Now it was the only way into the Mines.

  A handful of local kids sat against the wall of the building, combining their umbrellas to create a larger dry area to hide beneath. They all stopped talking and looked at Cassidy as he climbed out of the rickshaw a short distance away.

  “Thanks for the ride,” Cassidy said, using his ClearPhone to pay for the ride. “Do you want me to deliver a message to your sister?”

  “Nah, I’ll check her later, maybe. See ya, Shade.” The driver laughed and turned the rickshaw around, heading back the way he had come.

  Cassidy put his hands in his raincoat pockets and started walking nonchalantly toward the access building. He had covered half the distance when a pair of the oldest kids stood up, breaking away from the others to confront him.

  “You lost, Hundy?” one of them said. He was a good head taller than Cassidy, his coat tight enough his muscled arms were defined against it. “Because you sure do look lost.”

  “I’m right where I want to be,” Cassidy replied. “I need to see Brie.”

  The kid smiled. “Oh. You need to see Brie. Well, of course sir. What else can I do for you sir? Would you like a glass of cognac and a cigar?”

  The other kid laughed, as did the group behind them.

  “Tell her Hall is here,” Cassidy added without reacting to the mockery.

  “Of course sir,” the kid continued. “Perhaps a pair of slippers? Maybe some caviar?”

  “I’m in a hurry,” Cassidy said. “Get it done.”

  The kid laughed. “Go screw yourself.” He stepped forward, aiming to shove Cassidy.

  Cassidy grabbed one of his arms as it came in, smoothly twisting it and getting it behind the kid’s back, putting just enough pressure on it that he could break it easily from there. The other kid came at him trying to defend his friend. He was met with a sharp kick to the abdomen that knocked the wind out of him and sent him to the ground. The other kids all got to their feet.

  “I need to see Brie,” Cassidy repeated as the first kid squirmed beneath his grip.

  “Yeah, I hear you,” the kid said through teeth clenched in pain. “But I can’t just let you in. We don’t know you. You could be the cops or something.”

  “Thinking that, your reaction was to shove me? You aren’t very bright.”

  “I’m just trying to do my job.”

  Cassidy let go of his arm. “So am I. And part of that job is talking to Brie. Now go do whatever you have to do to tell her Hall is here. She’ll see me.”

  The kid rubbed at his arm, and he didn’t look happy as he went back to the others. He pulled out his ClearPhone and tapped on it. Shaking his head a moment later, he looked back at Cassidy.

  “Well, to hell with me,” he said. “Let’s go, Hall. You’re in.”

  Chapter 19

  The security on the door into the access house was a simple four digit pin, a safeguard Cassidy could have bypassed in seconds using the Unity OS side of his ClearPhone’s software if he had needed to. Fortunately, Brie hadn’t put him or the kids outside the building in that position, accepting his presence and admission into the Mines despite his standing with the UDF. It was another win for Nevis in regards to giving him Hall as a repo.

  The confines of the building’s interior were tight, with just enough room to maneuver around thick water mains and bundles of wiring to a hatch in the center, currently held open by a cable latched to one of the pipes. A ladder descended into the open pit, which hit bottom eight meters down in a decently-lit concrete tunnel. The continuation of the utility lines ran parallel to the ladder on both sides, making a ninety-degree turn at the top of the tunnel to run along the ceiling.

  “Down you go,” the big kid said to Cassidy when they reached the ladder. “Someone will meet you to escort you the rest of the way.”

  Cassidy nodded before mounting the ladder, shifting his feet to agilely slide down the rails, the kid laughing above him as he landed smoothly on the concrete. The tunnel split in four separate directions though only one was lit all the way down to a separate door nearly three hundred feet away. That door opened a moment later. A pair of women carrying rifles and dressed in mechanics coveralls cinched by thick belts holding extra magazines emerged from it. His escorts.

  The hatch inside the access building slammed closed over his head. No doubt, they would barricade it too, to keep him from coming back up before Brie gave the go-ahead.

  He wasn’t worried.

  He put his hands back in his pockets, walking casually toward the incoming guards.

  “Hall,” the one on the left said. She was the smaller of the two, with dark hair, a soft face and a cherubic build. “Brie sends her welcome.”

  “Why didn’t Brie send Brie?” Cassidy replied.

  The other woman, taller and thinner, brown-eyed and dark-skinned, answered first. “She’s too valuable to risk while you might still be armed.”

  “You want my gun then?”

  “To start.”

  Cassidy moved slowly, taking it from its holster and handing it to the guard.

  She took it, her eyes locked on the weapon. “Is this an Advanced Composites NG-12?”

  “Yeah,” Cassidy said. “Be nice to her; she’s expensive.”

  “I’ve never seen one before,” the girl said. “Pretty awesome.”

  “Kyra, we’re working here,” the other woman said.

  Kyra smiled. “Look at him, Ju. He’s not dangerous. And Brie said he would cooperate.”

  “Do you have anything else?” Ju asked.

  “Weapons? No. Just a ClearPhone and a drone I want Brie to help me identify.”

  “Is it okay if I pat you down?”

