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  Best not open that can of fuck-worms now.

  I concur. Let the demons and ascended masters sink in first. Maybe in a day or two.

  Or perhaps more. Like one or two decades.

  “Well, at any rate,” Brock brought the conversation back to the present moment, “I ain’t wanting to be around here if that is some doorway to another realm or whatever. It just gives me the heebeejeebies. And if you wanna open -”

  His sentence was cut short by Molly marching over to the door that was now cleared.

  “NO!” Brock yelled, but it was too late. Molly started yanking on the handle.

  Brock lunged at her trying to stop her.

  It didn’t open.

  Brock composed himself, coughing, and scratching the back of his head, spanner still in hand.

  She pulled down on the handle again. And yanked hard.

  Nothing.

  She bit back a curse, annoyed that she couldn’t investigate the next stage in her hypothesis. “It must have another security lock on a panel we haven’t found yet,” she concluded.

  Paige and Joel laughed, doubled over in stitches, looking at Brock, whose face was still frozen in horror that Molly would be so cavalier.

  “No ancestors are coming to get you, Brock!” Paige said gently, patting him on the back. “That’s just not their style. They’re way more sophisticated and sagely than to go all out for a haunting.”

  Brock seemed to relax a little, still staring at Molly trying the door.

  “Unless you count my great, great uncle Jackson…” Paige added casually. Brock spun around to glare at her.

  “Why? What was uncle Jackson like?” he asked, eyes open wide.

  “He was a joker. He might fuck with you just for the shits and giggles.” Paige tried to suppress her smile.

  “A trait which must run in the family,” added Joel, openly smiling at Paige’s successful attempts to fuck with Brock.

  Molly stepped away from the door, and looked around. “There must be some kind of access panel here. Or a switch, or… something.”

  Brock clapped his hands once. “Oh, well, that’s a shame. Never mind. I’ll go start unloading the ship supplies in case y’all brought anything back that might be useful…” He started to leave.

  “Sure,” Molly called after him, still scanning for an access trigger. “And then since this is your workshop, when you’re done, have a look around and see if you can locate some kind of keypad or security panel. You may want to grab Crash to help you get some more lights down here too.”

  Brock paused in his tracks, without turning round. His face dropped as he heard the instructions. “Right you are, boss!” he called back, then continued on his way out to the stairwell.

  “Grindle senses?” asked Paige, when he was out of earshot.

  Molly heard, and turned to look at Paige and Joel. “Yeah, he’s kinda sensitive. You know. Intuitive. He calls it his Grindle-senses.” She turned back to her investigation, now also looking to see if there was anything else that could be making him feel edgy down here. “It is a little dark. It could just be his imagination…”

  Joel seemed to have recovered himself from the revelation about demons and dimensions. “Okay, so if we’re done down here, I could do with you and I having a powwow about our next case…” He watched Molly, waiting for her to respond.

  “Uh, yeah.” She peeled herself away from the hunt, reining in her wanton curiosity. “Right you are, boss!” she said with a mock salute, and headed to the door herself.

  Joel followed her.

  Paige remained behind, her eye glazed over as she looked at the door. There was something wiggy going on here.

  She just couldn’t put her finger on it.

  “You coming?” called Molly from the top of the stairwell. “Or do you want to turn the lights off?”

  “I’m coming,” she called. Then she heard a giggle and the main lights went off, leaving only Brock’s little array remaining to illuminate her way across the floor to the stairs.

  “You bitch!” she called up to Molly as she hurried to catch up, now feeling more than a bit creeped out about being in the dark basement by herself.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Senate Office, Djúpivogur District

  “So you do understand what this bill will do?”

  Senator Garet Beaufort peered over his desk at one of the Senate officials who also represented his district.

  “Yes, yes I think I get the idea,” he responded.

  Senator Beaufort leaned forward with his forearms now on the desk, his hands clasped out in front of him. “Did you read all the way to the end?”

  The dull Senate officer shifted awkwardly in the guest seat across from the senator’s desk. “No. I just read the memo issued by the Senate. That normally contains enough information.”

