Morgan's Choice (30 page)

“
Over here,
Hai Suri
.” Telmus shouted over the roar of the
falls.

Lakshmi jogged over to where the six men had
gathered. A porch had been built against the mountainside and
beneath its protective roof, lintels defined a wide doorway. Two
massive doors hung a little askew, wide enough for a person to
wriggle through. So. They’d get here—sometime—and they’d be able to
get out.

“How long do you think it will take then to
get here on foot?”

“Who knows? At a guess, a day. Maybe more,”
Wes said. “If they traveled all night, maybe they wouldn’t be far
away.”

Maybe he wasn’t such an idiot, after all. The
noon sun lit up the gorge, turning the mist into sparkling diamonds
that danced to the music of the torrent. Droplets settled on her
cheeks, her eye lashes, her clothing.

“All right. We’ll wait.”

Leaving the men in the semi-protection of the
portico, she returned to the copter. It might be cramped and
uncomfortable, but at least it was dry.

Chapter
Thirty-Five

Morgan’s eyes opened to Stygian darkness.
Panic galloped from her maw, scrambled toward her heart, clutched
at her lungs. She jerked and adjusted her vision. A warm arm
surrounded her, held her close as the soft glow of a lantern chased
away the dark.

“
You’re awake,
Suri
.” Ravindra’s voice was soft and comforting as the
hand on her shoulders. The panic drained away.

She steadied herself and sat up beside
him.
Stupid,
stupid. Never, never panic
. “Did I sleep long?”

“Half an hour.”

Unwyn rose to his feet and pushed a ration
bar into her hand. “Eat this. It will do you good.”

She ate. “It’s so quiet it hurts,” she
muttered. The mountain reared into the sky above her head, a
looming presence in her mind. The sooner they got out of this hell
the better.

Unwyn offered her a hand. “Time to go.”

Ravindra stared at the Professor. Unwyn
returned the stare for a long moment, then he looked away and his
arm dropped. Ravindra pulled her up himself, holding her hand a
little longer than he needed to. A bit more power play between the
two men, and no prizes for guessing who was winning. It was almost
‘don’t touch her she’s mine’. That was probably because of the
hardware in her head.

She trudged between them, their footfalls
a calming presence. At least they wouldn’t have to worry about the
lanterns failing. Unwyn said the power packs were new and they
lasted for weeks. That was good to know. They’d run out of food and
water well before then. Shades of her journey in
Curlew
, when a
failed shift drive left her and Jones lost in space. Until
Vidhvansaka
turned up.

She wondered whether the fellows left at
Unwyn’s dig were aware yet that he wasn’t coming back. What would
they do about it? One thing for sure; if it were her, she would
simply have risked the Lovely Lakshmi’s wrath, rather than come
chasing down into the endless night under the mountain. She’d
become a little more accustomed to it but she wasn’t comfortable,
no she was not. Certainly if they did come down here, she would
hear them long before they reached her. Her implant enhanced every
sound but all she heard were Ravindra’s and Unwyn’s footsteps, the
swish of material as they moved and the rhythmic double thump of
their hearts. She plodded on.

Two hours and a break; two hours and a break.
She wished there was a public toilet down here, but there wasn’t.
The sharp stink of urine followed them for a long way, even without
the scent enhancement her implant could have provided.
Long-forgotten memories pushed at her consciousness. She pushed
them back, straining like clothes in an over-filled suitcase when
you tried to close the lid.

Then came a set of steeper stairs, laid out
like a normal staircase where each step brings a new riser.

“Good. We must be approaching the bottom,”
Unwyn said. He leapt down like a mountain goat.

Knees complaining, she winced her way down,
one weary step at a time, Ravindra half a step further back.

“A little further,” he said. “Just a little
further.”

Unwyn was waiting for them at the bottom,
leaning casually against the wall. He shouldered the pack and
walked on.

Ravindra drew close. “I’m intrigued why you
find this so scary if you can see in the dark.”

“I can’t see much with the lights off.
Infra-red, ultra-violet. And it isn’t the dark I can see. It’s what
I can’t see, the dark I’m not looking at.”

