I stripped off most of my gear and traded my Winton for Chiraine’s RB. Still, the exosuit added about seven kilos to my weight. But I needed it for protection in case I fell, not to mention the life support functions.
Narcissa fired and the bolt embedded itself into the parapet wall. From down where we stood, it looked like she hit it right below the top. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was within seven centimeters. The line expanded and thickened as the nanotubes decompressed. Within a minute, it was ready.
“Here goes nothing.”
“Be careful, Jannigan!” Chiraine called after me.
I just went for it, leaping as high as I could and catching the rope. Then I braced my legs against the wall, leaned back, and started pulling myself up, hand over hand. It was either momentum, sheer force of will, or dumb luck, but I managed to get to the top of the wall without falling. At the top I caught the edge of the parapet and pulled myself up, thankful for the augmented strength my suit provided.
As Chiraine and Narcissa cheered me on, I swung myself up and pivoted over the edge and—
I nearly fell through the roof.
It was almost completely collapsed—a tangle of broken beams and timbers that formed a three-story-deep crater of debris.
“What is it?” Narcissa yelled.
“The roof’s just about gone!” I pulled myself back up and straddled the top of the parapet.
“What do you mean gone?”
“Collapsed. The whole thing.” I leaned over, trying to take in as much as possible.
“Get back down here, then,” Chiraine yelled. “It’s not safe.”
She was right. It wasn’t safe. But, judging by the weathering of the debris, this roof had collapsed a long time ago.
“It might be stable enough for me to climb down.” I had spotted a natural archway on the bottom where some rafters had fallen and were propped against each other. As long as I didn’t disturb anything, I bet I could gain entrance to the ground floor. It was worth a shot.
“I’m going in.”
“You’re crazy!” Chiraine yelled.
“I agree,” Narcissa called. “It’s not worth it. We’ll find someplace else.”
My dad always said that I had a stubborn streak, and maybe it was true. Especially when faced with a challenge.
I gathered the line and tossed it down into the interior of the building. Nothing collapsed further, thank Dynark.
“Here I go!”
Chiraine and Narcissa yelled some more protests, but I was already rappelling down into the crater.
It was all good until my shoulder hit a broken beam and triggered an avalanche of wreckage which rained down on me. I hit the ground hard, and rolled towards the outer walls as timbers and slate shingles crumbled in a cloud of debris.
Heart thundering, I staggered to my feet, almost losing my balance as I slipped on the thick layer of detritus on the ground. Lunging forward, I pressed myself against the closest stone wall.
“Jannigan!” Chiraine called over the comm.
I forced myself to take a deep breath. That was close. “I’m okay,” I said.
“You sure?” Narcissa asked. “It sounded like a serious collapse.”
“There’s not much more roof left to collapse.” I turned on my helmet lamp and activated the EVS overlay so I could get a better look at my surroundings. There were a row of posts that held up the section of ceiling above my head. Beams and rafters canted at odd angles and the floor was covered with piles of broken building materials. There was so much debris I couldn’t even tell what the original purpose of this building was.
“See any doors?” Narcissa asked over the comm.
“Actually, no.” I had hoped that there would be some sort of hidden door that was more visible from the inside, but I couldn’t see anything like that.
There was, however, something that appeared to be a staircase leading down. It was covered with a ton of broken wood and tile, but this might be what we had been looking for.
“I think I found something that could lead to a lower level. I’ll need to do a little digging, though. More than a little, actually.”
“You need to get out of there.” Chiraine couldn’t keep the panic out of her voice.
“How? There’s no way I can climb out.”
“I’ve got some thermal petards,” Narcissa said. “Mini Bs. We could blow a hole in one of the walls.”
“Negative,” I said. “That would take down the rest of the roof for sure—and bury me in the process. There’s a staircase here that might lead to a tunnel exit. I just need to take some time to clear it.”
“What should we do?” Narcissa asked.
“Send the hourly to Ana-Zhi. Then check the surrounding buildings again. Look on the outside too. There’s got to be a connection.”
10
It took me nearly an hour to clear enough debris out of the stairwell to be able to squeeze through. I kept Chiraine and Narcissa up to speed on my progress and they reported that they had not found any tunnel entrances within fifty meters of the Antrum.
That wasn’t good.
“Keep looking. I’m about to see where this staircase leads.”
The beams of my helmet lamp cut through the darkness as I crawled through the tight passage I’d created in the junk that filled the stairwell. Once I got clear, I found myself in a stone staircase that went down about five meters before connecting with a narrow tunnel that stretched off to the north. Just as I had suspected.
I brushed the dust from my suit and double-checked my bio support module. I didn’t want to run out of air somewhere deep down below an ancient temple. Yueld’s atmosphere was nominally breathable, although the O2 levels were on the low side. I didn’t want to take any chances, though.
Readying the radiant blaster I had borrowed from Chiraine, I slowly made my way forward. The tunnel was made of tightly fitted stone blocks. It was fairly narrow: not more than two meters wide, but the ceiling was tall enough to accommodate the height of a
