The Under All Inc. ? showroom was past the shippers and across from RGE’s monolith. The UAI showroom was massive as well. It was more organized, and labeled than the BDwerks?, and the salesmen really knew their gear, really well. They had countless kinetic weapons and dozens and dozens of suits of power armor that I could get lost in admiring, but I actually had business at the RGE/ y Toyota-Daimler-Bilaindand dealership across the way.

  Unfortunately, the shop manager, Jack Rosen, was a complete yono. His corporate patriotism was only eclipsed by his total incompetence. No customer or staff member liked him, his sour attitude, or his horrible work ethic. No idea what happened, but I had to deal with him due to the special orders and specs that I had placed. I couldn't imagine RGE?/ T-D-B? would put up with him for long. Walking up to the impressive Vehicle Depot, I could see the massive fenced area behind the shop, and the lines of vehicles in front. The giant mechs were neatly positioned outside next to the larger vehicles. The large yard out back housed even more vehicles and equipment. I headed inside to pick up my trailer and see what else they might have. The store was smaller than its weapons sibling but still massive for Neu Ca?on. Rows and rows of hoverbikes, skycycles, rovers, crawlers, and buggies were crammed inside. I couldn't help but admire the consistently solid engineering. The boys from Brussels really did know their engineering.

  >>Yes Fe, T-D-B? is headquartered in Mars, I know that. I was talking about RGE?. Fine, FINE. And the women from Mars. Happy?>>

  I had always loved the Sky Rider hover bike and wanted my synths to try it out, but I needed to do something more along the lines of a BDwerks? product, and cheaper to boot. I hadn’t figured that one out yet either. The crawlers like the Bugler, Rock Climber or the new PackTrack really never revved my engine. They were by far their biggest sellers however. I much preferred the giant mecha and flyers. I know mechs were becoming passe for cost/ benefit, and maintenance reasons, but nothing on Earth could change my mind.

  Course now that I was paying for everything, I had to say, ground vehicles make a lot more efficient and effective sense. I would have to reconsider their utility down the line. But enough static gathering, I needed to check in on my order here as well. I approached the sales counter and asked, “Is Jack in yet?”

  The friendly woman smiled tiredly and shook her head, “I am sorry miss, Mr. Rosen is not currently available. But is there anything I could help you with.”

  I didn't quite suppress a big sigh as I said, “Yeah. There is an order for a reefer trailer for Gabriela Gama, and I wanted to see your current used vehicle and trailer list.”

  I belatedly added, “uh, please.” I much rather do all this shopping remotely via a terminal, but there was nowhere I could do that legally, that I knew of at least.

  The salesperson returned to a professional mask as she entered my info on her keyboard, “Of course Miss Gama, I am Julie Lopez and I would be happy to help you today. Let me see, your All-Purpose Portable trailer type refrigerated, oh, I see you got the nuclear upgrade customized, I can’t say I have seen that before, well it is prepped and ready. Great choice miss. And we also have your 20 cyNET exbi-scale compute core units pre-installed as well, but I am sorry it does look like Mr. Rosen needs to be here to finalize this custom order due to the special order nature. You are welcome to look at our used inventory while you wait.” Her face fell again and she finished speaking but she pointed to the kiosk next to her that had begun to populate with the current used vehicle list.

  I nodded to her and browsed the used vehicle list. I skipped the armored flying, wheeled, and hover vehicles and mechs and stuck to the busted humpties, in my price range. There were a lot of nice-to-haves but nothing I actually needed. Toward the end, however, I spied an absolute steal. Two APP cargo trailers were less than a third the price of a new one. It looks like one was damaged in transit down here, and one was a used trade-in model. Given that they are large, and cheap, they wanted to get them off their property. They were the same basic trailer chasus, like the refrigeration unit I had custom ordered for Big Fe, and the expandable adventure model variant for our RV trailer. And I guess even the upgraded mobile repair station I used as an engineering trailer, but these were basic empty box trailers with tie down points and that is about it. I could use the modern supersteel and frame for vehicular repairs and I could use the undercarriage and wheels to improve the buses that were shot up. This made dealing with Jack, almost, worth it. I added those to the order, and as soon as the sales clerk had given me my new tally and I had authorized the new credit for it, Jack Rosen walked in.

