The Lady from Callisto Rhys (audio story)

Vienna has travelled to Bradburyville on Mars after receiving an assignment crystal and meets with casino-owner Cage Zorn, who asks her to recover A History of Earth by Kronos Vad, a book supposedly from a parallel universe. He explains that Lara Memphis, a former employee from Callisto who worked her way up through Zorn Casinos until she became Zorn's lover and was put in charge of his collection of artwork and artefacts. She disappeared with the book after Zorn won it at auction, but he believes that she is still on Mars given that he has friends at the spaceports and likely still in Bradburyville given the stability it offers compared to New Damascus.

Asking around at the Menaggio where Lara began her career, Vienna learns from croupier Rodrigo that she volunteered with the Famine Fund and pays them a visit. Magenta Dotrice claims that she has not seen Lara in some time and fervently denies that she would ever steal something, even if it were to raise money for the charity. Later, Vienna agrees to dinner with Zorn and gets him to admit that his priority is bringing Lara to justice rather than to have the book, which is insured, returned and asks Vienna to do what she has to once she finds her, be that handing her over to the BPD or killing her. She declines to stay with him at his penthouse that evening and avoids answering his questions about her past.

The next day, Vienna heads to the Bradburyville Spaceport and realises that Lara could be escaping Mars with the outbound cargo rather than as a passenger. She encounters Magenta and threatens her into admitting that she helped Lara stow away on the flight to Orbitus VI after she came to her for assistance as Zorn was planning something terrible. Vienna finds Lara and learns that Zorn is working for the Gomagog, who intend to destroy the book. Having placed a nano-tracker in Vienna's champagne, Zorn arrives and tries to shoot Lara, but Vienna saves her and activates a micro-shocker she put in his champagne to kill him before he can drop her to her death. She saves the bleeding Benny from a fall and demands to know where she came from. Benny starts telling her about Sisyphus IX.