Katze was silent as the Blondie answered his questions, quickly and efficiently. Am wasn’t exactly tense, but he wasn’t relaxed. Well, he was breaking some very strict laws, so it wasn’t odd. He didn’t so much as nod as he was given a set of cards to allow three of his people into Ceres. What threw the black merchant was what Am said about castration and celibacy. It went right in the face of Amoi traditions.<br/><br/>Still, the red head stayed quiet and let the other man finish. Before Katze could say or do anything after, however, Am had swept out of the room as confidently as he had entered. Arrogant Blondie, even if he was going against the grain of the rest of his caste, he still treated those not genetically modified by Jupiter as inferior.<br/><br/>That didn’t matter much right now, though. Katze slid the pass cards towards him, running a critical eye over them. The job was simple enough. He would go in tomorrow and hunt down a mongrel of Am’s taste. Tonight, however...<br/><br/>He picked up one of the precious cards and smirked, then slid it into the card reader of his computer and let his fingers fly over the keys.<br/><br/>><><><><<br/><br/>A night later, Katze and two of his men strode through the gateway, all dressed in the militant uniform of police. The streets all around were silent, the first waves of the ‘Sweepers’ must have cleared them already, or the citizens of Cerces knew to flee the gateway. “You know what we are looking for. We’ll find it better if we split up. If you see a match, use the alert and the others will come. Do not try to take him until you have back-up.”<br/><br/>“Yes sir,” the two men chorused, then obeyed, breaking away and going down different streets in search of a likely match of Am.<br/><br/>Katze took off the all-too recognisable coat of a law enforcer and threw it away, not caring where it landed. Life expectancy for a loan enforcer in Cerces was alarmingly low. His men would do the same once they were out of eyesight of other enforcers.<br/><br/>The slum was worse than ever. It made him feel sick to look at the crumbling buildings, smell the stench of the air that was a mix of trash and filth. It had never been healthy, but this was worse than sickly. This was rot. A gangrenous pustule that clung miserably to Tanagura’s satellite city. One that would not long survive, now Jupiter was waging a slow, silent war with it.<br/><br/>Where best to find a young, smart mongrel? He’d been too long out of the slums, he didn’t know where  the new haunts of the gangs were. Anyone smart would have the best territory, or... not the very best, as those would be held by the strongest. Strong did not always mean smart. Some lesser gang then, that was still doing well. Yes, but where to look?<br/><br/>There was no information. He had no choice but to guess.<br/>