SPACERThey had ridden most of the night to get as far from Hell and the Corporate Police raid as they could. When Janos thought they were safe enough, he stopped, started a fire, and unrolled his bed. He threw Misha a blanket expecting her to begin complaining, but she remained quiet. He tossed and turned for fifteen or twenty minutes before he could stand no more.

SPACER“What was all that?” he asked without turning to face her.

SPACERShe answered without moving.

SPACER“My name is Misha.I am part of a group called the Shadow Lords.” She sat up now and faced Janos’ back. “Ever heard of us?”

SPACERJanos had heard of the Shadow Lords. A contact of his in a Necrolitic tribe not far from here had spoken of them in passing.

SPACER“No.”

SPACER“Well, I’m not surprised. We don’t exactly advertise, you know.” She paused and pulled off her boots. Her long, dingy socks were full of holes. “We’re sort of a club.”

SPACERThat was rich. A club, she says.

SPACER“And what is your club’s interests?”

SPACER“Well, my…. ‘club’… is interested in lots of things.”

SPACER“For example…” It was apparent she did not want to get that deep or honest just yet.

SPACER“Suffice it to say, we dabble in mostly everything,” she said, dismissing my inquistion. “That’s why we need you.”

SPACER“Me?” Janos was almost surprised.

SPACER“Yes, Janos…you.”

SPACERShe knows me from somewhere, Janos thought. She must. She’s not recruiting me because her ‘club’ needed more people. She is recruiting me because she knows about New Delphia.

SPACER“Why would your club need me?” he asked.

SPACER“We have run into a bit of a bind in our current operations,” she confided. Well, here’s a start...

SPACER“What sort of a bind?” he quickly cut-in. “And what kind of ‘operations’ do you run?”

SPACER“Well…” she sighed. She sat there looking at him. No, looking through me, Janos thought. He thought she was trying to read his face or his mind. “Do you like the corporations?”

SPACERJanos pondered her question for a moment. Of course he didn’t! Who could, really? He decided to answer as ambiguously as possible until he knew more about this woman.

SPACER“Some aren’t so bad.”

SPACER“Well, some, maybe, aren’t so bad, but the majority of them abuse the power they’ve accrued through wealth.” Misha pulled her socks off and ran her feet through the sand, trying to remove the sweat and the grime from her toes. “You ever seen what they do to the metroplexes they run?”

SPACER“I’ve seen the propaganda films of the revolutionary loonies, if that’s what you mean,” he answered snidely.

SPACER“The propaganda films are true!” she insisted. “You know damn well that most corporations make laws around their own best interests and then break them anyway. Most include murder in their everyday tactics and lots manufacture narcotics…illegal narcotics…and turn profits exploiting the weak and the sick.”

SPACER“We’ve been planning to hit the corporations and hit them hard. We know you, Janosha Harpinskin. We know who you are and we know what you’ve done.”

SPACERJanos gave her a hard look. He may have to kill her out here.

SPACER“But, more importantly, we know what you are capable of,” she finished.

SPACERNow he was beginning to understand. All those break-ins. All those break-outs. They needed his skills. No problem.

SPACER“I’m beginning to understand,” Janos smiled and sat up in his bedroll.

SPACER“Are you?” Misha asked him. He thought so until she looked at him that way.

SPACER“What do you want me to break into? A vault? A bank? One of the corporate HQs?” Janos was almost anxious. “Name it.” Janos had broken into highly secured money vaults and had broken out of every penitentiary he had been thrown in.

SPACER“We need you to break into The Mezzanine,” she said flatly.

SPACERHe hadn’t expected that answer.

SPACER“Did I hear you right?” Janos would’ve laughed if she hadn’t looked so serious. “You want me to break into the Mezzanine?”

SPACER“That’s right,” she replied.

SPACER“No.”

SPACER“C’mon!” she yelled. “You don’t even know why!”

SPACER“Don’t care,” Janos stated. “Don’t care and don’t want to know.”

SPACER“What about the corporations and all their atrocities?” she pleaded.

SPACER“I’ve seen no evidence of any of that!” Janos replied. “I have no love for the corporate dictatorships, but you seek war with an unbeatable enemy. I’ll not include myself in your mass suicide!”

SPACER“Janos…please,” she looked at him intently. “You’ve no idea what we’re up against.”

SPACER“Oh, I have an idea,” he snapped. “You want me to break into the prison they send people to when they break out of every other max-sec penn across the entire globe! The only place in the world where they pre-authorize use of deadly force when dealing with any and all inmates. It has walls, fencing, a moat, dogs, snipers, and a labyrinth that surrounds the entire thing. Not a chance…”

SPACER“We are willing to pay you a pretty sweet price, if you agree.”

SPACER“How sweet?”

SPACER“500,000 credits.”

SPACERIt was almost worth it. Almost.

SPACER“Up front and another 500 if I live,” Janos was quick to add. There. Now that’s worth it.

SPACERFrom the look on her face, Janos knew he’d never get the 500 extra.

SPACER“300.”

SPACER“4.”

SPACER“350 and I advise you to take it. That's all we'll give," she said, and ended the bargaining.

SPACERNot quite what he had in mind, but Janos knew what 800,00 credits would get him: a trip off this rock.

SPACER"Why the fuck not?"

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