In a run-down spaceport, assassin Thadow hunts for a bag of stolen pearls to prove his worth to the head of the Guild of Transmuters. Meanwhile, two spoiled teenagers, Trilia and Lateron, pass the time while their mothers' spaceship is in port by harassing the locals and stealing things from them as part of a scavenger hunt. Then their paths cross, and life will never be the same again for either Thadow or Trilia and Lateron.
science fiction ("sword and planet") mystery
Novelette (about 10,000 words)
Previously published in the February 2010 issue of the now-defunct online magazine Jim Baen's Universe
