Entangled in the Shade by Thomas J Bruno

Author:Thomas J Bruno [Bruno, Thomas J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Lab One was still a mess, the back part against the mountain still shrouded in the twinkling fog. Axel surveyed the war scene, papers and debris everywhere. Security had touched little from the day before. As he entered the fog, he saw the back section of the toroid was ripped away. No power coupling. Torn away by the blast?

The wire harnesses that connected the toroid to both power and control inputs hung in loose disarray, yanked out at the plug connectors.

“Disaster, isn’t it?” Axel jumped at the voice from the fog. Laughter accompanied a dark shadow that grew closer. Rick Sharp emerged to stand next to Axel as he looked at the disfigured toroid.

Short and stocky, Rick looked crumpled and tired. “The force that sucked away that power coupling.” He gave a low whistle and shook his head. “You’re lucky to be alive. And I think Stettler saw more than just a big ol’ shape in the fog. He’s dead-set on building this containment chamber around the wall. We don’t really know what else has already come through, but we’re going to stop further incursions. I’m your bodyguard and security consultant.”

“Consultant?”

“I helped design temporary holding cells for prisoners when I was in the military. Not exactly the same as this, but I’m the best we got.”

“Where at?” Axel asked.

Sharp hesitated the merest fraction of a second. “Gitmo.”

Axel’s eyebrows went up. That’s why he hesitated. Axel had heard of the controversy at Guantanamo Bay.

Axel moved through the fog to the crystal wall and Sharp followed. A large section of the wall still shimmered with dancing, multicolored lights. He found the fissure, pretending he had never seen it before and looked casually through it. No orange-eyed witches, no strange creatures, but he did smell the sweet scent Holly thought were jungle flowers. Nothing creepy moved in the wall or in the fog, but Axel’s skin still crawled.

“Doesn’t seem like a mountain on the other side that wall,” Axel commented.

“Nope.”

What to think of this Rick Sharp?

“So I am supposed to build our own wall, a cage, to hold a monster if one comes through to eat us?” Axel glanced back at Sharp.

“That’s the idea.” Sharp shrugged. “I’m not the decision maker here.”

The shirking of responsibility annoyed Axel, even though it was true. “You’ve had a little longer to think about this, Sharp. Can we build a chamber to keep out things the size of that shape I saw in the fog?”

Another shrug. “You’re the engineer.”

“No, I’m a technician…” Axel rolled his eyes. “But we’re going to need engineers. And some techs who know how to bolt steel together.” Stettler was right: not the best plan, but something. Axel walked across the area of scintillation, estimating it at about twelve feet across.

“You can conscript engineers and as many bodies as you need to build it.”

“And you’re here to protect us from monsters? Do we get a backup?” Axel didn’t mean for it to imply Sharp wasn’t enough, but it came out that way.

Sharp scowled.

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