The team determines the course that their quarry must have taken to leave the the Pacheki homeworld. The team sets off in hot pursuit, determined to bring those that had bombed the Pacheki capitol to justice, and finally locate the elusive mass driver that they have hunted for almost a year now. All seems to easy when they leave hyperspace to discover the freighter they suspect innocently in orbit around a Narn outpost. The team begins to cautiously gather information before playing their hand.

The team discovers some minor clues, and meets to discuss them. During their meeting, they discover, capture, and unveil an eavesdropper. A former psi corp and member of the team turned rogue as been spying on them! Before they can consolodate their gains and question the rogue, Narn station security arrives in response to the gunshots that went off. The team overreacts due to their paranoia and fights their way free. Only after a harrowing battle and escape to space are things allowed to return to calm, thanks to the Narn team member pulling some favors in high places and setting their paranoia aside to deal more rationally.

The team learns that the crew of the freighter they are chasing are down on the planet, so they hit dirtside to see what their is to discover. There they meet an old Centaurai scientist, who has heroically stayed behind when the Centaurai abandoned this system to the Narn years ago. He stayed in order to take care of the planetary ecology, rendered unstable because of lack of maitenance of the terraforming project. He is very helpful to the team, and leads them in a back way to where the hideout of the freighter crew is suspected to be staying.

Unfortunately, the crew is awaiting them there. The criminals quickly take the team prisoner, and place them in a cage that will be slowly covered by the rising tide. He gives them one air mask that has enough air for one of the team to survive, but this is cold comfort as the criminal leader, Adrian, brags that he will use the mass driver to destroy the entire colony in order to cover his tracks fully. But before he leaves them, Adrian explains what it is all about: his organization is well on its way to becoming the premire power in known space. Without the authorities realizing it, the reigns of power are being ursurped. Not with space fleets and military power, but by connections, corportate interests, influence peddling, corruption, greed, blackmail, intimidation, and a host of other technigues. It is a war behind the scenes, unsuspected by the duped masses. Finally, Adrian leaves some cryptic clues that Agent Anders, the AID agent who did much to clue in the team, is part of this underworld war, but fighting on the other side of Adrian's conspiracy, and using the team as pawns. Adrian also reveals that he is a mere one step away from the power behind the conspiracy, and then leaves the team to their doom.

Fortunately, the team manages to ingeniously use the single air mask Adrian left them in order to force an escape. They warn the narn authorities and other members of their team, who move to intercept Adrian, his crew, and the mass driver who are even now escaping the planet. One of the team does some very daring flying during this battle, but just when the narn fighters seem to have things in hand, a group of raider fighters joins the battle....

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