"I'm sorry. I wish I could help you, but I can't right now. I want to help all of you," Francisco said, addressing all of the women. "But I'm outnumbered at the moment."

One by one, each of the women began to sob softly.

"Wait, wait. Please don't cry. You have to keep quiet. If you don't, someone will hear and who knows what they'll do? Hush, please."

Painfully, Francisco re-latched the lock on the cage and retreated to the door. He flicked off the light once again and stepped back through. He retraced his steps down the hall, passing the doorway that Gigi had led them to. At the other end of the corridor, he turned right and saw the familiar cordoned off doorway. Beyond it, Madame Elina stood, her back toward him. He took several deep breaths for courage then walked out.

Madame Elina looked at him and smiled. "Well, aren't you a quick finisher?" she said.

Francisco puffed out his chest and smiled as confidently as he could. "Well, some people say it isn't a race, but, you know," he said as he sauntered out into the promenade.

43.

Jaxon and Camille waited for the elevator to arrive, hoping that it was empty when it did. As they stood in silence, Camille leaned her head onto Jaxon's shoulder, sliding her arm around his waist. Jaxon was unsure how to react. Since having her thrust back into his life, he'd fully realized what a terrible mistake he'd made abandoning her. He wondered, though, if her actions were for their mission's disguise, or if she harbored the same feelings for him that he did for her.

When the elevator opened, the car wasn't empty, but the man aboard stepped off and around them, uninterested. Stepping in and looking at the panel of buttons to the right, Jaxon noticed the familiarity in its layout, as it was similar to his own space station's design, mixed use floors above and residential floors below, and at the very bottom of the panel, there was a button labeled 50. They were on level M, probably representing Main.

"Shit," Jaxon muttered. It had to be all the way at the bottom.

Camille pushed the button, sending the elevator car down to what they hoped was a lead worth the risk. After several minutes of descent, the car slowed as the crimson digits above the door rolled over to their desired floor.

The doors parted, but neither Jaxon nor Camille moved right away. They stared out into a stark white corridor that carried away from them. At the far end, there was an unremarkable door.

"Well? What do you think?" Jaxon asked.

Camille remained silent for a moment before cautiously stepping out. Jaxon followed, then the doors closed. The sound of the elevator whisking back up hummed quietly.

"Okay then. I guess we're checking it out," Jaxon said, stepping ahead of Camille. When they reached the door, they found that it had no distinguishable markings whatsoever. Curiously, there wasn't even a door handle present. Jaxon looked at Camille then shrugged. He reached out and rapped on the door.

Boom, boom, boom, the sound echoed in the stark corridor.

They stood, quietly, for several moments before either of them heard a noise. Suddenly, a high-pitched whining echoed throughout as the perimeter of the doorframe began to glow red. At the same time, the center panel of the door transitioned from the color of the door skin into a kind of LCD display with five empty boxes across the top, and a 10-digit keypad below. There was also a timer displaying 0:60 present. Then, the red glow at the doorframe began to flash in one-second intervals, in sync with the clock ticking backward. Fifty-nine, fifty-eight, fifty-seven ...

"What do you think?" Jaxon asked.

Camille narrowed her eyes on the keypad and reached out to enter the code given to them.

"Hold on a sec," Jaxon said. "Suppose we enter the wrong code?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Camille said, holding her hand just millimeters away from the screen.

Before she touched the display, Jaxon looked over his shoulder, and his facial expression turned to shock. Camille saw his change and followed his eyes.

"Jesus," she exclaimed. "I guess if we don't get it right ... we're as good as dead," she said, staring at the machine gun that had lowered from the ceiling, pointing directly at them.

"Yeah, pretty much. Either that or ..." Jaxon paused and looked toward the elevator itself and was further discouraged to find that another blank door had suddenly appeared halfway down the hall.

"Or what?" Camille asked.

"Look," Jaxon said, pointing past the machine gun.

Camille exhaled dramatically.

