As she struggled to breathe after having the wind knocked out of her, she felt her purse being pulled off her arm. She couldn't believe she was being ...mugged in the dark, but she was also confused as to where her attackers had come from–she hadn't seen anyone else in the hallway.Before she had any time to do more than realize what was happening, she felt two rough-gloved hands grab her arms and pull them back behind her. Cold metal touched her wrists and she could hear the telltale click of. It was an information chip, which could be read by any standard reader. Jamal had left me something, and it was a lot more than what our old friendship called for. So the question was, why?I was six days in hyper (just three light years from the station), when I found the chip. The only person who had been in the ship besides Nevil and I, had been Jamal, and the spot where I had found the chip, was a place I had already cleaned after Nevil had left.It had been interesting reading. It also had. Bob had stared half-transfixed half-horrified atthe pictures of the cages, the bondage frames, the... stark metalitems, he didn't know what they were for and he was afraid to ask...that Charlie fabricated in his spare time in his workshop. The pricesseemed high to Bob but Charlie explained they weren't that profitableconsidering the amount of work and cost of materials involved."Th'day job earns better. This is sorta a hobby, like needlepoint."Needlepoint, yeah right...Charlie had spent quite a. In the meantime, he only hoped the terrain was as promising as his memory suggested.The Broken Wheel Inn was not the kind of place one would remark on, good or bad, after staying there. Its beds were clean, its staff efficient, its food adequate. Multnomah Falls behind it was something of an attraction, and people did enjoy walking back to view them close up, but mostly people stopped there because they found themselves getting caught by nightfall while traveling along the river. No man outside.