  Beaufort sat back in his chair. He knew that by sitting back, he’d relieve some of the tension the career government employee was experiencing. “You know, I really get how little time you have to go through the details on this, but…” he paused for effect. “I’ve been watching your career, even before I got appointed to this office. You’re one of the good guys.”

  The middle aged man across from him looked down at the file he was holding in an attempt to hide his blush.

  “And you know what else?” Garet Beaufort continued, “I’ve read this whole thing, and I think there are some sections that you might be interested in... given your interest in making sure that this is fair for the whole population.”

  He hadn’t imagined that he’d ever have to use his skills in advanced communication to convince people of action that was in their best interest, but here he was.

  He kept talking. “I know a lot of folks in your district will be influenced by whether this bill goes through or not, and I’d hate for you to find out after the fact that you voted for something that only on the surface looked to be in their favor.”

  The senator paused again, waiting for the penny to drop, for the official to react. He had to be careful what he said. When he took the job with Andus, he pretty much assumed his home, office, and, well, everywhere else, was going to be bugged. What he’d said so far could always be explained away as relationship building, in lieu of a bigger play.

  But then, he might have been kidding himself.

  The official looked up. “Why are you telling me this?” he asked, his slightly ashen face almost regaining a little glimmer of the blue Estarian effervescence as he spoke.

  Garet smiled his politician smile, and then looked serious as he leaned in, his arm on his desk. “Well, I hope that we can be friends. And friends help friends out.” He dropped his voice, as if telling a secret. “But when you share this with the other officials, do me a favor and leave my name out of it, yeah?”

  The official nodded vigorously. “Yes, yes of course. I understand completely.” He gave Garet a knowing, exaggerated wink.

  “Great!” Garet brightened again, and stood up from his desk. Walking around it, he held his hand out to shake his co-conspirator’s hand.

  The official got to his feet and gathered his file, picked up his coat off the back of the chair, then took Garet’s hand, shaking it enthusiastically.

  “Thank you, Senator Beaufort. I appreciate your guidance on this. Thank you!”

  Garet walked him to the heavy wooden double doors and showed him out. The official scuttled away, mentally listing off the calls and meetings he now needed to set up… after he had read the rest of the document that they had discussed.

  Garet watched him leave from the reception area, and looked down to take the messages that his assistant was handing him.

  “Thank you, Darla.”

  “You’re welcome, Senator Beaufort,” she said, blinking her enhanced eyelashes at him.

  “Mr. Andus also called for you. I told him you were in with someone, but he would appreciate a call back as soon as you can. That’s the top message…” she pointed with a beautifully manicured fin
ger at the notes she’d just handed him.

  Garet noticed the little heart doodle she had scribbled on the top note.

  He looked at it for a moment.

  “You have a thing for Mr. Andus, eh?” he didn’t take his eyes from the notes, and continued flicking through the others. “Hmm, none of the others have quite the same penmanship…”

  He waited for her reaction.

  She giggled coyly.

  “No. Not Mr. Andus.”

  Satisfied he’d encouraged her just enough to keep her on the hook, he returned to his office, where he sat down at his desk. Pulling the holo up, he dialed the new number on the note.

  The call connected.

  “Good afternoon.” It was a female’s voice; she sounded bright and bouncy. “Equipt Real Estate Services, this is Mandy speaking.”

  “Good afternoon, Mandy. I wonder if I might speak with Mr. Andus, please?”

  “Of course, Mr. Beaufort. Just hold the line.”

  Gaiman-67, Safe house, Conference Room

  “Okay, so what’s up?” Molly stepped into the conference room.

  “What did you do to Paige?” Joel asked, already half laughing.

  Molly closed the door behind her, muffling the shouts of abuse from Paige making her way up from the basement. “I’m making her a more compassionate team member.”

  He smirked. “You turned the lights off on her, didn’t you?”

  “Boogie man training 101.” She smiled. “You can’t have all the fun initiating them.”

  Joel shook his head, smiling. He opened up his holo and selected a couple of screens to enlarge.

  “Okay, so, cadet-training aside, check this out.” He showed her what looked like potential cases on the conference room holo.

  Molly looked a little wary of Joel’s enthusiasm as she pulled out a chair. “What am I looking at?” she asked.