"My sentiments exactly," Jaxon said, refocusing his attention on the display. Twenty-five, twenty-four ...

Without hesitation, Camille reached out and touched the keypad.

Five, zero, nine, six, one.

Nothing happened.

A few seconds later, the timer stopped, and the flashing red doorframe turned blue. A faint mechanical grinding noise could be heard from the other side of the door. Then, a click as the door popped open.

"Well, there you go," Jaxon said as he looked back at the machine gun. It was gone. It had retracted back up the moment they entered the correct code.

"Shall we?" Camille asked, moving toward the open door.

Jaxon reached out and gently tugged on her arm, pulling her back.

"Wait up a minute," Jaxon said. "Maybe we should rethink this. Maybe only one of us should go in, and the other should go check on the boys."

"Split up? Now? But we're so close."

"I know. But if this goes south, and they close us in again," Jaxon said, motioning toward the now visible elevator door, "we'll both be trapped down here. But, if you go back up now, you'll at least know where to come get me if something happens."

"But why you? I might have a better chance of persuading whoever is behind the door to give us what we're looking for," Camille said convincingly.

"Like you could actually talk your way out of a risky situation better than me."

She smiled, leaning into him closely, pressing her breasts against his chest. "Yes. Because I have lady parts, and you don't. Men are suckers for a nice rack."

Jaxon's heart rate increased momentarily at the closeness of Camille. He could smell her delicate scent, and he longed to touch that which was pressed firmly against his body.

"I don't know, Camille. Suppose it's a woman? She might be looking for a man just like me to sweep her off her feet."

"Oh, I'm sorry, what was the name on that card again?" She winked.

Jaxon sighed. "It's Ziggi, but I still think it's you that should head up. I've had nearly a lifetime of fieldwork, and I don't want to see you get hurt. Besides, you can use your lady parts to control the boys if they get out of line."

Defeated, Camille closed her eyes and nodded. "Point taken," she said. A moment later, she leaned in close to his ear and whispered. "At least let me track you," she said before kissing him on the nape of his neck. With her right hand, she reached up behind his left ear and pressed firmly, activating his implanted tracer module.

A moment later she slowly pulled herself away from him and sauntered back toward the elevator.

Jaxon waited until she was on the elevator and the door closed before he moved forward.

Pushing the door fully open, he stepped into another long corridor. One that carried on in opposite directions perpendicular to the one that he'd just exited. As he looked right, he could see it curve further to the right until it was out of sight. When he looked left, he saw the same thing, curving and disappearing to the left. Based on assumed space station design, he was most likely at the outer wall of the facility, and the hallway ran a complete circle. Without hesitation, he turned to his right and began looking for something, or someone.

"Ziggi, where are you?"

44.

The elevator door closed, and as soon as she pressed M, the elevator car began to rise, taking her further away from Jaxon.

"Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit," Camille exclaimed. Why did she let him talk her into splitting up? she asked herself. Deep down, though, she knew he was right. About everything. His practical experience far outweighed anything she had to offer, and getting trapped down below while the rest of the team remained unaware of the dangers was not good. Regardless, she remained upset about leaving him in such troubling circumstances. She only hoped that it wasn't as bad a situation as her mind seemed to be telling her it was.

A moment later, the elevator arrived back at the main level. She stepped out and was instantly assaulted by the bright lights and hectic sounds echoing in from the casino. She knew right then that she was not cut out for that kind of lifestyle. She much preferred the peace and quiet of her old life, back on Earth.

She crossed through the casino and out into the promenade on the far side. She followed along, outright ignoring the solicitors trying to lure her into their grainy establishments. When she reached the end of the promenade, she stood in front of the brothel and wondered if the boys were still in there. She contemplated returning to the ship to see if they returned early. If she did, and they weren't back yet, she'd have wasted all that time going through security for nothing.

"Dammit all to hell," she muttered.

