by Kate MacLeod
“One what?” Scout asked, gritting her teeth as the file ground against her hip bone. It was working, though; she was nearly free.
“A dog whistle,” Reggie said. “Dogs can hear it, but people can’t. The security system’s audio pickups might register it, but they wouldn’t trigger an alert. So if someone goes back later they might hear me whistling, but for now no one knows. I mean, Ken would have seen the dogs and you escaping, but he’s been running old footage on his monitor, so if my dad goes to check, everything looks normal. So no one knows you’re here.”
“Except Joelle,” Scout said, pulling the file back out in front of her and handing it back to Reggie.
“Except me and Joelle,” he agreed. “Can you come out now?”
Scout grasped the tunnel walls as firmly as she could with her aching fingertips, then tucked the toes of her boots as far up as she could and strained with everything to pull herself forward.
The stone all around her clung to her hips, but she pulled herself through. She didn’t want to think about the condition of her shorts; she had heard the rending of fabric and could feel the throbbing of abrasions on her thighs. But that didn’t matter; she was free.
“Come on,” Reggie said, crawling backwards faster than she could follow going forwards. Her foot bumped something. She realized it was her slingshot, which had fallen when her back pocket had been torn away. She kicked it forward, not far enough to reach with her hands but enough to keep kicking it along the tunnel as she crawled.
The tunnel widened just after the turn and she could reach a hand back and grasp the slingshot. Then she could get up on her elbows and knees, then her hands and knees, and then she was out of the tunnel, standing trembly-legged and dusty in what looked like the bottom of a well, lit up by an electric lantern in the middle of the space. She put the slingshot in her other pocket as she looked around. She tipped her head back, but the ceiling was lost in shadows far above her. The walls around her glittered in the electric light, rock formations like frozen waterfalls cascading all around her. It was so beautiful her breath caught.
Shadow and Gert looked up from their feast to see her standing there and belatedly charged over to greet her. Reggie watched the three of them with a big grin on his face.
“Where are we?” Scout asked.
“Under the warehouse,” Reggie said. “This place was an abandoned mine when my father found it. We mostly only use the office space upstairs, but it goes down forever in a maze of mined tunnels and natural caverns.”
“Tucker skipped that bit when he gave me the tour,” Scout said.
“Technically, all of this is off-limits to us,” Reggie said. “My dad walled it off, but there is an access panel. Joelle found it years ago. He doesn’t know we know.”
“You’re going to get in trouble for this,” Scout guessed.
“Only if we get caught,” Reggie said, flashing that grin again.
“Eventually they’ll notice I’m gone.”
“No worries. Joelle is keeping my dad distracted upstairs, and I’m supposed to be sleeping for a few hours yet, so no one is going to notice I’m not there. I’m going to get you and the dogs out and be back before breakfast. It will look like you found your own way out and no one will be the wiser.”
“I don’t want to get you in trouble,” Scout said, “but I also can’t just leave without my things.”
“The rover is smashed,” Reggie said. “It was too big to try to tow back, so the others left it in the canyon. You can get inside it, but I’d guess by now the bandits have found it. They’ll take whatever they can find. They’ll even strip it for parts if they can’t move it.”
“I don’t need the rover,” Scout said. “Ken stole my equipment belt. I need that back. I can’t leave without it.”
“I can’t get it for you,” Reggie said with a frown. “I don’t think even Joelle could get it. It’s too dangerous.”
“I have to have it. I literally can’t leave without it. If I don’t have it, I might as well go back into that cell.”
“Seriously?” Reggie said. He looked distraught at this glitch in his escape plan. “I can try to ask Joelle what to do—”
“It’s not just that,” Scout said. “Tucker took some disks from me. I need those as well.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Reggie said. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll figure something out,” Scout said. “This was a good plan, to make it look like I escaped. That doesn’t have to change. What were you going to do next?”
“There is a tunnel that goes under the canyon behind the compound,” Reggie said. “It was part of the mine. It comes out on the far side, out of sight from the top of the ridge here. You could come out of that end in the full light of day and no one here would know.”
“Can you still show me that tunnel? Where it starts on this end?” Scout asked.
“Sure,” Reggie said. “It’s a straight run, easy to follow because every wrong turn is a natural cavern, not squared off like the tunnel. You can’t possibly get lost. Plus, this lantern is for you. I have a pocket light to get back with.”
“Show me where the tunnel starts, then show me how to get back into the compound,” Scout said. “Then you go back to bed; I don’t want you or Joelle to get into trouble for helping me out. If I get caught, it will look like I escaped on my own.”
“But Scout, if you go back, you will get caught,” Reggie said. “There’s no way you won’t.”
“I’ll take the chance,” Scout said. “I can’t leave without that belt.”
