Epilogue

When Feld had been banished from Askara, the new planetary security forces promised that he would be shot on sight if he ever returned. Once he had left the Askaran system, he hadn’t given it much thought, until he discovered T’Malka’s broken body a couple of klicks downstream from the sluice gate. After retrieving his belongings from the hangar bay, and noting the absent Protean air car, Feld had hiked down the spillway at first light. He found T’Malka’s body a couple of hours later, a barely recognizable mess. When he rummaged through what was left of her possessions, Feld discovered an Askaran finance card sewn into a seam of her travelling robe. It looked very familiar.

Weeks later, after a short rest at the Barscape Bar, Feld returned to Askara via a clandestine smuggler’s route. He avoided the major cities and made his way via maglev to the city of Kaal. There, he found a local branch of the bank where he had kept the money he had made while in T’Malka’s service.

After an overnight stay in a businessman’s hotel, Feld went to the automated tellers and inserted the finance card into the access slot. After the initial welcome screen, the system asked Feld for his passphrase. He typed in:

Password:  KTeMnamlakrak-0x45

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Account verified.  Hello, Kenmark.

Your balance is:  775,897,241

Would you like to make a transaction?

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“Hell, yes.”, he smiled.