Haze headed for a back alley toward the middle of town. It was a fairly straight shot to the merchant he was interested in.

He did his best to stay under the eaves and in the shadows but look casual as he moved. Hopefully, he looked like the typical criminal, rather than the most wanted one on the planet.

He entered the merchant’s shop through a back door and worked his way quietly down the back hallway of the store.

As he entered the shop, his body spiked with adrenalin, and he unhanded the guard in a few strikes of his open hand, hitting fast with staccato moves. He kicked the guard to the ground, to be sure of things.

Haze pulled his mask down and took a deep breath of unfiltered air. “See- what’d I say last time I was here?” Haze asked, nudging the furry guard with his foot. He looked up at the merchant, bringing his weapon to bear on him. “Troubles over, and now you realize you have some. Yes?”

The merchant glanced at the guard, crumpled on the ground, and nodded his head.

Haze gestured around the store.

“Anyone shopping today?”

“No, Mr. Gosa.” The man seemed unafraid and placed all four hands on the counter in plain view. “You are my honored guest, good sir. You will not need that weapon. I do not fight; I have others to do that for me.”

“I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you. Now…” He waggled his gun in the merchant’s direction. “You’ll step away from that counter.”

Haze scooched down, still holding his gun to the merchant. He grabbed some zipties out of his pack.

He tossed a couple to the merchant. “Tie up your friend.” He waved the gun under the merchant’s nose. “Make me proud. Hands and ankles. Tight.”

After that, Haze gestured toward the front. “Why don’t you lock up, so we can chat?”

He followed the merchant at a good distance, as the man locked the door and put out a sign, saying he was at lunch.

Haze smacked him a good crack with the butt of his gun.

The man’s hand went to his nose as the blood began to flow. “What was that for?”

“That was for my slave. Where’d she get put? You better answer me truthful, or I’ll do more than bloody you.”

“Sir, your girl would be with The Boss now. She’s unreachable to anyone without The Boss’ sayso. I’m afraid Lady Vardon may have thought you were encroaching on her territory.”

“Who told this Lady Vardon I had the slave?”

“That slaver, Nethar. You saw him in here before. He was checking on my business and must have reported it to her.”

“Right. I’m sure it wasn’t you trying to curry favor.” Haze let the sarcasm drip. “But let’s blame it on the slaver scum. He’s dead, so I doubt he’ll mind.”

The merchant flushed.

Haze pulled the merchant into the air, so he could give him a bonus, warning shake. “Let’s go.”

The merchant struggled, his feet swinging slightly in the air, all four hands clung to Haze’s arms. “Where are we going?”

“I need you to take me to this bitch’s hideout. I need to be there in thirty minutes. Do it right and I might let you keep your kneecaps.”

“Sir, it doesn’t have to be like this. There are other ways to deal with Lady Vardon.”

Haze dropped the merchant, letting him fall on his ass. “Don’t be playing your mind games. I know a stooge when I see one.”

The man winced as he pulled himself up. “Listen, you’re just asking the Boss to wipe out your entire family. Does that not matter to you?”

“I got no family, except what’s in the sky and what she took from me, and this Boss is looking to take a piece of both. I ain’t having it.”

The merchant looked at him sideways and down at Ollie’s crumpled form. “You can’t buy another slave?”

“Do you still believe Vi is my slave?”

The man shook his head. “Not really, but a man can’t be too careful in my line of work. I looked up information about the Mahdfel. Your kind doesn’t seem like particularly good candidates to own slaves. …Unless you were matched.”

“Yes, Vi is my match. She is mine …if she’ll have me.”

Merchant Yarda heaved a big sigh. “I’ve been on this job for over three years, getting closer and closer. We’re like two steps away, and you’re about to blow the whole operation.”

“What now? What operation? What’s that got to do with Vi?”

“It has everything to do with Vi. You see, I work for a rather large, undercover organization that is working to rid the universe of some of the larger slaving operations. This Boss you’re planning to take on by yourself? She owns two quadrants in this sector. We’ve been putting a plan in place for five years to overthrow her and plant someone in her place. I’ve been slowly working my way into a position of trust within her organization.

“If you want any hope of rescuing that girl, you’re going to need our help…” He glanced down at his man on the ground, who was starting to blink back to consciousness. “…And something tells me we could use yours.”

Haze thought about it but shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Listen, you can keep your gun on us the whole time, and I take you to our secret base where I have a cache of weapons and a fairly complete layout of the place. If, after all that, you think you can trust us, I have ten other men we can bring on the job, not to mention the one or two I have on the inside. Would that work for you?”

Haze considered it, wavering. Even without his gun, his reflexes were possibly ten times faster than these flat-foots.

Haze switched his gun to stun and tapped it against his side, available but less threatening. “Fine. We see how this plays out.”

“Good. Let me see about getting poor Ollie conscious. Although I must say…” He smiled. “…he’s probably not going to be too happy to work with you right now.”