"Do we have time to watch this before going to Pripps Electronics?" Ry held up the tiny case that held the data chip recording.

"Maybe, if we eat lunch while we're watching it," I said. Room service delivered soup and sandwiches while Ry and I settled in to watch the interviews that Bel conducted with Abinger's Legal Firm. The story didn't deviate much—Maris Krastel didn't have a grudge against anyone—at least to her coworkers' knowledge, and she and her sister had teased one another earlier in the day, laughing over some silly thing. After lunch, Maris had gone crazy, shooting her sister and five others with an unregistered weapon before taking her own life.

"Did they pick up Maris' comp-vid when the investigation was done?" Ry asked as we listened to one of Maris' coworkers say that Lethia, Maris' sister, had talked constantly about a vacation to Stellar Winds. In business for fifteen years, Stellar Winds was a social planetoid where singles could meet other singles and young couples could go to party. Mostly that's what it was—one continuous party.

The planetoid held one large city, with every business constantly serving drinks. Nothing ever closed, there, and if you weren't drinking, you could lounge around a pool at your hotel, get massages, book a mate-finding class, sign up to meet others with mutual interests or play any number of popular games, physical or mental. Everybody knew, though, that Stellar Winds was the place to go if you were looking for sex.

Brothels aboppsBrothelunded across Stellar Winds, catering to any whim. Elegant dining was also offered there and many of the best master cooks now worked for restaurants on Stellar Winds. They were paid outrageous amounts for their work, too. Fes had lost two assistants and Radolf one that way.

"Wonder why her sister didn't go to Stellar Winds with her," Ry muttered as we listened to the secretary prattle on about Maris and Lethia.

"Maris' records say that she had a lover," I offered, still listening to the interview. "He was interviewed, too, and he said that he couldn't believe that Maris would do anything like this. He said that Lethia was Maris' best friend and confidant, besides being her sister."

"So, nothing in the records about the laser pistol used?"

"Not much. No identifying numbers or anything. It looked to be contraband from the old Campiaan Alliance." That's how everybody referred to it, now. There was the Campiaan Alliance, the one Teeg formed twenty-five years earlier, and the old Campiaan Alliance, referring to the scattering of nearly lawless worlds where strength and power ruled by force.

Plenty of older weapons found their way into both the Campiaan and Reth Alliances from many of those worlds. The ASD and CSD both worked toward eliminating them, but there was still plenty to be had if you had the right connections and the proper amount of non-identifying credits. The trouble was, Maris had neither of those things. Not that anyone knew of, anyway.

"And Maris' lover worked for?" Ry was prompting me.

"He's in lower-level management at one of Schuul Enterprises' many small electronics plants. I think they make sensors for home security alarms. He's so clean he squeaks when he walks, Mr. Faldin Bierla is."

The truth was, nearly half of Quezlos' population worked for some subsidiary of Schuul Enterprises or other. Quezlos, as the capital city of Surnath, boasted a teeming population of fifteen million. High rises rose far into the sky, filled with living quarters or multitudes of businesses. The largest and tallest, of course, belonged exclusively to Schuul Enterprises and all their business operations were located there.

On the recorded vid, Bel's questioning was thorough, and he didn't look much different from the last time I'd seen him. Mandil's population lived around two hundred twenty years, but their wizards lived around five times that long. Something about the power they held did that for them. Bel, according to the records, was barely three hundred. He had many turns left, if he still lived. I found myself sighing and worrying for my old friend again as I watched him on the vid.

I rushed to brush my teeth before we went out the door to visit Pripps Electronics. Nirif greeted us, and this time it was my turn to exude charm as much as I could, although I didn't have Ry's talent for it. Nirif didn't seem to mind, he wanted to fawn anyway. He was such a sweet young man, I didn't mind. And now he was fatherless and that got him an extra bit of sympathy. He also had a vid copy of the interviews Bel had done. I wanted to hug him for that.

Nirif produced vid-images of Jaske, too, something the legal firm hadn’t done for us. Jaske worked as a supervisor on the assembly line. Mostly he supervised the employees who monitored assembly robots, and those employees were the ones he'd killed. Nirif was correct; Jaske had nearly wiped out the entire day shift that Pripps employed. Ry and I questioned the employees again, asking for any additional information. We got a bit more, just as we'd done at Abinger's Legal Firmours Legal.

"Here, the owner wanted to give these to you, they're prototypes of something we're developing," Nirif smiled and handed two packages to Ry and me.

