by Adam Melrose
‘I guess it’s all broken,’ said Joe, ‘Probably just as well.’
Guessing what Joe was thinking, Max whispered, ‘I don’t think this can be part of any flooding, not with the lift there, that doesn’t somehow look like it has been designed to be submerged.’
Joe breathed out audibly, ‘No, I was thinking that. We should be OK.’
They walked up to the stairs, and then headed to the top, which led along a corridor. Metal cabinets were recessed into the wall with various pipes and wires coming out of them. Some had red digital displays showing various numbers. All the numbers were static, but there was no clue as to what any of them meant. The air was thick with moisture, both Joe and Max felt they were literally drinking in the atmosphere; you could feel it on the back of your throat. The end of the corridor came to yet another staircase which they climbed. At the top was a substantial looking metal door painted in dark grey. When they got to it, Joe put his hand on it. For some reason, the metal was cold and slippery to the touch.
Max ran his fingers around the door frame as best he could.
‘I can’t feel anything like a rubber seal or anything else that makes me think there is a tonne of water sitting behind this door. This looks like a service corridor, and all those panels we passed are not designed to get wet. You OK if I open this door?’
Joe looked directly at Max, his brow furrowed.
‘You really think we should be doing this… I’m not sure any of the team are in here.’
‘I think one way or the other we need to get to the bottom of what this place is before Matt pulls the plug on the investigation.’
Joe more or less agreed, ‘We have come this far I guess.’
Joe knew neither of them should be here; they were beginning to do things that were very much out of character, this case seemed to have had that effect from the start. Max had just destroyed a dam and directly disobeyed Matt purely from a panic attack based on nothing more than a hunch that two of the team members had entered the portal against instructions. That was not normal Max. Up until this case, that would never have happened. Oh well, too late now, Joe thought.
Max rested his hand on the cold metal door handle, and pulled, then pushed it to see if there was any play in the door. There was. He pulled down on the handle. The door began to swing slowly inward and as it did so, no water appeared. Both men relaxed a little. This was definitely not a water-tight door. Whatever it was that lay in wait behind this door for them, it was certainly not an enormous wall of water. They could take a moment to breathe and calm down.
Chapter 40
Ava was trying to make sense of what she had just witnessed. She was giving it some thought as she crawled back from the edge of the canal; back to the rhododendron bush that Bruno was waiting and keeping watch in.
‘Anything happening out there?’
‘Yes you could certainly say stuff is happening. Anything happening here, still no one about?’
‘Matt, Norton and Bella have arrived in a taxi. They have hidden themselves in that rhododendron bush further up towards The Portal. We should probably move up and join them. Why, what else did you see?’
‘Oh it just looks like Max and Joe have destroyed the dam under the bridge, drained the canal and driven into The Portal in Bess. Otherwise, it’s all quiet.’
Bruno’s jaw slackened and his brow furrowed.
‘For real? You’re sure it was them, not someone else?’
‘I know there are plenty of black Range Rovers in this part of the world; but I doubt any of the other ones would be driving into the canal and reversing into The Portal. Although I couldn’t see the occupant’s faces due to the angle, I was able to see the registration as the car drove down the steps – Y923JPP it’s definitely them.’
Bruno stood up and looked around before walking out of the rhododendron.
‘What do you think they are up to?’ He looked at his phone, it was still showing no signal. ‘Do you reckon they think we are inside The Portal?’
‘That or they are on to something major that couldn’t wait. Either way, we should get in there and join them, give them some backup.’
Ava and Bruno joined up with Matt and the others. Matt had given a brief update on what had happened at the Tame Swan with Eva. Bruno thought Matt looked to be in danger of having a genuine heart attack when Ava had told the others what she had witnessed.
‘They have driven into The Portal? And they haven’t come back out? How long ago did they go in?’
‘Just a few minutes ago, they are obviously onto something, or they think we might be trapped in there; guess that’s the problem of having no signal for so long.’
Matt’s imagination was running riot, he should have shut this nonsense down when he had the chance.
‘Ava, did you say they have emptied the canal?’
‘Yes, pretty much. It’s certainly low enough to drive into.’
‘Do you have Bella’s key card on you?’
‘I do.’
‘Can you and Bruno head over to The Portal and recce the site. Norton, Bella and I will go back to the road, find some signal and call the police. I don’t care what happens; I want this case shut down now, and everyone out of here and safe. Sorry Bella enough is enough, we are definitely done.’
Bella nodded in agreement. She was suddenly worried for the others, and this was on her. For the first time since the start of this case, she was beginning to think of others wellbeing before vengeance for the dead. She would make do with what she had learned at the pub.
Matt realised he may have been a bit harsh with Bella. He pulled out his phone and swiped through some of his notes, until he found what he was looking for.
‘Look Bella, it’s not like you haven’t got what you hoped for,’ Matt paused for a moment to read from the phone. ‘You can take what Eva admitted at the pub to the police, get a good lawyer, and then make a request to the Attorney General under section 13 of the UK Coroners Act 1988. They can then authorise that the inquest into Pete’s death be started again. I looked it up before we first took the case; it was why I felt this was worthwhile. I didn’t want to say anything until there was reason to. So in a way you have what you need, I hope that will be enough for you from us. I need my people safe.’
