Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend by MJ Wassmer

Author:MJ Wassmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Books UK

20

‘You go out tonight, Dr Shae?’

Rico’s voice. Dan climbed the short closet ladder to a cold tile floor at the precipice of a pitch-black room. A cavernous room, if his breath was any indication. It floated past his nose and over his head and somewhere up into the ether. He dared not proceed any further. He knew where he was. Sensed it. The base of Dr Shae’s massive telescope lay somewhere in all that darkness. It was unnerving, the same unnerving feeling you get in the ocean when you swear something’s looming below you, just out of sight.

‘In all this rain?’ Shae asked with a laugh. ‘No, Mr. Flores, I have had a quiet night in, thank you very much. Though I see you cannot say the same. Your boots are quite muddy. If you would not mind . . . oh.’

Rico’s jewellery rattled as he shook clean like a dog. ‘Got reports of a light coming from the woods near your place ’bout an hour ago,’ he said. ‘And none of my men have been over this way.’

‘A light?’ There was a wobble in Shae’s voice. ‘O-oh, yes! Of course. I did go out.’

‘You did.’

‘Yes. Apologies, Rico, this whisky. I was out earlier, see, checking on the generator. Had a momentary lapse in power, damned thing. But then again, I just had momentary lapse in memory, so who am I to criticise?’

Rico’s boots crept across the wooden floors. Dan leaned down over the ladder, held a rung for support, tried to get a view of the men in the strips of light that poked through the splintered walls. His heart ricocheted off the tile floor.

‘Two bowls of ice cream,’ Rico said.

‘I should probably get better about washing my dishes when I’m through,’ Shae said. The confident timbre returned to his voice. ‘One is from last night. A thousand pardons, Rico, but what is this concerning? If it is the same to you, I would like to get some sleep. Even without the sun, I feel it important to retain circadian rhythm, I—’

Dan winced as the cabin shook. Shae gasped and kicked. Rico had lifted and pinned him against the wall.

Rico spoke through gritted teeth. ‘Don’t fuck with me, Doctor.’

‘What? R-Rico, I—’

‘The ice cream ain’t melted, hombre. Think I’m fucking stupid?’

‘No, no, of course n – ah!’

Rico slammed him against the wall again. A picture – or something – fell to the floor and shattered.

‘I know Brody’s got a soft spot for you. I don’t have soft spots. There are rules on my island.’

Dan’s ears burned. Again with the my island stuff.

‘Who was here?’ Rico demanded.

‘Rico, I told you, I—’

Slam.

‘Who. Was. Here?’

‘Please, Rico. I-I just—’

Shae shrieked and a shadow shot across the slats in the closet walls. The doctor collided with a credenza – part of him went through it – and papers and knickknacks rained down on him. Dan flinched, furious, and his foot hit something in all that dark, a desk or a table or a heavy chair, and whatever it was scraped across the tile and made enough racket to pause the scene below.

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.