She shivered. Memories welled again, eyes in
corners, tentacles reaching out in a cellar.

“Space is colder and darker.”

“Sure. But there you haven’t got a mountain
pressing down on you.”

The ground had become uneven and rocks
littered the surface. They slipped and slid in silence for a
distance while she fought with the disturbing notion that the
debris had come from the walls or roof. In fact, the condition of
the tunnel had deteriorated so much she could almost believe she
was in a natural cave. There seemed to be more mould here, too,
along dark moisture stains on the walls and roof.

“Tell me, where does this fear of the dark
come from?” Ravindra asked.

She swallowed. She’d never talked about it;
not to anyone but it might keep her mind off speculating about the
geology. “I was accidentally locked in a cellar for a time when I
was small.”

“How small?”

“I was seven years old.” Did he think it was
funny? Had she detected amusement in his tone?

“What happened down there?”

Monsters. Monsters hid in the corners.
Tentacles peeked out from packing crates. Teeth leered, great huge
dripping fangs. Furtive noises all around her, shuffles and
squeaks, coming to get her. She’d cried and yelled and sobbed and
banged at the door until her fists were raw.

“I snuck in and hid. It was supposed to be a
joke. My father didn’t know. He turned out the light and locked the
door. I was down there for almost a whole day before they found me.
And I didn’t know how to see in the dark, then. I learned much
later.”

“So nothing happened?”

“A rat ran over my foot.”

He laughed.

Easy for him to laugh. “I was cold and hungry
and thirsty. I had to go to the toilet in a corner. I’ve never been
so scared in all my life.”

“Really?” Ravindra’s voice bubbled. She
turned to look at him, at the laughter in his eyes and the corners
of his lips.

“Yes, really.”

It was true. The sheer, naked terror she’d
experienced down there in the cellar, alone in the darkness had
tormented her dreams for years. A quiver ran up through her feet.
Morgan stopped. A few meters ahead, Unwyn tensed.

“What is it?”

“A tremor. Not much. Let’s hope it’s
over.”

The ground buckled. She staggered, fighting
to maintain her balance. Not monsters here; nothing she could
fight. A rumbling roar filled the tunnel, surging up toward them
with a choking cloud of dust and grit that filled her eyes and
pattered against her clothing.

Chapter
Thirty-Six

“
Morgan
.” Ravindra’s heart raced. If anything had happened to her…
Dust spiraled and swirled in the lantern light as the last
pattering cascade settled into silence.

“Here.” She leant, one-handed, against the
tunnel wall.

He sucked in air and spat out grit, sighing
with relief. “Are you all right?” He shone the lantern at her. Her
hair was covered in dust, her face smudged.

“Yes. A few scratches,” she said, dusting
herself off ineffectually with her hands. “You?”

“Yes. Fine.”

“Where’s Unwyn?”

He shot a glance at her but her reaction
seemed normal enough. “Under that.”

The lantern light played over blocks of stone
that filled the tunnel.

“Oh… fuck.” She sagged against the wall,
drained. “It’s all my fault.”

“That the roof collapsed? Hardly.” He started
pulling at the rocks. “You never know with these things. He may be
alive.”

“Just a second. Stay quiet. I’ll see if I can
hear him.” She went still, staring down into the rubble for a few
moments while he stared at her. “He’s alive.”

“How do you know?”

“I can hear his heart.” She shot a wry glance
at him. “Another thing you don’t know about me. I can accentuate my
hearing far beyond any human’s.”

“
I see.” Something else that made her
different. Astonishing. “So. Let’s get him out.” He started to dig,
pulling boulders away with his bare hands.

She joined him. Stone after stone they moved,
careful not to cause another avalanche. Occasionally a stone
slipped, loud in the confines of the tunnel. His heart beat too
fast. He didn’t like it here, either. What he’d give to be back
where he belonged, out in space. He moved another rock and
uncovered a dusty hand. He knelt and felt for a pulse while Morgan
checked again in her own way. No breath, no heartbeat.

