Mia narrowed her eyes. “I still don’t get it. You want me to hunt rats?”

  Gideon shook his head. “There are no animals on Ice except for humans. Let me explain. We usually go out to the Crags and mine different ores using the equipment there. And then we haul it back to the facility for processing in the lower-level smelters. They use furnaces that draw on geothermal power.”

  “Explains why they built this place where they did,” Mia muttered. “And also why we’re not all freezing to death in here.”

  Gideon nodded. “Exactly. The problem recently is with the scavengers.”

  “Aren’t those Bravos?” Mia asked. “They jumped me on my way in. I had to take some out. I don’t get why they’re allowed outside.”

  Gideon gave a firm shake of his head. “Because they aren’t Bravos. Scavs are escapees or holdovers from back when Ice was a full penal colony. They’re survivors. I’ll give ’em that. They’re also not sane. It’s hard to eke out a living on an all-but-dead planet like this and keep your sanity. They prey on each other, and they prey on prisons like this one. They’re persistent jackals. I’ll give ’em that.”

  Mia thought back to her arrival. The guards hadn’t hesitated to shoot the scavs. Was the ogre a holdover of the planet’s past, too?

  “The scavs keep worming their way into the smelting area,” Gideon continued with a scowl. “Stealing supplies and materials, attacking workers, generally being pains in the ass. It’s slowing overall production and making us not hit quotas. It would have been an annoyance before. Now it’s rising to a big damned problem.”

  Mia motioned to a guards’ nest. “And don’t they care? Why don’t they handle them?”

  “Sure, they care about the quotas.” Gideon let out a dark chuckle. “Not about anything else. They’ll shoot a scav if they see one. They’re not going to go out of their way to risk their lives hunting them down just because we might go hungry. They figure it would be better for a Grinder to get stabbed than a guard.”

  Each revelation underlined the inefficient management of the prison. Assuming the government cared about the materials being mined at Black Ice, they should put more effort into dealing with outsiders damaging the process. Hungry workers would be less efficient and wounded prisoners couldn’t work as hard.

  Maybe they didn’t care. Maybe the line of human garbage being delivered to Black Ice was so steady that the government thought it didn’t matter. Keeping the prisoners not well-fed would cut down on riots. Given the rebellious history of the planet, the system might be functioning exactly as planned, with entire facilities filled with marginal workers kept alive enough to eke out productivity for an indifferent government.

  Gideon pointed at Mia. “You, Rat Catcher, will patrol the smelter area and take care of any scavs that get in. It won’t be that hard. It’s usually one or two half-starved bastards. They’ll be easy for you to handle, given what you demonstrated. Before we were having to send in teams, and that meant experienced Grinders getting pulled off rigs and hauling duty.”

  Mia folded her arms. Being tied to a faction’s work would make it more difficult for her to slip out of the facility. “So I’m supposed to do this because I owe you?”

  Gideon nodded. “Pretty much. I saved your life, remember?”

  “And what about food?” she asked.

  “What about it?”

  “I need to eat.”

  Gideon shrugged. “You’ll figure something out.”

  Mia locked eyes with him. “You do know what happens when you don’t feed the animal you use for protection?”

  Gideon stomped forward. “You trying to threaten me, Rat Catcher? After I saved your life?”

  “No.” Mia advanced until she was nose-to-nose with the Grinder. “I’m explaining basic reality. You don’t feed an animal, that animal turns around and eats you.” She backed away. “I thought you were smarter than Raph. I was wrong.”

  Gideon frowned but also stepped back. He shook his head.

  Another Grinder rushed forward and threw a wild haymaker. “You ungrateful bitch!”

  Mia caught his wrist and twisted his arm behind his back. “How much work can you do with a broken wrist?” She pushed his arm harder against his back, forcing him to cry out in pain. She growled. “What’s that going to do for your work hours and quota, huh?”

  The Grinders started to move but stopped when Gideon threw up his arm and shook his head.

