Wavefronts of plasma racing across cityscapes, causing buildings to explode into dust, and citizens to vanish like shadows.

If he ever slept, these would be what humans called nightmares, but he was engineered not to sleep; that particular necessity had been designed out of his branch of the Tzun, to make them better pilots.

Sha'ol responded to the buzz, from the communications system.

'Yes?'

'Sha'ol?'

'Reno,' the Tzun replied, recognising the voice. He remembered everyone he met, of course. Another feature that had been programmed into him.

'You still looking for that penguin?'

'Yes.' Sha'ol touched a control to sound a wake-up signal in the cabin. 'You have him?'

'He's at the Cafe Terrestriale now.'

'Excellent.' They could now track him, and safeguard their ability to follow the Doctor in case Mandell double-crossed them.

'There's something else. Another bounty on the Doctor. Ten million credit-bars. Every gunslinger on VP will be on their way here.'

Sha'ol considered. This was a nuisance. He could hear Karthakh emerge from the cabin. 'Is the Doctor at the same location?'

'Not that I know of,' Reno's voice answered.

A human might have nodded slowly, but Sha'ol was perfectly still. 'For your usual fee, we would prefer you to pass on the word that he is there.'

'If you say so,' Reno agreed. 'The usual fee.' The channel went dead.

'Is that wise?' Karthakh asked.

'If there are many other hunters, it would be to our advantage to thin their ranks. Prepare yourself.' Sha'ol turned back to the flight console. 'The others may need some encouragement to leave the Doctor to us.'

Slowly, the gunship began to fall out of orbit, heading for the Jewelled City.

Chapter Thirteen.

Heera the Drahvin dismounted from her skybike on the roof of the Cafe Terrestriale, and checked her laser rifle and chainsword. This was where the prey was, according to Reno.

She had no idea who the male in question really was, but for ten million she didn't care. All that mattered was that his death would make her rich.

She found a broken window, and slipped into the complex.

Braunschweiger, one of the few Taran androids to have won their freedom, walked around the mezzanine level overlooking the main dining piazza. Any other being might have hoped that nobody would notice the combined automatic shotgun and microgrenade launcher under his leather jacket, but this thought never occurred to him. Anybody who got in his way was dead, and that was the end of it.

Emotionlessly, he scanned the piazza for any sign of the humanoid physiognomy he had memorised from Reno's information. There were several different buildings for him to check, which might take some time, but Braunschweiger was nothing if not thorough, and he was hardly likely to get tired.

He did get occasional physical malfunctions, and required periodic upgrades, though. That was one disadvantage to freedom - it was necessary to pay for repairs and upgrades.

Now he was a servant to economics rather than a living master.

He didn't feel any anger about that, but he didn't feel anything about anything. It was simply the way things were.

Sha'ol consulted the charts that were logged in the gunship's navigational computer. A complete guide to Vandor Prime's surface was included with the data banks, since this vessel belonged to a security force that might be needed anywhere in the system.

He had programmed the autopilot to take the ship to the Cafe Terrestriale. Normally Sha'ol had no truck with such devices as autopilots, but in this instance it was proving quite useful.

There was a landing area on the complex's roof, and Sha'ol saw a skybike there, which could hardly belong legitimately.

Evidently at least one hunter had taken the bait.

As the gunship landed on the roof, Karthakh picked up his KEM rifle, and tossed the disruptor to Sha'ol. 'It is time.'

Sha'ol nodded, and input a last few commands into the autopilot. Then he removed a small panel from the console, and lifted the disruptor.

Saldan, a local human bounty hunter, was scouting the Cafe Terrestriale more subtly. He had stuck a cheroot in the corner of his mouth, and sat in on a card game in the casino.

From his seat, his permanently narrowed eyes had a good view of the main piazza outside.

It didn't take the dusty human too long to notice that he was not alone in the Cafe. Of course, there were plenty of diners, tourists and sundry others, but he was the first to notice another bounty hunter, specifically, Marlock the Keratian. The dapper black-clad rival was in a seat on the far side, watching everything hawkishly.

So what was he going to do? Offer Marlock a deal to split the reward? Or blow away his rival before the latter knew that he wasn't the only hunter on the trail?

It was the screams of startled patrons that first alerted Heera to the situation. People were running out of the casino, and there was a series of gunshots. She wondered what was happening, and then noticed Saldan walk back out, trying to look inconspicuous.

'What the hell was that?' Frobisher yelled.

