Rachel picked up the card and flipped it nonchalantly into her hand: seven of plums. Her hands were shaking a little, and she had to concentrate on keeping her breathing just right. It was a good hand, but she couldn't read Hobenson so well as to know if it was good enough. That was the thing about psychopaths—they did tend to have a natural poker face. Silently, she nodded her continued consent to the stakes. She could back out at any time and get out with her ship, but there was no way she was going to leave Amelia here. Not now that she'd seen what Hobenson was capable of.

The thin wiry man smiled inscrutably and flipped over the last wild card. Eight of peaches. "Last chance to back out, Captain Wu."

Rachel took a deep breath, glancing down at her cards. This had been a very bad idea.

SIXTEEN HOURS EARLIER

Rachel usually didn't play poker with them, primarily because they usually played to ride out the storm when she and Daphne locked horns. It was a slow day, however, so Leo had managed to corral Dex and Saul into a game, and the captain had decided to sit in. Leo was dealing, bronze-tinted cards clicking together as they landed in neat piles. "First wild's universal, second's bid for tall, you can buy four on a dragon or a one, or on the first wild, but not the tall. And dragon pairs are up on three ones, but no other threesomes. Got it?"

Dex blinked and shook his head, leaning toward Saul. "Can you believe this guy?"

"No, but then people tell me I'm not very trusting."

"Could we just play, please?"

Leo shrugged. "Just trying to keep the game interesting. Ante."

Each player tossed in a scrap of paper with a shipboard chore scribbled on it. It was an old spacefarer's wager—useful, since Leo was the only one who actually had the real money to lose.

The players glanced at their cards, and placed their bets. Leo flipped over the wild cards, and Rachel won the bid. Silently, the other players traded out new cards and added their last bets. "All right, what's everyone have?"

Dex flipped over two pair,