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Cilghal nodded. "Crystal Reef is one of the most popular casinoresorts on all of Mon Calamari."

Protruding from the waves and surrounded by an archipelago of icebergs was an artificial island, a glittering mound of lights and metal that drifted about on the frigid currents. The Crystal Reef casino-resort was incredibly exclusive, isolated, a place for the wealthiest members of any species to go and have fun.

Zekk shivered, even wrapped in his warm cloak. "Why would anyone want to come up here? It's too cold to relax."

Tenel Ka, clad only in her lizard-hide armor, seemed unaffected by the drop in temperature or the brisk salty spray that feathered up from the racing waveskimmer.

"Wait until you see Crystal Reef from the inside," Cilghal said, her voice soft, the words rich. "If I weren't an ambassador to my people, we would have had to wait a month simply to get docking privileges. I...

pulled a great many strings."

"Then how did Anja Gallandro manage to get here?" Tenel Ka said.

Jacen raised his eyebrows and looked over at her. "You should know by now not to underestimate Anja when she's determined to do something."

Cilghal brought the waveskimmer into a crowded V.I.P docking area that looked like a series of metal-ceilinged caverns at the floating island's water level. Expertly, she wove her way between other bobbing vessels-many of them jewel-spangled or gaudily painted-and nudged the skimmer into place. Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Zekk scrambled out onto the well-lighted dock, while the Calamarian ambassador filled out the proper forms and punched in her access codes.

Jacen gazed upward, lifting his chin so he could see the pearly metallic ceiling, the curved girders that supported the casino-resort's organic, flow-form architecture. The style reminded him of the strange coral reef design he'd seen the Mon Calamarians use in the designs of their world's impressive star cruisers.

A surprising variety of beings bustled about, many of them obviously tourists, others uniformed employees of the Crystal Reef resort.

Jacen noticed Mon Calamarians, tenacled Quarren, Bith musicians, walrus-faced Aqualish, homed Devaronians, and ten other races of sentient creatures he could identify, as well as two dozen more he, could not.

Layered musical tones filled the air like scents, ranging from rumbling subsonic pulses, through music discernible by human ears, up into high-pitched frequencies that he could detect only as a faint vibration in his teeth.

"Crystal Reef is a large place in which to find a single person," Tenel Ka said.

Cilghal spoke in her soothing voice. "Fortunately, the resort has no choice but to allow me access to its records."

"Then we should be able to track Anja through the resort's own computer systems," Zekk said, in a determined tone. "She doesn't seem to be trying as hard to cover her tracks here. We'll find her-and the Lightning Rod, I hope. I miss my ship."

Jacen continued to defend her. "I don't think she's necessarily been hiding from us. Anja obviously needs to do something quickly, and is trying to do it before anyone gets in the way."

" She still stole my ship...... Zekk grumbled. "And she might have guessed we'd come after her."

"We'll ask her when we find her," Cilghal said and led them up into the main levels of the resort. After consulting some maps on the walls, the Mon Calamarian ambassador asked for guidance from uniformed attendants.

Even she had not been to this place before. The courteous and helpful attendants answered every question.

On different levels in the floating city, temperatures and atmospheric compositions varied from cold and clammy to hot and dry environments.

In some, Jacen could smell acrid sulfurous gases; in others the air seemed so fresh and pristine he wanted to take huge gulps of it and wished he could save some for later.

The support columns in the vaulted rooms were hollow water-filled cylinders made of transparisteel. Seaweeds, water flowers, and brightly colored fishes drifted from level to level through the connecting tubes.

Finally, after ascending