It only took a few minutes for Mirage to e, but in that time I still mao get bored, put my feet up oable, and use Bob as a backstop to keep my chair from falling over.

  When he walked in, Mirage just shot me a dirty look before walking up to the front of the room. Behind him was someone I didn’t expect, Whisperer. The woman looked just like I remembered, long broulled bato a ponytail, a sensible jacket, jeans, and a huge ass bird sitting on her shoulder. “Did you get called in too?” I asked, slightly surprised. “You didn’t have to rush over here because I failed to call ahead, did you? Because I wasn’t aware that was a thing.”

  “No,” she chuckled, taking a seat across from Sharron and I, “I work here.”

  “Doing what? You don’t seem much like an ‘office’ person,” Sharron inquired, as she pushed my feet off the table, f me upright again.

  “Animal preservation work. I spend most of my time trag wild animals because, as it turns out, most dwindling animal poputions are caused by uified antithesis incursions. Proteg the critters while destroying the pnts is a win-win in my books.”

  Before I could ask a follow up question, Mirage cleared his throat. “Since we’re all busy, perhaps we could get started. I didn’t ask you all here for a meet and greet,” he announced grumpily.

  I turo him with a sigh. “Then please, enlighten us, why did you invite us all here today?” I asked.

  Mirage’s eyes fshed for a moment, and the s behind him blio life. It depicted a smallish towled between the mountains. “This is Jasper, a former tourist town in what used to be the Jasper national park, before the cot a hold of it. Now it’s the base for several rare metal mining operations.”

  “Lovely,” Sharron whispered.

  “So, what does this have to do with us?” Whisperer growled.

  Mirage cleared his throat. “Four days ago, a wave of antithesis surged out of the mines and hit the town. It decimated the popution before reinforts could arrive.”

  “Well… fuck,” I muttered.

  “That was to be expected,” Mirage tinued, unfazed. “What we didn’t expect was for the antithesis to pletely disappear before samurai from Edmonton could arrive.”

  “Excuse me?” Sharron said. “What do you mean disappeared? Someone else got to them first?”

  “No, I mean that they straight up disappeared. Hit the town, then fled bato the mines.” The image on the s ged to a 3D map of some tunnels. “The team followed them in, expeg it to be an easy up job, except they couldn’t find any antithesis, hives, or corpses anywhere. What they did find were more tunnels. A lot more tunnels.”

  The map expanded, and smaller red tunnels appeared between the blue mines. Hundreds of twisting passages spiraled off in dozens of dires. “This is just what we’ve mapped so far. Over a hundred square kilometers of interected tunnels dug into the surrounding mountains. We have no idea how deep it goes, or where the antithesis went.”

  “How the fuck did that go ued?” I asked. “Don’t the mining panies have… I don’t know, sers or something to search for ore?”

  “They do. Typically all the big glomerates have high grade grourating radar. However, the antithesis coat their tunnels in some sort of slime that interferes with the s,” Sharron replied. I turo look at her, slightly surprised. “It’s how I became a samurai. The pany mined into a tuhat wasn’t on any map and ordered the is to iigate. It turned out to be a hibernating antithesis hive. I was the only oo walk out of there,” Sharron told me quietly.

  “I get the situation is a little abnormal, that doesn’t expin why you’ve called us in. There are plenty of samurai capable of clearing tunnels,” Whisperer grumbled.

  Mirage straightened up. “That’s true, the problem is that even though most samurai are capable of clearing, they’re not capable of trag, and based upon how old some of these tunnels are, we suspect that the system is signifitly more plicated than what we’ve explored so far.”

  The map zoomed out again, and this time purple tunnels appeared.

  “That’s a lot of tunnels,” I quipped.

  “If I’m reading this correctly, you think the tunnels extend pletely through the mountain range, hundreds of kilometers.” Sharron’s eyes narrowed. “That would take them right up to--”

  “Hinton,” Mirage finished for her.

  “That’s not fug funny,” Sharron growled. “You ’t be sure they travel that far.”

  “No, we ’t,” Mirage ceded. “We’re extrapoting based upon the angle of the tunnels, and age, the tre is about fifty kilometers north of Jasper. Fifty kilometers beyond that is Hinton.”

