Chapter 9
Whatever Velda expected to find after hours of walking, she had to admit, a full blown mining operation was not it.
They’d hunkered down on a rocky outcrop in the darkness when they’d reached the moving lights, with engines moving directly below them, and in the breaking light of day, she saw a few things that made her think it had been there for a while, but originally on a smaller scale, and mainly under the mountain, if the massive cavelike entrance was anything to go by.
“What are they mining for?” Ethan wondered.
“And who are they?” Velda hadn’t been able to see a company logo. The machinery that was visible was a mix of makes and had a number of different company names on the side.
“Stolen?” Ethan wondered, when she pointed it out.
“Could be.” That was a thought. “Or they bought old equipment and kept under the radar.”
“They’re definitely operating illegally. This whole mountain range is a national park.” Ethan lay beside her on the overhang they had chosen to observe their surprising find.
There was an awkwardness to the process, to Velda’s eye. A lack of flow and organization that made her more sure than ever that the mine had recently expanded, and not in a well-considered way.
“Why would they ramp up production with so little planning?” she murmured.
“They’re in a hurry.” Ethan slid a little closer to the edge.
“And isn’t there another group who seems to be in a hurry right now?” Velda narrowed her eyes as she stared down at the chaos below. Could this be a Cores operation? Here on her planet?
She sensed Ethan move, and she turned to look at him, saw the same realization in his eyes as was in hers.
“Fuck,” he said.
“Exactly.” She wanted to get down there, find out what she could about who was involved, and what they were mining. “It’s enraging.”
“We need to steal a hover and get back to the city,” Ethan said. “We can’t stop what’s going on down there right now, not with just the two of us, but once we’re back in Demeter we can get a team together to investigate.”
Velda took a deep breath. “Yes.” She needed to get back. Badly. And Ethan was right, the two of them had no chance of stopping the operation below.
She began looking at the hovers, trying to find one that wasn’t being used so they could steal it.
“That one, maybe?” Ethan pointed to the left, to a small group of machines that were sitting to one side, with a tiny hover next to them. “Looks like loading equipment.”
Loading equipment.
Velda swallowed down her anger. Of course they’d need loading equipment. They’d have to get the ore they were mining out of the mountains somehow. They were transporting this stuff somewhere. To someone. And she was going to make finding out where and to whom a personal mission.
Her eyes felt gritty and they were burning with fatigue, and she closed them for a moment. The rock they were lying on was warming in the early morning sun, and they had only caught three hours sleep the night before.
“Velda.” Ethan whispered right in her ear, and she jerked, suddenly unsure how much time had passed.
“Sorry.” She glanced at him, but he was looking down again, and it looked almost exactly as it had when she’d closed her eyes.
“I don’t think they use that hover unless there’s a need to load the ore.” Ethan was still looking at the small collection of vehicles to the side.
“The trick will be to get to it and drive it away without them noticing.” Because she didn’t think it had much in the way of a top speed. There were plenty of vehicles below that would catch up to them in no time.
“Let’s get down there and take whatever opportunity presents itself,” Ethan said. He moved backward off the rock and Velda followed, sorry to lose the warmth of the stone beneath her.
Ethan was right. Things could change in a moment, and they didn’t even know how long it would take to get down to the mine itself.
At least they had a target to aim for, and they could play it by ear.
They had left their packs behind the trees growing right at the edge of the rocky outcrop, and they picked them up and began to move through the woods toward the furthest end of the ridge.
Ethan climbed down first and Velda scooted to the edge to see how much of a drop was involved.
It was about five times higher than Ethan, so she carefully dangled the packs, one by one, when he reached the bottom, then let them go. He caught them easily.
“Now you,” he called up softly.
She wasn’t going to drop down, but she was glad he would be there in case she lost her grip.
She eased over the edge and began the climb down, her concentration focused on where to find her next hand and foothold.
She thought she heard Ethan make a noise below, and risked a quick look down. Found herself staring at two weapons pointed up at her, and Ethan crumpled on the ground.
“Nice and slow.” The man standing beside Ethan’s prone form gestured with his laz. “No need to shoot you, too, if I don’t have to.”
If he did, she would fall, and given she was only half way down, she decided against it.
