“How much crap is out there?” he asked in dismay.

Fitz Adamova gave him a knowing grin. “Haumea station dumps about a quarter million tons a week. That’s mostly low-level contaminants and their secure containers.” He pointed to an Iraqi nuclear store. “And then there’s the containment vessels themselves, along with the buildings and local soil. It adds up, volume-wise.”

“Jesus, why do we do it?”

“War and profit, mainly.”

Kohei shook his head, focusing on the job. “Okay, I need you to run an equipment audit.”

Fitz’s eyebrows shot up. “You are kidding? Our teams burn through equipment faster than a solar flare. We’re lucky if we get half of it back from an operation.”

“I’m not particularly bothered about the engineering junk. I want to know if all your portal doors are accounted for.”

“Well, that’s easy enough: yes.”

“No,” Kohei said firmly. “It’s not easy. We suspect someone with inside access has manipulated your network. I need you to check. Go down to the storage bays and physically confirm they’re all there if you have to.”

Fitz blew out his cheeks. “Seriously?”

“Yes. And I need to know quickly. This has priority over everything. We believe someone is currently using one of this department’s portal doors, and they really shouldn’t be.”

“Okay. Well, actually, that can be checked quite simply.” He went over to his station, looking back at Kohei with a quizzical expression. “You sure it’s in use?”

“Reasonably sure, yes.”

Fitz started calling up data on his screens. “Do you know how portal doors are powered?”

“Not got a clue,” Kohei said, amused by the way technical types always tried to establish some level of superiority over everyone else. My knowledge is bigger than yours.

“Portals.”

“What?”

“Portals power portals.” Fitz smiled and tapped a ridiculously complex graphic on his central screen. “The solarwells send electricity back to Earth’s central grid via portal, and Connexion is the single biggest market for that power. Portals use up a hell of a lot of energy to maintain their entanglement. The greater the distance they bridge, the more power they consume. It’s not governed by an inverse square law, thankfully, but this department consumes a pretty hefty number of megawatt hours.”

“Okay, I get it. You can monitor that power consumption.”

“Yes. Every Connexion portal door has a one-centimeter portal built in, which supplies it with power direct from the central grid. And we…Oh, wait, that’s wrong.” He leaned forward, studying the screen.

“What is?”

“Our power usage monitor is offline, but its display function has frozen in a loop. How the hell did that happen?”

“Can you restore it?”

“Sure. Hang on.” Fitz typed quickly, muttering at his mInet. The graphics on the screen changed. Several red icons appeared. “Holy shit,” he exclaimed. “What is doing that? Not even our six-meter portals eat this much power.”

—

Callum sat beside Savi’s cot all day long. She slid in and out of consciousness in front of him. Some of the times when she woke, she seemed puzzled by his presence.