---
She quickened her pace. The planned playful route through the side forest vanished. She angled instead toward one of the lesser watched approaches, a carved gully that led to a service entrance Luca had once told her about with all the enthusiasm of a man sharing gossip about plumbing. Her feet slid on loose gravel. Her pack thumped against her back. The desert wind tugged more insistently at her clothes now, as if trying to either slow her or hurry her and unable to decide which would be more entertaining.
Halfway down the gully she almost tripped over a discarded spear. Ant make. The haft was cracked. The head was missing. A little way beyond it lay a drone's broken plate, the inner side showing where had cut it free rather than spend time unbuckling straps.
She crouched and ran her fingers over the edge of the plate.