  “I don’t get it. What’s in Hinton?” I asked, turning toward Sharron.

  “My old ‘job’,” Sharron mahrough ched teeth. “It’s where I spent my time as an i. You think that old hive was somehow part of this work, don’t you?”

  “We suspect, but we’d need someoo iigate that end to firm it either way.”

  “Fuck you,” Sharron spat. The words came out with such hate that I turo look at her. “Even if the antithesis were actually ing out of the walls, I wouldn’t go back to that mine.” She was trembling, so I gently rubbed her batil she stopped.

  “Real smooth, bringing someoo a meeting and casually bringing up some of their worst memories,” I said as I gred at Mirage. “How about you step outside, get some air. I don’t think we need you here right now.” I told Sharron. The woman nodded, and slowly rose to her feet before leaving the room.

  I immediately turned on Mirage, “You must have suspected she’d react like that, why did you ask her to e?”

  “I would have preferred to have someoh local knowledge lead the iigation,” he said with a shrug, “but if Humboldt is unwilling, we’ll just have to find someone else to lead the expedition. I’m w with what I have avaible. ”

  “You’re a dick,” I hissed, “What the fuck do you want?”

  “I’d like you to lead the group heading to Jasper. We’ve already itted signifit forces to trag dowithesis. Both Broodmother and Bright Eyes are in Jasper, and most of the other local samurai are only equipped for bat. You’re the only one capable of area denial and trag left iy.”

  “What about the Whisperer? And the samurai from Edmonton?”

  “Whisperer is here because we need her to do surface surveys, and check the animal poputions around the mountain. If the antithesis broke through to the surfaywhere, she would be pretty much the only one who could tell. As for the Samurai avaible from Edmonto's just say they're not very experie clearing areas.” I saw Whisperer frown out of the er of my eye, but she didn’t say anything.

  “Wonderful,” I mumbled.

  “So Evelyn,” Mirage started, straightening out his suit. “About that favor you owe me… Feel like leading a small group of samurai into the mines around Hinton, to discover if the tunnels are ected or not?”

  “Fuo,” I replied. “I’m not really fond of people fug with my friend’s feelings, even if it’s to deal with the antithesis.”

  For the first time, I saw Mirage’s face crack. His perfect business smile fell, and he shifted unfortably. “Look, I know we don’t see eye to eye, but I AM doing what I o do to protect this city, and the surrounding towns.”

  “Doesn’t make you any less of an ass.”

  “I admit, maybe I didn’t Humboldt here and ask for her help, but it was a calcuted risk. We o check those mines. If the tunnel work is as extensive as we think, there could be an unpreted antithesis threat hiding in there,” Mirage practically yelled.

  “Then go yourself,” I replied, never breaking eye tact with him.

  The two of us just stared at each other for a minute, before Mirage finally backed down. He slumped into a chair and ran his hand through his hair. “What’ll it take for me to vince you to go?” he asked.

  “I’m fug busy right now, but if you really need me, then first of all I want you to agree to stop the maniputive bullshit. If you keep pulling that shit against other samurai it’s going to get you shot one of these days,” I said quietly. “You’re also going to put me in tact with some pao get supplies into, and buy goods from, the uy, AND yoing to owe me a favor. Not one of your stupid, ‘you owe you one’ favors, a real one which I call in ter.”

  “Fine,” Mirage sighed. “When you be ready to go?”

  I stood up from my seat and saw Whisperer do the same. “Send me all the details, and I’ll head there soon,” I told him as I left the room. Sharron wasn’t around, so I sent her a quick ping to check if she was out at the car.

  “Thanks for standing up to him like that. When he’s in charge, he’s insufferable, mostly because he makes the right decisions and he knows it,” Whisperer said, patting me on the back.

  “Doesn’t mean you have to put up with him,” I replied with a shrug. “You’re a samurai too. Just because he’s right doesn’t mean you have to let him push you around. You o push back occasionally.” My augs chirped as I received a message from Sharron, firming she was back at the truck. “Sounds like we’ll be w together iure, so take care of yourself.”

  “Alright, see you ter then,” Whisperer said, as she took off walking down the hallway. I waved goodbye just long enough for me to realize that I was once again lost in the middle of the plex.

  “Goddamnit,” I whispered.