Mal heard the cussing in Chinese behind him but didn’t stop to help the two people he had knocked to the ground. He watched Morgan duck into an alley ahead. Mal still hadn’t spotted the man they were chasing. Morgan said it was the officer from Hera, the one that had attacked the transports. If that were the case it would be ugly once Morgan caught up to him.

Mal was moving to fast as he entered the alley. He scrunched his shoulder as he slammed into the brick wall, then careened off and landed on the ground. He looked up to see Morgan turn right onto the next street. Mal got to his feet and lit out behind him.

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Major Erik Engel knew the man chasing him. After Hera he had used the promotion he received for his success in the attack, to research the man who had nearly bested him. His position as Section Chief at HIC (Human Intelligence Collection) gave him the clearance to learn everything about Nathaniel Morgan.

After Morgan’s betrayal to the Alliance and subsequent escape, the powers that be took their wrath out on his family. His parent’s farm was seized and they were taken as co-conspirators. His mother died in the interment camp and her death push his father into insanity. His wife was core born and her family had connections, so the same approach could not be used.

Instead they froze his account and then froze her out. She was denied the life she enjoyed as an officers wife. The Alliance threatened her friends with criminal charges if they associated with her. Her debts piled up and with no one to turn to, she was forced to return to her family. Once there, under pressure from the family to clear up their good name, she filed for divorce. It was quickly granted and she has since remarried.

The only misstep they had made in his opinion was leaking this information back to Morgan. They had hoped to demoralize him, instead it reinforced in his mind that the Alliance had to fall, and now that grim determination was chasing him through the streets of Port Comfort.

He had