’s head. He hit the floor like a dropped sack of cement, groaned once and lay still.

“He must have meant his head.”

Nai looked at the sharp bend in the steel rod. She tossed it aside and rolled the unconscious figure over and went through his pockets. Her haul was a sizeable wad of creds and an expensive commband.

Stuffing the loot into the pockets of her shorts Nai pondered her next move. The small bag containing her few possessions was long gone and the first priority would be escape. At least before the charming Madame Gladys arrived with Nai’s next customer.

Carefully, she opened the door and peered outside. She was looking down a long corridor and for the moment it was empty. Quickly, she closed the door behind her and crept along the hallway to a window beyond which was a catwalk leading to a darkened alley.

Arriving at the street before the brothel Nai stood under a podlight and considered. It was late at night and there were fewer pedestrians and vehicles to be seen. Her only option was to proceed to the hostel as Mrs. Rusch suggested and begin her search for employment on the morning. The creds she had taken from Gladys’s good customer wouldn’t last forever.

One thing she was certain of. She wouldn’t be using Gladys and the brothel as a past employment reference.

Ahead in the shadows of a building Nai spotted four lurking shapes. They appeared to be looking at her and she immediately regretted leaving her steel bar back at the room.

As she was debating what might be the best course to follow fight or flee, she saw a hovertaxi coming down the street. She quickly waved it down and climbed inside.

“Where to toots?” The driver, a grizzled old man wearing a shapeless hat perched on a bald head glanced over his shoulder at her.

“You know where the Haboob City Hostel is?” she asked.

“Oh yeah, it’s on the corner of Waterless and Drought Streets.” The driver turned down a side lane. “You must be another evictee from the City Shelter for Abandoned or Displaced Children.”

“That’s City Shelter for Displaced or Abandoned Children and I’m guilty as charged,” Nai replied. “Is the hostel as run down as they say?”

“Miss, it’s a real toilet,” he agreed. “Hookers, moongas peddlers, pimps and water thieves.” He shot her a questioning glance. “You sure you wanna go there?”

“Well, I don’t know of anyplace else I can go. Never been to the city before.”

“Got any creds on you?”

“Well…I have a few,” she replied uneasily.

“There’s a little hotel a few blocks away. Kinda old and run down but clean.”

Nai thought this over. “Okay, sounds like a good idea.”

“Be there in a few.”

A short time later the hovertaxi slid to the curb beside a small older building. SOAPWOOD HOTEL read a sign lit by a single dying podlight.

“How much do I owe you?” said Nai, getting ready to open the door.

“First ride for you is free, toots,” he grinned. “You’re gonna need all the coin you got getting started in this town. By the way, the name’s Mike Bell. My friends call me Baldy.”

Nai flushed with gratitude. “Well…thanks, Baldy. My name is Nai Crandell.”

“You’re gonna need a job, huh? Got any ideas?”

“The Center gave me a list.”

“Oh yeah, kitchen help, shoveling dirt, cleaning toilets, that kinda stuff, huh?”

“Pretty much what’s on her list,” Nai admitted.

“Tell you what, I heard the Aurumite Corporation is looking for a secretary. You know anything about bookkeeping?”

“Sure. I took classes at the Shelter.”

“Well, you’re not too bad looking. Why don’t you head up there tomorrow and apply?”

Nai was touched by his kindness. “I think I will. Thanks for the advice, Baldy. Also the free ride.”

“My pleasure, toots,” grinned. “Don’t take any wooden creds.”

Nai watched his taillights disappear up the street and mounted the steps to the hotel.

~ * ~

“That’ll be twenty-five creds for the room and thirty for water use,” the desk clerk informed Nai. He was a pimply-faced adolescent, half asleep and bored.

“Thirty creds for water?” Nai demanded incredulously. “Are you serious?”

“We gotta work with the monthly quota Aurumite Corporation gives each business,” he replied, yawning. “You staying one or more nights?”

“I guess one for start.” She fumbled in a pocket of her shorts for creds.

“Room 202, second floor,” mumbled the clerk.

He tossed a passdisc onto the desk and returned to magball game he had been watching when Nai entered.

Baldy had been right about the hotel. It was spartan but the room was clean with a tiny closet and claustrophobic bathroom. Nai eyed the closet. She would have to shop for clothes tomorrow if she was to interview for the possible position at Aurumite Corporation.

Tomorrow was going to be a busy day. Sighing, Nai took off her clothes and crawled into bed.

She was soon asleep.

~ * ~

The aromas of frying bacon and coffee drifted past her nose as Nai entered the small café just down the street from her hotel. The clientele was predominately blue collar: miners, clerks and hovertruck drivers. She seated herself at a corner table and picked up a menu.

“Do you think you’re supposed to be here?”

Nai looked up from the menu to see a waiter wearing a soiled apron and a scowl standing over her.

“Excuse me?” she asked, confused.

“What does the sign on the wall say?” he demanded, thrusting a stubby finger at the front counter.

NONHUMANS WILL NOT BE SERVED AT THIS ESTABLISHMENT.

“I don’t quite understand.” She looked from the sign to her interlocutor. “What has the sign got to do with me?”

“Because you’re a Eu, or at least a half-breed.”

