A Sabre snubcraft hovered over the Lance's spaceport, identified as Santoro's ship carrying valuable cargo. Even if he had hoped to bring McCarthy to the Contari head in a more stunned mood, Marco's mind remained calm about the idea of the proud little girl succumbing to the pressure of being sold away to anybody else but the Guild sooner or later.
Leaving the spaceport and pushing the shackled Anna through the corridor leading to wherever Alessan Contari had summoned him exactly, exposing the prisoner meanwhile so the other Maltese they came across would either laugh or pity the girl.
