Alex exchanged a look with Will, who shrugged. He didn't know what this was about either. The two men looked like they were used to hard work, or violence. A little shorter than Alex, wide shouldered and muscles that stretched their dirty shirts.

    They weren't armed, but Alex didn't think they needed weapons to hurt them.

    When Will started moving, Alex followed. The two men escorted them to a small shuttle, barely large enough for the four of them. It flew them out of the town and across ragged country side for close to an hour. Alex saw remnant of towns next to large pits.

    Someone had mentioned this was a mining world. Alex wondered what they mined. The trip showed him why every building was made of identical prefabricated parts, they had to move them each time they were done mining an area.

    They didn't land in the other town's port, but in the street, by a low and wide building. They got out, and Alex recognized the building. His put his free hand in his pocket to hide the trembling, and hoped holding the case would keep the other still. He looked at the gray door, and only moved when one of the men pushed him. He knew why he was here and it wasn't going to be good. How had they known where he was? He wished he could come up with something, but other than asking the question, his mind didn't want to work.

    Inside the sounds of talking and drinking welcomed them, but they were led away down a corridor to a room at the back.

    "We found him," one of the men said as he pushed them into the room. Will glared at him, but Alex only stared at the man seated behind the table which, by the papers on them, served as a desk.

    He was overweight, a bit more than Alex was, but his beige shirt hung loose on him. He was bald, his skin pale brown, and sporting a white goatee. The man indicated the two chairs, on their side of the table. Will took one and then glanced to Alex, who was still frozen by the door. His friend indicated the chair, but it still took a moment for Alex to get himself to sit down. He set the case on the floor next to him and locked his fingers together to keep from fidgeting.

    "What's this about?" Will asked.

    "It's about theft," the man said gaze fixed on Alex.

    Alex knew someone had said the man's name before, but he couldn't remember it. His mind couldn't seem to work past the fear of knowing he'd been caught.

    "Don't know how we'll help," Will said, "we haven't been ground side long."

    "Is that so?" the man said. "I received intel this man," he indicated Alex, "Is one of those who robbed me earlier today."

    Alex saw Will turn his head to him, and with effort he looked back. Will looked baffled.  

    "He robbed you? How? He's been on the ship all the time, until we came down to go shopping."

    The man sneered. "Really? Then why does he look terrified?"

    The expression reminded Alex of another time he was seated opposite an accuser, and anger burned deep in him, burning away some of the fog clouding his thoughts.

    "He's a tourist, from Deleron Four. Works in a cubicle. Don't expect he's ever been forcefully brought anywhere, have you?"

    He had, he'd been imprisoned, but he knew this wasn't the time to mention it. He shook his head.

    "A tourist?" the man snorted. Oustalo, that was his name. "Tourist ships don't come here. There isn't anything anyone want to see."

    "We're merchant, but we take passenger. We're cheaper than cruise ships. More scenic. He wanted to see if he could find something exotic. That's where they found us."

    The man gestured, and before Alex could react one of the men took the case and placed it on the table. The man opened it and took the statue out.

    "Careful!" Alex exclaimed.

    Oustalo raised a thin eyebrow at him, before looking the statue over. "What is it?"

    "It's a Samalian statue." 

    "It's valuable?"

    "A couple hundred," Will said. 

    "It's a reproduction," Alex added.

    "Then why the near panic when I picked it up?" Oustalo's tone wasn't accusatory, merely curious.

    "I have a friend, it's-" Alex paused reigning in his mouth before he said something that contradicted Will. "It's for him, a gift. He likes them. Please be careful."

    Oustalo looked it over again, then shrugged and put it back on the felt base.

    "How much got stolen?" Will asked. "Sixty-five thousand."

    Alex's jaw dropped. That wasn't what anders had said. He man raised an eyebrow at him. "That's-that's a lot of money." Alex hadn't considered that before, but how did a bar make that kind of money? Even thirty thousand sounded like a lot for this kind of place.

    "It is."

    Will took a cred stick from his pocket. "Ive got ten thousand. It's all I can give you."

    "I thought you said you weren't the ones who robbed me." 

    "We aren't, but you're going to get our money anyway. If I don't give it now, you'll have us beaten. I've been shaken before. I'd rather give it to you than miss my ship. The captain doesn't have any patience for us that stay on the ground."

    Oustalo took the stick checked its content on a datapad then nodded to Alex. "What about him?"

    By reflex Alex patted his pockets. Did he have anything? He'd thrown all the loose cred chips he'd had, so all he was left with was his card and what was in his account. If it was scanned, would Oustalo be able to tell it had been used earlier to pay for a drink?

