Daughter of Zeus ✔

9.6

Ada wished she had lied to the guard at the front gate. When he asked if her car was electric, she nodded. He directed her to park in the sub-garage.

Before she could ask what a sub-garage was, the guard pressed a button from inside his glass booth. The wrought-iron gates to the Moretz estate opened.

A quarter mile beyond the gated entrance, the mansion loomed on a hill. The gate guard was one of many. She counted ten guards along the entrances and one mercenary bot by the front door. The bot was a smaller and cheaper version than the ones at the government building, but she suspected the intense coding in it would be the same.

So much for my quick getaway.

Along the winding driveway, the ground shook. Then opened. Ada pumped the brakes, thinking a natural disaster imminent. The concrete in front of her yawned, creating a paved slope with a large overhang. No crumbling earth or residual vibration from an earthquake. The guard had mentioned a sub-garage, and now she knew that meant an underground garage.

Inside the sub-garage were at least a dozen other vehicles, older and newer models, all of them glittering from recent waxing. She parked in an empty row behind the model cars, not surprised at the lack of an outlet for electric cars. Moretz was a Prominent Party member. He would be admonished if the public learned he possessed liberal tech. She could see why the guard inquired about her car; Moretz couldn't even chance having an electric car being seen in the driveway.

"Closing door." A computerized voice echoed throughout the sub-garage.

The concrete slope rumbled as it tilted upward, a grinding of stone on stone as it went. Moonlight disappeared, leaving her in the harsh glow of incandescent light.

Ada was in trouble. Making a clear escape with her car trapped in a sub-garage would be that much harder.

Damn Prominent tech.

~*~