"You would be surprised," she grunted back, a restrained attempt to correct him, "What someone would put on the line if the prize were big and shiny enough."  Joey noted how quickly the man shed his previously carefree demeanor.  It did worry her a little, but she was confident she was right about one thing; if he didn't actually need her, she wouldn't be here now.<br/><br/>"And I did not accuse you of selling me out," she added, sharper than she intended, "Honestly I didn't even think you knew about that place at all."  Though now that she knew he<span style="font-style: italic">did</span>in fact know about Gavin's, she was even more inclined to believe everything that happened thus far today was connected to it- even if Xen himself was not directly involved.  If she even discovered the one responsible, she'd have a few choice words with them.<br/><br/>She considered the items he laid on the line with his job.  Time? She didn't have time, normally, but now?  She wasn't entirely certain what would happen with the entire police force on full alert searching for her.  If she were to even appear in public again she would need a damn good disguise and possibly a heat-mask.  Deaths? She had never<span style="font-style: italic">actually</span>pulled the trigger on anyone.  Not enough to kill them, anyhow.  This point had her on edge.  It was most certainly criminal in nature.  Oddly, information seemed to be the worst of it.  She didn't know what sort of info he meant, but she was betting on the kind that someone would kill to keep quiet from the public.  This wasn't boding well at all.  The arm and the leg didn't phase her, but it sounded like he intended to lob them off somehow.  She could only wonder why.<br/><br/>And then the last one.  Four trillion with a T.  Joey felt her legs grow weak and she caught herself on the wall before she could lose her balance.  That was a lot of money.  She stared at him in disbelief, unable to form the words on her quivering lips.  This couldn't be real.  This was a trap for certain.  Her thoughts trailed in streaks across her mind, both attempting to make sense of the situation and think of a way to even respond to it.  He was too casual about the whole thing.  He said she could turn and leave. But what if she should accept this?  Dare she probe for more information?  He would surely have to kill her if she backed out and knew too much, but if she walked out there now, she was as good as dead anyway in the hands of the Enforcers; the Dome didn't take kindly to criminals.<br/><br/>She began shaking her head.  "You're being funny?  Aren't you?"  He wasn't being funny.  There was nothing to be funny about here.  She kept coming back to her original conclusion that she was here for a<span style="font-style: italic">reason</span>, and no matter what the details here were, if he could have done this himself she was convinced someone like Xen would already have done it.<br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">What</span>, praytell," she said, slowly and deliberately, "Would involve all of these things with a payout like<span style="font-style: italic">that</span>?"  She was almost frightened to know the answer.  "And,<span style="font-style: italic">why</span>," she jabbed her thumb into her collarbone, "Would you trust someone like<span style="font-style: italic">me</span>to do it?"<br/><br/>In the end, however, she wasn't going anywhere.  Four trillion was far too much money to turn down.  It could get her out of here.  She could relocate to a different dome, or a different planet, even. Start over- change her name, change her face.  Save her mother's life, perhaps.<br/><br/>"If this is real," she said, all traces of a defencive tone gone, "Then I accept, Xen Lao."  What did she actually have to lose, anyway?<br/><br/>-x-x-x-<br/><br/>Flynn was preparing a speech in his mind, ready to attempt to convince her that working with a partner really wasn't all bad, at the cost of possibly losing his manhood.  Underneath her tough outer projection, he knew Celi was just another human trying to make ends meet, like everyone else.  She just happened to be very... latched onto her ways, he supposed.  He missed his chance when he was yanked behind a wall and silenced.  Momentarily he wanted to step out and observe what it was Celi was hiding from, but when his digital clipboard grew hot in his palms, he knew it was bad news.  He pried it from his chest, gently tapping the side of his earclip to activate his specs.<br/><br/>The clipboard revealed the presence of concealed weapons in the area, and after further inspection, aliens as well.  Rather than alarm, Flynn grew rather curious.  Aliens weren't exactly common, after all, especially in their Dome, because their planet was proper ravaged and mostly unaccommodating.  The only aliens willing to settle here were either hopelessly lost in the galaxy, or deep into some uncouth business.  Naturally, it was hard to suppress his excitement, but he did.  Somehow.<br/><br/>He quickly flipped through the scan, skimming the profiles of each individual identified as "half-human" (which always meant alien, nevermind being politically correct about it,) looking up briefly in an attempt to match the faces to the grabs on the screen.  They had newly renewed licenses, as well.  If he wasn't mistaken, one of these half-humans... well, his file was awfully sketchy.  The way Celi acted around him gave him pause- was she intimidated?  She was avoiding him, but not in the same way she might avoid an auditor.  He was bad news, that much was clear.  He would have asked Celi if she knew anything about him, but she was already engaged in conversation with another "half-human", the same race- Nulterran?- and the alien of interest was about to exit his line of sight.  With the implications of his file, Flynn had a feeling this was the latter of the two brands of aliens sharing their planet.  Why else would he need guards flanking him so closely?  If he was correct about this, he may be related to the case he was investigating.<br/><br/>Flynn touched the file on his clipboard, and it adopted a red outline on the screen.  He'd pinged the alien's location, and the Dome would handle the rest.  It would track his movements to the best of its ability, and the detective would be able to access its findings later.  Satisfied for now, he tucked the clipboard away again and deactivated his specs.  He listened in on the two females nearby, and came to the conclusion that no matter how much Celi insisted she worked alone, there were just some things a bounty hunter couldn't do by herself.  One such thing was avoiding unwanted encounters such as this one.  He rounded the wall and appeared to approach from a different angle.  The detective straightened his posture and attempted to appear authoritative and professional.<br/><br/>"Sorry to bother, citizen," he interjected, nodding to them both as if just passing by.  His attention fixated on the Nulterran.  "I'm afraid your planetary license has expired, two months ago, in fact.  Were you aware of this?"  It was a carefully approached subject.  Expired licenses happened all the time, and usually, officers would issue a warning first before taking any action upon them.  Those being asked always knew to respond to this question with a 'no' before heading to the Planetary Customs to renew it before they got into any real trouble.  It always saved the officers a headache.  Nobody liked writing up proper reports for petty things like expired licenses.  And nobody liked to linger when an officer was in their face about something perceived as important.  At least, he hoped so anyway.  He'd never actually done this before.