Chapter Four: One Battery Buys a Neighborhood

At nine the next morning, Lin Ji stood on the rooftop and stared at the black “water tank” for a full minute. “You carried twenty-four drones out of that last night?” “Technically, Refraction made them from seven years of my accumulated junk.” The hull opened like liquid shadow. Lin did not step back. She powered off her phone, removed its battery, and sealed both inside a lead-lined evidence pouch. [SHIELDING INEFFECTIVE. CAUTION DISPOSITION: QUALIFIED,] Refraction said. “Is it always this charming?” “Yesterday it called my resource control extremely low.” Lin read the contract inside the fabrication bay, then examined the record of the extinguished blue sun. Her first response was not wonder. “You cannot sell finished alien products.”