1 Chapter 1  One Moment

Kadamba Vorhoor casually kicked his feet up onto his desk at the back of the classroom and leaned back in his chair. The smug look on his face stemmed from an abundant confidence built through sports, academics, and a new successful business. In two days, the school year would be over, leaving him only one more year of required schooling before his advanced education started. The only thing standing between him and a wildly successful future was the slim possibility that one of his customers might die.

None of that mattered as he slowly rocked back and forth on the rear legs of his chair. His mind drifted far away from the confines of the science classroom. The droning of the teacher's voice nothing more than background noise as his imagination focused on the latest, most essential thing in his life – Jundana Korhart.

She was stunning in every way ­– radiant dark skin, long and silky hair always perfectly framing her high cheekbones and piercing dark eyes. Her sleek, athletic build formed by running track and gymnastics. Every movement she made was graceful, and somehow both delicate and forceful at the same time. Kadamba, who usually went by the shortened version, Ka, wondered if there was ever a more beautiful creature on the entire planet of Koranth.

Only two hours before, Jundana bumped into Kadamba in the cafeteria. The box containing her drink flipped through the air, managing to somehow land perfectly upright on Kadamba's tray. Unfazed, he simply smiled in her direction.

"Nice shot," Kadamba said, trying to sound as charming as he could, "It seems we must've been destined to run into each other like this today ..."

"Sorry, Ka, I didn't mean to bump into you. And seriously – you're not that smooth," she replied with a smile.

"No need to apologize," Kadamba responded, handing her drink back. "You ready for tomorrow's test in Lormate's class?"

"I'm about as ready as I'll ever be. I think he just enjoys watching us suffer."

"You got that right. No way he even begins to care about us. He just wants to drag us through the material, unconcerned whether we understand it or not." Looking at her, Kadamba realized that the time was right. He'd always liked Jundana but being so close to her was more intense than he'd expected. Trying to act as casual as he could, he shrugged. "He's just a jackass, and we're outta here in a few days."

"Yeah, that's the truth," she agreed.

"So, you want to chill on Schmarlo's Landing sometime?" He hoped that he hadn't sounded too desperate. Every nerve in his body fought not to wince as a response began to form on her lips. He was sure that he was about to get rejected and squashed by this beautiful creature.

"I'd like that. You wanna go today after school?"

"That's perfect. I gotta little business to deal with first, but I'll meet you there." 

As Jundana walked away, Kadamba realized he wasn't breathing. As the air came rushing back into his lungs and he almost shouted out loud, but instead spoke softly, so that only he could hear, "I'm gonna rock your world, girl."

*****

"Mr. Vorhoor! Get your feet on the floor and walk them to the front of this classroom, now!" Mr. Lormate barked at Kadamba, shaking him out of his pleasant reliving of the fateful encounter with Jundana. 

Kadamba rolled his eyes back in his head, relishing the thought that he would only have to deal with this jerk of a teacher for a couple more days. He slapped his feet hard on the shiny surface of the floor, jolting the entire class to attention. Standing up, he tilted his head, lifting his chin higher and rotating his neck. The vertebrae in his neck popped loudly. The smirk on his face widened as he turned his head the other way, sending out another series of cracks.

Mr. Lormate glared at Kadamba and swept his hand across the podium, tapping his fingers in a rehearsed pattern. From the flat, institutional-gray wall behind him, a three-dimensional image of a bargabuko, a toad-like creature that covered most of the tropical belt of Koranth, began to appear. The nasty, little, pus-dipping, foul-smelling creatures were the bane of every teenage science student across the planet. At least, this one seemed to be a holographic, visual-only representation of the little animal.

The image of the bargabuko began to grow in size and move outward from the wall. Then the putrid smell hit the students full-on. This one was more than just visual-only. A holographic lab table began to rise up from the floor next to the podium, where Mr. Lormate sat on a stool, like an emperor gazing over his subservient peasants. The bargabuko grew twenty times larger than a real one and landed with a splat on the table. It bellowed out a croak that seemed like a hundred times louder than the creature's true croak, followed by its annoying belching sound and a spray of blue-green pus that landed on the students in the front row.

As they left the packaging plant and began to breathe the more palatable air, Fuentes praised Kadamba for how well he had handled this meeting. Although Kadamba didn't completely understand, the man that they had just meet with, Vratar, saw potential in the young teen and set up this meeting with a man named Doctor Z.  

Kadamba cleared his throat. "Business is good, sir. It's really good."

The smile on Doctor Z's face spread even wider. He loved hearing that from any of the many teenagers that this branch of his organization recruited and trained. These kids were so easy to manipulate and use.

"I need twenty more," Kadamba declared, pulling a stack of Konnary from his backpack.

"My dear young friend!" exclaimed Doctor Z. "You must be one brilliant, smart, resourceful businessman. I am impressed."

"Thanks."

Doctor Z, having taken the stack of bills from Ka, thumbed through them quickly. When he was done, he smiled and held the money up. One of the brutes from the back of the room came forward, took the stack, and returned to the rear of the room. He waved his hand across the wall, and an opening appeared, revealing a bookshelf covered in large stacks of Konnary. He placed Kadamba's payment on a stack, waved his hand, and the opening disappeared.

"Yes, yes, my young friend. Business is good." Doctor Z stared at Kadamba for a few moments and began rubbing his chin. A faint smile started and then spread across his face as if he suddenly had a wonderfully insightful idea. "I see so much see potential in you and in our new relationship, Ka."

