The Pinch Series by Katharine Kerr, Mark Kreighbaum

Bestselling author Katharine Kerr joins with Mark Kreighbaum to present a vivid, alluring and terrifying world of the future.  They call it Palace, the capital of a planet located in a region of space known as the Pinch.  Here a bitter Lep outcast has been hired to murder two humans: Arno, the son of the Master of the Cyberguild, and Vida, a young woman destined for sensual slavery in the Pleasure Sect... moreBestselling author Katharine Kerr joins with Mark Kreighbaum to present a vivid, alluring and terrifying world of the future.  They call it Palace, the capital of a planet located in a region of space known as the Pinch.  Here a bitter Lep outcast has been hired to murder two humans: Arno, the son of the Master of the Cyberguild, and Vida, a young woman destined for sensual slavery in the Pleasure Sect.  Arno is on the track of strange anomalies in the Map, the cyberspace repository of knowledge.  And Vida has powers that could change Palace forever.  As Arno goes into hiding to escape the assassin, Vida seeks refuge at Government House, the corrupt center of authority, where betrayal is a way of life and death. less