Beneath the Fallen City, Jamie A. Waters [ebook reader .TXT] 📗

miles below the surface.

She looked up at Carl in disbelief. A knowing smile flitted across his face. “I picked it up a few days ago. There are some other prototypes in there too. OmniLab developed a new chemical monitoring kit and some other UV-protective gear. We were asked to test it out.”

“Oh man. I read about these, but to actually see them…” Her voice trailed off as she rifled through some of the other equipment, incredulous at the playground of toys around her. Veridian crossed the room to study some monitors mapping the topography of the area.

“This is amazing.” He gestured to the monitors. “You’re able to track all of this from here?”

Carl nodded and pointed to one of the screens. “That’s the IM-XL system. It uses our current geographical location to generate some basic topographic maps of the underground ruins. It uses the old-world maps as a basis for comparison and updates to provide new potential high-artifact ruin locations.”

Veridian whistled in appreciation and watched the screen. Kayla barely spared them a glance, clutching the sensor in one hand and digging through some of the other boxes with the other. It’d be interesting to find out how difficult it would be to smuggle the sensor out of Carl’s camp.

Carl cleared his throat to get Kayla’s attention. “If you can manage to put the sensor down, we picked up some new lock-cracking tools too. I’ve got Zane trying them out in the testing lab. I’ve heard you have an interest in locks. You’re welcome to take a look.”

Kayla jerked her head up, trying to decide if the man was serious or toying with her emotions. It would be an evil prank if it were the latter. “Really?”

Carl chuckled and nodded. It broke her heart a little, but she carefully replaced the sensor. Trailing her fingers over it in farewell, she gave it one last, longing look. “You’ve definitely got some cool toys in here.”

There was no mistaking the pleased look on his face at the compliment. Motioning for them to follow, Carl led them past what appeared to be the communications room and into the testing lab. Remembering their purpose, Kayla shot a meaningful look at Veridian. He returned a barely discernible nod.

The testing lab was only slightly smaller than the tech room and had a wide variety of different locking mechanisms set up like an obstacle course. Kayla recognized most of them from her scavenging expeditions.

There were two men in the room. One had rich caramel-colored skin with short, dark hair and eyes. He lounged against the wall and flashed a smile when they entered. Kayla had met him several months earlier when he’d helped Cruncher make a delivery to Leo’s camp.

Kayla didn’t know the other man sitting on the floor working with one of the locks. He possessed an average build and fair skin. His blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and he seemed to work the locks with an intimate familiarity Kayla recognized.

Carl cleared his throat, and the man on the floor looked up expectantly. “Xantham and Zane, I’d like you to meet Kayla and Veridian. Xantham is in communications, and Zane is another one of our scavengers and master locksmith.”

Kayla narrowed her eyes at Xantham. If he was a communications expert, he was likely the one responsible for planting the sniffer on their system.

As though guessing her thoughts, Xantham winked at her. “We’ve already met, Carl. Besides, I feel like we’re already intimately acquainted, given how often you’ve asked me to intercept her communications.”

Kayla crossed her arms and gave Carl a dark look. He offered her a sly smile in response. “I protect my interests, Kayla. You’ve caused a significant dent in my revenue over the past year.”

“Ah, sad but true,” Xantham lamented.

Zane stood and wiped his hands on his pants before offering his hand to Kayla in greeting. “Nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you. Cruncher says you’ve got a knack for locks?”

Kayla shrugged, deciding the change in subject was a welcome one. It probably wasn’t a great idea to keep reminding Carl she’d been stealing from under his nose for months. She studied the lock Zane abandoned. “I’ve been called more than fair. That’s an 8600, right?”

Zane nodded. “Yeah. We brought it up a few days ago to let the others practice on it. It’s one of the most difficult in the series. I figure if they can crack this one, they should be good on most of the others in the line.”

“No one’s been able to beat Zane’s time yet. With the new equipment, he’s running at one minute fifty-four seconds,” Cruncher added.

“One minute forty-six seconds,” Zane corrected proudly.

Kayla cocked her head and said casually, “Is that so? Well, how about a friendly wager? I’d be willing to give it a shot.”

Zane looked interested. “Sure. How much are we talking?”

“A token. How about twenty credits?”