Bella gave Matt a quick hug.
‘It is Matt, thank you.’
‘Right Ava, Bruno, on your way; we will send for help, then come and join you. Bella we will bring you back here and you will wait for the police – no arguments.’
‘No arguments any more Matt, I promise. I want everyone safe too.’
With that, Ava and Bruno made their way towards the entrance of The Portal.
Chapter 41
Bruno and Ava had made it to the mouth of the portal. They had expected to find some sort of security given what Max and Joe had done; but the place was deserted. On finding the garage door open, and guessing it had been done by Max and Joe, Bruno only made one comment.
‘Well done lads… good thinking.’
After what felt like twenty minutes, Ava and Bruno had worked out how to operate the hydraulic platform, and had the two all-terrain quads down with their engines running. All the water had drained out now, so it was not too long a ride into the portal before the lights of the quads lit up the reflectors in the Range Rover’s headlights. They turned the quads round ready for escape and then shut off the engines.
They then spent the next few minutes interrogating Bess about what the other two were up to, and the car’s AI had related what it had stored and processed. On the opposite side of the portal to where Joe and Max had gone, the wall was missing, much in the same fashion as the garage they had got the quads from. The opening was taken up with ramp that dropped down onto the tunnel floor.
‘Bess, who opened this?’
‘I am not aware, it opened a minute or two after Max and Joe went up those stairs. At the same time the rock fall behind sank into the floor.’
‘Did it? No on
e appeared here though?’
‘No one.’
Ava surveyed the entrance hall that had been concealed by the wall. It looked to be like an enormous loading bay complete with ramps and lifts.
Bruno had a thought.
‘Ava, the lads will need Bess to escape if things go sideways, but if a Shadow Tide is released, it will destroy her and the quads, and cut the chances of an escape for any of us.’
‘What are you thinking?’
‘Bess do you think you could get yourself in here and up that ramp?’
‘Yes.’
‘Let us move the quads, then get yourself in there will you, it might keep you safe.’
Within very little time, the car and both the quads were safely inside the loading bay, and high and dry out of reach of any impending Shadow Tides. They could tell by the state of the floors and walls that no water level had been this high. Bess informed them that Max and Joe had taken a couple of warning beacons. They were no alarms, and vitals seemed fine, they didn’t appear to be in any immediate danger.
‘As there doesn’t seem to be anyone about, is it worth us having a quick look on this side before joining the others? We might find something to our advantage.’
Bruno began jumping the steps two at a time.
‘Way ahead of you, come on, let’s get to the bottom of this nonsense for once and for all; I want to know what Evo is keeping here that he thinks justifies trying to kill us.’ As they ran up the stairs Ava looked up and behind her onto the wall.
There on the wall, was one word that told her they were getting close to the truth. It was writ large in blood red vinyl lettering.
‘Bruno, wait… look at this.’
Chapter 42
Matt had waited to give Ava and Bruno what he guessed was enough time to get to the entrance of the portal. When all was quiet for long enough and he assumed they were safe and unhindered; he decided he, Bella and Norton would head up to the road, find some phone signal and call the police. Matt decided he would make an anonymous 999 call, and report gunshots inside the portal. That should make sure the police took things seriously. Matt’s thinking was that level of threat reporting should be too large for DCI Stimpson to thwart. They would have to come running.
‘Right, let’s all head up to the main road and find some phone signal; then we can head into The Portal, join the others, and wait for the police to arrive.’
‘That’s OK boss, Bella can stay with me; that would save us all traipsing up to the road, then all the way back.’
Matt thought back to the damning text on Norton’s non-work phone and his generally poor behaviour since the case started.
‘No Norton, not happening. We all go together like I said. If that is OK with you?’
Matt had headed out of the rhododendron followed by Norton, who was waiting to help Bella over the roots that needed navigating when leaving the tree sized shrub’s sanctuary.
‘No Matt, it isn’t OK. I think we’ll start doing thing’s my way.’
To Matt’s utter horror Norton pretended to offer Bella help with one hand, and with the other, in one motion as if he had done it before, pulled a hypodermic syringe from his pocket, removed the cover with his mouth, and then plunged the needle deep into Bella’s neck, fully depressing the plunger, draining the syringe’s contents into Bella’s body.
Bella looked first at Norton; then at Matt. It was a look of total lack of comprehension. She instinctively slammed her hand over the point where Norton had injected her, and had now removed the syringe. Again, Bella turned first to look at Norton, then to Matt. She appeared to start convulsing, and then she fell, lifeless, to the woodland floor. A small cloud of old leaves blew upwards as Bella struck the ground.
Matt literally saw red; he saw nothing else but the colour red. His vision failed him. He charged and yelled in the direction he thought Norton was. He felt a blow to the back of the head, and he too fell to the ground. A moment or so later, his rage subsided, and he could see Norton; he had stepped out of the way. As Matt’s vision fully returned, he saw Norton had a pistol pointed at Bella’s head. He spoke in a cold, vicious and unemotional voice that Matt had not heard before.
