Sangeet Avenue was probably the most open ended space and district in Karma not situated in one of the giant artificial platforms atop the mountain shadowing the Shadow Districts, but in the scarce natural ground of the thin island in where the city was settled. Next to a natural harbor, now only used by fishermen, due to space ships traffic becoming even cheaper and faster than boat travel to keep the cities of the planet communicated, Sangeet was the most visited upon Shadow District by the youths of the Shining Districts.
It was secure enough for keeping away the most dangerous and violent bands, and exotic enough to keep calling the attention of the rich above their heads. This district called upon tired travelers in the middle of long journeys and typical residents alike. If you had any pleasure or need unfulfilled, Sangeet would provide it to you.
"Those kind of pleasures go from the most mundane and harmless, like gambling houses and a greyhound racing stadium, to the most dangerous and weird like exotic xeno drugs, and brothels that are rumoured to hold xeno prostitutes." Sara related.
"Why are you telling me all of this?" Vitus asked as he looked for a place to land and park.
"Because it will help you know who we are dealing with here. The reason Kaur Sherazi and her predecessors picked this place as her base before any other, was the overwhelming amount of rich idiot kids in the look for things normally they don't get provided in the respectful high society. So trust me when I tell you that she will sell anything to anyone, and buy anything from anyone."
"So?"
"That she might not want to get rid of what your companion the corporate weasel wants her to sell by the good of her heart."
"Noted." said with the same calm and monotone demeanor as always.
The first thing Vitus noted after landing, was that these placed definitely feeled more shining than shadowed. In a weird sight that had no preceded the other Shadow Districts that he had visited, GTU police officials patrolled the streets, instead of mercenaries or Special Reaction Units. But still, the amount was irregular. Way higher than atop was still a Shadow District, nonetheless.
They came across a street full of shop windows of brothels and sex shops with semi naked men and women dancing in the interior, and went past through and alley were an illicit small gambling shop announced itself with a neon sign. After that, they came up to a small open space, protected by the walls of the sordidness of their surroundings, housing an elegant fountain and a which, there was the front of a building with a four-centered arch, decorated with small plates of jade and marble. It was well hidden, and no one would expect to find this kind of classical mughal architecture in this street.
"Do you know Sherazi?" Vitus asked.
"Only by reputation." Sara responded.
After surrounding the fountain and going up the stairs to the main entrance, they found themselves before a bouncer, and a well dressed woman behind a table, that seemed to act as a receptionist.
"Welcome to the Hanging Gardens of Madame Sherazi. Do you want the special treatment, or are you here for the pools?"
Pools? Inside a city? Vitus didn't understand. But yet again, Ferreira made her move before him.
"Tell Madame Sherazi that Sara Ferreira, of the Moura Roxa, has come looking for rare and pricey things."
The bouncer behind them tensed himself, yet the receptionist remained calm. She simply put herself on her feet, and said:
"A moment, please."
Then, she disappeared through a wooden door of a fake wall behind the desk. Both Vitus and Sara took a look over their shoulders to the bouncer, now arms crossed behind them.
"For a group of people that need to watch the clientele closely, shadow-marketeers do not worry much about their secret codes." Vitus said.
"For what purpose would it serve? They need new clients able to find them, and they can't do that if they change their passwords every week. Besides, this is Moksha. This is Vaikuntha." she smiled to him. "As long as you follow their rules, authorities here always look to the other side."
The receptionist came back, and moved from behind the table towards them.
"Follow me, please."
She indicated them to move to one of two lateral halls. After starting following her through it, they did not take time in crossing in front a couple of locker rooms, and turned right to a glass door before a steamy room. Vitus could not believe his eyes. It's not only that he had ever seen so much clean and potable water in the interior of any kind of settlement. He never had seen it being used with so much disregard. Most terran citizens had between 2 to 4 hours of hot water use in their homes. They normally assigned 10 or 30 minutes to showering. But in this place, there were people bathing in pools that most probably alberged 100 gallons of water each one.
White marble slabs covered walls, pillars and ground. The roof above them, was merely several glass windows that let the natural light enter. Around them, massage pools, cabinets for steam rooms and long corridors of water surrounded them. Filled with clients from the upper districts of Moksha and tourists alike. But this was only the fastest route to where they were really going.
