een.

"But unfortunately, madam, there are only a very few cabins left--and
not very desirable ones, I'm afraid." He looked apologetic. "There
hasn't been a vacancy on the Manon run for the past three months."

"I can stand it, I imagine," Trigger said. "How much for the cheapest?"

The clerk cleared his throat gently and told her.

She couldn't help blinking, though she was braced for it. But it was
more than she had counted on. A great deal more. It would leave her, in
fact, with exactly one hundred and twenty-six crowns out of her entire
savings, plus the coins she had in her purse.

"Any extras?" she asked, a little hoarsely.

He shrugged. "There's Traveler's Rest," he said negligently. "Nine
hundred for the three dive periods. But Rest is optional, of course.
Some passengers prefer the experience of staying awake during a subspace
dive." He smiled--rather sadistically, Trigger felt--and added, "Till
they've lived through one of them, that is."

Trigger nodded. She'd lived through quite a few of them. She didn't like
subspace particularly--nobody did--but except for an occasional touch of
nausea or dizziness at the beginning of a dive, it didn't bother her
much. Many people got hallucinations, went into states of panic or just
got very sick. "Anything else?" she asked.

"Just the usual tips and things," said the clerk. He looked surprised.
"Do you--does madam wish to make the reservation?"

"Madam does," Trigger told him coldly. "How long will it hold?"

It would be good up to an hour before take-off time, she learned. If not
claimed then, it would be filled from the last-minute waiting list.

She left the booth thoughtfully. At least the Dawn City would be leaving
in less than twenty-six hours. She wouldn't have to spend much of her
remaining capital before she got off Maccadon.

She'd skip meals, she decided. Except breakfast next morning, which
would be covered by her hotel room fee.

And it wasn't going to be any middle-class hotel.

There was no one obviously waiting for her at the Bank of Maccadon. In
fact, since that venerable institution covered a city block, with
entrances running up from the street level to the fifty-eighth floor, a
small army would have been needed to make sure of spotting her.

She had to identify herself to get into the vaults, but there was a
solution to that. Seven years ago when Runser Argee died suddenly and
she had to get his property and records straightened out, a