Hazard Pay

The job was a favor. The complications were not in the fine print.

Russ has spent years keeping his daughter Miri safe on the Rim—or at least, his version of safe. When he agrees to a simple retrieval job for a pair of eccentric elderly sisters, he figures it's easy money. Wrong mine shaft. Wrong intel. Very wrong creatures with too many teeth.

Now he's stuck in a collapsing death trap with a cargo that's either worthless junk or their ticket off the Rim for good, and Miri's running calculations on their survival odds that he really doesn't want to hear. The smart move is to cut their losses. The Russ move is to double down on the long shot.

For his daughter's future, he'll take the gamble—even if she's the one who has to keep them both alive long enough to collect.