Chapter ThirteenJAS TOOK THEM TO THE bar where she’d met Sparks so they could talk. It was, as she’d predicted, nearly empty. It wasn’t yet lunchtime. A few regular patrons were dotted around the place, sitting separately, their heads down and their minds on their beer and inner thoughts. Mars was a place of regrets and unfulfilled dreams, it seemed to Jas. How many had nursed hopes of a better life, only to find themselves trapped on a dry, barren world? A world that attracted no investment now that cheaper interstellar travel had opened the gateway to planets that offered richer, more easily exploited resources?
The bartender was cleaning the bar when they went in. He paused and did a double take at Flahive in his high-pressure suit and smoky face panel, but after a moment he continued
