Hinton turned out to be a tiny, heavily industrialized towled in a valley between the mountains. Surprisingly, it seemed detly well defended, with a foot brick wall around the perimeter, and a PMC team patrolling it.

  “The locals are expeg me, right, Nyx?” I asked as the truck circled so I could ihe yout.

  The Family did inform the local corps that someone would be arriving today, Nyx firmed.

  “Not the local gover?” I asked, gng back at my bears.

  The corporations are, for all is and purposes, the gover here. Global Rare-earth and Industrial Mining Corp, and Aureological Exploration Systems employ over y pert of the popution. The local gover has very little actual power here, Nyx replied.

  “I wish I had known that before ing. I would have demanded more,” I muttered. “Where’s the mine?”

  It’s the fortified plex on the south side of the city. I’ve sent a request to approach, but it was rejected by security.

  “They know I’m a samurai, right?” I asked.

  They’ve still de. The head of security cims they o wait for someone from corporate to show up before they allow you access, Nyx replied.

  “Yeah… screw that. I’m not going to sit around and wait for some corporate peon to give me access. Park the truck by the gate.”

  The truck turned sharply, and started desding, giving me my first look at the structure. It had high crete walls dotted with automated on empts and atrolled by peared to be a professional PMC. The pce looked like a fortress, or a prison.

  Even before the truck touched the ground, a small group of guards had already gathered out front of the main gate. I parked just off the main road to make sure I wasn’t blog access before jumping out.

  “This area is restricted. If you do not move your vehicle, we are authorized to use forove you,” the front guard announced as they approached. From what I could tell, the leader was an experienced batant. His short brown hair barely covered the rge burn scar along one side of his face, and his arms were marked with a series of suspiciously parallel scars. His patriots all seemed simirly skilled and walked with fidehe entire squad had full bat armor and assault rifles—ly standard equipment for a pce like this. As I hopped down, a couple guards looked at me with raised eyebrows, but the leader persisted. “I’m warning you, leave now or…”

  The words died in his throat as Bob rouhe front of the truck, and the other bears started climbing out of the back. “Or what?” I taunted. “You’ll shoot me?”

  “You’re a samurai…” one of the guards whispered.

  “No shit. I was told you were expeg me. I didn’t expect a weling party as soon as I arrived,” I said as I casually approached the group.

  “We were told someone from headquarters would be assigo escort you around, and not to let you into the pound until they arrive,” the captain said hesitantly.

  “Well, tough. I’m here to search the tunnels for a possible antithesis presence, and I’m not going to wait around for some corporate drohat’s only being assigo try and hide some corporate secret. You either step aside a me do my job, or my bears will move you.”

  “I ot let you in. It would void our tract with the pany a in massive penalties,” the guard captain said, gripping his rifle tighter.

  “It’s a fug mine! What’s with all the security?! Afraid the is will run away?!” I yelled.

  “We’re under a striDA and ot discuss aails about this site,” the captain mumbled. I was actually impressed that he and his team hadn’t backed down.

  “Fine,” I growled, “Then I’ll just tranq you all and go in anyway. Bob, open the door.”

  The big bear lumbered forward, and one of the security officers tried to get in his way, only to be ‘gently’ shoved to the side. As a couple of the uards half-heartedly raised their rifles, unsure if they should actually engage or not, the side of my trailer dropped open, allowing the foxes already set up within to open fire. The entire security detail dropped in an instant.

  “At least you cim you didn’t let me in voluntarily,” I said quietly as I stepped over the guards and towards the main gate. The sound of rendial echoed out as Bob casually folded the reinforced metal gate in half, creating an easy entrance. “If any of the other security approaches me, tranq them,” I told the mob of bears that formed up around me.

  The area beyond the gate was full of people, and even though they kept their distance from me, they kept w. At the far end of the pound, a series of robotic loaders were dragging carts full of materials out of the mine, and dumping them directly into a series of furnaces.

  “Nyx, is that how they normally process ore?” I asked, eyes narrowing.

  No, it’s not. Acc to the pany records, they hit a fresh vein of ore, but that would require a full fe to process, not furnaces,” Nyx replied as I approached the setup. “Give me a moment to iigate. Done. Acc to everything within the GRIM Corp work they are still pulling ore out of the mine, but acc to an isoted device located in the shipping office, they’re also harvesting another substand sending it to a subsidiary. It’s an anier that requires thermal cutting tools to harvest, and provides excellent sound and signal isotion.

  “Let me guess…” I said, as I walked up to one of the carts. Inside ile of crystalized goop.

  They seem to be harvesting the antithesis pound. Acc to the records The Family sent you, the up crews ied everything when they came through six months ago.”

  “So this shit ’t be from Sharron’s area. They hit aunnel,” I said.

  Correct.

  “Is it safe?” I asked, poking the crystals with my gun.

  If it’s properly processed, melted down, it’s practically harmless to humans. However, the antithesis tend to embed model seven eggs within the lining as ara yer of prote against intruders.

  “Which is probably why they’re processing it on site. Motherfuckers probably lost a bunch of people to sevens before they learo process it,” I sighed. “Send a message to The Family, ahem know what these assholes are doing. I doubt it’s illegal to harvest this shit, but they should have reported hitting more tunnels.”

  I stepped away from the cart and briefly sidered Bob to bust up the entire operation, before deg against it. I was here to check the tunnels, and, to be ho, the corps would probably just rebuild the operation as soon as I left. Nothing was going to stop them while there rofit to be made. It would be satisfying, though.

  While I was pting my move, I heard someoart shouting behind me, back by the gate. “Hey! Excuse me! Miss Samurai!”

  I turned back to find a weaselly-looking man in a freshly-pressed suit rushing towards me, his forehead covered i. While he was running towards me, I sent a quiand to the squirrels to start mapping the tunnels and the bears to take up guard positions. Seeing my bots ehe mine just seemed to make the man panic more. “I’m sorry, ma’am, you please not send your troops into the mine?”

  “Why? Did you want to hide the fact that you’re harvesting antithesis materials?” I asked casually.

  He noticeably paled, and flinched back, stopping in the middle of the loading area. “No…”

  “Well, lucky for you, I don’t care about that. I’m here to iigate the tunnel systems and the fact you opened up new access points makes it easier for me,” I said walking towards him, Bob at my back. “Since I already know what you’re doing, there’s no point in hiding it, so you WILL provide whatever maps you have of the system, uand?”

  The man cowered from me, nodding frantically. “Uood. It’ll be here within the hour,” he straightened up, ever so slightly. “Does that mean you’re not going to impose sans on the pany for not rep the unnels?”

  “If I wao fuck with your pany, it would be for scarring my friend while she was an i here,” I said, shooting him an angry look. “But as far as fug with the pany for not rep this shit, I dont care.” The man sagged in relief. “The Family however, may have other ideas, I’ve already reported this pce to them.”

  The man immediately tensed up again, and looked at me in horror. “You assholes brought this on yourselves, I’m just here to check the tunnels. Either stay out of my way, or you’ll have a much closer, and angrier issue than The Family. Got it?” I asked, leaning in close. He nodded again. “Good, now fuck off.”

  The man immediately fled back towards the gate, and I let him go. The greedy corporation and its ckeys weren’t my highest priority right now. The fact that the corp dug into more tunnels meant Mirage was right; the antithesis had all but hollowed the mountain, and that either meant they’d been digging for years, or they had a massive horde in there. Either way it wasn’t good, and I was going to have to figure out which it was, before it was too te.