  Joel swiped through a few screens that were similar. “This is called CaseHUB. It’s basically a place where our potential clients can post their jobs, anything from security to science and tech. All project-based. Their aim is to find people who can solve their problems. In other words: Us!”

  He paused, letting her read for a moment.

  “You see, these ones here,” he pointed at the screen, “want someone to provide security for their new site. Something they’re building in the outer system.”

  He waited a moment, and then moved to the next screen. “This one,” he pointed enthusiastically, “this one wants tests designed to prove the efficacy of their weapons systems.”

  Molly’s expression was blank.

  Joel changed tact. “And this one is a research project. They need someone to help them reverse engineer a chemical compound that could be used in a more efficient fuel cell.”

  Molly’s eyes brightened, and she sat up in her chair.

  Nice maneuver on Joel’s part there! Pulling out the research card. We all know what that does to your biology.

  Oz. Please. I can make a business decision without getting lured in by the promise of hot and dirty research.

  I’m starting to understand that the use of the words “hot” and “research” in the same breath is something unique to you. Nowhere in the yotta byte of data I have processed from the outside world, have I ever seen this reference. Excluding the use of the word when it refers to temperature, of course.

  Oz, are you interrupting this conversation to tell me I’m odd?

  Yes, Molly. I suppose I’m pointing out your idiosyncrasies.

  Acknowledged. But I think this CaseHUB could also be a good source of business for us.

  I actually agree.

  Well thank fuck for that!

  That was sarcasm, wasn’t it?

  Yes, Oz.

  She looked over at Joel. “How did you come across this, then?”

  Joel swung a couple of screens closed and turned to talk to her. “Well, it was something I knew about when I was working freelance. I flirted with the idea of registering with it a few times, and you know how persistent those reps can be. But when it was just me, myself, and I, I couldn’t justify the cost. Plus, the cases needed more manpower than I could give them.”

  Molly narrowed one eye. “Ah. I see. And now cuz I’m paying for it…”

  Joel didn’t miss a beat. “Yes, I thought with all this income you were shamelessly scalping off the markets, we could give it a try.”

  He grinned cheekily.

  “Seriously though,” he continued, “I think it would help us to find those clients that have the resources to pay us, and it would give us a chance at scaling up the kinds of operations we tackle.”

  Molly scooted her chair closer to the table and leaned in to the holo screen that had initially captured her interest.

  Joel saw his moment.

  He pulled up another screen. “Look, they have a whole section on the research-based cases…”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Imagine that…” she murmured. She reached out and resized the screen to read it more easily.

  Her eyes scanned the information. “I think there are a bunch of these we could tackle.”

  Joel bobbed his head in agreement. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Want me to pull up a few for us to pitch for?”

  Molly sat back and continued staring at the screen. “Sure.”

  Joel swiped at one of the screens, and then stopped. “Actually,” he turned back to her. “There’s something else we should probably discuss in conjunction with this.”

  Molly looked mildly intrigued, given it was a vanilla, non-research discussion. “Oh?”

  Joel slid a few screens closed, and pushed the other holographic images away, so they could give their full attention to the conversation. “I think we need to look at how we scale. As in, we’re going to need more people to tackle some of these projects. And definitely more kit.”

  He waited.

  Molly’s eyes narrowed again. Joel could have sworn he saw a flicker of humor, but then her face was deadpan.

  She waited a moment, watching his reaction.

  Finally, she spoke. “You’re asking how much money am I actually making with my shit hot algorithms, aren’t you?!”

  He started to reply. “No.” Then reconsidered his answer. “Well, kinda. It’s more that who we have on board will dictate which cases we can pitch for. And obviously we can bring more folks on, but we need to start somewhere; put a stake in the ground, as it were.”

  Molly nodded, still with a half smile on her lips. “Well, I think we start with the kinds of cases we want to go after, and then skill up the team based on that. Then that will dictate the kit we need.”

  She crossed her legs at the thighs, and then swiveled a little in her chair, as she contemplated their next move. Then she thought of something else. “Ha!” she chuckled, “The alternative would be we start with giving Crash and Brock a free rein on kit-buying. Doing that, we’d end up being able to do faster-than-light travel, antigrav camping, and not much else!”