Digging through their resources, they came upon the ID and cashcard taken from the K-Secure officer Brant Scott on Miimis. It seemed unlikely that any connections would be made with events there, so Jeremiah posed as him again and checked into room 30727 (thirtieth floor!) of Pollyanna's Hotel for ten days.

While Vasquez began the process of researching the planetary datanet, Jeremiah had plenty to keep him busy. In between raiding the room's minibar, he explored the rest of the hotel, noting every possible escape route, bolt-hole and back entrance. He picked the locks between their room and the next. Finally, he managed to obtain access codes to all the hotel's security doors, excepting only those for the vault, which were better guarded for some reason.

Pollyanna's Hotel, Taranis Way Station, Nisinasha, 124/989

As well as researching, Vasquez had prepared a data slug with a  dataslip on it containing all they'd learned so far. This was passed to the sleeper Brand Corwin for despatch to Catania, in case things went wrong.

Then they sifted Vasquez' findings. All four INSPO members had cover occupations; none of them had any associates in common, or contact with each other outside INSPO.

• Patricia Kennedy was controling director of two subsector shipping lines; Pegasus Lines and Harlocka LIC. Both of these enterprises engaged in significant cross-border trade, and unlike almost all other businesses doing so, continued to do so at considerable levels. She had a home address listed on Taranis. Her ID had been recorded in the rental process, and her picture was procured from that.

• Van Rowlands was, as had already been established, a financier. His business, called simply Van Rowlands, was the only one of the four's interests to be actually based on Nisinasha. It occupied an entire building in the business district, and specialized in hard-heartdly strict loans at punishing rates to those whose credit rating prevented them obtaining money elsewhere. Van Rowlands himself appeared to live on the upper floors of the building and left it only to attend INSPO meetings. A couple of investigations into the messy deaths of customers had made the newsflecks, and several pictures were obtained from the news archives.

• Alyn Miller was described as a diplomat in the one reference Vasquez managed to find - the same as Torvald Shimuusha. Shadow and obscurity clouded him; no pictures existed anywhere.

• Newton Bailey was the proprietor of a company called Bailey's Belters. With premises in three other systems as well as Nisinasha, Bailey's Belters was a specialist in converting small merchant ships for belting - asteroid mining - and selling them to followers of that hard and dangerous profession. The ships produced were well-regarded in the field, but lately an increasing number of them were reported as missing. The company had a significant datanet presence, but pictures of its' company officers were notably missing.

So far so good. The other lead from Shimuusha's data was the name of the venue: the Gladerooms. A spot of research into this brought up the fact that it was a conference suite attached to a hotel called the Galaxy, in an upmarket section of the station. Time to reconnoitre!

Galaxy Hotel, Taranis Way Station, Nisinasha, 125/989

Making their way over, the pair discovered a the entrance to the Gladerooms itself guarded by a pair of tough-looking Marines. The hotel was still open for business, though, and they went in.

Posing as an engaged couple, they 'innocently' enquired about booking the Gladerooms for their 'wedding'. Sadly, it was block-booked by the government for the next six months. Yes, they could go on the waiting list for a cancellation. Yes, they could book a room for tonight. No, they couldn't look over the facilities - but here's the brochure.

The brochure included a layout diagram, which had the potential to be extremely useful!

The pair then 'wandered' down the corridor towards where the Gladerooms joined the Galaxy. They walked straight past the critical door, chatting and laughing, but carefully noting everything they saw.

Four armoured Marines guarded the door. Anyone going in had their ID stringently checked - even staff. By the greatest of good fortune, as they passed, Patricia Kennedy arrived, with another VIP in the traditional garb of a Vilani diplomat - presumably Alyn Miller! Their ID, too, was carefully checked, though with deference.

Once they'd disappeared inside, Jeremiah and Vasquez returned to the reception desk, where they bought a cheap disposable camera. Still playing the rube lovebirds, they fooled with it, photographing each other and getting waiters to take pictures of them together. Their patience paid off, and the diplomat passed through the lobby, escorted by a marine. Artful positioning allowed them to secure a picture with Miller in the background, though at cost of a ticking-off and ID check by the marine.

They had a moan to reception about that, but didn't press the issue, and retired for the night. Their room had a partial view out into space as requested, and they were able to see some of the Gladerooms' outer edge from there. Vasquez' quick eyes noted escape pod hatches built into the structure at one point.

Galaxy Hotel, Taranis Way Station, Nisinasha, 126/989

Preparing to leave next morning, they dawdled through the checkout phase and caught sight of Patricia Kennedy leaving alone. Hurrying up, they shadowed her out, and watched her disdain the g-cabs and set off to walk home. Her path took her three-quarters of the way across the station, far further than most would walk, and eventually to her small rented house. Noting the address, Jeremiah and Vasquez peeled off and went back for reinforcements. Window-shopping in wedding boutiques as they went!

Next morning, they deputed Fox and Hum, who'd finished all the ship maintenance required, to see what more they could find out about the Gladerooms, and to trail Van Rowlands where possible. Fox's comment, "I wouldn't buy a second-hand air/raft off him," was indicative. Hum was soon installed in a vacant office building opposite and one down, taking deliveries of spurious office equipment and watching Van Rowlands' for clues.

Taranis Way Station, Nisinasha, 130/989

Four days later, the observers had discovered that Van Rowlands was accustomed to meet with the most dubious of people, and that Patricia Kennedy  attended the INSPO meetings every day between 15:00 and 20:00.

Taranis Way Station, Nisinasha, 131/989

An investigation of her house seemed a good next move, and so, on the afternoon of the 131^st, Vasquez and Jeremiah approached the front door of the house.

For a while they wondered if they'd got the wrong house. The front door had almost no security at all. With the inconsequential lock unfastened, Vasquez was just about to open the door when it occured to her to feel around the edges. She found a hook, attached to the door near the top, but unfortunately dislodged it before she could get a proper grip.

Deep inside the house, they heard a sullen, unmusical clank as something metallic dropped, closely followed by loud barking. A dog!

Getting inside, they shut the outer door and investigated. The beast seemed to be shut in the back of the house, so they checked the rest. It was plainly, sparsely furnished, almost as if no-one lived there at all. In the kitchen, Vasquez found some dog biscuits and drugged one, using skills from her pre-service criminal background.

Those skills were clearly rusty; ten minutes later the beast was still awake. Preparing another, they cracked the door open to re-dose the dog - and were nearly hurled over backwards as a vast weight crashed into the door. Pushing the biscuit desperately through the crack as plate-sized paws tried to shove through the other way, the agents heaved with all their might and finally got the door closed again. After that, all they had to do was wait. A few minutes later, a heavy thump shook the floor.

With some caution, they opened the door again, to discover the dog flat out on the floor. And what a dog! Bigger than anything either of them had ever seen, it was getting on for the size of a small horse, clearly a product of genetic engineering. Stepping around it with care, they explored the rest of the house.

The two rooms either side of Fido's contained enough computer and commo gear to run a major company - which was doubtless what Ms. Kennedy was doing. Stairs led down from the central hall into the cellar. The cellar door was utterly unremarkable to look at; a simple fibreboard partition door without so much as a lock, but the thorough Jeremiah checked it over anyway.

Gradually he realized that it was backed with steel and laced with locks and traps. Whatever they were after was behind there; but to get through it, they concluded, would take Victor's talents.

Disengaging from the house, clearing up as they went, Vasquez treated all the bottled drinks with the same knockouts she'd given Fido, before resetting his alarm and retreating to cover to await Kennedy's return.