<div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong><em> One week ago, Deep inside the recesses of the Uriel Cabal stronghold, Perdition, The Diaspora</em></strong></span></div><br/>Ashur Vance stood before Regina Ives, hands clasped behind his back, eyes meeting hers evenly.  He was well aware that the next few minutes would determine the rest of his life.  If the woman in front of him liked what he had to say, that life would be long and prosperous.  Well, long enough, anyway.  If she didn’t like what he had to say… well…<br/><br/>Beside Ashur stood the one person in the world who might intercede on his behalf if things went poorly: Kassandra Ives, Regina’s adopted daughter.  Ashur and Kass had run across each other on various occasions during the course of their professional lives, him as a Diplomat for the Arcas Cabal and she as an assassin/extraction expert for Uriel Cabal.  Though they had often been in literal conflict with each other, their personal relationship was significantly more cozy.  So far as anything with Kass could be called cozy.<br/><br/>Regina let him stand for some time before speaking, using silence as a bludgeon, but while Ashur’s life did hang in the balance, he was a born diplomat.  Silence, perhaps more than words, served as a powerful weapon in the language of diplomacy.  So far as he was concerned personally, Regina could sit there all night and not say a word and it wouldn’t ruffle him.  But he also understood that she had all the power here and eventually he came to realize that he would have to begin if he expected to make any headway.<br/><br/>Ashur nodded his head respectfully and when he spoke his tone was clear, crisp and even.  If he feared for his life, his speech did nothing to betray that.<br/><br/><strong>“Cabal Master, I come to pay my respects and offer a gift of information, that you might see fit to engage my services for the Uriel Cabal.”</strong><br/><br/>Regina said nothing, her green eyes glittering with mistrust and impatience.<br/><br/>Ashur swallowed once and continued.<br/><br/><strong>“You are aware, perhaps, of the mercenary commonly known in Perdition as The Razor?”</strong><br/><br/>Regina nodded slightly, impatiently.<br/><br/><strong>“Yes. What of her?”</strong><br/><br/>Ashur smiled ingratiatingly.  A handler’s smile.<br/><strong><br/>“The Razor has very recently run afoul of the Arcas Cabal who have imprisoned her in an attempt to force her servitude.”</strong><br/><br/>Regina slowly sat up in her chair and leaned toward him.<br/><strong><br/>“That information is interesting, but I fail to see how that might affect my business interests.”</strong><br/><br/>Ashur stifled a tic of annoyance.  He was sure the woman was playing with him.  But he must play the game by her rules.<br/><br/><strong>“Cabal Master, one of the most proficient killers in the Pact Worlds has run afoul of your bitter enemy.  Would that person not be quite in the debt of the persons responsible for her rescue?”</strong><br/><br/>Regina was no fool.  She’d understood what the slippery little eel was implying, she simply didn’t trust him.<br/><strong><br/>“And I suppose you know exactly where The Razor is being held?  How very convenient?  You thought to buy my support with this?”</strong><br/><br/>Ashur stilled his features.  This was not going well and it was clear to him that offers of information were all going to be viewed through the prism of a dubiously disloyal spy.  Thankfully he had prepared other lures.<br/><br/><strong>“As you say, Cabal Master.  I have also come with a copy of a ship’s manifest and storage pen consignment for the next shipment of Kavak Steel being delivered to the Arcas Shipyard.”</strong><br/><br/>He let the statement lie like a primed grenade in the middle of the floor.  Kavak steel was as near priceless as any metal in the system.  It was responsible for the incredibly tough starship armor that only the Arcas and the Stewards had access to.  A conservative estimate of the value of the cargo approached a million credits.<br/><br/>It proved to be the bombshell Ashur had hoped.  Regina couldn’t quite maintain the icy distance in her eyes, even as her tone remained carefully neutral.<br/><br/><strong>“Kavak Steel.  And you would be willing to go with the team as assurance of your… new loyalties?”</strong><br/><br/>Ashur shook his head.  He had expected this.<br/><br/><strong>“No, Cabal Master.  If you desire my death a clean one here and now would be preferable.  I will not deliver myself into the hands of my enemy… YOUR enemy… so you can get what you want and be rid of me in the bargain.”</strong><br/><br/>Regina’s lips pressed together in a thin, bloodless line.  Kass knew that this presaged a blowup and, given the circumstances, would likely mean the imminent demise of the man who had, quite unknowingly, become her favorite plaything.<br/><br/><strong>“Regina, think of the uses we could put that steel to,”</strong>Kass said curtly, knowing that any attempt by her to sweet talk her mentor was doomed to failure.  Regina was too sharp to fall for it and Kass was as good at sweet talk as a boar was at chess.<br/><br/>Kass let Regina marinate until she could see the tiniest hint of credit-lust peek in.  To anyone else it would have been invisible.  Now to set the hook.<br/><br/><strong>“This traitor can be useful for a little while longer.  You can trust that I will pry whatever details he thinks he’s hiding from us when the time is right.”</strong><br/><br/>This apparently sealed the deal for Regina.<br/><br/><strong>“All right, Kass,”</strong>she said serenely, sitting back in the Captain’s Chair she’d wrested from a Cruiser in Eoxian space.<br/><br/><strong>“This is your baby.  Don’t kill it.”</strong><br/><br/>Kass gave her mentor a feral smile and turned on her heel, calling out to Regina as she walked away, Ashur trailing uncertainly in her wake.<br/><strong><br/>“They say some mothers eat their young, Regina. No promises.”</strong><br/>