  Well walked might have been generous, he staggered in. It looks like he had started drinking, which, the last time I was here, wasn't one of his many, many faults. Glad to see the unshaven, unprofessional, unkempt, undeserved demeanor was still there, however. I made eye contact with the clerk and stepped back. Jack stood in the entrance for several minutes swaying left and right. One customer had to walk around him to leave, without buying anything, I noticed. All the employees insided made furtive glances at Jack, but did nothing to intervene.

  Eventually I had had enough, I clapped my hands, loudly, and said “Jack! Fancy meeting you here. I am ready to pick up my trailer. Can we get to it please?”

  As soon as I had clapped my hands, he flinched and took an involuntary step back. If the doors were anything but quality UAI mechanical engineering he would probably have cracked his head on the glass, but instead, they opened instantly, he stumbled, caught his balance, and then fell outside. I was rendered speechless.

  Jack, however, instantly sprang up, walked back inside, looked at me and said, “Gabby welcome to North…err Under All (Inc. ?), blah blah. I will have to check on that for you and it might take a while. I don't think it has arrived yet.”

  I didn't bother explaining that I already received a notice from him that it had arrived, and the sales clerk had confirmed it. But I was shocked when the same clerk spoke up and said, “Mr. Rosen, sir. I was just talking to Miss Gama and her order is all ready and has been prepaid.”

  Jack harumped and said, “Miss Grainger, I didn't ask you for your assistance and I don't want it.” Now I wasn't great with names, that is why I had a cyber eye implant tied to my headcomp, but even I could read her nametag, and it wasn't Grainger.

  Shaking my head I followed Jack back to his office on the first floor. He walked in and promptly shut the door in my face. Did he do it deliberately, did he forget I was here, did he have an involuntary arm spasm? It could have been any of them. I paused for a moment and an idea came to me.

  I opened the door and went right in. “Mr. Rosen, I am so sorry I am late for our appointment, but let's get started and I am sure I can get out of your hair right away.”

  The ‘lead’ salesman had already put his head down and was apparently half way asleep before I had finished my sentence. He jerked upright, again, and ran his head through his aforementioned hair. Hair that even I could tell had not been washed, in a very long time.

  “Well, humph, yes my time is very valuable, and I shouldn't have been kept waiting at all. But seeing as how you are such a valued customer or a first time customer. Do I know you? Anyway let's get this going.”

  With that, he put his head down and began to snore again. Inferigi, this man was useless. How was I going to actually get the equipment I paid for from this miserable man? Cracking a UAI sales terminal was not the same thing as increasing the inputs to the simple credit machine in the stir-fry shop yesterday.

  >>But, you are right Big Fe, nothing ventured, nothing gained.>>

  I reached out with my senses, and felt a video camera over the door facing the office, but it had already been disabled, by someone.

  That wasn't much of a mystery.

  Turning back to the desk, I started with a quick telemechanic analysis of his workstation, nothing that would trigger a limited or even full intelligent agent response. Seems like this terminal was networked with the rest of them in the two buildings, no surprise, and had regular but not constant contact with headquarters. Given the distance I would have been surprised if they had been constantly networked.

  RF, like μwave, and all wireless communications were highly unreliable over long ranges. Wired networks were constantly being damaged and outright attacked. The global Internet of the history-books was dead and buried. Local NETworks and ad-hoc systems were all we had left. Only Mega-cities had a stable localNET and they were still mostly isolated from each other, usually due to paranoia. Perhaps a wide area network solution was something I could look into, someday.

  >>Add it to the list, Fe.>>

  The workstation terminal also appeared to use two factor authentication. I was fairly confident I could trick it into accepting the cached password values, but I couldn't do anything for the biometric portion. Luckily, I had the very same salesperson passed out in front of me.