    "He doesn't have anything anymore," Will said, coming to his rescue. "He wouldn't be traveling with us if he could afford it. And he used the little he had left for that. I had to haggled the price down until he could afford it. He really wanted it."

    Alex tried to look embarrassed, looking at his feet.

    The room was silent, except for the sound of Oustalo tapping the stick on the table.

    "I still got the intel it was him." 

    "You paying for it?" Will asked.

    Oustalo didn't say anything, but when Alex looked at him, he was thoughtful.

    "I'm thinking," Will continued, "That someone saw us coming out of a shuttle. He looks like a tourist. They figured it was easy money. Probably didn't think you'd take me too, so my client'd be too scared to know what's happening, you'd get angry, and have one of them work him over until he said yes to anything you wanted."

    Oustalo's eyes flashed with momentary anger.

    Will shrugged. "Just a thought. Dunno how you work."

    Oustalo nodded, looking at the stick in his hand. "You make a reasonable point. And you show you do know how things work." He indicated he stick. "So I will let you go, but I strongly advise you to make sure your 'client' doesn't set foot here again."

    "No worries," Will said, calmly standing. "Ship's leaving soon."

    Alex had to force himself to move slowly, standing and then closing the case. He didn't bother trying to hide his shaking now. Case in hand he followed Will out the room, then out of the bar. They made it five blocks before Alex's leg became too painful.

    "I need to sit down."

    "No you don't," Will growled. He grabbed Alex's arm and pulled him along. "He's watching us. We do anything to make him wonder and he's not going to bother asking question. You can sit at the port, while we wait for a shuttle."

     Will had to support some of his weight for Alex to continue. The time it took to reach the port felt a lot longer than the twenty minutes it had taken with Anders.

    Will ordered a shuttle from the kiosk, then sat next to Alex.

    "So that was Ander's job?" Will asked.

    Alex looked around to see if anyone else was there.

    "No worries. No one in places like this travel. Port's for freight."

    "Yes, it was." 

    "Who knew?"

    "Me, Milo, Anders, Zephyr and Barbara. I don't know if they told anyone else."

    "Why'd you go and do something with Anders? You're passenger, you don't need to pull jobs. You don't need money after you get your cut of the job the captain gave you."

    "I didn't know it was a job. Anders just said he wanted to take me off the ship so we could get a drink."

    "Don't trust Anders."

    "Why? We got over our problems, he's been nothing but friendly toward me."

    "Forcing you on a job isn't friendly."

    Alex shrugged. "It's Anders, I figure it's all he knows." 

    Will chuckled. "True."

    A minute later the shuttle landed and the got in. The flight was quiet, except for the pain in his leg. Alex was going to head directly to Doc and get that looked it. He was worried about the damage he was doing to it now.

    On the station Alex thought about buying another painkiller, but decided against it. Being aware of the pain meant he was careful. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt himself more.

    Getting close to the ship, Alex saw Anders talking with one of his crew, a short woman with very red hair. Alex had seen her around, but didn't know her.

    "Hey, Anders, thanks for waiting," Alex called.

    Anders glanced in their direction, then froze, a look of utter shock on his face.

    Alex slowed his steps, then stopped, confused at the man's reaction. Then something clicked.

    "You son of a bitch," Alex growled. "You're the one who told Oustalo I was down there."

    Anders sputtered for a moment. "No, I... It wasn't-" 

    "Bullshit. You're the one who arranged it, you got me down there, you told me to start the fight. What were you going to do? Convince me to go down for another visit? Why?"

    Alex saw that for one moment Anders considered protesting, then he throw his hands up. "Fine, I was getting fed up with being nice to you anyway." He poked Alex in he chest. "I tried my best to bring you in line. I figured if I bedded you, you'd feel you had to work for me, but that didn't work because you're too soft hearted to sleep with someone else than that guy you won't see for years. I didn't think you'd survive the bar fight. I almost strangled you when I saw you there, but Milo was there too. Then I had to do an even split of the job to keep being nice to you. You think I was going to let the chance pass-by when you said you were heading back down?"  

    Alex wanted to punch Anders. He wanted to scream at him, smash the case over his head over and over. Alex had thought Anders was becoming a friend, but it had been a lie. He was shaking again, but it wasn't in fear this time.

    He shoved Anders aside and limped up gangplank. 

    "Where's Anna?" he asked Will, once they were inside the ship. Will called her. Alex wasn't surprised to find out she was in one of the combat rooms.

    Alex was done worrying about Anders. The next time he caused him problems, Alex was going to be able to give him a piece of his mind.