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Neil flipped on the lamp attached to his hat The corridor filled with blue-white light, and he could see his breath on the chill air To warravity, would signify readiness and draanted attention Those comforts would have to wait He zipped his coat closed, all the way to his chin, and began to drift toward the central hub

Shadows danced as the beaht swept across the cluttered hall Crates and boxes of every shape, size, and color lined the walls, lashed in place with ers brush across the containers as he floated along, pleased with the progress in stocking the facility

Enough supplies for five hundred people to survive six ear needed to operate a private security force

All because of Tania and her theory A theory he’d spent years cultivating in her Subtle hints and suggestions, dropped casually The idea had to be hers, and she’d finally coamble Neil knew this He’d accepted it and moved on, driven not by her innocent speculation, but by the possibilities of what caination fueled the rest

He stopped once, at the door of a creho’d begged out of the card game due to an upset stomach The poor bastard had floated from the common room with both hands clutched around his waist Neil found the door to be locked "Okay in there?"

No response ca

Poor sod Satisfied thethethe airlock, he opened the circular door and coughed three ti the direction he’d co The sounds of inebriatedbut the ever-present hued froot about me," she said with mirth

Neil offered his arht black outfit, declined his help She floated to the far wall of the corridor, flipping in air to land feetfirst Her fluid movements spoke of decades spent in orbit

With one hand she steadied herself "Dark, no spin I give up Where are we?" she asked

"This is Hab-Eight," Neil said He handed her a slanced around "I didn’t realize you’d pressurized it"

"If anyone asks," Neil replied, "I haven’t"

"Who else knows?"

"A skeleton crew My brother, Zane, though he doesn’t knohy I’ And I told one of my scientists, Tania Sharma, that it is ‘close’ to corin He knew she would The woman, now in her early fifties, had led a checkered life A daughter of missionaries, her childhood a checklist of every third-world hellhole on the hteen she joined the Ar to Special Forces After that, a brief stint as a contract assassin, which brought her to Neil She’d been paid to kill him

She would have succeeded, he knew that, but SUBS broke out and the world changed All contracts null and void Instead of co her uard, or spy Whatever he required

His gut said to take her on, and so he had He’d learned early in life to trust such instincts

For the last year she’d spentNeil with regular reports on everything that went on there She knew the maintenance tunnels better than the workers who used them, and even played little pranks on the randohost, and Kelly swelled with pride when she first heard the nicknaed to have her come up to Platz Station, where she trained select members of his staff in self-defense and basic tactics For recreational reasons, as the story went "I should have brought you herethe wall behind her "You’ve been busy"

"I have at that"

"Show me"

He led her to the second level, and let the station speak for itself Room after room filled not with furniture but supplies

Steel canisters of compressed air, stacked in neat rows, filled one section

"Level three is all food," he said "Four is water, though we’re behind on that front"

Kelly kept silent as they drifted along Finally she said, "It’s like a bo have you been hoarding this stuff?"

Neil almost told his rehearsed lie, the one he’d told Tania Such deception, however innocent, would not ith Kelly "Al I don’t What’s going on?"

I’ll know soon enough, he thought "Call it a hunch Change is in the air"

The wohed softly "Why show me now?"

"Because of roohed, too "This way"

A special lock adorned the door to rooht seven four four," he said aloud as he tapped the code "Don’t forget"

With a thud the lock disengaged Neil pushed the door open and waved Kelly inside

She gasped at the sight within The large roo to the station plan, instead served as an arreen or police black, lethal contents packed within Many led shipments led to the cache

Kelly moved inside with some trepidation She drifted to the nearest box and threw back the catches "Sonton 90 Holo sight, un," she said

"So I’m told"

She ran her hand over the row of identical black pistols "I get it now"

Neil waited

"You don’t knohat half this stuff is, do you?"

"I’ to be asking more from you, Kelly, in the months ahead For starters, I need to knoho in your self-defense classes is showing the ive you a list of my staff who have had military experience"

She stifled a response when Neil held up his hand

"Prep the ones here, to train and plan"

"Plan for what?"

Neil grimaced "I don’t know, yet I’d tell you if I did"

"Horseshit," she said "I know you, Neil You wouldn’t do all this without a goal in ine, at least those with a happy ending, required people like Kelly to be at his side And he trusted her, h to let someone in

"Here it is, then," he said "The Builders are co back The next phase in their plan"

"When?" she asked without hesitation