  I quietly stood up, and approached the other side of the deck. I reached out as if to check on Jack’s health, I grabbed his hand to check his pulse and grazed the hand scanner with his palm. As soon as that succeeded, I forced the system to reuse the previous session’s password. The login should have failed, but I convinced the workstation to believe otherwise. I patted his head and sat back down on my side of the table and closed my eyes. His virtual desktop was a mess, and there was a surprising amount of inappropriate material for a work system, but I wasn't going to judge that.

  I did however find my pending purchase and mark it as final. I looked around for a bit, but didn't really want to get on UAI’s bad side. Of all the corp’s they seemed to frell the least?

  I thought about sending an email to corporate asking for a HR Adjudicator Officer to come investigate some anomalies, but I didn't want to do UAI any favors. I also didn't want to have that sort of, usually lethal, operation on my conscience. I did however wirelessly transfer a backdoor access trojan. I should have local wireless access as long as the hardware isn't physically replaced, if I ever come back.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I rocked back on my chair and slammed the legs down abruptly. As expected Mr. Professional sat bolt upright, for a third time, and looked wildly around.

  “Mr. Rosen. Jack, may I call you Jack? That was excellent service! I must tell your superiors how wonderful you were!” Even I could tell this was laying it on thick, but Jack seemed oblivious.

  “Yes well, Mrs……umm yes well. Of course, that's what I do. Was there anything else?” He said, as he looked down at the table and his head started to droop, again.

  “Nope, that was everything. I will see myself out. Goodbye!” I waved and stood up, I did ‘accidently’ slam his office door on the way out.

  Every sales person, and a few of the customers were looking at me curiously, I gave a thumbs up and walked back to the clerk I was dealing with. She finished answering a young couple's questions about the Rock Climber ATV financing options and turned to me, “How did it go Miss Gama?”

  I smiled and replied, “Oh it was no problem. We are good to go.”

  She raised her eyebrows and seemed surprised but pulled up my invoice and saw it was marked as complete, “Well great! Let's get you set up and on your way. How do you want to arrange a pickup?”

  I explained that I had a Kombi-Max at the Sky Port and she agreed she could have someone deliver the trailers there later today. I thought that would be perfect and thanked her as I left the store. Good riddance to that particular distallite of dysfunction. If only they had a manager who wasn't so broken and unless.

  Checking the time on my headcomp I realized I needed to quickly head to the bookstore and meet with Miles. I sent him a message and told him I was on my way. He responded with an affirmative and said he would meet me there.

  I decided to walk because the day had not become too hot yet, unusual for this early spring weather. There were several giant fluffy clouds providing generous shade over our portion of the Grand Canyon. I stopped and took in the view, the sun was at high noon, and a few flying citizens of Neu Ca?on were winging around in the afternoon thermals. A few were on hoverboards, but several were using their own wings to fly. Amazing what cybernetics, genetic engineering, and well, magic can do. I have used a jetpack enough to be comfortable with it, but I wondered what flight completely under your own power was like? The idea of learning to fly in Neu Ca?on took on a new meaning when the Grand Canyon is sometimes almost two kilometers deep!

  The city was perched on the northern rim and had the most amazing sunrises which I was rarely up for, and sunsets that I often saw. I unfortunately saw the sunrise this morning, but I make a point of missing every sunrise I can. Overhead, the bright sun of noon often forced people indoors. But today everyone seemed to be taking advantage of the shade as a respite from the heat. Locals of all stripes were walking slowly on their lunch break, enjoying the cool(er) air and time outside before the nuclear summer heat kicked into high gear.

  We had several bookstores in town, but by far my favorite was ‘Burned Books.’ It has been around since before I got here, but was located in a converted butchershop, of all things, and off the main shopping district by a few streets. I had a 10 minute walk as I wandered toward the store. I headed back past the Bank of Neu Ca?on and turned west toward the bridge across the river. On this side of the river, Neu Ca?on City Hall sat facing all the various shops and establishments. It was a grand looking building, like the bank, it had stout columns buttressing the stone roof. Two wings split off the grand staircase entrance. One side had the Civil Guards and jail, and the other side had the courts, I think.