“He’s dead,” she said.

He stood, wiping his hands, and glanced back
at the blocked tunnel. “I wouldn’t have expected he could survive
this. But we had to try.”

“Yes.” She bowed her head. “Poor man. What a
way to die.”

Ravindra placed a hand on her shoulder and
she didn’t shrug him away. “Was he special to you? A friend?”

A lover?
He couldn’t say the words. He steadied his
pulse. Brutal, he knew, but if he had been special, he wasn’t any
more.

“I liked him; I liked him a lot. He was
closer to me than anybody else on Krystor.” She sighed. “I feel
guilty for hijacking him and bringing him down here to his death.
He should be celebrating his wonderful find, not crushed to death
under a mountain of rock.”

She liked him a lot. Was that how a woman
would describe her lover, where she came from? Not in those words,
surely? “The best thing we can do for him is get out of here and
show this planet what he found.”

She looked up at him. “So we go back up to
face Lakshmi’s goons?”

“There’s no guarantee we can. If it’s fallen
here, it may have fallen up there. Let’s look for options
here.”

He released her and directed the lantern
along the walls and ceiling. And noticed a hint of a crack at the
base of the wall, half hidden by rubble. If they hadn’t searched
for Unwyn, they would have missed it. He pulled a few pieces
away.

“Looks like it widens a little.” He pulled a
few more pieces aside. “There’s an open space behind it.”

He lifted a rock and set it carefully aside,
then another. He could hear her breathing as she worked beside him,
the scrape of stone on stone, the clunk as the rocks were placed on
the pile. His muscles aching, he bent down for another rock. If
this didn’t lead somewhere, they may yet have to go back up. The
crack widened into a fissure. Time to see what might be on the
other side.

He put a hand on Morgan’s arm. “I think
that’s enough.”

She nodded, brushing the hair from her
forehead with a grubby arm.

The gap was wide enough to at least take a
look. He lay flat on his stomach, poked the lantern into the gap
and peered through. The beam shone on rows of pillars that rose up
to the ceiling, the lower parts smooth and round, the tops carved
into the fashion of tree branches. The end walls of the space were
invisible. This was remarkable; astonishing. It had to have been
built, a temple under the earth.

He pulled away and staggered to his feet.
“Look,
Suri
. Look at
this.”

Morgan took his place, her face inside the
crevice. “Wow. This is awesome.”

“Can you get through?”

“I think so.” She eased her shoulders around
and wriggled, pushing aside some more of the debris with her hips.
Rocks shifted, grated, settled. She froze.

“Try again,” he said, his heart racing. All
he needed now was for her to be trapped under a collapsed wall.
“Gently.”

Using her legs to brace herself, she pushed.
Part of her torso disappeared from view. One last wriggle and she
was gone. A moment later her face reappeared, the lantern light
reflecting from her silver eyes. “Okay.”

He passed his lantern through to her and
eased his body into the gap. His back and his stomach scraped
against stone. He angled his body so he could ease a shoulder
through. A few pebbles clattered and rolled, pattering, to a halt.
The stone creaked.

“
Hurry,
Srimana
.” Her voice was urgent.

The stone creaked again, louder this time,
with an accompanying timpani of falling debris.

His heart hammering, he shoved, uncaring, and
rolled onto a dusty, littered floor just as the crack filled with
sound and dust and grit. Rocks clattered, skittered across the
floor, pattered into heavy silence.

He stood, dusting his hands. His eyes met
hers and he smiled, sharing warmth. “We’d better hope this leads
somewhere.”

“I’m hoping as hard as I can.”

The pillars rose in serried ranks, their
number lost in the shadows beyond the beams of lantern light.

“What do you think it was, this place?”
Morgan said.

“I don’t know. But it looks formal, so not a
warehouse. And it has a feel about it; religious.”

She nodded. “It reminds me a little of a
cathedral.”

“Yes. A temple.” His voice boomed, echoed,
bouncing off the distant walls.

She pushed away some of the accumulated
rubble on the floor with her foot, revealing little tiles set close
together.