Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

Author:S.A. Barnes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

17

Instinctively I lift my arm to my nose, using my sleeve to block the odor.

What the fuck?

But as soon as I see Kane, stopped in front of one of the suite doors, I can guess what’s happened, though I don’t understand why.

The smell gets stronger as I approach him, that particular room. Kane taped the edges on that door heavily, attempting to seal any gaps, because we knew as soon as the heat and oxygen kicked on it would be impossible to stop the decomposition of the blood and bodily matter and fluids soaked in the carpeting. We’d removed the frozen bodies—Anthony and Jasen—but we couldn’t do more than that.

But the tape on the door is now broken and peeled back. Kane is pulling a trembling Lourdes from the room, her breathing on the edge of hyperventilation. Why would she do that? Why would she go in there? She knows why we tried to seal the edges, what the double X signifies.

I reach out to pat her shoulder in an awkward attempt at comfort, but she jerks away, burying herself tighter against Kane’s shoulder. “Why?” she asks, her voice muffled against him. “Why would you do that to me?”

I stare at her and then look to Kane, who gives a helpless shrug. “I don’t … What are you talking about?” I ask.

“Why would you send me in there?” she cries.

My mouth falls open. “I didn’t. Lourdes, I would never—”

“You did! I saw you! You waved at me to follow you, and we’re not supposed to go anywhere alone.”

“Lourdes,” Kane says. “Claire has been on the bridge with us for the last twenty minutes at least.”

Lourdes pauses and then shakes her head. “No, I woke up when she left the suite. I followed her. She said she had something special to show me.”

Kane glances at me.

“She was already gone when I got up,” I say. “I expected to find her on the bridge with the rest of you.” My words sound thin to my ears, even though they’re the truth.

“What happened after that?” Kane asks Lourdes.

“I … I followed her, but I kept losing her. In and out of rooms.”

I glance back toward the bridge and stiffen at the sight. Several doors now stand open.

Niggling uncertainty begins to eat at me.

“The door should have been locked,” I say. All the ones with double Xs should be. I automatically pat the pocket of my jumpsuit for the master key. But there’s nothing. I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.

The last time I saw the key was when I put it on the nightstand, hours ago. It’s the only key we have.

“I was trying to figure out what she was doing.” Lourdes pauses, her breath hitching. “The corridors seemed so much longer, though, and I…” She stops. “But I saw her go in this room, I know I did. She waved at me to follow her.”

Could it be possible? Could I have gotten up and brought Lourdes down here

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