R. A. T. H

Thirty-Eight

"Rat Cave?"

It was a rather odd name, but it only took a moment for Rose to take it all in as the girl continued.

"My father was an info-broker before me," Mare said, lowering her arms and walking towards the chair on the right, "He built this place as a center for most of his work. Though, as you can see, he was much more of a digital snooper—like a little rat to crumbs."

"So you followed after him?"

"Basically. I had always helped him somewhat, especially on the mapping aspect." She sat down, rolled around and faced Rose again. "It pays well."

"Oh?" Rose walked closer. "How much do you have on hand right now?"

"A bit less than 10 million."

Rose's eyes widened at that unbelievable amount of money.

"Don't look at me like that—I can probably only use less than half of it; the rest is kept for business dealings."

"Less than five million, then? That is still a lot."

"I suppose. . ." The girl's expression was vacant. "I make a lot selling the same low-level information, data, or map, to as many people as possible; however, I auction off some of the most prized ones or find suitable buyers. Sometimes the pay is a transfer of equally valuable information, but I mostly deal in lixels. Still, though, I'm nowhere close to 50 million yet."

The girl smiled then spun right back to face the wall of screens.

"Anyway! The reason we came here! I don't keep the really valuable stuff on my pad and usually have to return here to get them. So, I need this computer."

She brought her pad up and synced it with the pc. Then, her hand reached out, pinching together to shrink the largest screen in front of her before dragging it closer to her face.

"This, this, and this." She tapped a few times, nodding as Rose stood behind her to see what looked like the icons of paper being dragged around before they were swiped to the side and into her pad's screen.

In a moment's notice, the girl turned around and faced her again.

"Connect your pad with mi—oh wait, we're already added contacts, I'll just send them over now."

The girl shooed with her hand, sending the computer screen slapping back in place at the wall, and then tapping her pad.

Rose's pad blinked. She tapped the orb at its center twice, a notice came for a folder and she naturally accepted the downloads.

As she shifted through the new documents, opening them, Mare explained.

"Entering Alos involves a bribe worth 5 million lixels per person."

Rose tapped open an image: A man dressed in a dark-brown uniform that was lined silver. There was an insignia on his chest that reminded her of Shana's, but without the strikethrough, and with only the left innermost circle. He had a head of short-red hair that, coupled with rather pale, blue eyes, gave him the image of quiet somberness.

"Ah, Mason Creed." Mare nodded. "A high-ranking defense official in the city. He works together with the Slum Lords, helping them smuggle people in and out of the city using his connections. There's more info in the documents—I already included how to contact him with the rest of the information there."

Rose opened one of the text forms and quickly scanned it, eyes jumping around the page as she scrolled.

[Mason Creed. . .official inspector of the first sector of Alos. . .34 years old in both age and appearance, clearly has not done a Gene Advancement yet. . .former slummer. . .has a close-quarter-combat type Gear. . .the battle vids I could find on the Mana Web shows he has at least 3 spirits on him. . .married for 6 years now, has a daughter. . .] And so on.