As we jogged through the tunnel, my original assessment that this would be a walk in the park quickly evaporated. The utility tunnel wasn’t a straight shot to quadrant 23-A. In fact the single tunnel soon splintered into a maze of tunnels.
Fortunately, TenSix seemed to know where he was going.
At various points the tunnels crossed over what appeared to be large empty riverbeds with sloped sides, lit by dim utility lights on posts. We saw these riverbeds through portholes in the side walls of the tunnel.
“Are those sewers?” I asked.
“I think they’re flood control channels,” Kira said. She went on to explain that Safadin had a monsoon season that dumped a ton of rain for three solid months. She said that every large habitation in the area had these types of channels—including Ganga Kos.
TenSix led us deeper into the maze. We seemed to make a turn every hundred meters or so. From time to time we passed through reinforced doorways that spanned the entire width of the tunnel.
“These things look like blast doors,” I said.
“Mantraps,” Grannt said.
“What?”
“Access doors, if you want to get official. Don’t forget we’re essentially underneath a big prison. If someone gets out, the guards can seal them in by shutting these doors.”
“So the same thing could happen to us?” Kira asked.
“Of course. It probably will.”
But before we could get stuck in a mantrap, we ran into some more Mayir. A man and a woman, both unarmed and dressed in coveralls, appeared suddenly through a reinforced door that opened in a section of corridor behind us.
Kira was the first one to spot them and she panicked and let loose with the scatterblaster in their direction. But fortunately for them, Kira aimed high.
“Cease fire!” I shouted to Kira.
The man and the woman both threw up their arms to surrender. “What are you doing?”
“Down on the floor!” Grannt barked to the Mayir.
They complied, and while I kept my KHG-S92 trained on the pair, Grannt checked them for weapons.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“No one,” the man stammered. “Maintenance workers. Checking a data wheel in LV-94. It’s got a shadow echo or something. Don’t kill us.”
“Whether you die or not is up to you,” Grannt said. “Tell us about NECRO-7.”
“We don’t know anything about the toxin,” the woman said. “It’s like he said—we’re maintenance techs. But you’re not Security, are you?”
“Did you say toxin?” I asked.
It turned out that the workers did know something about NECRO-7. It was an extremely-potent, military-grade experimental neurotoxin that could kill upon contact with unprotected skin.
“That’s why it’s sealed like that.” The man pointed up at the orange pipe running along the ceiling.
“There’s a neurotoxin in there?” Kira gasped.
“It’s well-contained,” the woman said.
“Obviously,” the man said. “That’s Hercel cataweave it’s wrapped up in. With embedded sensors. Perfectly safe.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Why would you be piping a neurotoxin through a science complex? That’s insane.”
“It’s for the experiments,” the man said quietly.
“What experiments?”
“We’ve said enough.” The woman crossed her arms.
“I don’t think so,” Grannt said, activating his shally stick. Bolts of blue-white energy crackled along its head. “I don’t think you’ve said nearly enough.”
Grannt instructed us to keep going while he had a word with the maintenance crew. “Wait at the next junction. I’ll be there soon.”
I took Kira’s arm and we continued down the tunnel. “You okay?”
“Not really.” She glanced back. “What do you think he’s doing to them?”
“It doesn’t matter,” TenSix said. “They’re Mayir. They deserve whatever is coming to them.”
Up ahead I noticed a section of the wall that jutted out up ahead. As we drew closer I saw that it was labeled EMERGENCY STATION.
“What is that?”
“Not sure,” Kira said. “But this is the second one we’ve passed.”
There was a hatch on the front of the wall section with a big handle. The hatch was emblazoned with warning icons and a row of status lights blinked along one edge.
“This contains emergency protective gear,” TenSix said. “Level A9 PPE/vac suits. Quantity six. Plus other medical equipment. Rescue bellows. And a portable negative pressure cyst. At least that’s the inventory of this locker according to the info beacon.”
“Good to know,” I said. “Have either of you heard of this NECRO-7 stuff?”
Kira shook her head.
“Me neither,” TenSix said.
The corridor crossed another flood control channel, but when I peeked out of the porthole, I saw that this channel was filled with liquid. Water presumably. Before I could ask Kira if it was currently monsoon season, Grannt’s voice echoed from behind us.
“Hold up!”
He jogged over to join us.
“Did you find out what the toxin was for?” Kira asked. “The experiments?”
“Yes, I found out.”
“Well?”
“I’m not sure you want to know.”
“It’s my job to know,” Kira said. Her eyes flashed with resolve.
Grannt glanced at me, maybe trying to take my measure as well.
“I’d like to know too,” I said.
“Their ‘Experiment’ has a capital E,” he said.
“I don’t understand.”
“There’s no experimenting going on with this. The Experiment is a program—an extermination program.”
“A what?” Kira asked.
“Extermination. Murder. Mass-murder, if you want to get specific.”
“Of who?” Kira asked.
I knew who, and it made me sick. “Non-humans,” I said. “The Mayir refer to them as ‘life unworthy of life.’”
“I thought that was just propaganda,” Kira said.
“No, it’s real enough,” I said. “Just ask the Shima.”
“He’s right,” Grannt said. “I did some work busting domestic terrorism rings on Yaados. Mayir sympathizers. We uncovered a lot of intel about Mayir so-called ‘relocation programs’ where non-humans were supposedly relocated away from Mayir territories. But it was the kind of relocation program where no one actually gets relocated. They just disappear.”
My stomach clenched in disgust. “So they end up here?”
“Or places like here,” Grannt said. “The Mayir open and close down these death camps every few years. All disguised as scientific research facilities.”
“We need to do something,” I said.
“Best thing we can do is get out alive with this intel,” Grannt said.
“We’re close to detention block 7812,” TenSix said. “Although these utility tunnels don’t
