With the Props behind us, we walked through the gate with our guides and fell in behind the man who had called from the gate. The structure was a fortified compound of sorts that reminded me of a prison more than anything else with high chain link fences and stonewalls along the sides. There little cover and armed guards walked along the perimeter, kicking up dust as they walked patrol. In the center of the courtyard was a low round fountain made of what might have once been white stone, but was nothing more than a sandbox now. I felt like it never rained here but that had to be impossible. I couldn't imagine a world that never had rain.
"Alex," the woman said as motioned Harper to lead the way and fell back to walk beside me. "I think you'll like the boss. He's quite charismatic."
I wasn't concerned about how much I'd like or dislike her employer, especially since we'd outrank any civilian employee we'd run into. Of course if this wasn't a SLA establishment or if they were openly hostile to the company, we'd be out of the frying pan and into the fire.
"So are you an operative or a company employee?" I asked.
She laughed and pushed her hair out of her eyes before she spoke and I felt the hair stand at the back of my neck again when I realized how closely she was walking to me. Pretending to rub my neck, I pushed my elbow out to add to my personal space but she ignored it, staying far too close. Maybe the feeling I was picking up from her was just because she was just sun-baked, but my instincts were saying something much worse.
"I like to think of myself as someone who looks out for herself. Sort of like everyone else."
"Okay. And your employer's name?"
"Richardson, 'Boss' Richardson," she said, putting stress on the boss part like it was some sort of title. She sped up to lead us through a low archway, smiling at several more of the armed men. "You'll like him."
"So I hear," I said after her and looked at K'rth. His yellow eyes showed what he was thinking and I nodded in agreement. "I don't like this either."
We crossed under an ornate stone archway and onto a tiled terrace that the sun had long ago bleached to bone white. It felt like a hotplate even through my boots, but that changed the moment Harper waved us through a doorway. A wave of darkness and cool air chilled me to the bone and I pocked the sunglasses, blinking to get the flares and colors out of my eyes. The first thing I recognized was the scent of alcohol and it perked my mind up.
"How do you do?" someone said and I blinked again, finally separating a man and his extended hand from the shadow behind him. The voice sounded like the man from the gate and I clumsily returned his handshake, which was much firmer and drier than his associates. "I'm John Roman, assistant to Mr. Richardson."
"I'm Operative Alex Cole. These are Operatives K'rth M'td'm'nt, Nix, and Obie," I answered as I nodded to each of my friends. "Nice to meet you."
"Cole?" he asked and seemed to turn something over in his mind for a moment. "So, how do you prefer to be addressed? Operative? Cole? Alex, perhaps?"
"I prefer Cole if you don't mind," I answered. My eyes had adjusted enough that I could see the interior of the room and I turned in a half circle to take it in. The room was paneled in dark wood and filled with well-worn sets of old tables and chairs, most of which were empty. A long dark wood bar stretched most of the way along the far wall and rows of crystal, glass, and bottles stood in lines along the wall behind it. The longest mirror I had ever seen hung covered the wall behind it and I shuddered when I saw my reflection. Man, I looked like crap.
"Wow," I muttered under my breath. The floor was wood also and covered with a thin layer of the dust from the outside and I moved my toe across it absently drawing a trail. Three men to our right stood up and started staring, but I mostly ignored them because K'rth was on that side now.
"Cole it is then. It's a pleasure to meet all of you," he answered as he looked us over once before turning back to concentrate on me. "You seem to be recovering nicely. I trust that everything is to your liking?"
"To my liking?" I didn't expect that and didn't want to sound antagonistic. "I appreciate what you've done for us."
"You're welcome," he answered and looked at the rest of the squad, giving me a chance to realize that there was something wrong with his face. It took a moment for me to realize what it was - the man had the lightest eyes I had ever seen, made even more so by the black clothes he was wearing. They had a distinct coldness to them that was more than a little unnerving.
"Now, I'd like to introduce you to Boss Richardson. He's the town manager and is rather anxious to finally meet you."
He started to lead us towards that stretched above the bar but stopped when we didn't follow. I hoped to have a few answers first and was glad that my friends hadn't walked on without me.
"Roman, where are we?" I asked as kept taking in the scenery. There were pictures of what might have been desert scenes hanging on the walls and ornate lamps of some sort but I was too far away to make out any details. He went up the single flight of stairs and stopped at the railing to wait.
"It's an extraction facility," he answered. "-a mining community, that is. It's managed by a SLA subsidiary called Hard Rocks."
Before I could ask anything else, he stepped up to the door and swung open both latches. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to introduce you to your new benefactor."
New Benefactor. Great.
K'rth hissed something under his breath that I didn't catch but I shared the sentiment as we followed the man up and into the next room. We had all known that there would be a cost for what was done to save me and for the hospitality, but hoped that we would have had a better grip on things before it got spelled out for us. Regardless of what was about to happen, my mind kept going back to how this mess started.
I still couldn't shake the irritation at how one BPN could have possibly cost us so damn much.
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