She smiled up at him. “I think you’ve made a mistake. I happen to be an albino…”

“Don’t give me this crap,” the waiter growled. “I seed a show about Sheridan’s Planet and them Eus on holovision once. Take a hike, white-hair.”

The hovertruck drivers, clerks and miners were now glowering at Nai. With as much dignity as she could acquire, she got up to leave. At the café doorway she stopped and looked back.

“I hope all you jerkoffs get ptomaine poisoning at this greasy spoon,” she sneered.

Back on the sidewalk Nai fumed. Rednecks, Mr. Lupo called them. Was this whole town full of them?

From a side street vendor, she was able to purchase a few snacks which constituted breakfast. Munching on a stale muffin and desiccated egg sandwich she pondered her future.

Obviously, Lupo’s suggestion to pass herself off as an albino failed. She needed to conceal what she really was. On the opposite side of the street, she saw exactly what she needed.

A short hour later Nai emerged from the woman’s clothing store transformed. She was wearing an executive pantsuit, a targhide purse and her silver hair concealed by a blonde wig. Tinted antique eyeglasses covered her eyes.

Basking in the approval of male passerbys while she carried her bag of other purchases to her hotel room and reserved additional nights. Inside her room she gazed with satisfaction at her reflection in a mirror. Now she was ready for her job interview.

~ * ~

“You scored very highly in our preemployment screening test, Ms. Crandell,” Mr. Grout, the elderly human resources counselor declared, looking at Nai with his rheumy eyes and shutting off his desk scanner. “You were recently released from the City Shelter for Displaced or Abandoned Children?”

“As of yesterday,” Nai agreed, her hands demurely folded on her targhide purse, exuding polite attention.

“We have received a glowing report regarding you from the Shelter Director, Mrs. Rusch.” Mr. Grout beamed at her. “She described you as being well-behaved, industrious and respectful of authority.”

Nai was taken aback. Mrs. Rusch gave me a glowing report? Was she that glad to get rid of me?

“Unfortunately, the position for secretary has been filled earlier this morning.”

The glow of impending success in Nai faded to gloom. Just great. Now what do I do?

“However, we do have a position as assistant terratrax driver.”

“A terratrax driver?”

Mr. Grout leaned elbows on desk and steepled his fingers. “I’m sure you have heard of the rising cost of water needed for operation at the mine?”

Nai nodded, brightened by a glimmer of hope.

“We have recently been sending out into the desert prospecting teams searching for new aquifers. If they are found we can file claim with Haboob City Hall. A third of Aurumite Corporation profits come from the sale of water to Haboob City.”

“How successful have these teams been so far?” Nai asked. “I’ve heard most privately owned aquifers have been running dry.”

“Well…we don’t know as yet,” Mr. Grout replied, evasively glancing down at his blotter. “The two teams we sent out last month have yet to report in.”

“They’ve been gone a month?”

This was not good news.

“We expect them back at any time,” he replied smoothly, then looked at her with expectation. “So, Ms. Crandell, might you be interested in this amazing career opportunity?”

The impending weight of a right decision weighed heavily on Nai. She had very few creds left and the prospect of waiting on tables or scrubbing toilets held little appeal.

“Um, very interested, Mr. Grout,” she smiled weakly.

“You do have experience driving a terratrax, I assume?”

One of the many misdeeds Nai had been carpeted for at the City Shelter was stealing the passkeys for several vehicles and taking them for joyrides across the desert.

“Oh yes, quite experienced,” she assured him.

“Excellent, Ms. Crandell,” said Mr. Grout, gratified. “Could you start tomorrow morning?”

“I can. Thank you, Mr. Grout.”

“My pleasure, young lady.”

After shaking hands Nai found herself outside Grout’s office. Something else she had planned to do came to mind. She tapped the commband she had stolen from the good customer at the brothel.

“Haboob City Directory, how may I help you?” said a tiny voice from the commband.

“Yes, could you connect me with Mrs. Rusch at the City Shelter for Displaced or Abandoned Children?”

“One moment, please.”

“This is Mrs. Rusch,” said a familiar voice.

“Mrs. Rusch, this is Nai Crandell.”

“Oh yes, how are you doing, Ms. Crandell?” Her voice sounded wary.

Other orphans on being released from the Shelter had not fared well in Haboob City and had pleaded to return.

“I have some unpleasant news about Mr. Lupo, who was to take me to the Haboob City Hostel.”

“Excuse me, unpleasant news?”

“He ended up taking me to a brothel where I was sold to a Madam Gladys.”

“My goodness, are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine, I managed to escape unharmed. Mrs. Rusch, I have a pretty good idea Mr. Lupo has been taking other girls released from the Shelter there to be sold.”

There was a long silence on Nai’s commband. “This is incredible. Are you certain this is what happened?”

“I am very certain, Mrs. Rusch. Why don’t you check out the trip recorder on his hover car?”

“I certainly will.” There was another long silence. “Ms. Crandell, could I ask you not to mention this horrifying tale to anyone until I have ascertained what has happened?”

“Not a problem, Mrs. Rusch. By the way, thanks for the nice employment reference you gave me today.”

“It was my pleasure, Nai. Take care.”

Tapping the commband off, Nai was grinning like a hyena.

Payback is really going to be a bitch for you and your old girlfriend Gladys, Lupo.