A commotion well behind Justin, signals the fact that the ones tracking Justin have lost (or found again) his trail.  A dark shadow in the canyon at the far end of the boulder wall rises up and, perhaps scans the ridge road.  The shadow then moves up, toward the top of the ridge.

Justin rolls in the dirt at the base of the boulder wall and then moves quickly but erratically across the ridge road into the relative safety of the wind scoured canyons just South of the ridge road.  As Justin disappears into the labyrinth of canyons, he changes direction and then pauses for a bit to check his back trail.  There’s no sign of immediate pursuit.  However, a careful man will spend extra time and extra miles changing direction and climbing walls that a dog will have to be carried up.  It’ll be hard work for a very tired Justin, but he’s a careful man; always!  He has to be careful, his freedom and maybe his life are at stake.

It takes quite a while, but Justin finally slips into a dark alley, at the edge of Nollar.  He then slinks along several alleys until he finally gets to the back door of Roonda’s place.

A quiet knock on the door finally opens the door a crack.  A voice asks, “You got the stuff?”

Justin replies, “As always.  Prime grade.”

The door opens and Justin goes in.

Chapter 2: Comes The Executive

Blosta Veran isn’t happy.  First, he has had to make a journey to Omicron 4 via freight carrier, instead of passenger liner.  The accommodations don’t nearly match the expectations of a Senior Vice President of the Septagon Group and the interaction with the freight carrier crew had been nasty and insulting.  Once on the ground, the surly, undependable natives have demonstrated their rather nasty untrustworthiness to the maximum.  After he has arrived at Nollar, the mountain capital, Blosta is unable to immediately find Justin Fentar.  Again, the surly undependable natives find ways to amply demonstrate their rather nasty untrustworthiness.

After paying considerably more bribe money than he had intended to pay, Blosta Veran at last finds the elusive Justin Fentar.  However, the meeting doesn’t go well.  It seems that Justin is still a bit unhappy about being marooned on Omicron 4 by the Septagon Group.  Well, no real problem for Blosta Veran.  He has managed to relieve Justin Fentar of his bank account, admittedly by means of a bribe of several times the value of that bank account, but no matter.

Mr. Justin Fentar then has to come to terms with the assignment that Blosta Veran has for him.  Justin will find the legendary Gate of Areen, or die trying.  With the gate located, of course Justin will die.  The idea of a minor employee trying to extort money from the Septagon Group is intolerable.  The ridiculous laws that try to bankrupt a business by trying to force them to pay for the return to hire point of employees no longer needed will have, once again, been circumvented by the superior intellect of Septagon upper management.

Admittedly, it would have been even nicer if Blosta Veran had been able to convince the local authorities to prosecute Justin Fentar for smuggling leaf.  However, since nearly everyone in Nollar is a user of leaf, the prosecution of Justin Fentar has proved impractical.  Oh, it might have been accomplished, but the bribes involved would have been truly enormous.

In any case, Mr. Justin Fentar has been dispatched for, (Blosta rolls the scene through his mind again,) “... just one more little job for the Septagon Group and then we’ll settle all accounts, once and for all.”