How it opens
Darth was a gray world of stone jetties and hardened virtues, where the family trade had been piracy for nine generations.
The Hoddan compound stood over the harbor like a verdict, walled, ancient, and hung with the figureheads of ships nobody was ever going to admit to.
Nine generations of pirates, and the tenth wants to be a salesman. There are crimes, boy, and there are crimes.
Honesty is the one market this family has never cornered, and cornered markets are what we do best.
Choose
Honesty is only a better-armed kind of piracy. I want better weapons.
The trade is dying. The civilized worlds have grown ships faster than we grow pirates.
The trade is dead, and the family is living on its reputation, which nobody will buy.