Matthew Carter, eighteen and orphaned recently due to the death of his father, continues on the family tradition of auctioneering. It is not his chosen profession, but one that is thrust upon him by circumstance.
Offered a chance to make some money by a man named Baltarus, Matthew reluctantly agrees, and to his surprise, ends up on an alien star-port where he auctions off rare items from all over the galaxy.
Matthew learns his trade and grows into it, but complications arise when he is forced to sell an alien woman named Anarra. He buys her in order to give her the freedom she desires. They become friends, and soon become lovers. Life is good, but all that changes when he becomes a target of unknown assassins. Additionally, he is forced to sell a planet named Volarus, something that goes against his conscience.
Matthew finds out there’s more to life than making money, and races against time to find a loophole in order to stop Volarus from being next on the bidding block, as well as finding out the faceless killers who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.
Offered a chance to make some money by a man named Baltarus, Matthew reluctantly agrees, and to his surprise, ends up on an alien star-port where he auctions off rare items from all over the galaxy.
Matthew learns his trade and grows into it, but complications arise when he is forced to sell an alien woman named Anarra. He buys her in order to give her the freedom she desires. They become friends, and soon become lovers. Life is good, but all that changes when he becomes a target of unknown assassins. Additionally, he is forced to sell a planet named Volarus, something that goes against his conscience.
Matthew finds out there’s more to life than making money, and races against time to find a loophole in order to stop Volarus from being next on the bidding block, as well as finding out the faceless killers who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.
Note from Carol:
I picked this book up on a cold, drizzly Ohio evening and was pulled into Matthew's life as a kid pushed into his father's occupation as an auctioneer, who soon had some tough decisions to make. I thoroughly loved it.
But wait! J.S. Frankel and I are so sure you're also going to love it, we want you to read an excerpt before you buy!
Excerpt: (This is the first meeting between Matthew and Baltarus, the go-between).
“Good. Then I shall hire you.”
What? Surprise, surprise, a miracle had occurred. “Uh, for what?”
“For an auction house I have elsewhere. My business associate has already gone ahead. You will meet him later. His name is Zerch. Allow me to show you my vehicle.”
His vehicle? And what was up with the strange names? Something weird was happening, but all the same, anything that could get me out of my financial funk was good news. “Um, not to be rude, but if you hire me—”
“Then you shall have riches beyond your dreams. I have heard about you, Matthew Carter. It was said that your father was a fine auctioneer, and that his untimely passage left you destitute.”
Wow, this guy actually made the concept of poverty sound like a Hollywood movie. “Well, I could use the money, and—”
“And you will be able to buy whatever you desire, should you work for me,” he cut in smoothly. “All I ask is that you perform at a high level, and after that, the finances will take care of themselves.”
He spoke with a sense of great self-assurance, and it made me think he was on the level. Suspicion still reigned, but all it would take to stop him would be a quick phone call to the police. And if something bad went down, while I wasn’t the world’s greatest fighter, I could handle myself in a scrap. He gestured at the door. “My vehicle is here. I shall open the doorway.”
Open the...
Perhaps English wasn’t his first language, and he was talking about the parking lot. A lot of cars were parked there, mine included, a beat-up old Ford. It burned gas like no one’s business, but it got me where I needed to go. Baltarus fished around in his pocket for something, and then he took out a small device.
Inwardly, I breathed a sigh of relief. Okay, it was an electronic lock opener for a car. Got it. This guy was eccentric, but he wasn’t crazy. A nanosecond later, I took back that thought. Baltarus clicked his device, but instead of beeping, a light bluish-gray emanated from it and a hole in space opened. Eight feet high and four feet wide, it obviously led somewhere. “What... what is that?”
He offered a grin, revealing whiter than white teeth, lots of them, far more than a human would have. “That is our passageway. Shall we go?”
Oh, hell no! Before I could back off and yell for help, he grabbed my arm with an incredibly powerful grip and pulled me along with him. A moment later, we stepped out onto a metal platform. “What is this place?” I asked. “What’s going on here?”
“You wanted to be an auctioneer,” Baltarus answered.
“No, I didn’t, not really.”
“Well, it is too late for that. We have arrived.”
Never mind the fact that this alien had kidnapped me. Never mind that I wasn’t interested in auctioneering for the rest of my life. Never mind all that. What mattered was I’d first been on Earth, and now I was... here.
My heart began to race as I scanned the area. Brightly lit, it was the size of three airplane hangars, if not more, and the ceiling had to be well over five hundred feet up. Multiple screens the size of cars hung in the air, showing an audience made up of the oddest collection of interstellar life I’d ever seen, fifty races in attendance, if not more.
It was a cornucopia of life. Beings with multiple limbs and eyes, beings of all colors of the rainbow, beings of flesh and wood, some wearing breathing apparatuses and others not—they were all squawking in tongues that I didn’t have a clue about. They were creatures that only science fiction writers could have imagined, and all of them were gesticulating and grunting at a humanoid who held sway at a podium not ten feet away.
Once they saw me, though, they stared for a grand total of three seconds, and then they turned their attention back to the first guy. The little humanoid stood maybe three feet tall and wore a gray bodysuit that matched the color of his skin. With enormous round eyes that covered half his face, he spoke in a slow, measured manner, and he didn’t seem pleased at being yelled at, as he covered his ears to shut out the constant racket. “What... what’s going on here?” I asked again.
“Welcome to our auction,” Baltarus said, his grin now wider than ever.
An auction... for what? “What... what are they bidding on?”
My guide to the interstellar side of things shrugged. “Everything and anything. This is a galaxy where bidding for goods is a way of life. Rare jewels, pictures, statues. Perhaps an asteroid upon which one may set up their own way station.”
I stared at him. “You... you’re serious?”
He shrugged. “Having one’s own sun would be a nice thing, don't you think?"
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