"That, my friend, is the location of the central hub, the tickets you need to get there, and a much better virus to install when you finally reach your destination. It's based on the virus you intend to use, though, so the interface will be the same."

I narrowed my eyes. "A much better virus? As if I'd believe you."

"I understand that you don't. Yet, I can tell you that any virus you have concocted will likely fail. You will see when you work. It will do nothing. Mine will disrupt the gates for months, maybe even an entire Earth year.

I rifled through the items in the thicker parcel. I found two envelopes with tickets for another set of gates to get us to Vega Prime and several public transport tickets that would, presumably, take us to the hub headquarters. More gate tickets that returned us to Earth helped disguise our retreat. I also found an unlabeled Vegan storage device.

He held out small square devices with our images imprinted on them to us. "Here. Identification for the two of you: you are recently returned from off-world and just moved to the city. If you are stopped by the authorities, just play dumb and say you didn't know you were breaking the law. This will help back that up. It also contains several thousand credits for you to spend, just in case."

She plucked the item from him and tucked it inside her bra for safekeeping. "Why are you doing this?"

He set his jaw. "I have my reasons, most of which are personal. That is all you need to know." He looked her up and down, then studied me. "Your disguises are perfect. How long will they last?"

"About two weeks. Then, our hair starts to show at the roots, and the tan fades."

He nodded. "You'll get your mission done well before then." He lifted the messenger bag off his body and handed it to Sharon. "Here are two sets of more appropriate clothing so you don't stand out quite so much. However, I could not get you the proper badges with the security clearances you need. I tried, but I ran out of time. You will have to obtain them yourself."

"How do we get onto the cleaning crew?" she asked.

"When you get to Vega Prime, wait about an hour local time until the watch has the big hand up and the little hand on the fourth number. At that time, enter the hub's building from the back and go to the office in the basement. Tell them you are looking for work. I will arrange it such that two of their crew will not show for their shifts, and they will feel compelled to hire you. They are preparing for an inspection and hiring extra to help polish everything. From there, it is up to you. You must go now."

Sharon nodded. "I know what to do from there."

Juno looked at me again. "I truly am sorry about Alex. The taking of his childhood memories would not have killed him. His own deal pushed it too far, and the Princess is unscrupulous enough not to care."

I stuffed items into various pockets to keep from balling my fists and slugging him. My stomach was in knots. "You helped."

His voice softened. "Even as resourceful as I am, I cannot take on the Princess alone. I had no choice."

His explanation did nothing to alleviate my anger. I crossed my arms and stared at him. When he realized I would have nothing more to say, he sighed.

"You need to go. Return to the gates and look for the yellow and green ones. Those will be the ones for Vega Prime. You have tickets and should arrive just enough time to reach the hub's central building. I am assuming you know where that is?"

"We don't know precisely," Sharon said, pulling out her phone. "We have several locations marked." She tapped on the screen and then handed him the device.

He moved the map around. "It is this one, here." He tapped it for her, marking it on the map. "The entrance you want is around on this side."

I couldn't fathom why he was helping us. Ultimately, I decided it didn't matter as long as the mission was successful. But, an awful lot of it was relying on him. I didn't like it, but we had no choice. I watched as he gave Sharon more information about the location of various things.

"I must go," he said at last. "I will make sure there is space for you on the cleaning crew in the morning."

"Thank you for your help, Juno," Sharon said. "It is good to work with you again."

My eyes narrowed. I didn't know why it hadn't dawned on me that he and Sharon would have worked together before. Somehow, that made me angrier. I itched to go for my gun and shoot him. Before I realized what I'd done, my hands had dropped to my sides.

He immediately identified the threat. "I wouldn't if I were you. You need me." He backed away.

I knew he was right, but, damn, to see him drop would have been so satisfying. I watched him turn his back to us and lose himself in the crowd in a split second. I found myself staring at the place where he had disappeared.

"Come on," Sharon said, grabbing my arm. "We need to get going."

"We're only supposed to be testing the gate," I reminded her.

"Well, we're not now. We have a mission. It's likely now or never." She yanked on me as she headed back the way we came, working on getting into the proper flow of foot traffic.

I followed her lead as she took us back to the gates. We followed the green and yellow signs to the Vega Prime gate system. I held my breath when she passed her ticket and ID over to the gatekeeper, only breathing normally again when mine had passed inspection. We got in line, waiting our turn.

I wondered about the apparent lack of security. I searched and found all manner of cameras out in the open. I was betting that there were even more that were hidden. I realized they didn't need hands-on security because you'd never get away with anything; the system recorded who you were from the moment you entered the space. If the system could run a gate network, it could handle facial recognition.

"You need to set your watch," she murmured to me. I'd almost forgotten, and the mistake would have brought attention to us. I pulled the stem and set the face with the help of my translator. When our turn came, we were ready.

