Chapter 3

THREE

The shadowed entrance to the mineshaft was a welcome respite from the blistering midday heat. Jade adjusted her headlamp and climbed down the rusted steel ladder, testing each rung with her foot before she put her full weight on it. The ladder was a couple of centuries old, but it was still functional—and safe enough. She'd rigged up a safety line, attaching it to the top rung, so if she did happen to fall…

There'd be something to catch her.

The mining robot was strapped to her back. It was heavy—it had to weigh at least ten kilos or more, but Jade had played a lot of touch footy when she was younger, and although she'd lost some conditioning, she was still reasonably fit.

Strong enough to give a robot a piggyback, at least.

As she reached the bottom, she unhooked her safety line and activated the robot, placing it on the dusty ground. "Initiate a prospecting run," she commanded. The robot's indicators flashed green. Suddenly, it was away, crunching over the dust and gravel with its rubberized tracks as it scanned the mineshaft, looking for veins of opal in the rock.

Jade's headlamp shone down the long passage, which had been carved into the thick sandstone, the ceiling buttressed at regular intervals with wooden pillars.

The mine was long abandoned, deserted when they thought there were no more riches to be pulled out of the rock.

Jade knew better. She had a huge advantage over the miners of the past.

She had tech.

The robot was called Geterra. It used a highly sophisticated AI and radar combination to identify potential dig points in the rock. She'd had some success with it so far, even using it to locate valuable gems in the mullock heaps—the mounds of loose earth that lay all around the opal mines.

The Geterra had belonged to her father. When Jade was a kid, he used to bring her here during the Easter break so they could try their hand at fossicking. It was more of a novelty thing; living in an underground dugout—a home inherited from her great, great grandfather—navigating the cratered opal fields, picking through the dirt and rocks, hoping for that elusive prize.

She remembered the strangeness of it, so far removed from her city upbringing. The excitement. The feeling of adventure. The shock of the clear night sky, decorated with glittering stars and the elegant curve of the Milky Way.

It was one of the few times she'd gotten to spend quality time alone with her dad.

It was probably fitting that when she was on the run, desperate to escape the authorities, she'd ended up here, of all places.

A faint whirr reached her ears as the Geterra sped on ahead, analyzing the rock. She took a step forward, her boots crunching on the gravel.

She started to walk.

Then she heard something.

Voices.

"See these footprints here. Someone's been down here recently. Ah, look. There's a safety line attached to this rung." The speaker was male; she didn't recognize him. "Get the thermal scanner and the gas. If she's in one of these holes, we'll flush her out."

"Yes, Sir."

Noises reached her from above—the sound of humans moving about.

Oh, shit.

She couldn't go back up. There was only one way to go—deeper inside. That posed a problem. The main shaft was safe enough, but if she veered off into one of the side tunnels, she could encounter unstable rock or low oxygen.

Jade switched off her headlamp. " Geterra, stop," she whispered. "Power off. "

She couldn't allow its glowing indicator lights to give her away.

The robot slowed to a halt, cycled its lights, and then switched off.

So much for the promise of riches. She had to figure out a way to get out of there. If she was lucky, there might be another exit tunnel further along.

She heard footsteps—people coming down the ladder. Was that two or three of them? Had the Federation caught up with her already?

But how?

She didn't have her tracking implant anymore. She hadn't accessed any kind of service that might lead to her bio-sig being logged. And the family dugout was off-grid.

As far as she was aware, there weren't any Federation surveillance towers in the tiny settlement, either.

She quickly moved down the corridor, trying her best to make her footprints silent on the rough earth. There was a thud as one of the men landed on the ground. She quickly rounded a corner, fearing she would show up on their heat-scanner.

In the darkness, she could only navigate by touch, running her hands along the rough stone wall.

Shit.

She hadn't expected them to find her so quickly. As far as she was aware, Cameron didn't even know about this place.

Had they gotten to her family? Her father knew about her so-called diagnosis, but part of him was still in denial. He was a tough, stoic man who didn't believe in mental health. And every time Jade had spoken to him on the holo, she'd been perfectly lucid.

The problem was that he liked Cameron Pitt. He very much approved of their marriage because Cameron was an easygoing charmer from an influential family of distinguished lawyers and a lawyer himself.

" Marry up, not down," her father had always said. It wasn't that their family was poor by any means; the Gannett family had plenty of money to go around, thanks to the rare earth minerals mining company that he'd built from a small exploration company into a profitable, listed enterprise.

But Matthew Gannett was a self-made man who'd come from humble beginnings. He'd always wanted her to move up in the world.

The Pitt family's political connections had certainly helped him think she could.

Could her father have believed she needed to be committed without knowing all the facts? Could Cameron have convinced him?

She hated to admit it, but… it was entirely possible.

To think she might come to the end of her journey in an old, disused mine shaft in the middle of the South Australian desert.

With the memory of voices running through her head and the echo of him imprinted upon her.

Dragek. That damn Kordolian.

What would he do if confronted by a group of Federation Enforcers?

He'd had a terribly dangerous aura about him: ripped, sinuous, radiating quiet menace and power.

He'd kill them, wouldn't he?

Shit. Why am I thinking about that guy right now? He has nothing to do with this. He's probably just a figment of my imagination, anyway.

Maybe you really are crazy.

Maybe you're better off doing what Cameron thinks is best for you.

No way.

Over. My. Dead. Body.

In the distance, she heard a faint clink.

A strange scent reached her nose: bitter and faintly sulfuric.

Oh no!

She covered her nose with her shirt, desperately trying not to breathe in the strange smell.

If she breathed it in, she would be gone.

The notion of freedom, of casting off her identity and escaping as an entirely different person…

It slipped out of her grasp as the sedating gas swirled around her.

Jade's limbs grew weak. Her eyelids dropped.

She started to slip away.

No… it can't end here.

She drifted into unconsciousness, wishing the world of her dreams was the real one and this was all a nightmare she'd wake up from… any time soon.