They accessed another room at the other end of the thick hall crossing the bathing area of the spa. This one reminded Vitus of what he had seen of Ferreira's office back at her pub. Not in style, but in disposition. A vast room, less filled with furniture, but equally full of art. But this time, focusing more on small statues than pictures on the walls. Vitus could recognize even a small piece of certainly algan design. Probably imported from the Union of Nimerium. But the difference in styles was still obvious. If Ferreira's place was modern and punk, this one was more classical and elegant. Either way, Sara seemed delighted with the exposition.
Only after the receptionist asked them to stay put and wait, did they noticed what was happening at the other side of the room. Over a bunch of gym mats, a group of people in fighting and sport clothing were surrounding a couple of sparrers, watching their fight. Of the two practicing combatants, the one calling more attention was the woman. Kaur Sherazi herself.
Towering above her opponent with a height of around 1.90 meters, the word that would better describe her was amazon. After his experience with the previous shadow-marketeer, Vitus had in his mind an image of all of them as lazy creatures full of greedy desires. It did not surprised him her beauty, as much as her physical prowess. Aside her defined muscles and well shaped body, her skin was of a dark bronze, and her light green eyes were thin and sharp, as much as her fleshy lips. Her jaw had a generally squared shape, but soft on its sides, and had an apparently wild unruly mane of hair gripped into a ponytail, but not to much avail. It only barely prevented it from getting into her eyes.
After she sent her last opponent to the ground, and the rest around her seemed reluctant of involving themselves, the receptionist approached the first waver. It was after she pointed at their way and Kaur took a look, that Vitus noticed the way Ferreira looked at her. It was like she got hypnotized for a moment. But that moment passed as soon as Kaur took a towel and loosened her hair, before starting to walk towards them.
"Sara Ferreira." the first waver saluted as someone passed her a bottle of water. "I have heard a lot about you, and your reputation."
"Good things, I expect."
"Most of them." didn't move her eyes of Ferreira as she drinked. "But I never expected to see you around this district. And less, in my humble bath house."
"Oh, I also have heard a lot of… mostly good things, about you. But I must say, your excellent art taste was not one of them. Is that a reproduction of the partogan master Aelinor magnum opus "the Dread of the Love God"?"
Vitus was starting to think they have forgotten he was there. But either way, he looked at the direction Ferreira was pointing out of curiosity. What he found was the 2 meter tall sculpture of what appeared to be a member of the partogan species being devoured by a monster with traces of a tyrium and a either drake. Like if the mix was an ugly bastard of both. He lacked the taste to see any beauty in it, but both women seemed to find it fascinating.
"Well, you only are half right."
"Oh? In what I'm mistaken?"
"That's no reproduction."
They both laughed as if they were mischievous little girls after perfoming a prank on their parents. Vitus then started to notice. Were those two flirting in front of everyone in the room? He took a look, and saw that the rest of fighters seemed to be more interested in continuing with the sparring matches than anything else. Was this a normal occurrence, then?
"But if this is among the shinny and pricey things you are looking for, I'm sorry to tell you I can't help. These pieces here are part of my private collection."
"Actually, I'm not the buyer here." gestured at Vitus, next to her. "I accompany someone else, that by his part represents a third person."
"Corporate agent." she buffed, between tired and bored. "Of course it's a corporate agent."
"I'm, miss Sherazi. And I have come here to…"
"Ah, ah, ah. We better talk in my office."
Next door there was a smaller habitacle that the open guest room of Ferreira, and decorated much more classically, in the line of mughal and sikh styles they saw before. In front of the well sculpted table of mahogany, there was a rococo couch for clients and guests to sit. It was weird to see not only a woman of that build in a room so reminiscent of the ancient past, but that had no problems in receiving her clients in sportswears.
"So, tell me." Kaur accommodated herself in her padded chair, as she signaled the couch. "What can I do for a client from atop the Shining Districts?"
"Well, the situation is this, miss." Vitus said as he took seat with Ferreira.
"Madame, please. The sign outside it's not just decoration"
"Of course. Madame, then. A rare and valuable object was subtracted from my employer. The person who did so, worked for him. And we have been lead to believe that the person in question may have come to you in search of a safe channel to sell it and get rid of it as fast as he could."
"Aha. And who has led you to believe this person has come to me? I don't deny it, because right now I don't even realize who you are talking about, but it would be nice to know anyway."
"That depends on how much does that detail value to you." Sara interrupted before Vitus could respond.
