The Ghost Mine

by Ben Wolf

  Garth shook his head. “The sectors don’t make a difference. They all fall under the same sub-network. That’s like saying the air on this continent sucks, but it also sucks on the next continent over, when in reality, the air on the whole planet sucks. See what I mean?”

  Justin nodded again. “Sure, I guess.”

  “Anyway, for the longest time, I thought someone had breached our security from the outside. No evidence of that, so I looked internally to see if someone on staff was monkeying with our stuff. Nothing there, either.

  “Whoever it was either covered his tracks super well, or it didn’t exist. Not to brag, but if someone can get past our security, our sub-network shields, and me, then they’re a cyber god.” Garth leaned forward, and his chair responded with a faint squeak, perhaps of relief. “And that’s when I decided to give your ghost theory a bit more attention.”

  Justin perked up at that. “And?”

  “Hold your horses. I haven’t caught him on camera or anything like that, but if no rational explanation for something weird exists then perhaps a weird explanation is all that’s left to consider.” He leaned back again, and the chair shrieked. “So I considered it.”

  “Okay.”

  “I didn’t find much, but I pieced together some old reports about the original Sector 6 incident, the reports from all of your incidents, the missing worker, the employee who died in the medbay because of faulty medical reports, the incident with the missing security guard, and chatter between the brass and Carl Andridge before he came to the planet. Turns out—”

  “Wait, what? What missing security guard?” Justin held up his hand. He knew about the rest of the incidents, but the missing security guard was new information to him.

  “Apparently, some security guard named Kriff Morrison went missing in the mine a few nights back. Obviously the brass didn’t want that getting out, so it makes sense you didn’t hear about it. I don’t recall the exact date, but it happened right before your arm got cut off.”

  Justin’s shoulder stung just at Garth’s mention of it.

  “Anyway, that incident with the security guard is the only one that differed from the rest of ‘em, including yours, because they found some blood and a couple of his weapons. So something’s in the mine, and it can both manipulate the sub-network and draw blood.”

  But why would the ghost help Justin escape, only to attack a security guard later? Why hadn’t he just let Justin die as well? “What else?”

  “Well, I found a pattern. The network routinely shuts down around the same time early every morning.” Garth held up a thick, but short index finger. “Except whenever security sent lots of guards in there to check things out.”

  “Security sent people in there?”

  “A few times, yeah. Groups of three or four guards. Exploratory stuff, trying to figure out what was going on. Recently, they’ve been guarding the mine entrances in pairs. When I couldn’t crack how our sub-network kept getting breached, they sent in warm bodies. But whenever a lot of people were around, nothing happened.

  “The next night, though, when they weren’t in there, everything resumed as usual. We lost control of the sub-network, went blind in the cameras, and the doors opened up again.” Garth wiped his nose with the top of his forearm. “So I still don’t know if it’s a ghost or just a bad glitch in the system. But I was talking with Etya about it, and she had a good idea.”

  “Which was?”

  “If we lower the shields to all of the sub-networks, the glitch—I’m more comfortable calling it a ‘glitch’ than a ‘ghost’ at this point—could move between them and wreck all sorts of things for the company.”

  Justin squinted at Garth. “How long would that take to work?”

  “It would happen pretty fast. I mean, information travels in nanoseconds, depending on what’s being transferred. Something like this would hit the other sub-networks instantly. Or, at least, they’d be instantly vulnerable. So if we lower the shields and the glitch gains access to the entire mine, just imagine what it could do. It would be glorious, bro.”

  “How do you know it will work?”

  “The glitch, or whatever it is, has been punching holes in the other subnetwork shields for weeks. That’s why we’ve been getting reports of access codes not working, or ID cards not working. We’ve had issues with our androids’ connections to the sub-networks. Other little stuff, too.”

  “Seriously?” Justin asked. That explained so much of what he’d experienced prior to the accidents.

  “Yeah, man. It has been supremely frustrating to deal with. I get calls on the reg about these issues, and I end up having to fix them.” Garth shook his head.