The key vibrated gently on my wrist, and the gate connected and opened automatically. We walked through into a beautiful garden setting. It was still nighttime, but the lights in the trees and flowerbeds made the scene magical. I was in awe.

Sharon gave me a little push. "Keep moving," she whispered, and I made my feet walk down the ramp.

"We need to change clothes," she said and took off toward an expansive wall full of doors, each with a line at them. The doors led to changing rooms of some sort; I watched as weary travelers entered and then, several minutes later, emerged refreshed and in different clothing.

"Don't clean yourself while in there," Sharon whispered. "We don't know what the sonic showers will do to the tan. Just change clothes."

She went into the changing room first. When she came back out, she wore clothes that blended better with the crowd but still functioned tactically. She handed me the bag and pointed to a fountain behind us. "I'll wait over there."

The room looked much like the shower I'd used in the airport in Vegas. I figured out the toilet and relieved myself, changing into the clothes from the bag that fit me. Except for the fabric, the pants were similar to what I wore. I kept my t-shirt so my weapon holster wouldn't rub against my skin and pulled the sweater-type garment over my head. Juno had even provided boots that were a garish, clashing color, but the getup did match what I saw others wearing.

I located Sharon at the fountain, and we sat on a bench, looking through our tickets and planning the route we needed to take. We needed to switch transport systems, but everything was in order.

I looked at my watch. The big hand was on the two, and the little hand was on the one. So, we had just under three Vega hours to get from where we were to the hub. "Come on. We need to get going. I don't know how long the Vegan hour is."

"It's about the same as an Earth hour, actually," Sharon said, standing. "There are just more of them."

With the help of our digital translators, we were able to find the first public transport. It was a small flying car, fully automated, for which I was thankful. It took us to another part of the city, where we caught an underground train in a considerably older transport system. But it did the job, and we emerged at half past three, right on time.

The city, on the surface, looked very Earth-like, with tall buildings reaching for the sky, creating an artificial forest of glass-covered structures. Vehicle traffic was limited to flying cars well above the foot traffic or public transport below the streets.

Vegan city blocks were more extensive than we were used to, but there were moving sidewalks that helped us make good time. We entered the building at four, right on the dot, from the back alley as Juno had instructed. The hallway was narrow and little more than a passageway between pipes, but at the end, there was an office with a window for service. No one was there, but a sign instructed us to press the button.

An elderly female shuffled into view, eyeing us. "What do you want?" she demanded in a cantankerous voice.

"We're looking for work?" Sharon said with the help of her communicator. It didn't seem to phase the female that she needed it.

"Yeah? Well, can you clean?" She grabbed two tablets and thrust them at us. "Fill these out."

Sharon and I huddled to review the forms she asked us to complete. We found much of the information on our IDs. When it came to work history, lying was easy since the company names began to autofill as you typed. We made up a mostly off-world history.

I swallowed hard when Sharon turned the tablets back in, my stomach in a tight knot, convinced we'd be discovered. Instead, the female took a look at our names and typed them into the terminal to make makeshift badges for us.

"Here," she said, thrusting a stack of clothes at Sharon with her badge on top. "This is your uniform. Report to Tommack on the 4th floor." She slapped my badge on top of a second pile and shoved it at me. "You, too."

"Thank you," Sharon said. "Where can we change?"

"The worker lockers are through that door. Follow the blue line." She nodded her head toward a set of double doors. A blue line painted on the floor ran under them. Before we could ask more questions, she disappeared into the back again.

We followed the line through the doors and into the locker room area. There didn't seem to be any segregation between males and females, so we chose two empty lockers beside each other off by ourselves.

"I don't guess we'll be able to take our weapons," I commented in a low voice, unclipping mine from my belt and setting it on the shelf in the locker.

"Probably wouldn't be a good idea. We're liable to be scanned at some point," Sharon agreed, adding hers to her shelf.

We transferred everything else into the grey coveralls we were told to wear. There was even a billed hat to go with the outfit. Sharon noticed many wore it backward with the bill in the back and followed suit. I was more comfortable with it shading my eyes.

We followed the last of the other workers out and found the stairs. I opened the door on the fourth floor, and Sharon made a beeline for the nearest worker, who was polishing the metal railing around an extensive balcony—an atrium extended from the glass roof down the center of the building to the first floor. The rising sun was just beginning to light the sky and off shade of green.

"We were told to report to Tommack. Do you know where they are?"

The worker eyed us up and down, and I had to resist the urge to shuffle my weight. "You must be new. Everyone knows Tommack," the worker insisted.

"Yes, we are new," Sharon explained. "It's our first day, and we don't want to make a bad impression. So, if you could tell us where Tommack is..."

The worker pointed his chin in the direction of another male in grey across the atrium, polishing the railing furiously. "That be him over there. Good luck."