The ride down the elevator to Agni Mining Station was like a ride into  Hell itself. On a planet where you could never quite get warm enough, it  quickly became uncomfortably warm, then uncomfortably hot. G. Drew  Akers had been in deep mines before, he'd worked in one for two years in  Hussy Crater in his early twenties. He'd decided then that he never  wanted to return to one, fortunately, he wouldn't be in this one long.  But that mine in Hussy had only been two kilometers below the surface of  Mars, this mine was almost twelve. At the mine in Hussy he rode an  elevator like this one twice each day, but here the miners lived below.  Agni Mining Station was a small self-contained town at the bottom of the  elevator shaft. He reached up and wiped the sweat from his brow. He'd  only been in the elevator a few minutes, and already his clothes were  soaked with sweat, and he was developing a headache. He opened his  jacket hoping the sweat would evaporate, and in the process exposed the  butt of the pistol in his shoulder holster.