‘Don’t try that again old man. If you do, I will put a bullet in her, and you can explain to Max that because you failed to follow orders, his precious ex is dead.’
Matt needed to buy some time to think and plan, ‘OK OK… fine.’
‘Now – pick her up. We are going to have a little wander into The Portal to meet my real employer. I am only going to say this once; you try anything at all, and I will kill you both.’
Matt was alive, he could deal with situations like this, he was trained for these. His PTSD subsided in a crisis; it was when all was mostly calm that he struggled. He would treat this like a mission. Norton was the enemy. To be taken down when he could. Questions could be asked later.
Norton was getting impatient.
‘I said pick her up – now.’
Matt scrambled to pick Bella up and hoist her over his shoulders.
‘So you haven’t killed her then?’
‘She’s only asleep at the moment, whether she wakes up or not is up to you. Now start walking, and no talking. After all these years I can say out loud that I hate the sound of your voice. God that feels good.’
Matt’s brain was calm, but misfiring, he could not fathom who this man was. Who this man had been? They had known each other since they were children, and yet he clearly didn’t know this man at all.
Norton pointed his gun at Matt and waved it twice in the direction of the portal.
‘You are going to have to carry Mrs Pain-in-the-Arse Stone all the way into The Portal since your idiot friends have vandalised and drained it. We won’t be using the bikes; you’re too good a rider. I hope you are up to this. It would be a shame to shoot you both inside The Portal. I don’t want the bullet ricocheting and hitting me.’
Matt decided to keep quiet and think. He was not sure he would be able to carry Bella nearly two miles into the portal; but he equally was not sure that if he failed, Norton wouldn’t just shoot them both.
Chapter 43
Bruno stood looking at the blood red large letters on the wall that Ava had drawn his attention to. Two pieces of the puzzle now fell into place and made sense.
‘Well spotted. So that is what Bella actually heard Pete say on those phone calls, CHARON, not SHARON. The name for this place, not a work colleague. No wonder we never came across any staff member with the name Sharon. Any idea what it means?’
Ava instinctively took her phone out to look it up. Then remembered she was deep underground in a tunnel. She was about to turn her phone off when the signal indicator caught her eye.
‘I have full phone reception down here, how is that possible?’
Bruno looked pensive for a moment.
‘Come to think about it, I noticed I had phone service when we were deep in the tunnel structure before. It must be Evo. They must have installed it for their own use. Since you already have your phone out, what does it say about Charon?’
Ava swiped and typed for a moment or two before coming up with an answer.
‘What is it with Evo and this obsession?’
Bruno waited for Ava to continue, rather than answer her rhetorical question.
‘I’m sure there are other things with that name, but to top search result is for the ferryman of Hades – or in other words the underworld; so I think that’s probably the relevant one.’
Bruno nodded, ‘That’s Pete’s calls fully explained, “See you at the underworld… sorry Charon.” He was being corrected by, or joking with the other person about his use of name for this place, not joking with a work colleague called Sharon.’
Ava gave a small nod of her head.
‘That’s what the letters on the wall were, just another reference to the underworld. S-T-Y-X. They have named the canal after the mythical river in the underworld. Evo has a really weird sense of humo
ur.’
‘Or he’s just really weird in general,’ countered Bruno.
Eva tried to call Matt, then Joe, then Max. All their phones went to voicemail.
It was Bruno that eventually broke the moment’s silence that fell between the two of them.
‘Shall we go and have a poke about, and find out what this place is for once and for all; then we can find the others, and get the hell out of…well…. hell I guess. Creepy Evo’s hell anyway.’
‘Right behind you, lead the way.’
Keen to be on their way, they both bounded up the stairs to the landing.
They arrived in a cavernous hallway. The walls were unpainted concrete with all sorts of doors set in different walls. The space was formed in a hexagon shape. Four of the walls had very large doors and a large red number painted next to them. Clockwise they read 1 to 4.
Each door had a key pad on it.
Ava pulled the second key card from her inside pocket, ‘Please do the honours.’
‘You sure?’
‘Yeah, then it’s all on you if you trigger an alarm,’ she added, smiling.
Bruno shook his head in a mock fashion, and held the key card to the panel by the nearest door, which had a large red number 1. He held the pass against it. The pass and the panel glowed green, and a word matching that on the wall flashed on the card. There was an electronic buzzing sound which ended in a click, and the door opened inward a fraction.
‘OK,’ said Ava, ‘But what is this place, what is Underworld exactly?’
‘Let’s take a look.’
He swung open the door. Before them was another long corridor with many doors opening off it. As they stepped into the corridor, all the lights came on, making them jump.
‘I guess they are automated; I thought for a second there was someone here with us.’
Ava was still taking in this new corridor. It too was warm, and had a concrete smell. It was reminding her of her school gymnasium, though here there was no smell of stale sweat, just an exceptionally clean, fresh, warm air.
