"Yep."
I grunted, and glanced down the street at the sound of more laughter. A man in blue jeans had fallen into the gutter, and his friends seemed to find it hysterical. "Why doesn't he shift his shop? This area has to be bad for business."
"He's somewhat stubborn, and refuses to be driven out." He touched a hand to my back, guiding me toward the front door.
"Meaning others have?"
He nodded. "Most of the shops between here and the club have been empty for a while. Apparently someone is in the process of buying them out."
"That someone being the club?"
"Actually, no. Stane reckons it's some corporation intent on re-energizing the area."
I snorted. Re-energizing was another way of saying building heaps of tiny apartments, adding a small shopping precinct, and charging a fortune to live there.
"So who else is holding out?"
He shrugged and pushed the front door open. A tiny bell rang cheerily and a camera buzzed into action, tracking our movements into the shop. Light shimmered briefly around the small entrance then flickered out, and I realized Stane had a containment field around his doorway. People might be able to walk freely into the shop, but they couldn't get any farther unless he let them.
"Besides the club?" Tao said, catching my hand and tugging me forward. "A milliner and a general store."
The shop was small and smelled of dust and mold, which was weird considering neither was good for computers. There were shelves everywhere, all packed with boxes, old and new computer parts, and ancient-looking monitors of varying sizes. Organized it wasn't.
I shook my head, wondering how he found anything as I said, "Why the hell would a milliner want to work in an area like this?"
"Because," a voice said as a figure appeared out of the gloom, "we are all fools. And you have the Bollinger. Well done, you."
I smiled. Stane, like his shop, was an unholy mess. Given the cobwebbed brown hair, thick gray cardigan, and wrinkled, ill-fitting jeans, he resembled something the cat had coughed up and forgotten. He certainly didn't look like someone who'd put up any sort of fight—until you actually gazed into his honey-colored eyes. Stane, like Tao, was smarter and harder than he looked.