"Not last I checked."



The location Harmon had supplied for Thule's workshop was in the underhive, in an area that still had power and easy access to midhive through some disused ventilation shafts. It would be possible to pick through the tangled nest of corridors and fallend buildings that was the surrounding underhive to get there, but it was far easier to drop down the shafts. Easier, of course, did not mean 'safe.' The access ladder built into the side of the shaft was badly rusted, with missing rungs, and looked as though it wouldn't support Anika, let alone any of their entourage. Fortunately someone, probably Thule, had rigged a lift platform fixed to the walls by much sturdier wels, and supported by crossbeams fitted into slots left behind when the support struts for the massive ventilation vans the shaft once held had been removed. The platform was operated by means of a massive mechanical winch, with wires which down the cables to a control panel on the platform.

Unfortunately, the platform was currently on the lower level, twenty meters down from the maintenance gantry they had access to. There didn't seem to be any means of calling it. Beneath the platform, the shaft plunged into inky darkness, past shredded metal mesh and down to who knew what bottom. One of the praetorians kicked a discarded soycaf can off the gantry and listened to the echoes as the can bounced and clanged its way to the bottom. It was at least thirty seconds before the noise finally stopped.