I checked the whole building, nothing of note to report.

The store was a basic convenience store with racks for basic snacks and candies and shelves for dry goods, toiletries and such. It had a walk-in space for the refrigerated drinks section with a storage room behind that. In the front was a checkout counter that was completely enclosed by polycarbonate that had clever slots and drawers for passing bills or goods. A bullet resistant hidey hole if needed... oh look... the floor safe was missing the previous shopkeepers had been robbed one too many times it seemed.

I went upstairs to check the apartment. Again, nothing special going on here; two bedrooms, a living room, a barebones bathroom and no kitchen area.

I shrugged, hadn't planned on cooking.

The rental unit was part of an even larger building, but there were no connecting doorways into the rest of the structure.

Alright let's get to work. The sooner I figure a few things out the quicker I can go touch base with the Mox.

In the storage room, behind the walk-in, I had the Probes scan for pipes underneath the floor. Their sensors revealed nothing, which was a good thing. Plan B would have caused a real mess.

Marking out a 6' square area, the Probes were directed to cut through the concrete slab, attach to it and then lift it to the side.

Less than three minutes later... and wow! They never failed to impress me with the speed of completing any assigned tasks.

Now they were going to create a three foot wide stairway down.

We were going to test a Pylon at 200' down first. If I could feel it up here it was probably noticeable to any high energy detectors, and we scrap it and keep going down at increments of 200' after that. At least until I could no feel it on the surface.

My theory was that in the city, a blip of spiking energy or odd reading would be ignored. Too many things going on to waste time on checking out every little anomaly.

I tested the stairs, they seemed quite stable. When the Probes dug, their particle beams could perform some neat tricks. In this case, they were basically melting, compressing and infusing the walls. Other then a slight sheen and increased smoothness they didn't look too different, but to the touch everything felt like metal. That should insure stability of small tunnels, in most cases. Excess material was either being compressed into the walls themselves increase density or being channeled straight into the void.

After an hour of digging they popped the first Pylon. Nope felt it, but it was somewhat muted. The idea had some merit, we probably weren't wasting our time. They quickly broke that Pylon down and kept digging.

Since this seemed viable, next we would tunnel straight back towards the valley. Placing Pylons every so often. We'd make contact through the Psifield, and then dig up somewhere near the broken bridge.

Of course, we would be installing defenses around the exit and by every Pylon within the tunnels as well. Later we'll build a canal system down there from Moon Wells and add some deep reservoirs.

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Once that is finished, we can dig out hidden surface wells over a few specific reservoirs ensuring the Nomads have access to clean water. Some reservoirs would remain hidden from everyone but my most trusted allies.

Over the months and years that follow we can spread that out. It wouldn't be quick but as long as no one gives up the information as to what is going on, it would have to be enough.

The next Pylon went up at 400' down. I could still feel it, but it was pretty faint... another scrapped Pylon.

The hour after that the Pylon warped in at 600' was undetectable from up here. I decided to test it under ground. I had a slight sense of it from around ten feet down.

'Nah, break it down.' I ordered. It was better to over do it.

I had the Probes drop another hundred feet, just to be cautious. 700' of stairway to navigate. Whew. Nothing but to get to it.

Okay, we were going to have to put in rest stops here and there. With benches and maybe fridges and cold water.

Two Probes started tunneling toward the valley right away. The other four started digging out rooms for structures.

Needed plenty of space for all my robotic facilities, and at least one forge.

Alright, first stage finished, time to find out what was going on with the Mox.

I took two of the Probes with me and as luck would have it, night had fallen.

I had to take the NCART maglev rail system. Which was just delightful... not.

Yeah, I needed another car pronto.

I got to see the crazy folks that used public transportation in NC. The less said about the whole thing the better, but both Probes ended up dropping a few bodies. No one cared. No one panicked.

Hell, no one even looked at the situation.

Peak levels of don't give a fuck.

I couldn't exit the damned train fast enough at the stop by Lizzie's.

Rita glared at me.

Okay, maybe I was wrong about what was going on.

I gave her a confused look.

"Where is Sinn?" She snarled at me, while readying her bat. Her partner pulled a submachine gun on me. I didn't feel welcome.

This had escalated quickly, and we've skipped some levels here.

The Probes got ready to start the fight.

I held up my hand to stop them.

Now both ladies looked confused. Until Rita put it together.

"You have your Drones with you?" Her optics were darting around trying to spot them.

I nodded keeping my face as neutral as possible.

"Shit." She reluctantly let her tension go. Her partner did the same.

"Shit." I echoed. "Just tell me what's going on, and I'll do my best to help."

"Susie's going to give me an earful. I was sure she had run off with you. You two seemed to get along." She shook her head.

"Fuck. Find Carver... or better yet, tell me where Carver is." I was putting two and two together as fast as I could.

"Huh? The Faceman? He got the cut almost a week back, Sinn's only been missing three nights." Rita looked frustrated, no, angry.

"Carver's the only clue I had, unless you know who the Fixer who ran him is?" Why the hell would anyone want to snatch Sinn...

"You know anything about her old pack?" I was just spitballing here, but I wasn't going to leave Sinn in the lurch.

"Yeah, still running with the Animals. Well, the ones that have survived...anyway." She brightened up a bit.

Oh come on, you aren't telling me she didn't even think of them.

"I don't have a crew to back me up or connections to smooth a meeting. So, can you check with them?" At her nod I continued, "In the meantime, give me her address and last known location. My pr...drones have excellent scanners and we might be able to uncover a clue or two."

I got Sinn's full detes, and Rita's to keep her updated. She went to talk to Susie.

Then I searched on the Net for a car. I bought a new Villefort Columbus V340-F Freight for $25,000, it came with some extra features that might come in handy down the road.

The fob was delivered quickly by drone. I called my new Van to me. If I had to run around I wasn't battling the rail system.

All the horrible scenarios running through my mind. I shuddered.

Scavs, Maelstrom, or pissed off Fixer. Who had nabbed her?

Why didn't I fucking take it seriously in the first place?

Please be okay, Sinn.