  “Okay. So what if this doesn’t work?”

  “I mean, we can bring down the shields like that.” Garth snapped his fingers. “If nothing happens, I can still scramble all of the documentation in your file and about your accidents and pin it on the shields going down. If there’s no paper trail, no documentation, then they can’t come after you legally, right?”

  “You don’t think they’ve sent all of that to ACM corporate by now?”

  “I know for a fact that they haven’t. Because the mine’s sub-network has been acting up, they haven’t risked sending anything offsite for fear that it might spread beyond our location. The only reason Carl Andridge knows anything about you is because of secure—meaning non-recorded—video calls between Bartholomew and him. So you’re home free either way.”

  Carl Andridge’s words grated on Justin’s memory. If all of the company’s information about Justin suddenly disappeared, then he probably wouldn’t face legal repercussions.

  But if Carl wanted to, he could ensure that Justin never worked again, one way or another. Oafy’s ominous threat resurfaced in Justin’s memory, and he shuddered.

  “And the scrambling of the data wouldn’t be traced back to me?”

  “If they somehow managed to trace it, it would come back to me, but there’s no way I’m gonna let that happen. So you’re good.”

  Justin nodded. “Great. When do you take the shields down?”

  “Well…” Garth grinned. “Here’s the catch.”

  “Catch?”

  “This is the part where you come in.” Garth pointed at him. “I’m gonna upload an access code into your fancy new arm. All you’ve gotta do is touch any part of the screen in my boss’s office or in Bartholomew Morgan’s office, and the command to lower the shields will begin.”

  “You can’t do that remotely?”

  Garth shook his head. “Not without it tracing back to me. I can do everything except pull the final trigger. I can prep the shields for lowering, but you gotta seal the deal for us.”

  “Etya can’t do it? She’s a cyborg too.” It still felt weird admitting he was part machine, but he also kind of liked the idea of it.

  Garth shook his head again. “No. As the department head for the Sector 13 science office, she’ll be in the meeting tomorrow. Her presence ensures they won’t be looking at her as a potential suspect if any investigations happen. I mean, she’ll literally be in the room with everyone else when it goes down.”

  Justin folded his arms. “So you need me to do it because I’m already screwed?”

  Garth chuckled. “Basically, yeah. But like I said, I’m gonna make sure you get unscrewed.”

  “And why are you doing this?”

  “Because this is a terrible company, man. The things that happened to you and Etya and your friend and these other workers were bad. And on top of that, I should’ve been running our IT department from the beginning. But they passed me over for Rodney Marshall, a first-class idiot who doesn’t know a terabyte from a terrapin. I can do way more than he can with our systems. Plus, he’s a micromanaging asshole.”

  “I see.” It was all clarifying for Justin now. Garth, like Justin, didn’t like the mine’s leadership. It also explained Garth’s outburst when Justin tried to pry him away from his screens to have this conversation
.

  “In all seriousness, Etya showed me the science. If we don’t do something to wake these bastards up, the mine’s gonna fall apart with us inside. More people are gonna die if we don’t do something. And that aside, I’d do just about anything Etya asked me to.” Garth pointed at Justin again. “But don’t get me wrong, bro. She takes care of me, too, if you know what I mean.”

  Justin held up his hand. “I said no details.”

  “Whatever. You’re just jealous.” Garth smirked, raised his hands over his head, and leaned farther back in his chair. It squealed again.

  To a point, Garth might’ve been right. Etya was gorgeous, even despite being a cyborg, but thoughts of Shannon just wouldn’t leave Justin alone.

  Justin paced around Garth’s pigsty of a suite. “So all I have to do is waltz into the admin offices in the middle of the day, past security and all the admin workers, and touch either Rodney’s screen or the one in Bartholomew’s office with my new arm?”

  “Piece of pie, right?” Garth smiled at him.

  “How?”

  “I’ve got you on the technical end. Cameras won’t see anything. You’ll just have to schmooze your way past everyone else.” Garth leaned forward. “If it helps, we can put you in the grav lift that goes up to the top floor where their admin offices are, and I can make sure it only goes up to that floor. We can bypass almost everyone that way.”

