Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
The drills chiseled at the rock with a dull roar. The first chunk of adamantite fell free, a dark, almost black basketball-sized rock that looked like frozen tar in the crystal-clear stream. The drills stopped as everyone stared at it. Melissa tried to lift it out of the water, couldn’t – it was ridiculously heavy - and laughed.
“We’re gunna be rich!” someone yelled.
“Ada, I love you!” Melissa declared. “Marry me!”
“Sorry, I don’t want to ruin such a good friendship.”
People laughed. Next to me, London cracked a smile.
“Friend zoned,” Melissa groaned.
“It’s not you, it’s me, Mel. I’m the problem.”
More laughter.
Melissa shook her head. “Back to work, people! And someone help me with this rock.”
The miners resumed their drilling.
The vein continued under the stream, veering across the cavern floor to the left and behind the far wall. Getting adamantite from under the water would be cumbersome, and our time was short. The wall deposit lay deeper, but it was a better bet. Once they were done with the island, I would tell them to move there.
I went down the slope to the water. London nodded to Elena, and the scout followed me.
The best place to cross was to the left, by Aaron, where the stream was relatively shallow. I headed there and waded in, careful where I put my feet. The rocks were damn slippery, and the water came up past my knees. Magnaprene wasn’t the most comfortable fabric, but it was waterproof.
I hiked over the shallow calcite ridges to the wall, pulled a can of fluorescent paint from the pocket of my coveralls, and set about tracing the contours of the deposit in bright Safety Yellow. Elena crossed the stream and lingered on my left, looking toward the tunnels.
I painted the cave wall. A hell of a find. Not that I would get anything out of it other than bragging rights. Government employees didn’t get gate loot bonuses, and that wasn’t why I’d taken this job.
The steady roar of the drills filled the cavern.
I was thirty-three when I saw my first glow. One of the larger US guilds somehow obtained permission to sell sebrian knives to the public. Sebrian was found only in breaches, and the knife prices started at a thousand dollars for a tiny pocket blade. Our advertising agency had taken the contract and promptly sent it to me with the key phrase of “rugged luxury.”
I was sitting in my office staring at the knife and trying to figure out the right approach, when the blade turned pale pink. The glow refused to fade, and when I focused on it, something in my brain clicked. The weight, the density, the structure of the metal somehow popped into my mind and combined into a specific … profile was the best word.
I drove to the ER. I thought I was dying. Twenty-four hours later the DDC came calling with a contract and a patriotic sales pitch. Assessors like me were rare, and the government hoarded us, to the point of making it illegal for guilds to hire their own private assessors. The guilds had poured an obscene amount of money into lobbying against that law but got nowhere.
The invasion wrecked my life. I’d looked at that contract and realized I could do something about it. Every time I went into the breach, I found something to make us safer. Today it was adamantite. A drop in the bucket, but it was my drop.
I finished tracing the deposit and set the can on a rock.
Elena peered at the dark passageways, turned, her face sour, and called, “Stella!”
Stella, who was on the other shore watching the miners, didn’t move.
“STELLA!” Elena roared.
The dog handler spun around.
The scout waved her over. “Bring the dog!”
Stella splashed through the stream, Bear on a leash, and trekked over the ridges to us.
“I need you to check the tunnels!” Elena yelled over the drilling noise.
“Which tunnel?”
“Start with the left!”
Bear yanked at her leash, jerking Stella backward, toward the stream. Stella said some command I didn’t catch.
Bear yanked on the leash and erupted into barks.
Elena waved her arms. “Control your dog –"
Something burst out of the middle tunnel. It swept past Aaron, a vaguely humanoid shape in pale blue garments, so fast it was a blur. Four other blurs chased it, wrapped in dark grey. They tore past the bastion in a flash.
Aaron’s top half - shield, armor, and body - slid to the side and fell to the ground.
For a horrifying moment, I stared straight at the stump of his torso, still standing upright. It was standing upright.
The blurs wrapped around us. I froze. They spun about me like a whirlwind, the four grey beings striking and slicing, while the creature in blue parried with impossible speed. I caught a glimpse of arms in dark armor gripping silver blades and inhuman faces with fangs bared. A second, and they tore across the cavern toward the wall and the mining crew.