"Ha! You have come for me to give, and now you want to get paid for it." she denied with her head, amused. "You are lucky I have a weakness for pretty girls. What do you want?"
"I saw the "Three Faces of the Vol" in your gallery out there. That for the name."
"Get out of town."
"Then the name, and I would exchange with you my "Renaissance of the White Florian.""
"You have a reproduction?" she asked skeptical with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, you would be only half right."
"Could we get back in track, please?" Vitus started to sound annoyed.
"Bummer."
"Right. We can discuss the details of all of that later. But right now, I need to know more about what you are searching, spy boy."
"As Miss Ferreira suspected before we came here, the object in question would normally be classified under the black list of the Customs Office."
Kaur amused smile immediately disappeared.
"This is a serious matter. So you better not be joking."
"Do we look like jokers to you?" Sara joked.
"Few here would take the risk of selling something from the black list, and less possessing it. I can assure you that if someone had came here with one, he would have my complete attention, and would have kept him and the object secure before making sure it was safe to sell."
"Are you saying you don't have it?" Vitus inquired.
Kaur Sherazi simply denied with her head.
"He lied." Sara said annoyed. "Of course he did. But how could have I believed him?"
"Who lied?"
"Another shadow-marketeer named Okoro." Vitus answered without much doubt, looking to clarify his own questions. "After he denied selling the object to the thief, he told us he had sent him in to you."
"Okoro?" the first waver put herself on feet completely surprised. "That giant slimeball? He hates me as much as I do! In fact, I have been taking care of some of his people after he sent them to the bath house in the form of false clients to steal me real clients from this part of my business. Why would he risk sending you here and telling me his name, when he could have sent you into a false track?"
"Ha! That's another thing we have in common. We hate each other as well." Sara said in ironic enjoyment, but she started realize something. "Wait. But if he hated me, and he already had his men on the plaza when we asked them to talk to him…"
"Why didn't he just send them against us, instead of wasting time talking with you and put himself at risk if he had decided he was going to lie to us?" Vitus concluded.
"There is something stinky going on, and I don't like it."
Without warning, she left the room and came back to the gallery-gym of before, and started shouting orders.
"You! Get changed and tell the others to stay alert about anyone suspicious nearing the building. Kate! I need you to find Okoro right no…" she looked around her. "Kate?"
"What happens?" Vitus asked.
"My secretary. The one that warned me you came. I tell her to always stay near when I'm with clients."
"Your receptionist is also your secretary?" Sara raised an eyebrow. "So short of good personnel are you?"
"What? No. She is not my receptionist. That one is… Wait. Kate received you at the door? But she never…"
Muffled shoots. In the other side of the building. Before anyone could get ready, a door came down, and a flash bang rolled through the floor. Sara covered her ears and eyes as soon as she had hear the rumbling. It had become almost a subconscious reaction due to all of her years of military drills. Others were not so lucky. But she had no time of assessing the situation.
She quickly took cover behind the sculpture of the love god of Partoga, and watched for the door. Men and women dressing as typical mooks of the lower bands came spitting lead and plasma in weapons too big and good for them. This was definitely the work of shadow-marketeer of the lowest districts. Just like Okoro.
But as soon as Sherazi disoriented men started getting mowed down, she moved into action. Not wanting to attract shots to such beautiful peace of art, Ferreira got out of behind her cover, pulled out both her guns, and went shooting at the attackers coming from the small entrance. She caused way more harm with only 12 bullets in each pistol, that the squadron of six that had assaulted them with their assault rifles with full chambers of 50. In fact, at the end of those shorter than usual 3 seconds, she had only wasted five bullets. One of them was an intentional one shot, two birds.
"Ok! Now who wants… Wow."
After recovering her sight, Kaur immediately stumbled upon the dead bodies of the attackers, and the lonely figure of Sara among the carnage, guns still smoking. She had an expression of genuine awe in her during almost half a minute.
"How did you…?"
"Practice and natural talent." said holsering her guns. "How is your people?"
"Yeah, my people." said sounding distracted.
Had her not noticed it a moment before, when Sherazi was still awestruck with her, Sara would have guessed the blush on her dark cheeks was due to the anger. But that didn't mattered now.
"Crap. García and Bellanova dead. Another five injured. Okoro is going to pay for this."
"This is not over. Probably more outside. You, Vitus and me should…" she looked around. "Where is he?"
