"I know," said Winters. "She wasn't Trade City, really, but she had too much money and too much time. Anyway, I'm not worried about playing with your fire, Kor Hal. I've been burned too deep with it already. Like you say, people differ. Those lily-whites in their toy jungle, they have no desire to go back any farther. They haven't the guts or the passions to want to. I have." Winters' eyes blazed with a peculiarly animal light. "I want to go back, Kor Hal. Back as far as Shanga will take me." "Sometimes," said the Martian, "that's a long way." "I don't care." Kor Hal gave him an intent look. "For some, there is no return." "I have nothing to return to." "It is not easy, Winters. Shanga--the real Shanga, of which these solariums and quartz lenses are only a weak copy, was forbidden centuries ago by the City-States of Mars. There are risks, and discomforts, which means that the process is expensive." "I have money." Winters leaped up suddenly, his control breaking. "Be damned to your arguments! They're all hypocrisy, anyway. You know perfectly well which ones are going to take to Shanga. You keep them coming until they're addicts, half crazy to feel the real thing, and you know damn well you're going to give them what they want as soon as they cross your dirty palm with silver." He tossed a checkbook on Kor Hal's desk. The top one was blank, but signed. "There," he said. "Anything up to a hundred-thousand Universal Credits." "I would prefer," said Kor Hal, "that you draw your own check, to cash." He handed the checkbook back to Winters. "The full amount, in advance." Burk Winters said one word. "When?" "Tonight, if you wish. Where are you staying?" "The Tri-Planet." "Have dinner there as usual. Then remain in the bar. Sometime during the evening your guide will join you." "I'll be waiting," Winters said, and went out. Kor Hal smiled. His teeth were very white, very sharp. They had the hungry look of fangs. II Burk Winters got his bearings finally when Phobos rose, and he could guess where they were heading. They had slipped quietly out of Kahora, he and the slender young Martian who had joined him unobtrusively in the Tri-Planet bar. A flier waited for them on a private field. Kor Hal waited also. They took off, with a fourth man, who looked to be one of the big barbarians from the northern hills of Kesh. Kor Hal took the controls. Winters was sure now that they were bound for the Low Canals. The ancient waterways and the ancient wicked towns--Jekkara, Valkis, Barrakesh--outside the laws of the scattered City-States. Thieves' market, slave market, vice market of a world. Earthmen were warned to keep away from them.