Desmoterion, page 25
Trent sped up to keep Girish near, his tired legs protesting the sudden speed.
No matter how fast they moved, the light didn’t seem to get any closer.
Girish asked, “Why is it not getting brighter as we get closer? Isn’t that how light is supposed to work in darkness?”
Trent gasped for a breath. “Stop asking me questions when I’m trying to breathe!”
Girish flushed and was thankful Trent couldn’t see it.
* * *
After what seemed like half a day, the light started to get brighter as they got closer.
When a gunshot sounded, both of them dived to the ground, thinking it was coming from the tunnel itself.
After a few minutes with no other sound, Girish whispered, “Where the hell did that come from?”
Trent looked around them and whispered, “Sound travels strangely through this tunnel, but I don’t think it was down here, but above it.”
Girish got up off the ground and inched closer to the light. Trent followed behind him with a gun in his hand in case someone decided to jump down into the tunnel.
Another few minutes passed until they were next to the light.
Muffled voices sounded through the slight crack in the floor, followed by a glass door slamming shut in the distance.
Trent pointed the gun at the light and whispered, “I think they might be gone.”
A vehicle engine hummed and then roared with the sound of tires peeling off a track. They listened as the sound faded, and the vehicle drove away into the distance.
Girish let out a trapped breath. “What should we do?”
“Get me up there so I can see where the hell we are. Remember, you’re still tagged, and I don’t want them figuring out we’re still alive.”
“I don’t like that idea. What if there’s more above?”
Trent put the gun in front of Girish’s face. “I’m armed, I’ll be fine.”
Girish gave in, picking Trent up enough for him to push the cover-up a little.
Trent swore and backed away a little. “Well, now we know where the gunshot went. There’s a dead man facing me.”
“Anything else?”
Trent moved up to push the cover on the ground beside him. “It looks like a convenience store.”
Girish lifted Trent more so he could climb over the top. He frowned as Trent went out of view. “Where are you going?”
“Just looking around, and I was right — it’s a small convenience store.”
Girish dug into Trent’s bag to get his location gadget. “Here, maybe you can see where we are.”
Trent lay down on the ground, reaching out for the device. He switched it on and waited for it to find him.
“Got anything yet?”
“You’re too impatient, Kannan. It’s been off the whole time to conserve the charge, so it has to run its cycles first. Not to mention, I need to set the jammer again on your signal.”
Girish went to the ground and heaved the duffel bags through the opening. “Watch out!”
Trent sidestepped them and then gaped at the results. “Well, we’re not across the border, but we’re damn close like we could walk it in a day if we had to.”
“How should I get out of here? I can’t reach the top.”
“Hold on.” Trent looked around the area. “There’s got to be some kind of rope or lift to get you out. I can’t imagine they’d build this without it. By the way, shine your flashlight to see if there’s anything at this point that I may have missed.”
Girish took the flashlight out of his pocket and flooded the area to his side. “It looks like the end. It soon gets narrower and a lot rougher if we’d carried on.”
Trent rummaged around the store and headed into the back area behind the counter. He arched an eyebrow at the twin bed with porn magazines scattered all over the floor. “I guess I should have expected more from a guy wearing a fancy suit than this.”
“I can’t hear you, Trent! What did you say?”
Trent chuckled and looked inside the tiny closet to pull out a rope ladder with a square metal bracket attached to it. He shuffled back out into the area with the opening. “Found a rope ladder; get out of the way so I don’t hit you with it.”
Girish moved to the side and waited for a thick rope to pop down. He muttered, “It’s been a long time since I had to climb a rope for gym class.”
Trent laughed from above. “You didn’t get far enough into your training to do covert listening where we’d drop down the sides of office buildings to listen in.”
Girish grunted and pulled himself over the edge. “I’m not a big fan of heights. I would have failed that training.” He stopped to look down at the dead man. “Bullet to the head. Is he the shopkeeper?”
Trent kneeled down to go through the man’s pockets. “No idea, but he’s got nothing on him. If he is, he’s dressed fancy for a guy who jerks off to skin magazines.”
“Do I want to know?”
Trent moved away from Girish to examine the convenience store. “Probably not, but we’ll have to use that bed if we’re staying here for longer than today.”
Girish made a face and went for the refrigerated section. “Looks like there’s no power. None of these are lighting up.”
“What’s the date on them?”
Girish pulled out a juice and looked at it. “It expired two months ago. At least the water is still good.”
Trent went over to the counter and turned the key on the cash register. It opened with a loud bell.
Girish turned. “What are you doing?”
“It’s full of cash. Judging by the large denominations, it’s not money from any convenience store that I know. Handy spending money for us, though.”
Girish shuffled over to the counter to peer down. “Whoa.”
Trent grabbed some out and started putting them into his pockets.
“Wait, that’s theft.”
Trent pointed to the dead man. “Somehow, I don’t think he cares. Here, take some for yourself in case we have to split up. Then you’re not stuck without any money to buy food.”
Girish hesitated but couldn’t fault the logic, so he took the money.
