Dark Secrets by P. R. Adams

Author:P. R. Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Promethean Tales

31

Whatever It Takes

* * *

In the dark, noises always seemed amplified. Jason knew better than that, but it was the way things felt. Given that expectation of everything being louder and clearer, the absence of sound was unbearable.

He reached back to where he remembered Go being. “Hey? You guys there?” It sounded to Jason like he’d just spoken through a bullhorn.

“Yeah, mate. Right here.” Go’s hand was there—a squeeze of the arm.

That was a lot better than the sensation of being alone in a void, watched by malevolent and alien eyes. They were just outside a hallway. Jason could recall the details with surprising clarity: the length and the coloring. Even the smell remained, a smell that departed ever so slightly from that of the previous areas.

But without light, those details were lies.

Sneakers squeaked, and Go pulled Jason along. “Think you could do something about the lights, mate?”

The genie reached back to his backpack. “I think I have a flash—”

A bright beam cast a narrow cone through the dark, lighting part of the hallway. The walls were still there, and so was the floor. No creature birthed from macabre depths watched them.

Nothing but a hallway.

Jason swallowed. “Never mind.”

Benji squeezed past Go, one hand lingering on his shoulder, the other playing the flashlight across the ceiling. “I’m not sure there’s a Grid here to manipulate devices. Jason?”

She was right; he couldn’t feel anything. “I think this area is just some cabling in the walls.”

Go’s sneakers rasped. “Might want to go deeper, then, yeah? Find the Grid?”

A hollow intake of breath came from behind Jason. “What if there isn’t one?”

Benji’s flashlight circled back around, revealing a wide-eyed Shriya. The muscular woman shielded her eyes with one hand while the other gripped her weapon. There was still a look of…fear on her face.

Jason pulled back from Go. “Shriya?”

“It’s possible, right? They could’ve built something without a Grid in it.”

“They could, but why would they? How would you run a mining operation without knowing what’s going on down here?”

“This isn’t a mine shaft.”

“A-all right. Still, it holds some value to them. They wouldn’t build a place and leave it without a Grid, even an isolated one.”

“What if they want to keep it secret?”

“Well, they didn’t do that, did they?”

“You hide things in dark places. You keep them out of sight.”

She was losing it. Did she have some sort of neurosis—a fear of being underground? “I’m sure there are secrets down here. Agent Kleigshoen wanted us to find them, remember?”

The bounty hunter bowed her head. “Some secrets, you’re never supposed to uncover.”

“Okay. But we’re being paid to.”

Benji came back from where she’d ventured down the tunnel, stopping long enough to exchange a look with the genie. In the halo of the flashlight, he could figure out her intent: Do we leave her here?

Jason shook his head. “Shriya, we don’t have to go deep. Whatever she wants, it’s probably around the bend.”

Go snorted. “Yeah, no doubt about that.”

“What?”

The martial artist leaned in. “Around the bend? It means loopy, mate.

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.