  “Be my guest.” Cassidy offered Kyra a smile while Ju ran her hands over his body, looking for other contraband. They were trying their best to act professional, even though they weren’t.

  “You’re clear,” Ju said. “This way.”

  They walked back to the door together. Again, the security was limited to a simple four-digit pinpad, and Kyra didn’t remember to block his view of her fingers as she typed it in.

  “You don’t get a lot of trouble down here, do you?” he asked.

  “Everybody needs us for something at some time or other,” Ju said. “From the Police on one side to the assorted criminal elements on the other. We’re irreplaceable to both, and that’s the best protection any group can have.”

  “Agreed.”

  Kyra opened the door, which led into another short corridor that split a dozen feet further down. They turned right at the junction, turned left at another passage, and then went left again, coming up to a steel door with another pinpad. Kyra typed in the same pin as she had on the prior door and pushed it open.

  Cassidy had never been inside the Mines before, and he hadn’t plumbed Hall’s memory of the place to know what to expect. He wasn’t really surprised by what he saw.

  The space itself was a boiler room, with two huge water tanks positioned on either side and a group of pipes that met at a central point along the back wall. Shop lights dangled from a web of pipes overhead, and an even thicker maze of wires spilled out from a hub at the center of the room. The patch connected the forty or so women present directly to the internet on one of the highest-speed connections available anywhere.

  The women were positioned on an assortment of folding chairs, inflatable seats or were sitting directly on the floor. Each of them had at least one laptop within reach, some had as many as three. They were all ages, races and body types—a collection of residents from the towers who had originally formed a girls-only coding club and over the years it had matured into this. It was impossible to tell by looking at the Miners—they all wore the same blue coveralls in a show of solidarity—that they were all a lot more wealthy than their residence or initial appearance suggested. A lot of different groups paid a lot of coin for their services and discretion. When it came to taking sides, they were the truest neutral body anywhere in the city.

  Despite their reputation and longstanding agreements with both the Police and UDF, they still didn’t let themselves get comfortable. Everything they had brought into the room with them would go out with them whenever they left. In an emergency the whole place could be evacuated inside of a minute. The level of alertness was impressive, even if their overall security was not.

  Faces shifted from both holograms and two-dimensional screens as Cassidy entered, the Miners curious about their visitor. A quick look seemed to satisfy them that he wasn’t much of a threat and they returned to what they had been doing.

  Except for Brie. Of average height and weight, with short red hair shaved around her ears and a plain freckled face, she was working standing up. Her laptop was balanced on one arm and she gestured to the interface with her free hand.

  Cassidy immediately recognized her when she glanced over him, triggering Hall’s nascent memory. He offered a light smile. She responded with a scowl as she closed the lid of her laptop, tucked it under her arm and walked over to him.

  “Hall,” she said. “I thought I gave you directions on what channels to go through to reach me?”

  “We should talk in private,” Cassidy replied.

  “Whatever you need to say to me, you can say in front of my crew.”

  Cassidy wasn’t sure about that, but he didn’t have much choice. “Okay. I’m here because I didn’t trust your channels. I don’t trust any channels right now, except this one—face-to-face.”

  “What’s going on?” Brie seemed genuinely concerned.

  “I really think we should talk in private.”

  “You can trust my people.”

  “That’s not what I’m worried about.”

  She nodded before looking at Kyra. “Did you get a weapon off him?”

  Ju held up the needlegun. “An Advanced Composites NG-12. Isn’t it cool?”

  “Give it back to him.”

  “Brie?” Ju questioned.

  “I vouch for him. Give it back.”

  Ju handed Cassidy the weapon. He returned it to its holster.

  “Follow me,” Brie said.

  Cassidy followed her out the door and back the way he had come, through a different tunnel to a simple metal door halfway down. This one had a standard deadbolt rather than a security panel, and Brie produced the key to unlock it, pushing it open and waving him in.

  Cassidy entered the small storage room, one side stacked with an assortment of cleaning solutions, a couple of brooms and mops, an electric tool set and a set of small shelves housing a full array of parts for the underground systems. The other side contained a row of lockers, all of them closed, their contents hidden.

  Brie entered behind him and closed the door. “Okay, Detective,” she said. “What is this about?”

  Chapter 20

  “My ex-wife and son are dead,” Cassidy said, voice quivering appropriately as Hall siphoned through.

  “What?” Brie said, all of her firmness vanishing in an instant. “I…I’m sorry. I…” She obviously didn’t know what to say. Tears sprang to her eyes and she clapped her hand over her mouth. The Miners worked with the criminal element as much as law enforcement, but Miners was short for Data Miners. They got paid for information. They didn’t get involved with violence.

  “I’ve got questions,” Cassidy continued. “I need answers and you owe me.”

  Brie nodded. “I do. But...I don’t understand. Why didn’t you use the channels I gave you?”

  Cassidy hesitated. When he finished the mission, Mensah would see everything he said and did from the time she transferred him into Hall. He needed to be careful how much he exposed Brie to or else she would become another thread that had to be cut. That was one of the reasons he insisted on speaking to her alone.

  “They’re compromised,” he answered. “That’s all I can tell you about that.” He reached into his pocket, retrieving the drone. “Have you ever seen anything like this before?” He held it out to her in his open palm.