  I never needed to go in there.

  There was, however, a very nice cyber-wizard clock built into the roof on the third floor.

  Or was it magitecha?

  Whatever it was, it was a fine example of Neu Ca?on magical engineering. The hammered bronze armatures moved precisely in time, the crystal’s glowed with the numbers on the dial, and the entire clock was silent, save for an ethereal chime on the hour. Everyone in the Merchant District could see the time when they looked at City Hall.

  And next to city hall was the embassy for the Neamans. They were the sometimes intimidating inhabitants of the Grand Canyon. They originally came from some other world but a large community of them got gated here in one of the numerous Doorways that popped open at the turn of the century. They had been here locally, before this city was built and they were a strong ally for the humans of Neu Ca?on. Given their straightforward nature and powerful abilities, they were avoided by most monsters and roving bandits. Their alliance with Neu Ca?on brought modest peace and prosperity to this corner of Arizona. Their tribal warriors, Evolved Companions, and elementalists combined with the roaming human Peace Makers, and the local Neu Ca?on mercenary forces gave the immediate area more stability than most.

  Their section of the city was built by a few enterprising architects out of umbral black marble. The entire structure was carved to look like one giant pillar cutting through all levels of Neu Ca?on. I had never been inside, but the outside looked like a heavenly spear had been plucked and thrown down to earth. It was a beautiful structure and, in bright sun, seemed to absorb the light. It was said to be reminiscent of their homeworld. Which was a dark and foreboding place, full of the dragon, I mean, dinosaur analogs we get to contend with here. As a species they had to fight the dinosaurs and other monsters for generations with only their own abilities. Their fierce determination, and laid back attitude here, seemed to make a bit more sense.

  >>Well, that's enough architecture gazing, you need to keep me on track Big Fe! With out you, I will gather more static than a giant sheep in a Wild Storm. >>

  I crossed over the pretty, if more functional, bridge that traversed the river. On this side of the city large houses and mansions were spread out. The bridge was 4 lanes wide, but vehicles were restricted in the downtown area in general, and on the bridge to only one lane. The foundations seemed to be the work of an Earth elementalist. While it wasn't directly attributable to the structural designs of similar ….

  >>*Grr* there I go again Big Fe, I am already late!>>

  I hurried down the bank of the river and found the bookstore/ former butchershop on a side street away from the larger houses. Miles was standing outside patiently reading an e-tablet.

  Running up to him I said, “So sorry I am late Miles; I lost track of time.”

  Slipping the tablet back into his fitted jacket he responded, “Oh no inconvenience Miss Gama, I find any chance to read or browse books is time well spent. Shall we enter?”

  He offered me his arm and I had to giggle, but I took his arm as we entered through the sliding doors into the bookstore. ‘Burned Books’ was tastefully emblazoned on a sign on the second story of the building. I had always loved the smell of real books. Paper, bruised, burned, nothing quite like a real book in your hands. I was lucky enough that when I was growing up I was allowed into the large prewar library we had on site in the bunker. We had added countless books over the years, most of which were of a technical or scientific nature. I fell in love with pouring over diagrams and schematics, trying to figure out what they meant. My ability to absorb and understand technology at such an early age, turned us on early to my techno-focused psionic abilities. And I have loved books ever since.

  The entire two story bookshop was a long rectangular open floor plan, a loft in the back contained children's books, amazing that such a thing had ever existed in this day of corpo productization and on demand screamsheets. But throughout the main floor, 2 stories of books were stacked neatly in rows. Organization was a matter of taste but this bookstore was owned and operated by an alien octopus named Sheila. An alien Octopus, is as you can imagine, a giant, human sized octopus. Eight arms, no legs (though 2 thicker appendages do serve that role), but wicked telekinetic abilities, and a thirst for knowledge that dwarfed my own.