Zane nodded at the amount. Carl rubbed his chin and considered Kayla for a moment. “If you don’t mind, I’ll sweeten the pot. One hundred credits for the best time.”

Surprise crossed Kayla’s face, but she shrugged in response. It wasn’t an exorbitant amount, but it wasn’t chump change either. “Your money. V, would you mind grabbing my equipment for me?”

Veridian nodded and headed back out the way he came. Carl studied Kayla carefully for a minute and then motioned for Cruncher to follow him. Kayla flashed a charming smile at Carl, inwardly cursing his intuitiveness. “I’m sure your equipment is nice, but for a hundred credits, I prefer to handle something I know can get me where I’m going.”

Carl smirked. “There’s no doubt in my mind my equipment can take you well and beyond where you want to go.”

She arched a brow, scanning him up and down to assess his “equipment”. He might be right, but she damn well wouldn’t admit it. “We’ll see about that.”

When he grinned, she turned away to hide her smile and pretended to look over the equipment in the room. Veridian and Cruncher returned a few minutes later. Judging from Veridian’s demeanor, Kayla knew he had planted the listening device. He handed her the equipment, and she walked over to the lock, confidence in each of her steps.

“Start the timer, boys, and I’ll show you how it’s done.” Kayla knelt and placed her frequency detector on the safe. With practiced motions, she slid her lock-picking tool into the lock and easily worked through the combinations.

With a flourish, she pulled the handle and the door swung open.

“One minute fourteen seconds,” Cruncher said in amazement.

Xantham chuckled in amusement while Zane stared at her in disbelief. “I’ve never seen anyone work a lock that fast.”

Kayla sauntered over to Carl, holding out her hand and rubbing her fingers together. “I believe that’s another hundred credits you owe me?”

“Apparently so.” His eyes skimmed up and down the length of her body as though assessing and considering her in a new light. “If you’ll join me in my office, I’ll transfer the credits now.” He turned to Zane. “I’ll do your transfer as well. I believe you owe her twenty?”

Zane nodded sheepishly. “Mind if I take a look at your equipment, Kayla?”

She hesitated for a moment before handing her equipment to Zane. Motioning for Veridian to stay behind and retrieve the device when Zane had finished trying it out, she followed Carl back toward his office.

“Protective of your equipment, are you?”

“I like to keep my toys clean. Nasty things happen when they leave my sight.”

“But you left them with Veridian,” Carl pointed out.

“Yes, I did. They’re safer with him than they are anywhere.”

“You have that much trust in him?”

Kayla frowned, becoming uncomfortable with the personal direction of the conversation. “You ask a lot of questions, Carl. But, yeah, I do. Veridian is… I guess you could say he’s like a brother to me.”

“A brother then,” Carl mused. He nodded as though that cleared up some question in his mind. “He mentioned family yesterday. Is that important to you?”

Kayla shrugged. “Only Veridian. Most other people are a waste of perfectly good oxygen.”

“I see,” he observed, stepping back into his office. Kayla hopped back on the edge of the desk and watched while Carl initiated the credit transfer. So far, the day was turning out to be more profitable than she’d expected. When the transfer was complete, she verified the transaction.

He put down his commlink and leaned across the desk to study her. “Now that we have that settled, I’d like to talk to you about the reason I asked you to come here.”

Kayla tucked her hair behind her ear and cocked her head. “Is this the part where you try to turn me into a legitimate scavenger?”

Carl smiled. “Something like that. You’ve met most of my crew, except for Jinx. She’s out mapping some sectors right now. I asked the crew to stick around today so you could meet them. But we usually try to do two separate shifts. One group is on one day and the other on the next. It seems to work out well for us.”

Kayla nodded. Most crews scavenged that way. She was scheduled to be back underground tomorrow.

“I know what most ruin rats think of us, but we’re not bad people. In fact, the majority of trader crews are made up of former ruin rats.”

“Yeah.” Kayla blew out a breath. “Ruin rats who decided they’d rather sell themselves and live under OmniLab’s thumb.”

“It’s not that bad, Kayla,” Carl insisted. “The benefits far outweigh the negatives. I’m prepared to offer you a salary with an added percentage of whatever you scavenge. This percentage would be directly from an OmniLab trader with no negotiation fees attached. It would be