"Thank you, sir. I hope we can both keep making good money," Kadamba answered, not knowing exactly what to say.

"Oh, I know we will." Doctor Z gestured again, and one of the other men in the back of the room walked forward with a box. He placed the box in Kadamba's hands with a smile. 

"Thank you," Kadamba told him, "I'll let Fuentes know when I need more."

"Please. You need to open the box before you leave," instructed Doctor Z. "You and I are at the beginning of a new partnership."

Kadamba, looking at the box in his hands, sat back down. Opening the box, he looked inside. It was filled with rath, but it was evident that it was more than twenty packets.

"You're looking at two hundred packages of rath," explained the Doctor, smiling.

"I only gave you one hundred and forty Konnary. I can't buy this much."

"It's alright, Ka. I'm extending a line of credit to you."

Kadamba was stunned. He'd never seen this many rath in one place, and it was in his hands. Doctor Z smiled and continued, "You need to be back here in two weeks. Your line of credit is due then, Ka, and we'll see where we are on continuing to expand our relationship."

Kadamba placed the box in his backpack and walked towards the wall with the mountain lake. The wall began to shimmer, turned semi-translucent, and the opening reappeared. Kadamba stepped through, and it reformed into a wall behind him. Once again, he was standing at the table with the two menacing-looking brutes. Kadamba, looking down at them, realized they both were grinning.

"Seems the Doc likes you, boy. He's a nice guy. Wouldn't you say so?" asked one of the thugs.

"Yes. He sure is," replied Kadamba. He could feel his heart beginning to beat faster.

"You understand the Doctor is almost always nice to everyone," said the thug who wore the dark glasses. Kadamba realized the brute was looking across the table at his grimacing partner. Then Kadamba realized why the two were so smug. The man without the glasses had drawn his laser gun, which was mostly hidden under the table, but Kadamba could see that it was pointed directly at him.

The man began to remove his glasses once again. "See. Here's how it works. In case you don't quite get it. Doc Z gets to be nice, and if things don't go his way, we make them go his way. Doctor Z always gets his. Do you get it now?"

Kadamba nodded his head affirmatively, walking around the table quickly, trying as hard as he could not trip and end up sprawled out on the floor. He was trembling on the inside but didn't dare show it. He simply walked out of Warwon's Deli, more than eager to get out of the sub-city. He quickly made his way to ground level and took a shuttle train to the stop for the massive building known as Schmarlo Tower.

The lobby of the building was enormous, stretching from the eighteenth to the twenty-fourth floor. Kadamba made his way to the bank of lifts and entered a large, crowded elevator that zoomed directly to Schmarlo's Landing. 

All the lift's four walls and its door were transparent. "Oh my, oh my" exclaimed the woman next to Kadamba, as the elevator reached its destination, emerging in the middle of Schmarlo's Landing. They were surrounded by a green park, with children playing and people adorning the many benches in the park. The Landing covered half the surface area of the building, had three parks, a huge playground, and on both ends were numerous food vendors, along with a considerable scattering of tables and chairs. The entire landing was contained by a nearly invisible force-field cover that protected visitors from the elements. The other half of the building continued to rise another fifty-eight stories into the wispy clouds that had formed on what was otherwise a beautiful day.

"Hey, Ka, my man!" a nearby voice called.

"What's up on this fine day, my man Stelky?" Kadamba replied, still trying to shake off the fear of being entangled with Doctor Z and his brutes.

"I got someone that wants to meet you. You know, a new potential friend."

"Stelky, my man, let us meet this person."

A serious look swept across Stelky's face. "Ka, listen, I'm just making the introduction. Dude wouldn't leave me alone until I brought him to you."

"Alright, we'll just see how this goes down," Kadamba assured him.

Kadamba had only met Stelky a few weeks before. He went to another school, but "business" had made them "friends." Stelky might not have been real smart, but he knew lots of people, and most kids knew Stelky could be trusted to be discrete. He wasn't interested in handling any of the rath himself. He just wanted a little finder's fee for each transaction that Kadamba made with his introductions.

A young boy, about 10-years old, walked up to the two of them, obviously trying to act older than he really was. "Little dude! What the hell? Get back to the playground and ride the slide or something!" barked Kadamba when he saw the boy. 

"My money is as good as anyone's," the boy asserted.

"It ain't about money, kid. You're just too damn young to be messing around with rath," Kadamba explained firmly.

"Am not! You want my money or not?"

For a few moments, Kadamba thought about the "credit" that Doctor Z had just extended. He had never had so much rath, and he HAD to sell it. But this kid was just way too young to be messing with the stuff. Wasn't he? Rath was pretty tame compared to many of the drugs out there, or at least Ka thought so. It just mellowed you out, made you happy, and made lots of things seem really funny.

"No way, dude. It ain't happening," proclaimed Kadamba.

"I'll pay thirty Konnary each for three of them," stated the boy defiantly.

"Ain't no way you're walking around with almost a hundred in your little pockets."

The boy looked around. No one was nearby. He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a stack of bills. Kadamba looked at the money, obviously struggling with what to do. He usually sold each packet for twenty, maybe even eighteen, to consistent customers.

Kadamba took a deep breath. "Alright, you win, but, little dude, you gotta be careful."