The Ruins of Karzelek (The Mandrake Company series Book 4) Read Online Free

before the human colonists had come, terraforming the planets and making many of them habitable. But they had disappeared ten thousand years ago, leaving only ruins and fossils here and there to prove their existence.
    “ Maps,” Ms. Blackwell said. “They’re maps of the caverns, fifty years’ worth of the company’s cartography efforts. According to my source, the miners were never that inquisitive, and tended to stop exploring any time they found valuable ore, but they still have the most extensive maps of Karzelek’s caverns that exist.”
    “ And what are we hoping to find by using the maps?” Val asked.
    Ms. Blackwell’s lips thinned. “That will be revealed as needed. If you’re hired for Step Two.”
    Val didn’t quite roll her eyes, but she looked like she wanted to. “Got it,” was all she said.
    Sedge could understand Ms. Blackwell’s desire to keep information to herself—mercenaries didn’t have the most savory reputations, and, despite whatever research she had done, she had no way to truly know that Mandrake Company was an honorable outfit. Still, he also wanted to ply her with questions. Maybe he could sit beside her on the flight to the mining camp and show her his enthusiasm for the long-gone aliens. During his linguistics training at the academy, he had taken an elective on the ancient culture’s hieroglyphic writing system. Perhaps she would realize he could be useful to her mission and confide in him.
    “ Won’t the miners get suspicious when this virus takes down their computer?” Sergeant Tick asked. He was sitting next to Striker, trading moves on some game that hovered in the air between them. Sedge was surprised he had been paying attention. No, that wasn’t exactly true. Tick had a few more brain cells between his ears than Striker.
    “ Very likely,” Sedge said. “But the virus is designed to make it appear that the system is simply acting buggy for some reason or another. They may believe a solar flare or some space radiation from the nebula is responsible.”
    “ A solar flare, this far out? You’d have to hug a heat lamp to get a suntan around here.”
    “ Nonetheless, our meddling shouldn’t be immediately obvious. If they take precautionary measures, I believe it’s more likely they’ll move men to their ore or ingot holding facilities. We are in the fourth week since their last ore pickup, in a six week schedule, so they should have a significant amount of precious metals on hand.”
    “ So if we can’t get the maps, we can blow up a smelter and take some nice gold home?” Striker asked.
    “ That would be a felonious action,” Commander Thatcher said.
    “ As opposed to stealing someone’s maps?”
    “ The captain implied we would be scanning the maps, not stealing them.” Thatcher smiled slightly, bowed his head, and like a monk reciting a koan, added, “‘Information wants to be free.’”
    Ms. Blackwell smirked. “Stewart Brand.”
    “ Indeed, yes,” Thatcher said.
    “ What?” Tick asked.
    “ That was often said back on Old Earth, when networks were first being established,” Ms. Blackwell said. “Naturally, I agree. At least when it comes to useful maps.”
    Sedge smiled at Ms. Blackwell, then decided from Val’s frown that it might be an overly smitten-looking smile, and dropped it. He waved at the slides again. Time to wrap up the briefing. “We shall strive for stealth, but Striker is prepared if we need a distraction in order to escape with the files.”
    Striker smiled and patted his bag of explosives.
    Ms. Blackwell watched him dubiously. Sedge hoped that the mission would go smoothly and that they wouldn’t need to resort to tactics approved by the Chief of Boom.
    “ Very well,” Thatcher said. “We’ll take one shuttle, and I’ll fly us in. There’s a butte a mile out that we can land behind. The shuttle is sensor shielded, but that’s as close as I want to get, lest we risk visual detection from an alert watchman on the