Eldna floated above somewhere keeping watch. They were wandering through the woods in Exmure. Rogan's walk was Kosmanarshi's sprint.
"Bomb proof with iron wall tiles. Less easy to read on a radar. Simple."
"Okay. How do you know about it?
"When I left Lumatel I told them it was to do with family commitments. Not the real reason but I knew no one would give a damn."
"What was the real reason?"
"Disillusionment." He sighed. "You weren't the first to be exploited in that way, but when I was there it was only starting to come out. The extent of corruption. The lengths people would go for data. Anyway I didn't like the way things were headed and I mentioned it to a friend. Someone I knew felt the same way. He told me that, well, he had a mind to set up someplace else. He wasn't too keen on having his entire back-catalogue of thoughts used as bedtime reading and these disused depots were the best way to hide your data. They're the only places still left off the radar. Spotter technology won't pinpoint so well."
"Do you think he'll be there now?"
"Who?" He'd already forgotten what they'd been talking about. He was trying to match up the land with the image in his head.
"What if he's there, the man you were just talking about. Do you think he'll mind if we invade?"
"Oh Oscar the grouch? Yeah maybe, but he knew lots of things like that. He was always reading about urban desolation. He's probably got six makeshift palaces on the go." Rogan had stopped walking and was now gazing at a track that went off to the right and dropped away steeply into an abandoned stone quarry. Kosmanarshi gratefully sat down and examined her raw feet. Eldna rejoined them, her hair glowing silver in the sun. "Gravelton quarry, Exmure."
Eldna stood next to Rogan where he was studying the way down the edge. "From what I can see there are many crevices and caverns below us where the cliff has been mined. I don't know if this is the place you mean, but it would be shelter for now."
"We can't be far. Oscar said it was an underground base. The entrance is low to the ground but you can pick it out from a pine tree that's growing on an outcrop just by the entrance."
"That doesn't seem so helpful Rogan." Kos called from somewhere behind them, still nursing her feet. "We're standing in a pine forest."
"I know, but this one is different maybe, because it's growing further up the cliff away from the others."
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