Trent moved away from the counter and motioned to the back room. “See for yourself how a lonely shopkeeper lives.”
Girish looked down at the magazines on the floor containing all manners of women’s tits. “You weren’t kidding. Maybe the closet has some clean sheets.”
“I doubt it. Somehow I don’t think the sheets have been changed in years.”
Girish pulled out a leather bag from the closet. He flicked the clasp and gaped at the contents. “Trent, you might want to see this.”
Trent came back inside the room to look down at Girish. “Holy shit, we might have found what this tunnel is really used for.”
There in the bag were thousands of uncut diamonds.
“We can’t take these.” Girish closed up the bag. “They’d know in an instant that we got them illegally.”
“Yeah, sadly, there’s not much of a market for uncut diamonds where we’re heading. It’s a small village with maybe a thousand people in it.”
Girish picked up the bag and shuffled over to the opening. “We might as well make them work for them.”
Trent laughed as Girish dumped all the diamonds into the passage. He nodded over at the dead body. “We might as well put him down there too. He’s going to stink up this place in no time.”
They grabbed one end of the man’s body and hurled it into the passage as well. Trent grabbed the wooden cover and placed it over the opening. He dusted off his hands. “Alright, onto the next item on the agenda.”
Girish’s eyebrow rose.
Trent pointed to Girish’s middle. “Time to remove that tag. Then we don’t have to waste valuable power on it anymore.”
Girish swallowed hard and hoped Trent knew what he was doing.
* * *
Kipper headed into the communications area to begin his next shift. He stopped short when he spotted Stevenson arguing with Ward about satellite images. “What the hell is going on here?”
Ward turned to face Kipper. “He’s questioning my abilities at reading satellite data.”
Kipper snorted at Stevenson when he got close enough. “Ward has been doing this for two years before you even got here. I doubt you have more experience than he does.”
Stevenson sneered. “Maybe not, but that’s not what I was able to pull up on another computer.”
Kipper’s eyebrow rose. “And who gave you access for computer use? I certainly didn’t.”
“I gave him access to a computer.”
Kipper’s jaw clenched as he turned around to face their leader. “Which computer did he use?”
Stevenson grinned at Kipper. “Trent’s old one. It has other satellite stuff that this one doesn’t.”
“How is that possible? Ours is state-of-the art.”
“Yeah, well, it isn’t for this. I was able to find an underground passageway out of that forestry building. I have a feeling Trent and Girish went through it after setting the bombs.”
“And yet we can’t find such things.”
“Because you’re purposely hiding Trent from view!” Stevenson pointed his finger at Kipper as he accused him.
“Is that so?” Kipper folded his arms across his chest. “Where’s the proof of that allegation? In fact, I’ve been asleep for the past several hours, and I didn’t even tell the next crew anything about the mission. How exactly am I keeping things from you while doing that?”
Stevenson tried to shove Ward out of the way, but he didn’t move. “Get out of my way!”
Ward glared at him. “This is my station. If you want me to find something, then say it, and I’ll do my best. Only the surveillance team is authorized to be at these terminals. They’re coded with our DNA for that purpose.”
The leader said behind them, “Just tell Ward how you did it.”
Stevenson pointed at the screen. “That icon can invert the display.”
Ward looked up at Kipper.
“Follow his orders.”
Ward inverted the display to make the burned-out building black and the rest white. “Now what?”
“Then adjust the contrast brighter until the passageway appears.”
Ward shrugged and did it. “I’m not seeing anything, and it’s almost all the way saturated.”
“Keep going.”
Ward turned it up to the maximum, and a tunnel appeared underneath the building. His mouth fell open as he stared at it in confusion.
Kipper leaned in, trying his best to look surprised at the revelation. “Extend the satellite images to see where it ends.”
Ward moved the images around and frowned at the lack of distance on display. “I can’t seem to do that. I’m only getting 10 kilometers of passageway, and it looks like it goes further than that.”
“Yes, that was my problem too,” Stevenson nodded. “But if you go to the next satellite and do the same things, it’ll go on further. I was able to trace it for 25 kilometers.”
“Did you find the end of it?”
Stevenson turned to their leader. “Not quite, but if I had to guess, it terminates at a gas station another 50 kilometers down the way because it’s the only thing on the route if you assume it continues in a straight line. And the gas station is about 50 kilometers from the international border.”
The leader’s eyes narrowed. “Now we know where they’re heading. That was Trent’s plan all along, to get across the border and thereby beyond our reach..”
“Why does a national border stop us?”
Kipper laughed at Stevenson. “Well, it doesn’t, usually. But across that border is another story. If we’re caught, there might be an international incident. We might just start the world war that no one wants to see.”
The leader nodded. “Indeed, and we need to stop Trent from getting there. I believe it’s time to deploy Matteo and his crew. Unlike the previous teams, he’ll track Trent via the information we feed him. He’ll be able to scout ahead to find the end of the passageway.”
* * *
“Ugh, cheap potato vodka.”
