Wanderer

Chapter 4-1

4

Tarkus was quiet as they made their way to the store sister Marshat had identified. Kaira found herself becoming more and more nervous as they drew near, but she struggled with the thought of breaking into Tarkus’s silence. Finally, she couldn’t hold things in any longer.

“How are we going to get this merchant to even talk to us about the devices?” she asked. “He’s not going to admit to having something which is illegal even on this station to just anyone who turns up.”

“Definitely not. Any of his customers who bought those devices wouldn’t be happy if the source was exposed. And those with links to someone who’s been on the receiving end of devices like that would be very keen on speaking to him too, if they found out who he was.”

“So how are we going to get him to talk to a couple of complete strangers about it?”

“We’ll have to convince him we’re not strangers. I found some information embedded within the devices, I think it’s a model number. If so, hopefully it’ll be enough to convince him we are legitimate customers.”

“And if not?”

“Then we’ll have to improvise something.”

Somehow that didn’t sound very reassuring, but as she had no better ideas what options did they have?

* * * *

They entered the market area… which wasn’t what Kaira had imagined at all. Since travelling with Tarkus she’d been to other stations which had market areas. They’d always been a large open area with many stalls. Sometimes mixed with actual stores, and often the stalls looked like they didn’t move from year to year, but still very open.

Not this market. It was a series of dingy corridors housing shops, packed together with no apparent order and without a stall in sight.

“It’s not what I’d expected from a market,” she said.

“From the information on the area its name has more to do with black market than ever being a traditional market,” said Tarkus. “I doubt if any of the sellers stick purely to legal items.”

“And the authorities don’t c***k down on them?”

“The authorities are making good money from having so much traffic flowing into the station. Being the only place a lot of these things can be bought is good for business. Normally. As long as nothing gets out of hand they’ll be happy enough to turn a blind eye.”

“What counts as out of hand?”

“That I don’t know. It’ll depend on exactly how corrupt the authorities are.”

“The more I learn about this place, the less I like it!”

“I find that tends to be the case with most stations. Another reason I enjoy travelling on my own between them rather than spending time on them.”

“You’re just an old cynic!”

“Yeah, seems that way, doesn’t it? Now, let’s find this shop.”