Spirits of the Earth: The Complete Series: (A Post-Apocalyptic Series Box Set: Books 1-3) Milo Fowler (different e readers TXT) 📖

She blinks at me. You accept it? Being a...mind reader?

"Not sure what else to do about it." I shrug. Then I gesture at Wink and Blink as Erik turns my way. "Can you sync these two up with D1-436?"

"I can." He nods. "But why should I?"

The aerocar sets down on the rooftop with a soft bump, and the whine of the electromagnetic coils deepens in pitch as the engines cool off. Our side door drifts open automatically.

"Because I'm asking you to." I tap the law enforcement insignia on my uniform.

"About that…" He winces a little, like he can't stand the sight of it all of a sudden. "Better for everybody involved if you get out of that thing."

"Excuse me?"

"The locals—particularly the ones I do business with—don't appreciate seeing law enforcers in their neighborhood. And enforcement drones—" He nods toward Wink and Blink. "—will be shot out of the sky." He shrugs by way of apology. "So you can either wait here while I conduct my business or change."

Stay behind? Not a chance. I unzip my uniform and tug it off while everyone on board finds somewhere else to direct their eyes.

"Give me your jacket." Standing in my skin-tight bodysuit and boots, I hold out my hand to Erik expectantly.

He raises an eyebrow at me as he pulls it off and hands it over. "Not bad."

You better not be talking about my body. I narrow my gaze at him.

"You'll blend in nicely," he clarifies, nodding as I zip up his jacket. Clearing his throat in an awkward attempt at indifference, he steps out of the aerocar.

"You two stay put," I tell Wink and Blink. Then I glance at Arienna and the clones in turn. "You three as well."

They nod—except for the disabled clone. It sits there in a silent stupor.

I follow Erik out of the vehicle and slap the door as I exit. It drops behind me in slow motion and locks into place as we make our way toward the roof access structure.

"So, these friends of yours. Not exactly law-abiding citizens, I take it?"

"What makes you say that?" He casts a devilish grin my way. "They're not terrorists, if it makes you feel any better."

He holds the creaky door open to the interior stairwell. An outdated gentlemanly gesture. Flickering overhead lights reveal stained steps and graffiti-covered walls. Again, not an environment I've ever experienced in real life, but it might have inspired half the VR games I've played over the years.

I pause before entering. "How can these citizens allow their dome to fall into such disrepair?"

"How do you mean?" He frowns at me like I'm speaking a different language.

I gesture at our surroundings. "It's filthy here."

"We're at the bottom of the food chain, Enforcer Chen. Dome 9, where I hail from, is only a step or two up from this. The citizens here and in the agricultural domes work hard and don't have time to clean house. What they do is vital to the lives of all Eurasian citizens. But how often do we wonder what happens after we flush the toilet? Or where the water comes from that we expect to see flowing out of the faucet?"

I nod toward the street below. "What's with the traffic? Where are they all going?"

"Takes a lot of laborers to keep things running. There are multiple waste management and water reclamation facilities here, and they all have different schedules. We arrived at a shift change." He heads inside, giving the door a final shove to keep it open long enough for me to follow.

Our boots thump noisily down the stairwell. There's no surveillance equipment inside that I can see. Strange, if this building is full of criminals. I keep my hands in the pockets of Erik's jacket, shoving the hem downward in a futile attempt to cover my backside. My bodysuit doesn't leave much to the imagination, but my lack of a weapon makes me feel even more naked as we continue downward. Five, ten, fifteen flights with no end in sight as we pass one level after another.

"Let me guess," I mutter, my voice echoing in the confined space. "Ground floor."

He shakes his head. "Second."

Forty flights later, he veers into a hallway where the stairwell door is missing from its hinges. It's dim inside and smells musty, like fresh air hasn't visited for a while. Thick, stained carpet masks our footfalls. Doors lining the walls are closed and silent. Either the rooms on the other side are soundproofed, or this floor was abandoned a while ago.

Offices? I think at him. Or Dome 10's idea of a cube complex?

Both. He slows as he approaches an unmarked door, frowning at it. There are no numbers or any sort of identification on the others that we've passed, either. Then he shakes his head as if chiding himself and continues onward down the hall. People work and sleep here.

But they're not in the waste or water business, I clarify.

He glances over his shoulder at me with half a smile. You catch on fast, Enforcer Chen.

Why doesn't local law enforcement shut them down?

He pauses outside another door, squinting at the tarnished brass knob. Because local law enforcement receives a cut of all profits. He nods to himself and takes a step back, straightening his posture as if he's about to have his hologram captured.

So they're dirty.

He smirks. Isn't everything around here?

The door slides open without warning. A blast of white light floods outward for a split-second, along with the sounds of dozens of people talking under a deluge of float-rawk background music threatening to drown them out. Erik squints in the glare and steps inside, flashing one of his most disarming smiles to date. I move to follow him, but the door slides shut again, blocking my path and silencing the noise as if it never existed.

I refrain from cursing, instead adopting the same posture as Erik's prior to