Looking away and swigging neat vodka bottles out of the bottle had to suffice in place of a general anesthetic. Girish wasn’t overly squeamish, and he knew it was for the best, but he wished he was unconscious for the excruciating scrutiny.
Trent trailed a blade over his torso, and if the situation wasn’t so serious, Girish wouldn’t stop to figure out whether the scratching hurt or tickled before thumping the guy.
It felt strangely intimate, almost kinky. The fact that Trent was into guys wasn’t something that Girish had thought about much until now, when the man was carefully looking at every inch of his skin, looking for something very tiny. If Trent didn’t find the chip soon, Girish would have to take his pants off, and things would get very weird.
Girish grimaced as Trent dug into his right side above his hip bone; having a blade scrape over his body was bad enough, but was Trent going to dig his guts out to find this spy?
Trent moved a little to the left with the knife and said, “Ah, there it is. The only reason I found out about mine is a knife hit me at around this spot on a mission. I managed to repair myself later while taking the tracker out as well.”
Trent used a pair of cauterized tweezers to pull the tracker out and showed it to Girish. “And there it is.”
“What are you going to do with it?” Girish stared at the chip barely bigger than a contact lens.
Trent got up and smashed it on the ground with his shoe. “The only thing that needs to be done is to destroy it, of course. Now I don’t have to waste energy on masking you.”
“Are you going to patch me up?”
“Indeed I am. I wouldn’t be much of a travel partner if I didn’t.” Trent kneeled, grabbing a needle and thread. “Just try to avoid pulling at it with your clothes. I’m going to put a bandage over the top, but it might come loose.”
“We might as well grab some extras for the road.”
Trent finished off the stitches and put some ointment over the top of it before taping a bandage to cover the wound. “There. Try to move around a little to see if anything feels weird.”
Girish reached for the shelving to pull himself up and shuffled around the room. “It’s kind of tight, but nothing weird so far.”
Trent cleaned up the area. “It’s a good thing this place has a bathroom and sink. Much easier to wash stuff.”
Girish snagged a bag of chips off the rack and looked at the date. It was a week overdue. He shrugged and opened it to eat some.
Trent came back and chuckled. “Are those still good?”
“A week out, close enough. I don’t really care, as it’s been years since I’ve had chips. I might go for a second and third pack, too, before I’m done.”
“That’s what they call a taste of freedom.” Trent grinned.
“You go easy now. Don’t overdo that personality. You aren’t used to using it.”
“Hey! I guess you have a point.” Trent went for the candy aisle. “Yes! This is the dream, and I’m living it.” He picked a bar up and turned it over. “This one is still good, assuming I haven’t lost track of what day it is.”
Girish laughed between chip bites. “I guess I’m not surprised you have a sweet tooth.”
“I’ve always had one, but to be honest, I haven’t had any since before that night — no chocolate in prison and none in the last place. If there had been, maybe I would have stayed longer. A little happiness goes a long way.”
Girish finished off his small bag of chips. “So, how long are we staying here? It’s got food and water.”
“And isn’t in complete darkness. As for your question, I am still trying to figure it out. We shouldn’t linger too much, but we can stay here overnight. But whether we’ll be safe, I have no clue.”
* * *
After eating their fill of junk food and a few more substantial items, they headed to the back room.
Girish made a face at the bed. “I’ll take the floor.”
“Who knows if it’s ever been cleaned? You might prefer lounging over titty magazines, and they might be cleaner.”
Wrinkling his nose, Girish pushed the magazines off to the sides. “No thanks. They’re all fake, anyway.”
Trent grabbed the filthy sheets and blankets off the bed and threw them to the side. He studied the naked single mattress. “At least the underneath isn’t too bad. Help me turn this thing so I’m not sleeping on years-old semen stains.”
Girish grabbed the other end of the mattress to help flip it over, after which he looked down at it. “This is an improvement over the other side.”
“Wanna join me on it? I can’t imagine the floor is great for your back.”
Girish flushed and backed away. “Nah, the floor is fine.”
With a shrug, Trent climbed onto the bed and lay on his back. “Well, if you change your mind, feel free. I can turn sideways and I won’t be sleeping all that long.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Girish woke up with a start, sweat rolling down his face and chest. Yet again he’d dreamed of the child he’d killed. His body felt the shoke of what he saw as if he’d just witnessed it. As if he’d just pulled the trigger and extinguished that young life. The ugliness of it was always fresh in his mind.
At first, he didn’t know where he was, and Trent’s soft snore coming from the bed clued him in. He was about to get up and grab some water when he thought he heard something else, an animal outside perhaps? He strained to hear something and wondered if it was a strange noise that had woken him.
He got up slowly and stretched before sneaking out of the back area to hide behind the cash register.
There was no one in the store; he’d have heard if anyone tried to break in, though he couldn’t shake the feeling that something unfriendly was outside.
Girish inched around the counter to peer out one of the grimy windows.
The bright light outside made it easy to see there was nothing out of place. No animal, no person. There was a torn bag of litter strewn across the ground, so perhaps scavengers had made empty soda cans clatter as they fell from the bag.