  I nodded my head toward the proprietress and greeted her, “Good afternoon Sheila, we are looking for a few books on war.”

  A book that was hovering in the air in front of Sheila's eyes and siphon, gently flew down to a stack on the side counter. “Well good afternoon to you too Gabby Gama, it has been a long time since I last saw you, over a year ago, if I am not mistaken. Good to see you.”

  I was embarrassed; I didn't realize that she knew my name, or even remembered me. I stumbled out, “Oh well good to see you too. Yeah, I have been traveling a lot. And I need assistance finding as many books that can help us.”

  Nodding her head, which sent a subsequent wave down her entire body coiled up behind the counter, she said, “We let’s get started then.”

  I began to rattle off anything I could think of, “Well so I am working in Artificial Intelligence, I looked for what you had on that last time I was here, two years ago, but now I need anything on battle and tactics and fighting, yeah stuff like that.” I lamely finished and looked at Miles.

  Miles cleared his throat and said “To be more precise, Miss Gama is hoping you might have anything on small unit tactics, infantry field manuals, trans-spectrum operations, modern or historical tomes on the tools, tactics, and procedures thereof, example tables of organization and equipment for up to a battalion size, joint operations doctrines with a focus on company size, and any special operations materials. Also, if you have any war reporting, memoirs, and any history documents that you might feel to be relevant and factual.”

  Continuing to nod her head, she said, “Quite a list you two have. I see, I see. Well I am afraid I do not have everything you mentioned, but we do have some ancient army materials that a trader brought to me, I also have several brand new memoirs and eyewitness accounts from the dreadful invasion in California.” As she continued to speak, books began to fly off of shelves in a few different parts of the bookstore and descend to the front of the counter. “Humm, I think I also have a few items in Deren, Neaman, and Even elvish, assuming that won't be a problem?”

  Miles and I both shook out heads quickly. Miles obviously could speak Elvish at the very least, and I could rig a translator without breaking a sweat.

  I was starting to sweat, however, as the pile of books began to grow. Having just brought in a load of valuable books, I knew how much books were worth, in bulk and wholesale, to the Black Market◆, and it was good money. I knew retail pricing was going to be outrageous. After a few more minutes the telekinetically growing stacks of books were complete.

  All told, Miles and I began to look through 16 books. I didn't know what I was looking for, but I saw Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’ because who hasn’t read that? Well I haven't, but still. Next I saw an interesting first person account of the initial blitzkrieg the Exxon-Chevron S.A. Corpo Army did against the invaders in California, but from a Deren war reporter. Who knew that was a thing? Finally, I found a dissertation promisingly called ‘Observaciones sobre la eficacia de las tácticas de la infantería romana contra los invasores bárbaros desde hoplitas hasta comitatenses, con recomendaciones.’ I was excited to read this one myself, ‘Observations on the effectiveness of the tactics of the Roman infantry against the barbarian invaders from hoplites to comitatenses, with recommendations.’ For some reason what little I knew of the Roman Empire was quite intriguing. Plus the purloined drone controller skillsets already understood Spanish so we were good there.

  In the end, Miles returned two books and added three more. As Sheila was ringing up our total I had a flash of inspiration. “Actually Sheila, if you are free right now, Sunny, remember Se?or Domingo Ciervo? He and I found an entire prewar library! A fair amount of technical, but also fiction, non fiction, even some vids and stories. I also remember seeing a few children's books too because one had a cover which had a bear climbing a tree with a… ah, nevermind do you want to check them out?”

  “Oh child! Even a chance to see new books. Let me close up at once.”

  Sheila used telekinesis to flip the store sign to closed, then she deftly bundled up all my books in wrapping and bags, and grabbed another bag of books, “Miles I can carry your books as well.” She said as several neat piles of books floated through the air.

  I guess I was later than I thought arriving to this bookstore Miles must have done some shopping before I got here.

  We all went outside and a large magitecha hover vehicle showed up. “I hope you all don't mind but I wanted to get there as fast as possible. Now where are we headed?”