Down Deep

Chapter Fourteen

Before the mines, if someone had told Grant he would be living in the Fens working as the Mayor's assistant, he would have told them they were insane. However, that was where he found himself. Three weeks after he became a double agent, his bruises were all but faded and the pain in his ribs was gone.

He explained his long absences from the range of Mores transmitter by telling them he was on scouting parties checking old mines for missed deposits. They had not been back to the city since they discovered it did not have enough air to breath. After refining his plan, he went over it with the others. They staged a fight between Zen and the mayor about Grant not able to keep up with the scouting team and it was cruel to make him walk that much while wounded. Then Zen mentioned what he had done for a living in Capital City. The mayor had made him his assistant. The last week and a half they staged several meetings. Although it hurt, they had to give up a few hidden stashes of what the guards called contraband to keep them from getting suspicious.

The pay off and part of Grants plan came into play his first week. They staged a huge fight between Zdana and the mayor over the defective surveyor scanners. It ended with her telling him they think they found a big deposit of penzite, but could not confirm it without a real scanner. The Mayor pleaded she try to fix what they had, even if it meant striping the other scanners for parts. The fight ended with her pretending to storm out of the office.

Stine and Grant staged a conversation over the next twenty minutes about lack of proper equipment and the mayor ranting about the Capital expecting them to perform miracles to find more ore when they refuse to send them so much as a single light bulb to fix the one flickering in his office.

It had worked. When Grant went to the hidden terminal and supply drop area, Mores had been excited to hear about the possible deposit. He had dropped a small device that Grant was supposed to carry with him at all times. It would shake when Mores needed him to come up to the terminal.

Three days later, a massive shipment of supplies was dropped into the mines with three quarters worth of back orders filled including the requested scanner. It was so new, it had not even been removed from the factory packaging. A note had been attached by the mine's quartermaster saying the mayor's terminal must have a short, because they just got all the back orders. There was an order to send their technician in to check it. Zdana did just that making sure to mutter annoyed about defective equipment and lazy quartermasters.

Grant was relieved when he was deemed strong enough to rejoin his mining team. He had been stuck wearing the bug for weeks and not being able to talk freely. Night time when he was supposed to be asleep, was his only freedom. It was driving him insane. As soon as Xavier retuned from stashing the transmitter, Grant let out a sigh and relaxed for the first time in too long. Stine smiled amused before grabbing a massive sack filled with the bars Mores had been sending down.

'Come on boy, I have finally decided what I am going to do with these.' He told Grant. Grant nodded and followed him out of the office and onto Main Street. Every time Mores sent him down a fresh stock, they went right into the bag. Things were good in the Fens at the moment between trade coming up from the Deep and the increased rations coming down from the Uptop.

The Mayor led them to the small cave used as a clinic near the edge of Main Street. Dr. Panta was there looking over a box of supplies that had come down yesterday.

'Special delivery.' Stine said amused before setting the sack on the table. He gave her a quick explanation of what they were and where they had come from. 'I decided the give them to you to distribute to those coming in sick from malnutrition.' Panta did not react as Grant thought she wood. The doctor went to the bag opening it. She grabbed one of the bars and turned it over showing a red dot on the back under the crease of the package.