She saw nothing but smooth walls painted gray. As she moved deeper down, it grew increasingly dark. In her own compound there were lights everywhere and plenty of niches with candles and strikers just in case the power went out.
Apparently, the Marines didn’t need lights. She supposed the lights on the Humvees were enough. She finally resorted to hugging one wall as the track twisted down lower and lower into the earth.
Rain tried hard not to think about the darkness pressing against her eyelids. It wasn’t that she was afraid of the dark. Just, uncomfortable with it.
Finally, she spied light ahead. It was a dull yellow glow, but it was there.
The track spilled into a giant cavern large enough to house a dozen Humvees. There were two of them parked in the space. Five had gone out through the town of Fossil, according to the boy, which meant the Marines only had seven.
Seven Humvees to terrorize the world. Her part of it anyway.
Rain clenched her jaw. The world was terrorized enough by the drags. They didn’t need the fucking Marines adding to it.
On the far side of the cavern was another steel door. This one was still bright red. She made a beeline straight for it.
Rain paused, hand on the doorknob. Anything could be on the other side of that door. There could be twenty Marines, weapons pointed at her head, for all she knew.
Rain took a deep breath, bracing for what she might find on the other side. Slowly, she turned the knob and swung the door open.
Seven
NOTHING.
There was nothing on the other side of the red door but another dimly lit tunnel and more gray walls. No Marines with guns. No shrieking alarms. Nothing.
Rain trailed her fingers along the smooth walls. She kept her footsteps light. Down here any sound would echo like crazy. Last thing she wanted was a Marine platoon on her ass. They had to be down there somewhere.
The tunnel dead-ended at a blast door. Seven feet high, solid steel. No way in but a key pad to the side of the door.
“Damn,” she whispered. She should have expected it. If this really was an old military installation, of course it would have some kind of security.
She gave the key pad a good once-over. Four of the numbers were nearly worn off their keys which meant those were the numbers in use. But in what sequence? And what would happen if she entered the wrong code?
Not to mention, what was waiting on the other side?
Strangely there were no cameras, though there was an old mount and some frayed wires where one had been. Maybe it didn’t work anymore so they took it down. Or more likely they’d cannibalized it for parts.
She scanned the rest of the tunnel. Nothing. No other way in. She sighed and tilted her head back. Something caught her eye.
“Bingo.”
There. In the ceiling just over the door was a grate. And no doubt behind that grate was some kind of air duct.
But how to get up there? The grate was way too high to reach on her own. Even if she dragged a ladder down here it would be a dead giveaway once the Marines returned.
Sudden inspiration sent her hustling back up the tunnel and into the parking bay. The Marines needed lots of equipment to fight the dragons. There had to be something useful in the Humvees.
The parking bay was just as she’d left it: Quiet and dim. She headed toward the nearest Humvee. It looked like it was in the middle of being repaired. Half its guts were laid out on the floor next to a set of worn tools.
She poked around in the interior. Nothing. Not so much as a scrap of paper let alone anything useful.
The second Humvee was parked in the furthest corner of the bay. It had obviously been out of commission for quite some time. The wheels had been removed and replaced with cinder blocks, and a thick coat of dust covered the windshield. Someone had scrawled “wash me” in the dust.
Rain shook her head. Marines had an odd sense of humor, apparently. Who in their right mind would waste water washing a Humvee?
She opened the Humvee door, careful the hinges didn’t squeak. The inside was as dusty as the outside.
The vehicle had been stripped clean. Rain nearly gave up before she spotted something under the driver’s seat.
She snaked it out. It was a thin, blue nylon rope, faded with time. She smiled to herself. Now to find some kind of hook.
A poke through the assorted tools and motor parts on the floor turned up a random piece of metal that had a slight curve to it. She hefted it. Good balance. It ought to work.
She tucked it in her pocket along with a screwdriver then hurried back down the tunnel to the ceiling grate. She quickly tied one end of the rope around the metal piece then shrugged out of her “borrowed” Marine jacket and spread it on the floor under the grate. The tough fabric would hopefully minimize the noise of metal striking concrete should she miss.
Rain inhaled then tossed the metal piece at the grate. It took three tries before the makeshift hook caught. She tested her weight. The rope held.
Padre Pedro would have told her she should thank God. Padre Pedro was big on the One God. As far as Rain was concerned, if there was a god, he or she helped those who helped themselves.
She shimmied up the rope to the grate. It took all her effort and concentration to loosen the screws holding the grate to the ceiling without falling on her head. She had to stop and climb down the rope twice to give herself a break. By the time she was through, her muscles were shaking
