Through my implant, Hal showed me the two buildings on Eden Tech campus only with a kind of mist that seemed to be centered around the lower level of the corporate building.

Cassie’s gun absorbed ambient energy to work, mostly electromagnetic and gravitational from what I could tell. What this absorbed, I wasn’t sure yet. It might be the same but on a bigger scale. It might be something that I couldn’t imagine until I studied it.

Daniel thought at me, That’s interesting. Abominator tech. No wonder they’ve set up telepathy blockers.

I thought back, Seriously? Crap.

Then I told Hal to share it with everyone. He did. It appeared on one of the screens on the jet’s dashboard for Izzy and Daniel. Yoselin and Cassie got it the same way I did.

Cassie looked over at me from her position on my right, “If we weren’t thinking it was the Nine before, we’d have to now. They’re always going after anything of the Abominators they can find. I wonder where they got this.”

From behind Cassie, Yoselin said, “I think I know. I didn’t tell you, but this is one of the things I was hoping to find out. My father found out through Abominator technology that he’s acquired that someone visited an Abominator base on Mars and removed the generator.”

I turned around, looking toward her, “Was this tech from the moon?”

She smiled, “You heard that story too.”

I shook my head, “Not very much. Just enough to know that there was a story.”

Eyeing both of us, Cassie said, “I haven’t heard any of it.”

Frowning, Yoselin said, “It’s too long to tell right now, but in the end my father and his friend retrieved Abominator technology and brought it home. That’s why we have it.”

“From what I understand,” I said, “it was pretty crazy. Both the Soviet Union and the US had people on the moon to investigate the base and midway through exploring it my grandpa, Larry, her father, and Russian Victory realized that they couldn’t hand over Abominator tech to either country. Plus, the last Abominators were there. Plus, there were Xiniti and they thought all humans were Abominator servants. So, they had to persuade the Xiniti not to kill them, fight Abominators, and keep both the US’ and the USSR’s forces away from the tech.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“As I said,” Yoselin shook her head, “it’s a very long story.”

Next to Yoselin, Izzy took off her seatbelt and stepped forward to stand between Cassie and me, staring out the window toward Eden Tech’s buildings, “We need to know more. Do you think you can send in your bots?”

I thought about it, “Kinda. I’m sure I can send them in, but if it’s the Nine’s operation, well, Rook knows my bots. He managed to detect and destroy them back in our first year of Stapledon. And we know that Rook’s one of the Nine, so I’m betting that tech is everywhere. Now, I’ve changed a bunch of things about the bots since then, but I get the impression that he follows my tech obsessively. I should have thought of that before we got here.”

Izzy shook her head, “Don’t worry about it. I can listen in from here, but I need to be outside the jet to do it. How confident are you that I won’t be seen if I use my suit’s camouflage?”

I threw up my hands, “I’m pretty confident that they won’t see you, but, I’m not so sure about smelling, hearing, infrared, telepathy, or whatever…”

“I’ll take that chance.” She stepped out of the front and walked to the door.

Daniel frowned, but she turned toward him, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine.”

Then she tapped the palm of her glove and she was invisible or as close to it as I could manage. I opened the door with a command to my implant and she flew out. The door shut behind her.

Through her comm, she said, “I’m going to circle around and listen to what I can and see if I can’t get a picture of what’s inside.”

“Understood,” Cassie spoke before I could, leaning forward in her seat and looking outside. “I hope they can’t see her, but if they can, we’re in for a show.”

Leaning forward in his seat, Daniel said, “I can do without a show.”

Cassie turned around to look at him, “I’d bet she can level both buildings before they even hurt her. I’m not worried.”

Giving no other reply than a small sigh, Daniel stared at Eden Tech’s offices.

Izzy’s voice came over the comm, “There are row after row of mechs in the far half of the warehouse. There’s a wall between the two, but I can’t see how anyone who works here could fail to know they’re here.”

I thought back to Len Jones’ lab back on Renewal Island. One of the True and a clone of Cassie’s father had visited and in talking to them Len had said something about the “next” shipment. That implied that there had been past shipments. If there were row after row of them, some, hopefully, all of them, had been shipped here.

I hoped she was wrong about it being impossible for employees to miss them. If she wasn’t Ana might be working for the Nine knowingly.

“That’s not all,” Izzy said. “People are living on the floor above the mechs. I can’t see them in much detail through the wall, but I think some of them are the True.”