The arena was loud, crowded, and chaotic. Everything Shilo tried to avoid. When he'd thought of being a detective, he thought it would be an easy gig filled with too much time watching spouses and corrupt business partners. Easy days of surveillance, an occasional murder to solve. He moved past crowds and down towards the arena so he could scan the crowd looking at each Frost Bear. Briggs had that scar below his left eye. Garr was missing an upper part of his right ear. Physical markings that Shilo thought would be more identifying than they turned out to be.

  He was making his scan of the crowd for the second time and pissing off the sowbu before him.

  "You're blocking the view. Hey security! Look pal I know you don't have box seating."

  Shilo stepped to the left, letting the sowbu watch the fight, and looked at the seats near the stairs when he saw Briggs stand up to cheer as Spencer took the ring. "Found my friend sorry about your inconvenience."

  "Buzz off, free loader. Ring side seats are for the paying." The sowbu shook three fists at him.

  Briggs waved at him when he took the stairs up the bleachers. The Frost Bear also called up another drink, and a drone carrying a drink skirted above Shilo's head. Briggs passed the drink to him and gripped his shoulders like they were long-lost friends.

  Shilo took a sip of the drink and looked for an empty seat. "You didn't save me a seat." He started looking for a pair of empty seats.

  Briggs shouted in excitement at the ring and watched Spencer dance across the floor a bit before moving on to take his seat along the ring. Spencer's fight was later. This was warm up to get the crowd excited before having a few other fights go on, saving the heavyweight match for the end. Briggs turned back to him now that the crowd was settling in. "You don't need a seat. You need to head down there." Briggs pointed to the ring. "Garr helped me get you in."

  Shilo looked at the ring. "I'm not fighting any Frost Bears."

  "No. Lightweight. You'll do fine. I put some money on ya. Easy matches. Zyvarn, but only after you beat another human. Don't worry, I saw you spar."

  "That was a game. Hologram. Why am I here?"

  "I'll explain later in the locker room. Right now you need to be headed to the mat." Briggs turned Shilo until he was pointed back down the steps.

  Over the loudspeakers came a shout out for Shilo Zander.

  "He's here. Right here!" Briggs called out, and the spotlight moved on top of him.

  "What have you done, Briggs? You should have just tossed me out the airlock." Shilo stepped on down to the ring. He knew enough that stalling would not go well. Nor would complaining. The crowd wanted a show. But how the hell Brigg's slipped his name into the lineup Shilo didn't know. For as rough and how much they walked the line of legality, these operations had strict participation requirements.

  The sowbu in the box seat laughed and pointed his four arms at Shilo. "I'm betting seven to one odds this human flops hard."

  Shilo considered taking that bet himself, but it was his own neck on the line. He spent the time in the ring stretching as another human stepped onto the mat, sporting a six-pack and arms double the size of his. He turned to Briggs and shrugged. "You said lightweight!"

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  His voice was lost in the crowd, and his opponent moved at the call of the bell. Shilo turned back an incoming punch that he ducked and stepped away from. This would be a tricky fight for sure. Hell, he wasn't even sure of the rules: was this boxing or was kicking allowed? Breaking his opponent's arms was not allowed. He side stepped again and his mind raced to a week ago when he was here last. He'd focused on the crowd and the miners in particular. Watching the fights had not been why he'd been there. The fighter took a swing and connected with Shilo's jaw. He countered with a wide swing and stepped away.

  His opponent repeated the same steps and Shilo kicked out his foot, tripping the guy and hit him in the ear on the way down.

  The ref called a penalty on him and pulled him aside. "One more cheap shot like that and you're out."

  That sounded fine with Shilo but what sounded better making the loud mouth sowbu in the front box leave here with his pocket a bit lighter sounded better.

  Shilo danced across the floor and made the larger, heavier man chase after him. It wasn't a clear victory, as Shilo wasn't more fit than his opponent, but the chase irritated the man and made his swings sloppy. Shilo changed tactics and dropped into a better fighting stance and took the fight on the offense. He'd shown his hand. He wasn't a pro or even well trained, but Shilo did know a few boxing moves. Most of his hand-to-hand combat training consisted on deadlier and more effective means, but he could still throw a series of punches.

  It ended up being enough, and he came out victorious. The sowbu was throwing a fit. His opponent shook his hand and then pulled down on the t-shirt. "Hey what's this! He's wearing skin armor."

  Shilo pushed away from the human and the ref pulled in to take a look at him.

  "It's stab resistant. Doesn't help against punches!" Shilo pulled free and pulled on the under armor. "He didn't even land a shot on my core."

  The ref said, "It stands. No change to the fight. Shilo Zander is the winner."

  The sowbu was still screaming that Shilo cheated when the ref pointed to the locker room. Thankfully his opponent was walking another direction to presumably a second locker room.

  Briggs found him in the locker room. "I knew you had that in you. Wasn't surprised anyway. Neil doesn't want to fight Chip. He gave you that fight like I thought he would."

  "Gave me that fight. Did you see that."

  "I saw him chasing you around the ring. So damn funny. This isn't a race." The Frost Bear pulled on Shilo's under armor. "That's smart. It gave Neil a way to save face and fighting Chip. You might need it."

  Shilo took a seat on a bench and tried catching his breath. "Why would I fight Chip? I should just leave."

  Brigg's grabbed a remote and turned on a screen. "You're here because if you don't fight you can't be close enough to see Spencer and who's around him. Someone is drugging him. It has to be." Brigg's had pulled up a fight and had a good thirty seconds of it on repeat where Spencer took hit after hit and his defense was slow to bear. "See. He's one that match up twelve times. Now he loses. No way. He's slow and doesn't last in the ring."

  "Maybe he's getting old. Or his heart's not in it."

  "He doesn't act like it. Spencer is lining up a death match. He's scheduling his own end. Fight over fight. Bringing in big hitters from out of this system. Spencer is acting like this isn't his end. He's fighting back."

  Shilo looked at the list of names that Briggs showed him like it meant anything. "Look. I don't know why you're involved, but Spencer can run his career however he wants."

  Briggs sighed. "I thought you had heart. Spencer's my cousin. Well, third cousin, but he's family and I have watched his career from the first day he entered the ring and only once did he lose. At least from a straight outmatched out muscled. There's always a few matches that get by even for the best of them. But this season he's been trending down and there's no reason behind it."

  Shilo shrugged again.

  "You saved me. Save my cousin. He's a legend, and someone is stacking the deck against him."

  "You think his opponents are using enhancers? Don't they screen for that?"

  "Yeah, of course they do. Assuming they are legit. Med staff can be bought off. Test equipment can be hacked. Bribes. You're the detective. Do your job."

  "And you're paying me?"

  "Ideally, but only if you win against Chip."