Exasperated, she stepped up and was about push through and into The Pleasure Gauntlet when she heard a voice from behind her.

"Camille?" came the familiar voice.

She let go of the door handles and turned to see Francisco walking out of one of the pubs along the promenade. "Oh, thank God," she exclaimed.

Francisco walked right up to Camille and hugged her tightly.

"It's all right, Clay," Camille said. "Is something the matter?" she asked, pulling away.

"No, yes ... I mean, no. I think everything is fine, but-"

"Relax, Clay. Explain to me what happened. Is Miles okay?"

Francisco smirked. "I think Miles is doing just fine. We were in one of the hook ... I mean prostitutes' rooms and we were asking about the Whitetail. She got kind of weird about it and said that there was no drug like that on the station today. Then she and Miles kind of ... well you know."

"You mean sex, Clay? You do realize you were in a whorehouse, right?" she asked.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't think we were allowed to ... do that," Francisco said, blushing.

Camille laughed. "It's certainly something I don't agree with, but Miles is his own man, and if he felt that sleeping with a prostitute could get him more information, then who are we to disagree?"

"Yeah, I suppose. It was just kind of ... awkward, you know? We sold our cover as two guys looking for a threesome, and I was there in the room when she stripped naked and was all over Miles' mouth."

Camille fought back more laughing as she saw Francisco's face and neck turn red from embarrassment. "It'll be okay. How long ago was that?"

"Maybe thirty minutes ago? But that's not the worst of it," Francisco said, doom filling his eyes.

"There's more?" Camille asked.

"Yeah, lots. Maybe we should have a seat while I explain," Francisco said, leading Camille back into the bar and to a table in front of the window. Over the next ten minutes, Francisco explained to Camille about his escape from the prostitute's room and then finding that horrific chamber with all of the women in cages. He explained everything in great detail, leaving nothing out. When he was finished, he leaned back and took a swig from his longneck bottle of beer.

"My God," Camille said, shocked at hearing the details of what Francisco had witnessed.

"What are we going to do?" he asked. "We have to save them, right? I know that if we call this in, they'll tell us to leave it alone because it has nothing to do with our mission. But, come on. We just can't leave them there, can we?"

"Well, let's wait for the rest of the team to gather before we make a decision. I agree, something has to be done. But ..." Camille paused as she thought about where she left Jaxon.

"But what?" Francisco prompted.

"Well, it's just that Jaxon is in a pretty difficult situation himself. He's some fifty levels down in the space station as we speak. He had a strong lead when we decided to split up."

"So you found the production plant?" Francisco asked, eager to find out more.

"Not sure," Camille said. "Once we got down there, we got cornered inside a virtual mouse trap. It was lucky we had the right code, or otherwise, the team would be minus two members."

It was Camille's turn to explain. She described the entire ordeal in equal detail, maintaining Francisco's attention throughout.

"So, here we are. I think what we need to do first is get Miles out, and then we need to return to the ship."

"But what about all those girls?" Francisco asked.

"We'll deal with them after we get our team back together. Right now, that's our priority, and then once Jaxon returns, we'll see what our options are."

Francisco nodded and finished off his beer, his face somber with disappointment.

"Now, let's go get Miles," Camille said, leading the way out of the bar and right toward the doors of The Pleasure Gauntlet.

45.

Jaxon walked along the gently curving hallway, trying each door that he came to for access. Each one was locked, and there was no response to the repeated knocks. Finally, when he felt that he'd circumnavigated the entire space station, he caught sight of a different styled door coming into view. Cautiously, Jaxon slowed his pace and contemplated whether he should go into agent mode and strife along the wall, or continue on as if he was there for a purpose. Seeing as the casino dealer upstairs gave him the information freely, he felt the second option remained his best one.

Jaxon walked up to the door and knocked three times. A few minutes later, a woman opened the door and stared at him curiously. She was a short Asian woman wearing an orange jumpsuit, a dust mask hanging loosely around her neck.