"What's this?" I smiled at Nirif. I hadn't expected a gift.

"We're trying our hand at comp-vids," he said. "We're not ready to compete with Schuul, don’t worry about that," he smiled. He'd seen Ry's and my comp-vids already. He knew who'd made them. "These are geared toward the ones who like to play games. The software helps with puzzles and such." He tapped the box I held in my hand. Schuul comp-vids were capable of loading any game imaginable, but none of them helped with the puzzles and such. You had to figure that out for yourself or buy additional programming that helped a little.

"Thanks," I said, waving at Nirif as we walked out the door. Ry and I slipped the information chip into our reader as soon as we made it back to our hotel, and settled in to watch as Bel interviewed Pripps employees. Turns out Jaske's mother worked for Schuul Enterprises. Still not a surprise. I was surprised that more of the employees didn't have a spouse or sibling working for Dantel Schuul in some capacity.

"Want to interview Maris' lover and Jaske's mother tomorrow?" Ry sighed as we shut off the comp-vid-images later. It was long past dinner and we'd have to find something to eat somewhere. Neither of us wanted sandwiches again.

"Sure. Bel talked to both of them, I know," I nodded. "Feel like that meal I promised to cook for you? I haven't gotten good fish in a long time."

"Where are you cooking?" Ry asked.

"How about going to Dee's? We can eat in the kitchen. If Radolf complains, I think I can take him." Ry grinned at me and folded us to Dee's.

"Reah, what's this I hear that you left Kifirin for good?" Radolf was hovering. He was still my mate, he just didn't feel up to having sex with a female and probably wouldn't for the next ninety-odd turns. Ilvan had come for a day off and was helping Radolf around the kitchen.

"You heard correctly," I said, pulling yaris fish from Radolf's industrial fridge and setting about preparing it for Ry and me.

"Are you sure that's wise, cutting yourself off like that?" Radolf fretted. I didn't point out that he'd done the same thing when he'd renounced his Karathian citizenship, just as Ry and I had.

"Rad, this is my decision and it was long overdue," I said, pouring a bit of oil into a skillet and dredging the fish in the flour, herb and spice mixture before laying it gently in the heated pan to cook. The sauce was what truly made the fish, and I'd already slapped it together. Thankfully, one of Rad's kitchen employees was putting a vegetable dish together for Ry and me.

"Who will you live with?" Radolf demanded to know. Now I knew why he seemed so concerned. He and Ilvan were in my house there on Tulgalan. He didn't want to be turned out of it or forced to share. It made me sigh. They'd taken it over as theirs, although it had been a gift from Teeg twenty-five years earlier.

"Rad, if you want the house, I'll sell it to you. Although it's probably still in Teeg's name. You'll have to work it out with him." That caused a lifting of eyebrows, both his and Ilvan's. I never stayed there anymore and none of my things were there any longer. I figured Rad and Ilvan had taken over the master suite long ago.

"Reah, it may be out of our price range," Ilvan pointed out. He was my uncle and Edan's younger brother. He'd been afraid to admit his sexual orientation to his father, Addah Desh, as long as Addah was alive. To say Addah was prejudiced might have been putting things in much too mild a perspective.

"Talk to Teeg. I'm not going to jerk it away from you," I assured him. "Stop worrying about it. I can stay at Aurelius' or Lok's. They're never home anyway."

"I'd like for both of you to stop bothering Reah about this; she will have a place to stay," Ry sounded angry for some reason, and he never angered. He was always diplomacy and discretion, in the highest measures. I was a little miffed, too, but I'd let them live in the house rent-free, so why should things change now?

I finished the fish, we got the vegetables onto our plates and Ry and I sat in the kitchen and had a nice dinner while Ilvan and Radolf kept working. I'd found a good bottle of wine to go with our fish, and Ry and I took the rest of it back to our hotel room in Quezlos.

"Reah, you have to stop allowing them to walk over you," Ry gave me a hug and poured more wine into two glasses the hotel provided. Handing one to me, he bumped his glass with mine.

"I guess I should reevaluate my relationships," I gulped half my wine. "In ninety turns, we'll see if Radolf wants me again."

"Reah, he should want you now. That's how those relationships work."

"Could have fooled me." I gulped the rest of my wine. "All he sees is Ilvan, now."

"Ilvan is your uncle. He needs to see past his lust for a moment or two. If somebody were homesteading in his house and he needed it, you can bet he'd be having a fit."

"I allowed it for the past five turns. They're entrenched, now."