The Secret Cities (ENIGMA Files Book 3) by Joshua James

Author:Joshua James [James, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

17 RHETT

“Does that device of yours give you any idea how far we still have to go?” Rhett asked.

In front of him, seated just behind the android’s neck, Dinah shook her head. “I don’t know the scale of this map. There’s no legend on the screen. But every time we alter course, the needle moves, so we must be fairly close.”

“What are the odds that it’s leading us to an object, as opposed to a seam?” he asked hopefully.

“Low,” Dinah said. “I think we’ll need to travel to another world to find the next thing we’re looking for.”

“A symbol of beauty or power,” Fabien mused. “I can see why we’d want one, but not the other. How are we supposed to use something beautiful to save the worlds?”

“How are we supposed to use any of it to save the worlds?” Nibbles countered. He sat contentedly atop the android’s massive head, and seemed largely unbothered by his pessimistic question. “For all we know, we’re following the wrong orkell path.”

Rhett raised an eyebrow. “A what now?”

Finder’s voice made the metal beneath them rumble. “I believe the phrase is comparable to the idiom on a wild goose chase. I must remind you, Mr. LeRoux, that the story Elder Moss told us is just a translation of a folktale. Perhaps ‘beauty’ is not quite the right word in English. I have done my best to preserve meaning when it comes to my translation program, but there are bound to be faults. As for the question Mr. Nibbles poses… I have no good answer.”

“We’re on the right path,” Dinah said. “I can feel it.”

If it had been another person speaking, Rhett might have assumed that she was just trying to save face, or maintain control of the situation. That wasn’t Dinah’s style, though. He trusted her more on that account; she was prone to doubting her own instincts, so on the rare occasion that she was certain of something, her conviction carried greater weight.

“How will we know when we’re close?” he asked. The town on the lakeshore was well behind them, lost amongst the trees. They’d passed into a rockier part of the countryside, where the trees were sparser. From time to time, they gave way altogether, surrendering to jagged outcroppings of pale stone.

“The map will tell us,” Dinah said.

“Or something big and deadly will try to attack us,” Fabien said.

Rhett flicked the sniper upside the head, and he yelped. “Not helpful.”

Nibbles sniffed the air, then sat upright, swiveling his ears back and forth. “We are close. I can smell it.”

“Smell what?” Rhett sniffed the air a few times, but the scents of this whole world were different from what he was used to in California, or even Brazil.

“I don’t know.” Nibbles sniffed again. “Metal, maybe, and a different oxygen blend? The air here is clean, but there’s something unclean that way.” He pointed toward the far side of the hill.

“Great,” Rhett muttered, “we’re headed to an unclean version of Earth. That’s fantastic news.”

Fabien sat up.

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