  She leaned in to get a closer look, just like Shell had. “No,” Brie answered, her tone suggesting her intense interest. “It’s mechanical though, right? Not a dead bug?”

  Cassidy smiled. “Yeah. It’s a drone. I caught it trying to hack into my ClearPhone.”

  “How did you catch it?”

  “Happy accident. I tried to shoot it and missed. It got caught in the detonation from the needle.”

  Brie smiled. “Happy accident for both of us. Hold on.” She put her laptop on the floor before going to the last locker in the line, using another key to open the thick padlock keeping it secured. Opening the door revealed a neatly organized stash of equipment, most of it pretty small. Cassidy had known Brie worked on drones as a hobby.

  She brought out a loupe and put it around her forehead, lowering it over her eye. Then she picked up a pair of tweezers and a small needle connected to a larger wire with an adapter at the end.

  “All small drones have these Particle ports,” she explained. “In order to update firmware, modify instruction sets and recover collected data.” She looked at him. “Stop me if you already know about the technical side.”

  “Go on,” Cassidy urged.

  “It’s likely part of the drone’s system is at least password protected, and more likely fully encrypted and biometrically secured. If that’s the case, I can probably get into it, but it’ll take anywhere from a week to a month.”

  “I don’t have that long.”

  “I didn’t think so. The good news is that I can still access the BIOS and get some basic, unsecured data from it. Hopefully, that will include who made it and when it was made.”

  “Assuming it was made legally, you mean.”

  “Not necessarily.” Brie picked up the drone with the tweezers, giving it another look through the loupe. “This thing had wings?”

  “Yeah.”

  “The actuators are ridiculously small. It’s impressive work. And craftsmen who can do this kind of work usually like to sign it.”

  “I see. Like a piece of art.”

  “Exactly.” She found the particle port and stuck the needle into it. “The particle ports are the same thing they use on subcutaneous mods. Anything that might need an upgrade at some point. You can needle in right through the flesh. Pretty cool, And gross at the same time.”

  “Why don’t you have any mods?”

  “Hard to lay low as a poor section eight with enhancements, Detective,” Brie replied. “You should know that.”

  Cassidy nearly frowned, realizing he had slipped up. Hall did know that. He needed to be more careful. “Right. I’m still a little shaken.”

  “I imagine. But ever a professional, right? Your wife and kid are murdered, and you’re here asking about this thing. You must think it’s connected.”

  “That’s right,” Cassidy agreed. “I need to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible, before the lead gets cold.”

  “Understood. It’s not my first time.” She lowered herself onto the floor, sitting cross legged and putting the laptop on her lap. She connected the other end of the Particle port to the machine and started tapping on the keyboard. “This should only take a couple of minutes.”

  Cassidy leaned against the back of the door to wait. Brie’s hands flew across the keyboard so quickly it seemed like she wasn’t even touching them. Her eyes shifted back and forth, reading the data he could see reflected against her retinas.

  “The main memory is encrypted and secured like I expected, but I did get into the basic BIOS. The drone’s running a custom OS, forked from a derivative of Drix. Whoever wrote it, they authenticated it Leonidas.”

  Leonidas. The name wasn’t familiar to either Cassidy or Hall. “That doesn’t mean anything to me.”

  “Me either,” Brie admitted. “But it’s a start. I can run that name and see if I can dig them up somewhere else online and try to pull an identity from there. I doubt I’ll be able to finger them in realspace, but you never know what you might find until you start looking.”

  “I don’t have a lot of time, remember? That’s why I came to you. My people could get as far as you have, but with bureaucracy it would take days.”

  “I understand. I can go as fast as possible, but it’ll still take time.”

  Cassidy nodded. At least he had confirmed the drone didn’t come from the Bureau. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. “Before you get started on that, I need something else.”

  “I only owed you one favor, Detective.”

  “One visit equals one favor,” Cassidy replied.

  “That’s not how it works.”

  “It is today. My wife and son are dead.”

  Brie looked at him, biting her lower lip. It was against her nature to bargain for work, but the circumstances caused her to hesitate and then break. “Fine. Only because I’m a nice person.”

  “Do you have access to the datastore for the Domes?”

  Brie raised her eyebrows. “The Domes? Isn’t that outside your jurisdiction?”

  “Again, that’s why I came to you.”

  She smiled. “You got me there. Yeah, I have access.”

  The Dome’s network was rated Priority Alpha. Sensitive data. Highly secured. But she spoke about it as though it was just another database with too many open ports.

  He liked that.

  “There’s a Marine who attended the Dome for colonization training. His name is Garrett. Mason Garrett. He flunked out of the program. I want to know why.”

  “Probably couldn’t handle stasis,” Brie replied. “Twenty-seven percent of potential colonists don’t make the cut because their minds remain too active, even when put into hibernation. It causes unbelievable nightmares. I’ve read some of the accounts. Terrifying stuff.”

  Cassidy raised an eyebrow. “I hadn’t heard about that. Can you confirm that’s what happened to Garrett?”

  “It’s risky for me to sniff around in there, Detective. I don’t want to poke the bear for something minor.”