  Her victim tried to struggle, grimacing as the movement helped her twist his arm and wrist more. “You’re a crazy bitch.”

  “Normal people aren’t sent to Black Ice, are they?” Mia’s tone was venomous. “Everyone seems to have forgotten that just because I’m young.”

  These people needed to understand that she wasn’t afraid of any of them. She was there for her mission. She would do what she needed to accomplish it. She’d killed people outside. Killing people inside wasn’t beyond the pale.

  “And you’re right,” Mia added. “I’m crazy. If you want me to be your crazy Rat Catcher bitch, then we have to come to an arrangement. I won’t be taken advantage of by anyone here.”

  Her training with the academy on the surface was completely unlike her experience at Black Ice. One was a disciplined hall of training designed to produce quality pilot candidates. The other was a dumping ground for the worst rejects in the KCAP. What passed for well-adjusted in the prison barely rose to vicious antisociality outside.

  Upon reflection, her recent experiences were surprisingly similar. Mia had dealt with people trying to control and humiliate her during her training. She needed to handle her current problems with the same strategy: continued proof of skill and massive psychological intimidation of those who’d dare oppose her. She doubted she’d find good, trustworthy friends in Black Ice like Ryoko, Karin, and Paul. The place didn’t filter for that type of person.

  Gideon’s jaw tightened. “But you owe—”

  Mia shoved the Grinder into Gideon. “I don’t owe you shit. You’ve seen what I can do, and you know people sent here aren’t sent here for pranks. Now either cut me a deal, or I go cut a deal with the scavengers.”

  She was unsure how long that bluff would last. The Grinders might get word from the guards that Mia didn’t meet the typical profile of a Black Ice prisoner. It was important to establish her de facto dominance before that happened and people tested her ruthlessness again.

  Gideon pushed away the Grinder leaning against him. “This the way you want to play it, Verick?”

  “Call the Bravos back over here.” Mia shrugged. “I’ll finish them off. Or better yet, man up and do it yourselves.” She held up her fists. “Doesn’t matter to me either way, and it doesn’t solve your little vermin problem. This all ends with people hurt and dead, and everybody weaker for it.” She paused for a moment to think of an appropriate response, remembering something she’d seen Karin say to Paul. “Or you can pull your head out of your ass and cooperate. It’s time to apply some Game Theory, asshole.”

  Gideon’s fingers curled into fists at his side. “Food, huh?”

  “Yeah, food. I’ll do what you want. I just won’t do it for free.”

  “Okay, fine. What did you have in mind?”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Mia bit down on a piece of hard, dry bread. She’d never found the food at the academy mess that impressive, but it was gourmet compared to the subsistence rations she was now relying on.

  Flavor and basic textures were a distant afterthought. She held her doubts about nutrition, but at least it kept her stomach from rumbling. She’d never been so grateful for her father’s training. Practicing going long times without good meals had paid off in a strange situation.

  She gulped the rest of her snack down and stepped out of the tunnel after securing her flashlight to her head with a makeshift band of torn cloth. The tiny relief of the cool tunnel gave way to a suffocating wall of waste heat. The hum and rumble of heavy machines echoed through the tunnels, along with the shouts of prisoners and the rattle of metal.

  Her first few days as Rat Catcher had proven uneventful, even boring. She’d used the time to explore the honeycomb of tunnels and expand her mental map of the area. Without a thorough understanding of the layout of the prison, she’d never escape back to the surface to go to the black site and complete her true mission.

  Trying to leave the way she came in presented too many logistical difficulties. She doubted she’d get the access codes she needed to take the elevators, and taking a guard hostage would bring the entire facility down on her.

  That didn’t worry her. The presence of scavengers in the work area proved there were other ways in and out of the prison. The only reason no one else was attempting to escape was that they had nowhere to go but a hellish outside where armies of more scavengers awaited. And from what she could tell, most were afraid to travel deep into any of the tunnels.