  “That would help, yes.” Justin sighed. “It still sounds like a half-baked plan, though.”

  “Dude, trust me. I’m like a god at this stuff. And trust Etya. She’s super smart.” Garth grinned. “And besides, when you’re done, they’ll all be too busy dealing with the glitch hitting the other sub-networks to even bother with you.”

  “What’s my escape route?”

  “Same as your way in.”

  “Any backups?”

  “You could always take the stairs if you had to.”

  Justin sighed. For not actually having been a spy, he sure felt like he was becoming one.

  As much as he would’ve rather been exonerated instead of corrupting the evidence that suggested his guilt, the end result would be the same: he’d still be free and clear. Plus, he’d get to deliver a swift kick-in-the-balls to ACM in the process.

  “I’m in,” Justin finally said. “I’ll do it,”

  “Beautiful.” Garth rubbed his hands together. “The meeting is tomorrow at 1600 hours. I’ve got about six hours of actual work to do for the mine—gotta keep up appearances, you know—and then another two hours prepping the shield takedowns. I’ll be up late tonight doing all of that. We go live with the initiative at 1610 hours. Crystal?”

  Justin nodded. “Clear.”

  “You’re welcome to sleep on the couch.” Garth motioned toward it.

  Justin stared at it again, but more so at the loads of junk sitting on it.

  “Just move that stuff wherever. I’ll get it organized again later.”

  Organized? Justin blinked at Garth.

  “And the bathroom’s toward the back of the suite.”

  “Okay,” Justin said.

  Thanks to Garth’s incessant clacking, it took a solid hour for Justin to fall asleep, but he eventually drifted off.

  Justin awoke to the sounds of birds pecking at something in the distance. As he regained his cognition and recognized the mangy couch amid the dumping ground around him, he realized the birds pecking were just Garth’s fingers still at work on his keyboard, and the chirping noises came from his squeaky chair.

  Justin rubbed his eyes and pulled his hand away quickly. He stared at a set of metal fingers.

  Oh, that’s right. I’m a cyborg now.

  Fresh pain in his shoulder accompanied the recollection, though it hurt considerably less than it had the day before.

  He sat upright, and Garth glanced back at him.

  “Mornin’,” Garth said. “Coffee’s in the kitchen, if you want any.”

  “What time is it?”

  “1133 hours. Nope. 1134 hours. Just turned.”

  Justin moaned to himself at the number’s reappearance. “Did you finish your work?”

  “Just about. Got bored, so I watched a movie. Go get cleaned up, and I’ll get to work on that arm.”

  Justin squinted. “What do you mean?”

  “You want it modified, right? It’s just like a normal arm unless you modify it.” Garth glanced back at him again. “I can access it and tweak the control settings so you can do incredible things with it. I can make the arm stronger, open it up to third-party augmentations. All sorts of good stuff. It’ll void the warranty, but it’s totally worth it.”

  Justin rubbed his eyes again, this time with his left hand. He’d just woken up, but Garth probably hadn’t gone to sleep. He wasn’t awake enough to comprehend anything. “Let’s talk later.”

  Garth shot him a thumbs-up and kept hammering away at his keyboard.

  After showering in the grimiest shower stall he’d ever seen and then foraging for some semblance of breakfast in the dirtiest, most scattered kitchen he’d ever seen, Justin sat back down on the couch, clad in the same clothes he’d worn from the medbay.

  A wall-sized screen in front of him flicked to life.

  “Feel free to watch a movie or something,” Garth said. “It’ll be at least an hour until I can get to you.”

  Justin retrieved his Nebrandt plant and watered it, and he set it atop a pile of stuff on the Plastrex coffee table in front of the couch.

  By 1340 hours, Garth had finished his work and uploaded the shield access code to Justin’s arm. “Now let’s tinker with the good parts, shall we?”