She carefully climbed the rest of the way, and as soon as her feet touched the ground, she was pushed up against the rock face and her hands secured behind her.
She tried to turn, to see how badly Ethan was injured, but the man pressed harder on her back, so the rock dug into her cheek.
“What have we here?” He hauled her back by her collar, spun her around.
Velda didn’t answer immediately, her gaze fixed on Ethan.
“Eyes here.” The man snapped his fingers at her, and she forced herself to find some inner calm, to lift her gaze.
“We were hiking and heard the engines. Came to look,” Velda said. She tried to move toward Ethan, but the man who’d restrained her jerked her back in a bruising grip. “But why the unfriendly reception?”
“Hikers were bound to happen,” the man said, this time to his companion. “We’re lucky they haven’t before now.”
“Is my partner all right?” Velda didn’t need to act to let the worry come through.
“He’ll be fine. Shot him on a low stun.” The man studied her. “This is an off-the-books operation, and we can’t be having witnesses, as I’m sure you’ve already worked out.”
That was an obvious conclusion for anyone to draw, Velda thought. There were no mining operations allowed in the mountains, they were part of the Aponi Protected Lands, so no one could have come up with any other conclusion.
“We figured. We were going to go report it in Demeter.”
“Good luck with that,” the man said, face smug. “Don’t know there’s much of Demeter left.”
Velda tilted her head. “The flash of light we saw last night?” she asked, pretending cluelessness. “That was Demeter getting hit?”
“You saw that?” the man holding her asked.
“We noticed the sky lighting up to the south,” she said. “We wondered what it meant.”
“It means change is coming,” the man said, way too jovial with Ethan lying unconscious at his feet, and her city burning.
She would like to change his outlook. Forcibly.
She pretended confusion and upset, instead. “Who hit the city? Why?”
“Enough.” The second man spoke for the first time. “You shot him, you carry him, Vang.” He grabbed Velda by her arm and jerked her toward the path that ran along the cliff face.
As they made their way along a well-worn path, she saw the flash of a lens in the trees, and realized mine security must be monitoring the access points.
Behind her, she heard Vang grunt, and then swear.
“Can’t lift him, he’s too solid,” he called from behind them. “Send Nyler to help.”
The man pulling her along flapped his hand in response, and then lifted his wrist to his mouth. “Nyler, get up here and help Vang with an intruder.”
“Who are you people?” Velda asked. She was surprised she hadn’t been recognized by either man. It might mean they were Cores imports, rather than locals.
“Vang might run his mouth, but I don’t,” he said. “Just shut up and maybe you can walk out of here when this is over.”
She wondered what that meant. Were they closing up shop? Moving on? Or did he mean that once Aponi was under the control of whoever had attacked Demeter, there would be nothing she could do about the mine?
She started as a big man came lumbering toward them out of the gloom of the forest.
When her escort said nothing to him, she guessed he was Nyler.
“You wanted me, Ridgeman?” Nyler asked when he was closer. His tone was respectful.
“Up the trail. Vang shot someone. Needs help carrying him.”
Nyler gave a grunt of acknowledgement and kept going.
The noise of the mine was getting louder, and then suddenly the trees were behind them and they stood in a small field. To one side, there was the deep slash of the cave entrance, dark and high, and to the other, all the equipment they’d seen from above.
What they hadn’t seen was around the curve of the mountain itself were structures built up against the rock face.
Ridgeman waited for a hover to pass them, headed into the cave, then pulled her across the busy working area and toward those buildings.
They had just reached the first one when a roar of sound dropped out of nowhere, getting louder and louder until Velda ducked her head, wishing she could put her bound hands to her ears.
Ridgeman turned and she did, too, as a big ship landed in the open space where they had just been standing.
The moment it touched the ground, a ramp lowered and someone stood at the end of it, impatiently waiting for it to get low enough that they could jump down.
The person—a woman in a dark uniform—strode toward them, face grim.
Ridgeman looked down at Velda, as if suddenly realizing he was still holding her arm, and turned, addressing someone behind them. “Take her. Lock her up. Vang’s bringing her friend.”
Velda looked over her shoulder, saw the arrival of the ship had brought five or six people out of the various buildings.