  Unlike them, she did have a reason to leave. The DT mods hadn’t been discovered yet, which gave her hope and confirmed the modest distance between her current location and the target site. She was close to her objective now.

  Although she was confident, she couldn’t hurry to the target site and back in less than a day. She had no idea what it would take to infiltrate the facility and doubted she could get any solid intel on it in Black Ice.

  Mia stopped as a group of prisoners shuffled past her in a line, all carrying chunks of ore. No one spared her a glance. They had a job to do if they wanted their food.

  She frowned. Abigail had wanted her to abandon the mission. If Mia didn’t hurry it along, she’d spend thirty days doing nothing but living off scraps from others while hunting others like an animal. Her skills would degrade.

  Mia turned away from the passage and disappeared into a side tunnel. Kneeling, she pulled a sharp rock from her pocket and scratched tiny symbols into the bottom of the wall. The code would look like nothing more than nonsense to most, rather than a compact navigational report on the nearby area.

  She’d thought about inscribing a map onto a rock, but anything like that could be discovered. Her navigational system ran the risk of damage, but she’d gotten good at placing her notes where they wouldn’t risk notice or wear. They didn’t have to last more than a month, anyway. This was a service for her, not the Grinders.

  Mia moved deeper into the cave. The heat from the smelters diminished, and now the area was merely suffocating instead of hellish.

  The uneven shape and direction of many of the side tunnels interested Mia. The larger, smoother main shafts near the area had obviously been dug with equipment, but the intersecting tunnels were a mixture of smaller hand-dug paths leading into natural lava caves.

  After a long bout of exploring, Mia heard the soft sound of something hard scraping on rock. She froze, trying to place the direction of the noise. The scraping stopped, replaced by soft singing.

  “Dig, dig, dig,” sang a scratchy voice. “Dig, dig, dig to hell. Ain’t no escape from this place, so you might as well dig to hell. Least there it’s cooler.”

  Mia reached into her pocket and grabbed the handle of her knife but let go after a moment’s thought. One set of footsteps. One voice. No reason to risk her valuable tool.

  The man kept singing, his pitchy voice growing louder as he repeated the same lines over and over. She waited, her back against the wall until the heavy raspy breathing between lines all but screamed his position. He didn’t care about getting noticed.

  Mia turned the corner. A wide-eyed scraggly man stopped in the center of the tunnel. His dark fingernails were long and hard, almost like talons. She doubted they’d seen clean water for a long time. The rags passing for his clothes didn’t bear any resemblance to the prison uniform.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” Mia announced.

  He licked his lips. “Dig, dig, dig to hell.”

  “You’re a scavenger,” Mia continued. “I’ve been tasked with eliminating you.”

  The scavenger cocked his head to the side. He yanked out a cracked saw-toothed blade from behind. “They sent me away to hell, tried to make me a demon. I came back to make them pay.” He waved the knife. “You can’t be with them. The Fake Angels are making you dig to hell. I’m gonna kill ’em all. You gonna be on my side or theirs?”

  “I don’t care about the staff.” Mia cracked her knuckles. “But you’re disrupting operations for the people giving me food. I’m willing to let you go if you give me a detailed layout of the tunnel, turn around, and leave.” She patted her pocket. “I’ll sweeten the deal. I’ve got a half-loaf of bread here, I’ll trade.”

  Avoid unnecessary battles. You never know when your enemy can get lucky.

  The scavenger threw his head back and cackled. “You’ll let me go. Or someday they’ll send you off. Try and make you a demon.” He wagged a finger. “It’ll be too late then. Far too late.”

  Mia nodded. “I already am a demon. I don’t care about you people. I don’t care about the Grinders either. But I need them, and I need intel.”

  He waved the knife in front of her. “I’ll give you a chance, future demon. Get your shiv. Ain’t no one’s gonna say I didn’t give you a chance. It’s a duel.”

  “Don’t do this.” Mia narrowed her eyes. “I killed scavengers when I first got here. I’ve hurt Bravos. I killed paid assassins before I even knew this place existed. However hard and tough you think you are, you’re not tougher than me. And you stand no chance against me.”

