I didn't feel like opening my eyes for a long time. Fahu seemed to figure that I just didn't feel like getting up, so he coerced me into it by taking hold of my foot and pulling me out of my bunk. I tumbled to the floor and opened one eye.

"I never knew someone could glare with only one eye at a time."

I growled at him for a moment.

"Why did you do that? I'm injured you know. Injured people need to rest."

"You've been resting for three days and you aren't injured anymore."

"Oh."

I wrapped the blanket around me again and closed my eye. He lifted me up by the scruff of my neck and I, of course, curled in on myself. My blanket fell away from me and I growled.

"Put me down, I'm naked."

"You always are. You're covered in fur, you don't need clothes, remember?"

I sighed as he set me down on my haunches and returned to whatever he had been doing before his malicious streak had interupted him. What a cruel horrible person.

"Where are we anyway?"

"About an hour from Meritos. I called ahead to Borgos to let him know we were coming."

"Was he in a good mood?"

"Yep."

"Shit."

"I know."

"I hate it when he's in a good mood. That always means he has a job for us and the jobs he gives us are so. . .almost pointless."

I sat in my chair and watched the planet of Meritos get bigger and bigger. I took over control as we entered atmo. When we landed Borgos' men were waiting for us. I grabbed the duffle bag I had put all the salable items in. Fahu grabbed his and we walked off the ship and set foot on Meritos. I never got the hang of this place. It's like a giant garden. So many flowers, so many things that make me sneeze.

We followed Borgos' men down the marble pathway that was bordered on either side by a small man-made stream to a large building that was surrounded by Greek style marble pillars. Borgos was sitting at his desk in the pavillion. He looked up and smiled at us. Oh no. Our time is limited. Pretty soon we're going to be faced with a task befitting a retard.

"I see you have some things to trade."

"Uh huh."

I started taking things out of the bag and setting them on his desk. After doing business with him for 5 years I know what he will pay well for and what he wont. Everything seemed to be catching his eye all at once.

"My word, so many shiny things."

I sat down and watched as Fahu emptied the contents of his bag onto the desk as well. He sat down in the other chair and we waited for the verdict. It took about ten minutes of him fiddling and rolling things around.

"I'll give you 500,000 for this."

Fahu and I looked at each other. He really is in a good mood. Normally he would only give us 300,000. It really isn't much, but it's a lot better than any other fence in this galaxy. The others will rip you off blind at gunpoint. That's why I choose to take my business to Borgos. He's generous for someone that pays criminals.

"I don't suppose I could talk you into a little more?"

"I would be shocked if you didn't ask, but I'm afraid my mind is made up."

I shrugged.

"Ok. 500,000 it is."

"Good."

He motioned for one of his men to go get our money. Craptastic. Here it comes. The time to be utterly disappointed by our mission.

"I was thinking you could do me a little favor since I'm being so generous."

"What did you have in mind?"

I did my best to cover up the disdain in my voice. I looked at Fahu and he reassured me that I had done well masking it.

"There is a little problem I'm having with one of my clients. He was supposed to deliver an item to me, but seems to have disappeared. If you could retrieve it for me, I would be most grateful and perhaps give you a little reward."

"How much are we talking?"

I hated this part. Doing business with Borgos is good. I don't want to say no and lose his business, but he doesn't seem to understand that pocket change isn't much of a reward.

"One million."

My jaw dropped. That must be a really important item.

"If you're willing to pay that much for it, it must be worth a lot. How do you know when we find it we wont take off with it like he did?"

"Because you are a good business person. You wouldn't disrespect me like that."

"Damn. You know me too well."

I sneezed a few times. Borgos laughed and took a puff off his cigar. I looked at Fahu and he nodded. I suppose this would be worth it after all. A million could keep my ship fueled and pay for maintenance for quite a long while.

"All right. Who is this guy and how do we find him?"

"His name is Philus Mankuri. He was last seen in a bar on Gadugos. Ask around the town. He might have let some information slip. He doesn't hold his liquor well."

"How are we supposed to deal with him when we track him down?"

"However you want to."

I grinned at Fahu. That means I can torture him all I want to. Not necessarily because he betrayed Borgos, that's fine and dandy, but because I like hurting things that can beg for mercy. Borgos' man handed me a briefcase and Fahu and I stood up to take our leave of this smelly planet. A planet of flowery doom.

