Sir Anderson's eyes followed lazily as the agent pointed out the various amenities inherent to owning one's own flying island: security, the gardens, indoor/outdoor swimming pools…the nobleman smiled. Despite the fact that he was acting, he couldn't help but surrender himself to the salesman's pitch; for a moment, he could almost imagine he was back on the Core. Before he and his nephew had had to brave the frontier, he would have looked down on backwater imitation-Core planets like Bellerophon and their vain pretensions of civility. Now, he admitted, he finally saw the attraction.

"So tell me," he interrupted the sales agent's excited jabbering, "what sort of acreages do you offer?"

An arm jerked out, and the passing security guard flipped limply onto his back. Saul stepped into the corridor, looked down at the crumpled form, nodded, and began walking. As she followed, Rachel looked beneath her at the guard. "Explain to me why we couldn't just sneak around the guards?"

Dex cleared his throat as he funneled into the hallway behind her. "I think Saul's got some unresolved aggression to…well, resolve."

Rachel shot a look back at her mechanic. "This your fault?"

"Let's just say I'm glad he ain't resolvin' it at me," Dex muttered.

"I swear, if it ain't one thing…"

"Uh, Rach?" The captain, then Saul in front of her when he realized no one was following him, turned around to face the Cortex screen Dex was pointing at. Across if flashed the words 'Federal Override: No Access from Secondary Terminals.' Rachel swore to herself.

"Great."

"Mona…"

The teenage pilot pulled back from Sir Anderson's increasingly high-profile tour of the model estate and drew her radio from her belt. "Yeah, Mariah, what is it?"

"I've got Fedband chatter. I think they've landed on Hamer's estate. The captain…"

"Don't you worry, Miss Wu knows how to dodge the Feds better'n anyone. But we better get in the air. You remember how to do the preflight?"

"Uh…I think so."

"Okay. We'll be right there." Mona clipped the receiver back to her b