  “You think you’re tough, little girl.” He giggled. “Because you got sent here? This place is me. I am this place. I was before you were born.” He motioned to the ground. “But I accept your trade. Drop your bread and run. I won’t stab you in the back.”

  Mia stomped forward a couple of steps and glared at him. “You don’t understand your position. You’ll tell me about how you got here. Even better, you’ll show me. Your only other choice that doesn’t involve dying is to turn around and run.”

  The scavenger screamed and the keening cry echoed in the tunnels. He charged Mia with both hands on the hilt of his knife. She sidestepped the attack with ease.

  He growled and jabbed at her. She batted his knife arm away before nailing him in the face with a palm strike.

  The scavenger hit a wall with a grunt and Mia snapped a kick into his chest. His ribs crunched.

  “Do you understand now?” Mia stepped back from the squealing scavenger, her fists in front of her. “Last chance. You’re going—”

  The scavenger broke away, sprinting hard down the hallway with surprising speed. He clutched his chest with one hand, coughing up blood.

  Mia could catch him. Even at his best, he wasn’t faster than her, but there was no point.

  Fighting off an invading scavenger satisfied her Rat Catcher job while minimizing complications. A man convinced he was about to die might find hidden strength. She doubted she could get any useful intel from a half-feral man like that.

  Survivors could warn their allies of the dangerous Rat Catcher, and her reputation alone could deter scavenger intrusion.

  She also lacked knowledge of the tunnels. He might lead her into a trap or an ambush if she chased him.

  Mia took in and let out a deep breath. She couldn’t waste all her time in pointless fights.

  A glint on the ground caught her attention. The scavenger had dropped his knife.

  She grabbed it and stuck it in her pocket. Even if she could spend her time at Black Ice without risking her knife, she couldn’t escape and infiltrate the target site without weapons. Collecting and making more was a necessary part of the mission.

  Mia looked over her shoulder. Faint illumination from the smelters lit a tunnel in the distance. The last time she’d patrolled the area, she’d spotted scraps of metal. With a little time and effort, she could equip herself with a small collection of shivs.

  She turned the captured knife in her hand. The balance was off, and the edge dull, but it would do.

  Whistling the scavenger’s tune, Mia used the knife to carve a navigational note. She stood and headed down a side tunnel, remembering something her father told her after a failed run on their combatives course.

  Every encounter, she thought, is more preparation for my target site raid. I’ll get that info they have on you, Dad. I’ll find out the truth. All of this is worth it as long as I find out the truth.

  Many days and scavenger encounters later, Mia returned from the work area following a line of Grinders. She hadn’t had to kill any of the scavengers yet. Unlike the insane, frothy mob she’d fought on the outside, the infiltrators were more than ready to flee at any sign of opposition or a broken rib or nose.

  That made her wonder if there were different factions of scavengers like there were different factions within the prison. Crazed, mindless people didn’t survive. The scavengers she’d encountered on arrival might have been a rough equivalent of a warrior caste willing to lay their lives on the line.

  At least some of the scavengers were descendants or survivors of people who’d been left behind. It was like the Wilderlands back home. No matter where humanity spread, there would always be outsiders and barbarians.

  But Mia wasn’t there to study the sociology of Ice. She was there to find her way to the facility. According to the info she had, getting there from the base shouldn’t be that hard. Slipping out of the prison and getting back in was a greater challenge.

  Any plan to leave would require detailed info about the prison. She’d hoped to gain more thorough layout intel on her patrols, but she wasn’t making as much progress as she wanted. She’d added two captured blades to her shiv collection, along with a small number of others she’d made herself.

  The overall mission remained on track. Her Rat Catcher duty gave her the excuse and time she needed to continue mapping the tunnels and leaving navigational notes. She’d expanded her spelunking radius, probing deeper and far enough away that the heat of the smelters became a distant memory and the frigid touch of the outside seeped in.