It was a short cruise to Gadugos. We found landed in the town of Serenity and hiked to the bar. It was seriously a hike. All uphill. It would be easy to lose footing for someone that doesn't have claws to anchor themselves to the ground. Once inside we sat down at the bar and looked around. I can always spot regulars. The people that practically live in a place of business. I figured it would be a good idea to talk to the bartender before questioning others. Bartenders always notice more than they let on.

"You two aren't from around here."

"We aren't."

He looked at Fahu.

"Oh well, what can I get you?"

"I'll have a rum blaster."

He looked at me.

"I'll have a Dimer and I would really appreciate anything you can tell me about Philus Mankuri."

The bartender looked at me disapprovingly. Most of the bar had gone silent. I turned my attention to the public. They were looking at me over pints and behind untrusting faces. I looked back at the bartender.

"What do you want with him?"

"He has something that we want."

"Oh? I'm afraid you aren't going to be getting much information out of us."

"Uh huh. So he was here, he drank too much, let his tongue run rampant, then when he realized what he had done he bribed you to keep quiet incase anyone came looking for him. I see."

"You know too much."

"I know just enough. Look, I know his type. He probably hasn't even given you the supposed money yet. He most likely told you that this item he had would fetch a pretty penny and he would come back and pay you."

"We aren't stupid. We took something as collateral."

"Big word for a small town bartender."

I put my hand on Fahu's shoulder. He has a lot less patience than I do and a lot more mass. Luckily he considers me the boss since I own the ship he lives on and I can kick his ass.

"You don't want to start trouble here."

"We actually really like trouble. It gets the endorphines flowing and makes us feel happy and jolly. That's besides the point though. Anything that he left you for collateral is worthless to him. I mean, come on, he abandoned his wife and children just so he could skip out on his boss and make a few bucks. He's already betrayed the most important people in his life, I doubt lying to a bunch of settlers on a planet like this wouldn't bother him in the least."

He seemed to think about this for a moment or two. Apparently they were a little stupid. They didn't look at the big picture. He put his hands down on the bar and scowled at me. Someone behind me caught my attention and I turned around. A tall humanoid with big muscles and a shiny bald head was standing there. He had quite the impressive collection of weapons strapped to his person and I could tell he knew how to use them. That didn't impress me. Obviously he needed lots of weapons because he was useless at fighting without them. It's the people that don't carry weapons that you have to worry about. People like Fahu and I.

"You seem like you're looking for a fight."

I looked at Fahu.

"He's observant."

Fahu nodded and I looked up at the man again.

"I am looking for a fight, but not here."

"Why not? You afraid we would beat you?"

"No. It's just that I have permission to torture and kill Philus, and I rarely have permission to do that. I'm getting paid to retrieve the item he has, so it's close to being paid for killing him. Assassination, you know? It excites me."

He looked into my eyes and I noticed he didn't like what he saw there. I wasn't afraid of him and I wasn't acting tough. I don't act, I just do what I feel like. He took a step back and looked over his shoulder at the others in the bar. He was losing his motivation to protect the fugitive, Philus. The bartender cleared his throat to break the tention and maybe to give the thug a moment to recuperate after getting spooked by whatever he saw behind my eyes.

"What if we don't tell you?"

"Well, scenario one, we leave to go on a search for this man, with no leads on where to look. That's quite a tiring thought, I don't like it. Or scenario two, which I think is my favorite, we start taking pieces out of people until someone talks, once we have the information we leave, but not before making sure everyone that saw our faces is a cadaver."

I heard uncomfortable muttering. I was getting somewhere with these tactics, but it was getting tiring and I am really not much of a talker anymore. I was about to just start tearing people apart when the man behind me came closer. I looked at him again. All this back and forth is annoying me.

"How would you do that? Neither one of you are armed. We all have weapons."

"That's why I feel sorry for you."

"What do you mean?"

"People that carry weapons need them to feel secure. Without their weapons they have no spine. My friend and I are very sure about ourselves, we know we don't need a weapon to slaughter a bar full of armed people. We're just that good."

"He's going to Heichuru. He said something about an abandoned temple."

I scrutinized him for a moment. I don't think he's used to being afraid of anything, yet here we are, me at my small stature and him armed to the teeth, yet shaking in his boots. I looked at Fahu.

"Well my friend, I am sad to say that we wont be mauling anyone here."

"That's too bad."

"I know. I was looking forward to some bloodshed too."

We stood up and I put some money on the bar. The bartender looked at it like he didn't know what it was.

"For the drinks."

He nodded and we left the bar. Fahu walked out the door, but before I did, I turned back around.

"If we don't find anything on Heichuru. . .we will return to kill all of you and most likely your families as well. We don't like being misled."