Hell on Earth by Ally Blue

Author:Ally Blue
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2014-06-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

They dressed in seconds flat. Sandman watched Vijay from the corner of his eye, looking for any sign of the adrenaline rush that had Sandman’s heartbeat whooshing in his ears. If Vijay was nervous, he didn’t show it. His fingers were sure and steady as he pulled on his shirt and buttoned his pants, his expression cool and determined as the two of them jogged down the corridor to the unimpressive room where Jael and her team gathered to manage a crisis.

Sandman wished he had Vijay’s unflappable calm. His stomach churned and sweat prickled his armpits, and he couldn’t decide whether it was from fear or eagerness. Or both. He tightened his grip on his knives and felt better.

They met Essie in the hall outside the dining room. She fell into step beside them. “Hey. You guys got any details yet?”

Vijay shook his head. “We had a video message from Tarran saying there were hostiles in the rover bay. That’s all we know.”

“Yeah, me too.” Essie lifted her sizzler as the three of them approached the junction of halls where they needed to turn. It was clear except for their own people, who were all heading for the situation room. They joined the migration. “We ought to be going straight to the bay, not having a fucking meeting about it.”

Sandman grinned. He liked Essie. “You wanna?”

Her face lit up. She grinned back at him.

“No,” Vijay said before she could answer. “Don’t you think that Jael had a reason for calling us to the situation room rather than sending us straight to the bay?”

“No.” Sandman returned Vijay’s eye roll with a glare. “Look, you ought to know by now not to ask me something if you don’t want to know the answer.”

Essie’s eyebrows drew together. She didn’t get a chance to register her opinion on Vijay’s question, though, because they’d reached the situation room. None of them wanted to have this discussion in front of Jael.

The woman herself glanced up as Sandman, Vijay and Essie entered the room along with several others. “I know you’re probably wondering why you’re here instead of the rover bay right now.” She cast Sandman a meaningful stare, which he ignored. “Here. Take a look.” She activated the old-fashioned flat-panel vidscreen on the wall. An image of the rover bay came up.

Sandman’s mouth fell open. “Ferals? What the fuck?”

“There must be thirty of ’em.” Essie gawked, obviously as surprised as Sandman. “How the hell did they get in?”

“That’s my main question.” Jael crossed her arms and studied the vidscreen with narrowed eyes. “We need to figure that out, because if they got in, others can get in too.”

“Well, they would’ve simply followed the tunnel in, correct?” Vijay holstered his sizzler and rested his hands on his hips. “It seems the most obvious path.”

Tarran shook her head. “You’d think. But that tunnel is several kilometers long, underground, with no light. And there are lots of smaller tunnels branching off from it. The rovers won’t fit through

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.