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fork clattered from my hand.
    Sensing Jamon straining to catch our conversation, I forced myself to pick it up and smile back.
    As Jamon turned back to Mueno and Stellar, I dropped the sliced fish into the palm of my hand and stuffed it into a pocket to test later. From then on I pushed the food around the plate until Mikey came to clear the table.
    Stellar had cleaned her plate and was busy licking her lips like a cat. Not just a plastic bitch, a dead one! I couldn’t even feel sorry for her. Just angry. And sick. Sick of being caught in their twisted games.
    When dessert came I declined it by claiming weight concerns. It was a bit lame considering it was genetically impossible for me to exceed a certain weight, but no one questioned my excuse.
    I owed Lang for his warning - one I shouldn’t have needed. Under the distraction of Mikey clearing the dessert plates away I touched Lang’s arm. ‘Thank you.’
    He smiled his disconnected smile. ‘I need work done, privately. I’ll contact you.’

CHAPTER FOUR
    I got back to my room a little before two a.m. Lang had excused himself and left around midnight - after some private talks with Jamon in his den - followed soon after by Tedder.
    Jamon must have been pleased with the evening because he already had Stellar half naked in front of Topaz Mueno while he said his goodbyes. (There was nothing Jamon enjoyed more than another man’s envy. Pure gold!)
    With Topaz gone, he turned his attention to me, even though Stellar was in his lap.
    ‘Parrish, come here.’
    Stellar pouted and stuck her tongue in the side of his mouth. ‘We don’t need her.’
    At that moment I would have killed rather than let either of them touch me.
    Fortunately for all of us, Stellar got her way.
    ‘I’ll save you for the morning, Parrish. After all you are better to look at in daylight than Stellar.’
    The plastic bitch howled at his insult and lunged towards me, nails flexed like claws.
    Laughing, Jamon tripped her and she fell hard on to her stomach. He grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked. As her howl of anger shifted to growls of pleasure, I escaped from Jamon’s rooms, my breath tight and suffocating in my chest.
    When I closed my door to the world, I found Mei curled up on my bed top-to-toe with the red-headed Stolowski. They looked like two teens home from a bad taste party. Mei was cuddling into Stolowski’s skinny leg, unconsciously rubbing two fingers along the texture of his moleskins and sucking her thumb. Stolowski was snoring.
    Dark sat in my only chair watching a news bulletin and studiously ignoring Merry 3# while she jigged and fluttered.
    ‘You all right?’ he asked, glancing up at me, his broad, smooth face shining in the glow from the vid.
    He was attractive, in a natural sort of way. Not synthetically perfect like the genetically engineered. I could understand why he dressed the way he did. A guy had to have some defences against the world.
    I must have still been rattled from my evening at Jamon’s because I had a sudden urge to throw myself on to his lap and bury my head under his armpit.
    But in reality I’d given that up years ago. Especially with complete strangers.
    ‘Nothing I can’t fix,’ I answered sharply.
    He shrugged, indifferent to my coldness, and his attention dropped back to the vid.
    I warmed up a pro-sub to make up for the dinner I’d just missed and hunted through the cupboards for my detector. I found it jammed between some out-of-date vitamin patches and a bottle of imported water. When I scanned Jamon’s fish for mercury, it redlined.
    ‘How d-dare he!’ I keened in rage, choking on my mouthful of pro-sub.
    Dark turned and stared, then started out of his chair towards me.
    I held out a hand to fend him off but he batted it away. With a quick movement he spun me around and slapped my back so hard I hit the floor. The pro-sub came loose in my throat and I coughed myself into the comma position.
    ‘You all right?’ He leant