68

Kalico Aguila, in a foul mood, ground her teeth and stared at the world through slitted eyes. She had been irritable ever since the last trip to PA. That rare moment of camaraderie she’d felt on the way into Inga’s had slowly evaporated as she discovered that the Maritime Unit had lost a submarine with two people aboard, and then lost a man to some flying thing.

Well, Michaela, don’t say you weren’t warned.

But what really got under Kalico’s skin and chafed was the notion that Dek and Talina were just over yonder, not more than a half-hour’s flight to the southeast at Two Falls Gap. Not only was the knowledge maddening, but worse, Kalico wasn’t sure what she wanted to do about it.

Talina was more than a trusted colleague and a woman to whom Kalico owed her life several times over; she was a friend. Granted, the path to that friendship had been rough, rocky, nearly fatal, and often acrimonious, but mutual admiration and shared values had triumphed in the end. In addition, no woman alive had earned more of Kalico’s respect than Talina.

Kalico paced her office where it sat just off the main hallway in Corporate Mine’s administration dome. Her desk seemed to mock her. As did the maps and mine schematics that were hung on the walls. Her mine. The richest diggings in the universe.

Shut down for the moment as all of her people spent time servicing machinery, inspecting shoring, conducting maintenance and cleaning, and otherwise essentially catching up and taking stock. Down at the smelter, Ituri had run that last load of ore, processing it down to elements. He had another two cargo containers that could be ferried up to orbit and placed into L5 storage at any time. The combined value of those two containers alone—based on prices when Kalico had left Solar System—was just shy of three million SDRs. And there were a whole lot more containers already up there. Waiting. In hopes that either Turalon or Ashanti had successfully inverted symmetry and made the journey back to Solar System.

“Nothing is happening here,” Kalico reminded herself. “Nor will it until Talovich finishes his inspection and they replace any suspect aquajade.”

Which meant that nothing was keeping her from donning her bush clothing, strapping on her pistol belt, grabbing a rifle, and flying the aircar over to Two Falls Gap. You know, just to drop in and see how Dek and Talina were doing.

Under her breath, Kalico muttered, “Don’t be an idiot. If Tal wanted you, she’s got a radio. She knows damn well that you’re only a half an hour away at cruising speed.”