“Then things get real noisy,” she said.
I sure hoped it wouldn’t come to that. I’d seen what bolts of condensed energy could do to a living creature. It wasn’t pretty. I didn’t want that happening to my body.
I focused on the rocks.
One stone shifted beneath my hands.
The sheets began to move, slithering up the wall as the guards pulled them up.
We were perched under the final sheet. We would be visible for sure within the next ten seconds.
I felt at the adjacent rocks and they gave way too.
This must be it.
I shoved several aside, producing a hole.
I placed my face in front of it and peered through—no way I was sticking anything through there. I’d seen Indiana Jones.
There was something on the other side.
Empty space.
I tossed a small stone through the hole. It bounced across the surface and hit something on the other side. A wall.
“How are we doing?” Emana said, aiming with her pistol through the sheet. She would open fire the instant it was yanked free.
“Almost… there,” I said, working another rock free. It wasn’t yet wide enough to fit my fat ass through.
Why didn’t I stick to just one of my many diets?
The sheets shifted as they unfurled further up the wall.
I grabbed the last rock and slid it aside. I wasted no time and slithered forward on my arms. I grazed my shoulders and elbows on my way through. I wriggled until I reached the other side.
A narrow tunnel greeted me with sconces lined at regular intervals along the wall. Not quite as empty as I thought it was.
“A little help?” Emana said.
Her ass—firm though it was—was also not the smallest in the galaxy. It was bulbous and round—all the rage with men back on Earth these days. I didn’t tell her about that. I doubted she would have been appreciative.
I grabbed her by the forearms and braced a foot on either side of the hole. I pulled hard but she wouldn’t come free.
Voices shouted on the other side of the wall. The guards must be shouting at a flapping pair of legs.
Any second, they might fire…
“Get me out of here!” Emana screamed.
I worked her left and right. She slipped through one inch at a time until…
Our heads smacked and I got a face full of her.
She pulled her legs up behind herself and breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
I got down on my front and began putting the rocks back in place.
“Don’t bother,” Emana said. “We don’t have time. And they’ll only shoot us full of holes if they see us. Come on.”
She took up her pistol and led us down the long hall.
My legs were shaking. How could she take all this in her stride?
It came with being a badass Titan, I guess.
We followed the long passageway as it wound through the thick darkness. In some places, the hallway was very low and even I had to crouch down to fit through it. Then it grew so narrow I had to expel the air from my lungs to squeeze through. It was difficult for me and almost impossible for Emana to negotiate.
“How did you not know about this place?” I said. “I thought all you kids would be playing together, discovering these secret passages.”
“I was more of a puppy and doll kind of girl,” Emana said.
That was the very last thing I expected her to say.
“What?” Emana said, noticing the expression on my face. “You thought I was a tomboy growing up?”
“Kinda,” I said. “Yeah.”
She grinned.
“That didn’t happen until later,” she said.
We turned a corner and the hallway came to an end.
“It’s a dead-end,” I said. “We must have needed to turn off somewhere.”
“Are you sure?” Emana said. “What did my brother say? He’s usually pretty good at giving instructions.”
“He said to keep going until we reached the end. It will open onto the prison and we’ll have full access to the cells.”
Emana edged all the way to the dead-end and placed her hands on the solid wall of stone. No way she was going to push it aside. She perked up and turned back to me.
“I told you he was good at instructions,” she said.
I met her at the end wall. As I drew closer, I witnessed the optical illusion as the wall on one side fell away. The crack wasn’t big but it was enough for us to slip through. Beyond that, a long row of bars and a set of cages awaited us.
My heart thumped in my chest at the thought of seeing him again. Would he embrace me? Ignore me? Toss me over his shoulder and punish me?
(Yes, please.)
We moved into the narrow space between the cells’ rear walls and the craggy interior of the subterranean world we found ourselves in.
The cells were empty—all but one.
The ragged man.
“He’s not here,” Emana whispered.
“He must be,” I said.
I ducked and weaved to identify him tucked behind one of the bars, momentarily out of view.
But Emana was right. He wasn’t there.
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“Oh, I think I understand all right,” Emana said.
It was the coldness of her tone that snared my attention. When I turned to her, I found her pistol aimed directly at me.
“What are you doing?” I said.
“This is a trap,” she said. “You brought me down here to lock me in one of these cells. You’ve got another thing coming if you think I’m going quietly.”
I raised my hands.
“I didn’t bring you here for anything except to set your brother free,” I said. “I swear.”
“Then, where is he?” Emana said.
I felt my blaster pistol press against the waistband of my pants. Could I get to it before she opened fire?
Definitely not.
Not without a distraction.
And even if I could, I didn’t want to shoot at Emana. She might suspect me for dodgy dealing—I knew I deserved it—but I could never accuse her of the same. She was a good, kind person.
“We’ll figure this out,” I said. “Please. Put