  It took another hour and a half, but by the time Garth finished, Justin’s new arm had tripled its strength capacity, reduced its pain sensitivity, and Garth had outfitted it with a purdonic-resistance emitter, a stun gun in his palm, and an orange energy blade that extended from his forearm.

  Justin waved the blade around, and the air crackled from its heat. “You just had this stuff lying around?”

  Garth shook his head. “I collect tech. Never know when you might be able to resell it.”

  “This is a lot of good stuff.”

  “It sure is.” Garth rubbed his hands together. “Now if you’ve got money, I can let you keep those augs. If not, then consider this me showing you some great merchandise, and someday, you can come back for them if you like.”

  “Oh.” Justin frowned. “So I can’t use these when I head up to the admin offices?”

  “If you stun someone, that’s assault, and that energy blade can cut through just about anything if you swing hard enough. If you hurt someone on your way to admin, that shoots everything I’m doing for you in the kneecap. I can’t wipe away physical harm that you might do to someone. And you don’t need the anti-purdonic emitter anyway. You won’t be in the mine.”

  Justin nodded. He doubted ACM would allow his 2,000-credit bonus to go through now that they’d placed him under formal investigation. “Alright. Can you remove them, please? I don’t have a dime to my name right now.”

  “Yeah, of course. They just pop right out now that the arm is set up for them. If you change your mind, let me know, and I’ll pop ‘em right back in. I don’t mind shipping them off-world, either, if you decide you want them later on.”

  “Are you going to reset the strength and the pain settings, too?”

  “Nah, bro.” Garth waved. “Those are internal settings in your arm. Just a matter of bypassing safety protocols and making changes. If it’s tech, I can tweak it. Those are on the house.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” Justin flexed his metal fingers.

  “Just be careful with it, alright? If your shoulder’s not fully healed, it could add unnecessary strain to your joint. And you don’t want to increase the strength any more than what I already did, either. The arm can take it, but keep in mind that it’s connected to your flesh-and-bone body. Don’t overdo it.”

  “Got it.”

  Garth removed
the modifications and boxed them back up. He set them on the bar-height counter that helped segment the kitchen from the living room, then he went back to work at his command center.

  “We’ve got about an hour until you need to get up there. Should only take ten minutes if you’re being careful.” Garth pointed at one of his screens and chuckled. “Security’s been going nuts trying to figure out what happened to you, though.”

  An image showed Gerhardt, flanked by two security guards, talking to Dr. Handabi, who repeatedly held up his hands in the universal sign of “I don’t know.”

  “There’s plenty more.” Garth toggled through different images within the mine, Admin, and the residence halls. In each of them, security guards patrolled the corridors or stood posted at key points. A pair of guards stood in what appeared to be his residence corridor, leaning against the wall on either side of a door, yawning.

  “That’s my room?”

  “Yep.” Garth scratched his belly. “This may not be as easy as I’d thought.”

  Justin stared at him. “What does that mean?”

  “It means you’re gonna have to be pretty damned careful.”

  “I’m going to stick out like a vampire at a church service.” Justin held up his right arm. “I’m wearing workers’ clothes.”

  Garth waved again. “Gotcha covered. Got an old suit you can wear. Doesn’t fit me anymore. It’ll probably still be big on you, but at least it’s something. Maybe you can wear your normal clothes underneath to help fill it out.”

  “That solves most of the problem. What about my face?”

  “Looks fine to me.”

  Justin rolled his eyes. “Now’s not the time for jokes, Garth.”

  “I dunno, man.” Garth shrugged. “Sunglasses?”

  “Indoors? Won’t that make me more conspicuous?”

  “I really didn’t expect this much attention.” Garth pulled up some sort of multi-video feed. “It looks like the entirety of the mine’s security force has mobilized. Guards at every exit, patrolling the halls and corridors—they’re every place you might try to go.”

  “Do we need to abort?” Justin kind of wanted to.

  “No. We’ll find a way. Now’s our only chance at this.” Garth looked at him. “You won’t have to worry about the cameras. I’ve got those under control. Just avoid the security guards at all costs.”