Morgan's Choice (27 page)

Morgan shivered, cold to the bone in her
sodden clothes.

Unwyn noticed. “There’s blankets in the back,
behind Admiral Ravindra.”

She scrambled over the seat and rummaged.
A jacket
and
a blanket.
She wrapped herself up, rubbing a rather scratchy, not very clean
blanket through her hair. She must look a sight.

Beyond the village Unwyn increased altitude,
flying a little above the forest. “This way is not a scheduled
route. Anybody following wouldn’t expect it. It goes quite close to
my dig. The road goes through a High Pass in the mountains that
leads to the Fasgael Plains and then across them to Zaffra
Bay.”

She gazed ahead, enhancing the view on her
implant. Thick cloud covered the peaks. The wind had strengthened
and snow had replaced rain, making it impossible to see much. She
turned her attention to the instruments, checking the long range
sensors.

Ravindra turned on a news channel. A female
newsreader explained that the Mirka security forces had been
replaced with troops loyal to the new regime. In the background a
squad of armed men in electric blue uniforms swaggered past, hands
on the butts of their weapons.

“I was a little bit surprised the village was
unaffected,” she said, half to herself.

Unwyn grunted. “I’m not. Only
Hai Sur
Devagnam’s picked people get to
live there. The rest live in terraces in the backstreets. I must
admit, I wondered why I hadn’t seen the usual two heavies strutting
around. I asked in the bar when they told me about the revolution.
I’m a bit cut off from things at the dig.”

“
What did they say?” she said.

“Karimh—he’s the publican—said they weren’t
needed anymore. Now I think about it, he had a rather unpleasant
smile on his face when he said it.”

“Dead, then,” Ravindra said.

“I expect so.”

She glanced at Ravindra’s profile as he
gazed out at the rain, the dim light reflecting from the planes of
his face. The hair curled up where the missing ponytail used to be.
Hair grew back but she wondered if it mattered to him. Well, she’d
ask him later. When they were alone.

“I’m glad to be out of it, really,” Unwyn
said after a few moments of silence. “Maybe I can come with you?
When you go?”

Morgan shared a glance with Ravindra.

“You’ll come with us as far as Zaffra Bay,”
he said. “From there, we’ll, see.”

Unwyn smiled, white teeth gleaming in the
green light. She turned back to the sensors. And tensed. “Looks
like company on the way.”

Ravindra straightened, all
attention.
“Where?”

“A distance at the moment. The database says
they’re police copters. Two of them, coming toward us.” A weight
settled on her shoulders. Fuck fuck fuck. “Gaining fast.”

“We can’t outrun them. Any ideas?” Ravindra
said.

How could he sound so calm? “We can’t hide
the skyvan. They have its ID now.”

“
We can go to the dig,” Unwyn said. “I have
a camp there so I can stay overnight if I want to. So I’ll just
have gone home. They’ll search and then we can move on when they’ve
gone.” He laughed. “It’s the last place they’d expect
you
to be.”

“Why?” Ravindra asked.

Unwyn laughed again. “She’s afraid of holes
in the ground.”

Ravindra grinned at her. “I’ll look after
her.”

She curled her lip at him. Look after her
indeed. She didn’t need looking after. But Unwyn might. “If they
catch you with us—”

Ravindra cut her off.
“Let’s make sure they don’t.”

Yes, let’s make sure they
don’t
. If they were
lucky, the pursuers would give up. She kept an eye on the sensor
data.

She could only just make out the road beneath
them. The snow thickened, buffeting the weather shield. The
skyvan’s stabilizers whined, fighting a battle against the wind.
Maybe the police would give up the chase. It was madness, after
all, flying in this weather. The red blips followed, a little
closer by the minute. They were over the highest point of the pass.
As they descended the snow disappeared, but the wind remained.
Unwyn dropped into the gorge, the walls invisible on either side
and shaped the vehicle to land.

On the screen, the two blips came on, closer
now. Damn it, they’d have to hope Unwyn could talk his way out of
it. “Where can we hide?” she asked.

“Hurry,” Unwyn said. “Hide in the dig.”

She paused in the act of shoving the skyvan’s
door open against the wind. Hide in the dig? Her stomach lurched at
the thought. Unwyn was gone, opening the back and lifting out
boxes.

Ravindra took her arm. “Quickly, woman.
They’ll have heat sensors.”

