11. Sweet Talk
Mina
I didn’t have the most extravagant hopes.
Finding the Miracle Mine had been one of my highest goals for as long as I’d known what it really was, just a few notches below ridding the world of the Splinters altogether. There was nothing in the National Mine Map Repository beyond the tourist info, I’d searched the obvious places thoroughly enough to be kicked out of most of them, and I’d stolen just enough time in the Historical Society database to realize how much more time I’d need there to find any decent new leads.
Ben had more experience in the woods than I did. That much was true, but it seemed like such a small advantage against such steep odds that I hadn’t even taken it into consideration when I’d selected him to maintain as an ECNS.
On the other hand, if I d
