Eel, The

For twenty-six years, the greatest thief in the Galaxy slipped through the fingers of every police force that tried to catch him. Known only as The Eel, he struck across star systems, stealing unimaginable fortunes and vanishing without a trace except for one mocking signature—a simple image of a wriggling eel. Entire planets cursed his name. Governments were embarrassed. Corporations collapsed. And everywhere he struck, the same taunting symbol appeared after the crime was done. Then, at last, the Galactic Police caught him. The arrest should have been the end of the story. Instead it began a new crisis that spread across the Federation. Eight planets demanded custody of the notorious criminal, each claiming the right to try him under its own laws—and each planning a punishment more severe than the last. As the trial drags on and the Galaxy watches with fascination, the legendary thief waits calmly in chains. If the Agskians cannot carry out their sentence, he may escape their justice entirely. But if they succeed, the punishment will be far worse than anything the other planets imagined. And The Eel must find a way out before the court discovers the one truth that could destroy him. Miriam Allen DeFord was a prolific American writer whose work ranged across science fiction, mystery, legal commentary, and journalism. Her fiction appeared in major magazines including Galaxy Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Amazing Stories. DeFord also wrote detective fiction and true-crime articles and spent many years working in legal publishing, experience that often shaped the clever courtroom logic found in stories like The Eel, where law, loopholes, and human nature collide in unexpected ways.