5
THE MINDBASE EXCHANGE office was between a travel agency and the Small Private Craft refuelling office. Melati entered the front foyer with its fake wood panelling and soft carpet. The front desk, where Rina normally sat, was empty, but a chime rang at the back of the office.
Melati waited, glancing at the wall screens which displayed various travel destinations. New Pyongyang, Taurus, Mars and places she didn’t recognise and would never visit.
No one had come to the counter.
“Hello? Rina? Socrates?”
She leaned over the desk. Either Rina or her boss had to be near, because the computer was on, and the screen unlocked, the mindbase database open. All the times she’d come here to pick Rina up after work, closing the mindbase program was the first thing Rina did when leaving the desk,
