Saffron sipped her wine as she watched the servants pack her clothes. Today she had gotten the news she had been hoping forever since she had conceived this plan. And now it was time for her to be gone. She would take that idiot Hoyle with her. The man might be contrary, foolish and with an ego the size of a house but he knew how to handle himself and most importantly he was smitten with her. The other servants would keep quiet about her real identity, she had given them enough of their former master’s money to ensure that. In any case most of them did not know who she really was, just that she was not who she had continually claimed to be. It would not be long now, she thought with satisfaction, Hoyle was out prepping the hovercraft, then they would be on their way to the spaceport in Blackrock to the south. By tomorrow she would be offworld with a large lead on the authorities.

It no longer bothered her that she could barely remember her real name or who she had been as a child. This was her life now, one step ahead of the bumbling idiotic government, always a new man. A new mark set up for a fall. It added a certain spice to her life one that she knew that her teachers back on Sihnon would not approve of. But their disapproval was the reason she had left in the first place, the reason she had turned to this life. Every so often she felt a pang of regret for certain events but it was mostly passing and in truth she never really looked back. This was her life now and it was all she could want. Adventure, excitement, loot and the chance to practice and hone her skills whenever she chose.

She had a wave from that Agent Dattre that morning, one that had made her smile inside. Outside she had been crying in relief at the news and letting Dattre feel sympathy for her plight. Men were so easily lead. They had captured the girl just as she had wanted and now she had to leave, before they began their interrogation and discovered the truth. Saffron had no doubt it would happen but it could take days or even week