Page 7 of The Edge of Dawn

There had to be more opals where that quality red specimen had come from. All she needed was one big one.

She’d find a buyer, get her money, get her body biohacked, and disappear.

Away from her once-besotted husband. Away from the MWA and the Federation’s digital eyes. She’d find somewhere remote and secluded, where people’s voices wouldn’t invade her mind.

Even him?

No. She had no doubt that if he wanted to walk through her dreams again, there was nothing she could do about it.

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.”

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