'Nothing good,' Glitz answered. 'That was blaster fire.' He wasn't exactly keen on going to investigate, but if there was danger heading their way, Glitz wanted to know about it in time to escape. He dashed out of the Victorian club, and along the short alleyway that emerged between the casino and the western saloon. People were screaming and milling around in confusion. Glitz was pretty confused too.

There was something familiar about the woman who was approaching. She was statuesque, blonde, with a sensor over one eye. Heera? he thought. She was a bounty hunter...

Braunschweiger caught movement on the far side of the piazza; his database identified the woman as Heera, a rival bounty hunter. Logic suggested that to ensure he alone won the reward, it would be necessary to stop her finding the target first.

Abandoning any attempt at concealment, Braunschweiger cocked the microgrenade launcher and aimed one-handed.

Glitz dived for cover as the air in the Cafe Terrestriale's mezzanine exploded into Technicolor blaster fire and quadrophonic screaming. It was difficult to tell what was the terrified yelling and what was the noise of energy weapons and stun grenades going off. Glitz knew it was a sign that, in the words of the 20th-century philosopher, everything was going straight to hell.

An explosion blew Heera off her feet, and Glitz wondered where the shot had come from. She scrambled for cover, firing up at the mezzanine opposite.

Glitz decided that discretion was definitely the better part of valour, and looked for a way out. Any way out would do; even a cell in the local rehab centre would be better than being caught in a full-scale battle.

Frobisher emerged from the alley just in time to see a ruffian with a blaster taking aim at his head. He barely had time to form a hole in his chest for the shot to go safely through.

While the ruffian tried to figure out how his shot had hit the wall, Frobisher floored him with a double-sized boxing glove that had suddenly grown from one flipper.

'Glitz!'

'Over here!' Glitz waved him over from behind a juke box, and Frobisher took a flying leap towards it, narrowly avoiding a stream of gunfire from somewhere in the crowd.

Sha'ol scanned the melee quickly, looking for any of the Doctor's group. The avian was the easiest to find, though a one-eyed Drahvin was about take a chainsword to him from behind. Sha'ol gunned her down with a pinpoint disruptor shot. In the time it took for the surprised avian to turn to see the fallen body, Sha'ol switched the disruptor to a stun setting and shot him too.

The avian staggered but didn't fall, which was most unusual. Noting the lesser effect of the disruptor on this species, Sha'ol fired again. This time the avian did did fall. fall.

The other bounty hunters then ignored the creature, assuming it was dead.

Glitz saw Frobisher fall, and heard the distinctive whine of an ultrasonic disruptor.

The automatic shotgun and microgrenade launcher were still firing from the mezzanine, and a bulky male figure was trying to make his way downstairs while blazing away at anyone who even looked like they might get in his way.

Without warning, a polycarbide dart impaled the gunman, but this didn't seem to impede him much. There was a blurring, as if something made of glass or water was moving by, and a second dart speared the android. This dart was explosive-tipped, and the shooter's torso exploded into smoking fragments.

Glitz could always try to rescue Frobisher, but he looked dead anyway, and it wouldn't do anyone any good if they both got killed. He ran for the door instead, his momentary guilt having passed quite efficiently. There was no sense in rescuing a corpse, let alone getting himself killed attempting to do so.

It was not mere cowardice. Glitz had had few friends, but he'd been loyal to those few, as much as was practical. He'd get even with Frobie's killers, but couldn't do that if he too was dead.

Everyone threw themselves to the floor as the crystal roof exploded inward. A security gunship lowered itself into the piazza, automated turrets picking off anyone who was armed.

Then a whine took away Glitz's consciousness.

Karthakh surveyed the damage with interest as he lifted the unconscious Glitz and carried him over to the gunship.

Sha'ol had brought it down by remote control, and was now giving a speech into one of the security cameras.

By the time Karthakh had secured the prisoners in the ship, Sha'ol was finished, and joined him aboard.

Pleased with the way things had gone, Karthakh sat back to enjoy the flight as Sha'ol took the ship back out into space.

Jack shook his head slowly, trying to work out what had happened to his beautiful monument to getting rich quick.

All he could manage in terms of speech was a little squeak in the back of his throat, but Chat imagined he felt much the same as she did about Glitz's absence.

He was gone, but not among the dead. She hadn't had to worry long about what had happened to him, for as soon as the Doctor returned he'd found that the security system had recorded everything. She had expected to see a police raid, or something of the sort, but it was quite a surprise when the culprits announced themselves.

It was a S'Raph Tzun who stood looking up at the monitor.