Free A Dark and Hungry God Arises by Stephen R. Donaldson

entered the lock and closed the doors, an indicator told him that Mikka had sealed the ship.
    Reaching to key the outer door, he heard Sib Mackern over the intercom. 'Nick?'
    Nick thumbed the toggle. 'What?'
    'I've got alternative id on Soar. The ship that picked up Davies. It's tentative - you might call it hypothetical
    - but I thought you would want to know. '
    Nick dismissed the suggestion. Tell me later. I haven't got time now. ' He was in a hurry. The timer was running on his last half hour before the Amnion arrived and began throwing their weight around.
    He silenced the intercom; opened Captain's Fancy's outer door.
    It was like being back on Enablement. Billingate's airlock stood open, admitting him to the scan field passage which would search him for weapons or contaminants.
    And at the end of the passage, two guards waited. The only significant difference was that these guards were purportedly human - and they already had their guns trained on him.

    Both of them looked like their doctors had forgotten
    - or never known - the distinction between bio-prosthetic and bio-retributive surgery.
    Nick was accustomed to such sights, but they still filled him with contempt. Any man who couldn't shoot straight unless his gun was built into his arm, or couldn't decide when to shoot unless Operations radioed orders directly into his brain, was something less than human, no matter how much he thought he'd been enhanced.
    But the doctors hadn't stopped there. In addition to prosthetic firearms and transmitters, both guards had optical monitors where one or the other of their eyes should have been. They were machines, nothing more: pieces of equipment pretending to be human. For recreation, Nick thought mordantly, they probably stuck their fingers in power receptacles.
    'Captain Succorso?' one of them asked as if his vocal cords had been replaced by a speaker.
    Nick grinned maliciously. Who were you expecting?
    Warden Dios?' Striding between the guards, he said, 'I'm going to see the Bill. Be good boys and stay here. Make sure nobody steals my ship. '
    He knew the way; but the guards didn't let him find it for himself. After a momentary hesitation while they listened to orders from Operations, they came after him, bounding against the rock's g until they caught up with him. One at each shoulder, they steered him along the access passages into the reception area for the visitors'
    docks.
    In Reception they passed more guards, as well as data terminals which would have enabled Nick to secure lodg-ings, establish local credit, hire women off the cruise, or prepare id verification through finger- or voice-print. He had no interest in those amenities, however. Moving at a pace that made him bounce from stride to stride, he half led, half accompanied his escort toward the nearest lift which ran down into the core of the rock; to the depths where the Bill had hived his lair.
    Down there, a thousand meters of stone, concrete and steel kept the Bill and his profits safe from any attack short of a prolonged super-light proton barrage. Calm Horizons and Tranquil Hegemony could probably dig him out, but only by blazing away at Thanatos Minor until the entire surface was slagged and the reactor in the heart of the rock reached meltdown temperatures.
    The Bill may have been as larcenous and uncaring as a billygoat; but he was smart enough to be afraid. Otherwise he wouldn't live down here — and Nick's credit-jack would be good.
    The ride down in the lift made Nick wish he carried a transmitter that could reach Captain's Fancy. But here even the kind of nerve-beepers he used routinely in places like Com-Mine Station were worse than useless: they didn't function, but they did arouse suspicion.
    On either side, the guards kept their guns aimed at his ribs as if they expected him to do something crazy at any moment.

    'So how's business?' he asked as if he wanted to start a conversation. 'Do you clowns get enough activity around here to keep you