The tent flapped, surging and swaying like
some obscene bird trying to take off. Fumbling in her rush, she
unzipped the entrance and slipped inside, the admiral at her heels.
Refastening was even harder. Ravindra had to do it for her. The
hatch to the underground was a malevolent eye staring at her back.
Her mouth dry, she turned. It lay there in the middle of the tent,
blank and innocent. Ravindra pulled back the handle and lifted the
hatch.

She swallowed. Even with her enhanced
vision the pit was black as space. It laughed at her and lured her,
pitiless as a black hole, a looming absence of light.

Don’t think about it. There’s
nothing there. It’s just a ruin
. Her foot refused to move.

Ravindra snorted, exasperated.
“I’ll go first.” He clambered
down into the dark and stood at the base of the ladder.

A vehicle. She heard the swish as it slowed
to land. Her foot reached out, settled on a rung; and another.

“
Move. Now.” Ravindra’s voice was a
whisper.

Faster, move faster. Voices rose.

“Hello, Unwyn. What are you doing here on a
night like this?”

Lakshmi. That was Lakshmi’s voice, she’d
swear to it. What in all the hells of all the universe was she
doing here?

Unwyn’s reply floated down. “I could ask
you the same question,
Hai Suri
. You can hardly be just passing through.”

“I’m looking for Selwood. She’s bolted.
Stolen a skimmer and headed off.”

“Here?” Unwyn’s voice oozed disbelief. He did
it very well.

“You’re the only other person she knows.”

“Well, you can see there’s nobody here but
me. I had some equipment to pick up and I’m not going back on a
night like this.”

“So you won’t mind if we take a quick look
downstairs?”

Morgan reached out a hand and drew down the
hatch.

Darkness. Absolute, total darkness engulfed
her. She couldn’t see anything, even with eyes wide open and vision
enhancement set to maximum. Terror, sheer primeval terror gripped
her heart in steel talons. Her lungs contracted and her bones
turned to jelly.

“Quickly, woman,” Ravindra said, his
irritation obvious in his tone.

It’s just dark
. She switched to infrared and saw her own
hands, bright white where they clutched the rungs. She breathed.
She was all right. A few more steps and she could stand on a
floor.
Come
on, move
. Her foot
searched for the next rung. She sighed with relief as the ladder
took her weight. Another, then another, in excruciating slow
motion. Now, she hung in the void between the floor and the
ceiling. She pictured it; pictured the floor, the room lit up with
its murals all around.

One last step. Her outstretched foot found
tiles. She sagged, relief draining what little strength she had
left.

Ravindra reached out an arm.

She fended him off. “Don’t. I’m okay.” All
the same he was a reassuring bright white warmth beside her, while
she concentrated on her breathing. The silence pressed down on her,
as heavy as the darkness. Above her, the heat of her handprints
faded on the metal rungs. In…out.

“I can’t see a thing,” he muttered.

Of course he couldn’t.
Stupid woman
. Her heart pounding, Morgan took hold of
Ravindra’s sleeve and groped for the wall, over there somewhere, as
far from the trapdoor as they could get. This direction was the
part they hadn’t cleaned. Her fingers brushed the wall’s surface,
at once smooth but gritty. He stumbled a little, blind in the total
darkness. The wall disappeared beneath her fingers. A door. Air
rushed past her, just like the mixture of gas when an airlock
opened.

The sound of the hatch being raised echoed
and banged through the room. The light inside the tent spilled down
like a searchlight.

“
You’re wasting your time,
Hai
Suri
. Even if she was
here, she wouldn’t come down into the dig. Remember how frightened
she was?” Unwyn said.

Lakshmi snorted. “I remember. You won’t mind
if we take a look anyway.”

Morgan towed Ravindra into the new space just
as light flooded the room. A foot—Lakshmi’s—appeared. The hidden
door slid shut in front of her of its own accord. Almost weeping
with relief, she rested her forehead against the surface. The air
wasn’t good, but at least they were hidden. Ravindra’s fingers
kneaded her shoulder.

He leaned close, all spice, mud and warm
breath and slipped his arm around her waist from behind, pulling
her against his chest. “Stay calm. It’ll be all right.”

She straightened, pushed his arm away. She
didn’t need his help. Even though it felt good. She held her
breath, enhancing her hearing to the maximum.

“Now do you believe me?” Unwyn said, his
words muffled by the wall.

