Chapter One

Yarotanji watched the slender, red headed man move through the shadows and licked his lips. Asrayan was a work of art in motion, each movement precise and yet flowing, a contradiction like the man himself. Ji couldn't help wondering, yet again, if Rayan brought that same precise, flowing skill to fucking. Not that Ji was ever likely to find out, Rayan had made his distaste for the idea, and Ji, painfully obvious.

It was surprising that they worked so well together, when Asrayan seemed to disapprove of everything about Ji outside of work. But they had been working together successfully for three years now.

Ji stifled a sigh and followed his partner. He was supposed to be watching Rayan's back not his ass. Their current mission was to check out a warehouse near the secondary port of Vartan, here on Mrimi. It was a low risk, low priority assignment that they had received almost by default just because they happened to be on the planet. They were one of the Peace Keeper Task Force's elite teams and this was a routine task that would usually be assigned to a rookie team.

Ji tried to convince himself that it was a pleasant change of pace from their usual high risk missions. A simple enter and search with no one shooting at them, just a walk in the park really, only parks were much more attractive than this shabby district.

Vartan's portside warehouse district looked much like any other portside warehouse district on any of the other planets he had visited. It was depressingly like where he had grown up; just a few streets away the bars and flophouses clung together, jittering into life as the sun set. The accents were a little different, the mix of drugs not quite the same, but it reminded him of his childhood on Canidan. No matter how far he ran he always seemed to end up back where he had run from.

At least he didn't have to put up with taunts over his mixed heritage here. Not that he'd been called a 'dirty temzee' for years, not since he had grown up and looked as dangerous as he was. He had no idea which races mingled in him. He hadn't known his father. His mother was beautiful, but she was no pureblood herself. His father had been some nameless customer, the same as her own father had been, and probably her mother's father, too, back through countless generations.

Ji shook off the maudlin thoughts, he didn't have to live in the sleazy port districts anymore, he only had to visit. He didn't have to work the streets. He had an exciting job. He had money. He had a partner who he was supposed to be watching and a mission to complete. He scanned the street again and checked the rooflines for anything that hadn't been there before. He was uneasy. Cold fingers seemed to be walking up and down his spine.

Rayan had reached their target and was checking for alarms; tucked in a deep pocket of shadow, he was almost invisible. Ji leaned against the wall on the other side of the door. They would enter by the side door once Rayan had taken care of the alarms. Getting in was Ji's job. He pushed away from the wall and sauntered into the alley beside the warehouse, just a man looking for somewhere to piss and, from the smell, not the first one to look.

There were a few places that someone could hide or that would provide a safe place to sleep. Ji checked them all, even the ones that looked too small for anyone. He knew just how little space a child needed for concealment. Most of the kids would be nearer the bars, but one might have made it this far. There were times when he'd run a long way.

His search didn't turn up anyone using the alley for anything. Rayan slipped around the corner, eyes scanning and nodded abruptly when he caught sight of Ji. The alarms were dealt with. Ji strolled to the side door, fishing his picks out of his pocket. Rayan would watch his back while he worked the lock. This was a simple mission nothing to feel uneasy about. It was just echoes of childhood memories making him twitchy, Ji told himself.

It only took him a few moments to get the door open. He slid inside and flattened himself against the wall, letting his dark adapted eyes adjust to the slightly brighter warehouse. He was surprised that the lock hadn't been better if this place was prosperous enough to leave the emergency lights burning. Or maybe there was a security guard they didn't know about.

Rayan followed him through the door and eased it closed behind them. The lock snicked quietly, sealing them inside. It would deter any opportunistic passersby from following them in, even if it would slow their exit slightly. Ji reminded himself again that this was a simple search mission, there should be no need for a swift exit. The fact that Rayan had followed him meant that they hadn't set off any detectable alarms.

"Security guard?" Ji breathed his suspicion softly to Rayan.

Continued in First Section