Continued from Part Two of Chapter 6: The Deep End

On the other side of the planet, in a small but glitzy city named Semele, in a well populated bar called “Empty Promises”, River held a silver coin just under her eye, “Shoot.”

Across the stand up table was a large merchant spacer hanging on for life. He held his coin up and blinked at the double image of the shot glass in between them. The table had gathered a small audience. This little girl had taken out three other pacers from the same company. The spacer took a deep breath then flicked the coin at the table. The coin bounced off the table and barely missed the glass. The crowd around them laughed.

“That was so close,” said River. “I was scared there.” She flicked her coin at the table but missed. The crowd became excited. Would this end the girl’s unprecedented winning streak?

“I got you now, girly,” said the spacer. He braced himself on the table and took his shot. Another miss. “It’s okay. It’s okay. She ain’t got no luck left.”

River weaved her coin in between her fingers a few times then held it up for the crowd to see, “Double bounce.”

“Tsway-niou ,” said the spacer.

River released the coin. It bounced once on River’s side. It f