Lakshmi’s boots clicked on the tiles. Heavier
footfalls receded down the open passage and returned. “Okay. She’s
not here. But let me make this very, very clear, Professor Unwyn.
If I find out you’ve helped her, so help me you’ll be very, very
sorry.”

Not happy; not happy at all. Darkness might
be terrifying but it wasn’t vindictive. Lakshmi’s voice dripped
venom.

“
Forgive me,
Suri
. I don’t understand. All right, you say the woman has
stolen a skimmer. Is that a capital offence? I thought she was
Queen of the Orionar.”

“Huh. You didn’t believe that rubbish, Raj? I
know these murals are enhanced.”

“What are you afraid she’ll do? Summon the
Fleet?”

Lakshmi laughed. “The Fleet has come. And
gone.” The laugh became a chuckle, cold as the ice demons of
Sirrbesk. “Without Admiral Ravindra.”

Somebody—a third person—cleared his
throat. “We’d better get on,
Hai Suri
.”

Morgan smiled without mirth. Lakshmi was a
bitch, first class. And over confident.

“Yes. Remember, Professor. Don’t cross
me.”

“
I wouldn’t dream of it,
Hai
Suri
.”

Footfalls echoed from the rungs. One, two,
three people ascended. The hatch scraped closed.

Chapter
Thirty-One

Morgan waited, listening for any furtive
movements, for the soft rush of air into lungs beyond the portal.
Her lungs felt heavy, breathing had become difficult. She fumbled,
her fingers searching for a switch to open the door. Ravindra found
it, reaching past her, certainly not a secret from this side. The
stone slid back. The lights were switched off, of course, but hand
prints still glowed on the ladder. She staggered out, head
spinning. He shuffled behind her, hand outstretched.

She stepped back to him. “You’re in clear
space now. Near the ladder.”

“Can you see? See in the dark?”

“Um. Not in pitch black. I can enhance
visible light and I can see extra parts of the spectrum. I can see
you and I can see the handprints on the ladder. The strange eyes,
you know?”

The hatch scraped. Weapon in hand, Ravindra
pulled her away, back to the wall. She heard furtive movement in
the darkness, looked up to see Unwyn’s form, bright in infrared. He
clambered down a few rungs, the hatch scraped closed again and then
the lights came on. He scrambled down the rest of the way and
jumped the last few rungs.

“Are you all right?” His eyes flicked between
her and Ravindra. “When you weren’t here… Where did you hide? I was
sure they’d have to find you with the heat sensors.”

“That chamber must be sealed against
sensors,” she said.

Unwyn frowned. “What chamber?”

She whirled. The door was gone.

“Quietly,” he whispered. “They’ve left six
troopers up there. It’s okay. They don’t think you’re here. It’s
more in case you arrive. I’ve told them I often work at night.
Doesn’t matter down here, does it?”

She nodded. They could think about the guards
later.

“There’s a secret door.” She walked to the
wall where dusty smears bore testament to her movements. “Somewhere
here.” It would have to be the last place she’d touched. She
pressed. Nothing happened. Two spots then. No result. She turned
around, imitating her actions when Lakshmi started down the
ladder.

“I tripped,” Ravindra said.

Ah. He’d tripped; just about here. A cracked
tile. She pushed down.

Unwyn sucked in air as a section of wall slid
backwards and sideways. “What’s in there?”

“I don’t know.” She held out an arm to stop
him from charging forward. “Give it a moment for the air to
circulate. You’ll need a lamp.”

Unwyn almost leapt across the room to grab
a lantern, while Morgan stood in the entrance to prevent it from
closing. The professor thrust through into the new chamber, the
light held high. The place seemed almost like a shrine. Maybe that
was what it was, dust-free, sealed from the millennia. A mural
decorated the back wall, above an intricately carved wooden altar.
But this wasn’t a painting; they were 3d images of people, almost
as if they were trapped in there, looking out from behind a
transparent barrier. A beautiful woman, flaxen-haired, pale
skinned, blue eyed, smiled out at the viewer from her seat on a
bench, her hand resting on a feline with thick grey fur and a dark
muzzle. A dark-skinned man stood behind her, his hand on her
shoulder. Another feline wove around his legs. They were in a
lovely tropical garden. She could almost smell the fragrance.
Perhaps once she could have. A word was inlaid into the wooden
plaque beneath the image, then a few symbols separated by a dash. A
name? Dates?