The Dark Between: A Military Scifi Epic (The Messenger Book 2) by J.N. Chaney & Terry Maggert

Author:J.N. Chaney & Terry Maggert [Chaney, J.N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2019-10-19T16:00:00+00:00

14

The man had said it to Conover.

Dash lowered the slugger, but not all the way. “Actually,” he said, “he’s not the Messenger. I am.”

“Oh? My apologies!” A genuinely shocked and embarrassed look flashed on the man’s face, making him look both younger are far more human. “What a mistake.”

Dash shrugged. “It’s not that big a deal.”

“Apparently, you do not have the look of the Messenger about you,” Sentinel suddenly said.

Dash gave the man a look as he considered Sentinel’s words. “Can they hear you as well?”

“If you wish. I would caution against too many people in our loop, as we may need channel security later,” Sentinel said.

“Understood. Just us, then.”

“Dash?”

He blinked and looked at Leira. His whole exchange with Sentinel had happened non-verbally, and in the course of just a few seconds, but from her perspective, he’d apparently gone silent and still. “Sorry. Sentinel is rather chatty.”

Leira’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth, but he raised a hand and said, “We can talk about that later. Right now, let’s address other things.” He turned back to the newcomer. “Who exactly are you?”

“My name is Kai,” the man said. “I could tell you much more, but I believe it would make more sense to take you to the thing you’re seeking and offer more explanation there.” He stepped toward them and they tensed, but he smiled and pointed at the blank wall terminating the corridor. “I must open the way.”

They stepped warily aside. As Kai passed him, Dash noticed that the pendant around his neck was a small device of some sort. Before he could ask about, though, Kai began to speak, touching the wall as he did. Dash’s eyebrows raised when he realized Kai was speaking in the tongue of the Unseen—albeit awkwardly, with clumsy grammar and wooden pronunciation. His words were also nonsense, strung together for rhythm and pitch rather than meaning, but that didn’t seem to matter as the musical babble flowed from him in an even baritone.

A rectangle, glowing a soft purple, appeared on the wall, outlining a door that swung silently open. Kai gestured them through, then followed and spoke again, causing the door to swing closed behind them and disappear.

As Kai moved past them to take the lead, Dash gave the others a confident smile, waving them forward. He’d made his decision about Kai, and the facility, and the value of the core. Simply stated, it was a done deal, and if Kai turned out to be duplicitous in any way, Dash would be the hammer that set him right. They were at the nexus of war, technology, and religion, and a lot of what he was going to see wouldn’t make sense to him. Yet. For now, he knew the goal was closer at hand, and he moved with a confidence that he hoped would infect the others, there underground in the damp and dark.

“We have been waiting for you, Messenger,” Kai said, glancing back as he led them along the passage. “For a very long time.

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