Reggie nodded glumly and picked up the lantern to lead the way. The dogs, who had been licking all around the entirely empty food bowl in search of possible remaining crumbs, immediately ran to follow him. Scout trailed behind, the throbbing of her head worse now that she was standing up and moving about rather than resting.
She couldn’t let that stop her. She had to get that belt back. She wanted the disks too if she could manage it.
And if she should encounter Tucker again? That would be a nice bonus. She wanted a better ending between them than the one he had just given her. And she could think of so many better endings. Endings only she walked away from.
19
Scout had thought the painted walls of the canyon exterior were lovely, but every cavern Reggie guided her through was its own wonderland of dazzling sights. In one room, all of the rocks were like dazzling diamonds winking whitely in the light from Reggie’s lantern; in the next, each rock was its own unique color, all piled together as if some giant had collected them from far-flung regions and then had forgotten them here. Many of the chambers were shaped like deep wells just like the first cavern she had crawled into, but others were like snaky channels hollowed out around larger, impenetrable masses of stone or were wider open spaces but with a ceiling so low even Reggie had to stoop to cross it.
Each cavern took them deeper into the ground, further from the compound, and Scout’s mental map got twisted beyond usability.
Then he guided her up another winding channel between rock faces so steep she had to use hands and feet to climb it. By the time she reached the top she was quite out of breath. Her whole body hurt. It had been a rough few days.
“How much further?” she asked. “I don’t remember coming this far when Bente brought me to the cell.”
“She didn’t,” Reggie said, also fighting to catch his breath. “The cell is behind a hidden door at the back of the warehouse. The caves don’t run in a straight line. Don’t worry; you won’t be coming back this way. Not unless you want to go back to your cell through the vent.”
“No,” Scout said. “For one, I doubt I could fit back through.”
Reggie grinned at her, but the smile froze on his face as the ground beneath them began to shake. He reached out a hand to grasp the wall beside him, his eyes wide with fright. The dogs started barking in alarm and ran off into the darkness.
Scout pu
t her arms over her head. The vision of the stone ceiling coming crashing down on her wouldn’t leave her mind. Surely if that were likely to happen, it would have already. This made how many quakes now? And surely there had been more before she ventured into this part of the planet.
But this quake felt stronger than the others. Stronger and steadier. Almost rhythmic. And so loud.
Scout dropped her arms, straining to hear. Stones were sliding and falling down the serpentine path behind her, echoing over and over through the caverns, but she thought she could hear something else buried under that racket. Something like an engine. Or a train.
Then the quaking faded away. Reggie gulped but let go of the wall.
“That happens a lot?” Scout asked.
“More lately,” he admitted.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I don’t even know,” he said, annoyed. “Nobody will tell me. But Dad has been a lot more upset since it started happening.”
“Angry or scared?” Scout asked.
Reggie considered his answer carefully. “I think both.”
“Does Joelle know what this is?”
“If anyone besides my dad and Arvid know, it would be Joelle. But Dad has been keeping more secrets from her too, so I don’t know.”
“Did it sound like a machine to you? Or a vehicle of some sort?”
Reggie rolled his eyes up and to the right as he considered. “I don’t know,” he said. “I want to hear it again.”
“We need to get moving,” Scout said, and Reggie nodded. “Where are the dogs?” She didn’t wait for an answer, just whistled the shrill whistle that would always summon the dogs no matter how interesting a distraction they had found in the tall prairie grasses that was their usual haunt.
This time there was no pattering sound of returning paws.
Reggie tried his plastic whistle. Scout heard only the soft sound of his breath passing through it. They waited for several long moments, but still the dogs didn’t return.
“The cavern opens up ahead just where it meets the mining tunnel. They might be there,” Reggie said. “Everything echoes here, but up there the space kind of swallows up all sounds.”
“Show me,” Scout said. The dogs had run ahead, but she was very afraid they would take a different turn, perhaps through a space too small for even Reggie to follow them. What if they got lost? Or worse, separated and lost? What if they couldn’t find their way back to her? She couldn’t just leave them down here to die alone in the dark, but how could she ever search such an immense, twisting labyrinth?
“It’s here,” Reggie said, ducking under a low-hanging rock. The space beyond really did seem to be snatching the words away the moment they left his mouth. It was like the opposite of an echo; Scout didn’t like it.
Scout ducked under the same rock and found herself standing on a ledge with a long drop before her. Reggie was standing at the edge, shining the lantern over the side. She stepped up beside him but his light wasn’t strong enough to reach the bottom or whatever was on the far side of the chasm. It was like standing at the edge of one of the canyons above, only this one was hidden underground. Reggie didn’t look concerned with the size of the space, though. He was only shining his light straight down as if searching for something.
“Scout, what if they fell in the quake?” Reggie asked, no more than a whisper. Scout swallowed hard; she had been thinking the same thing.
“Both together? Without crying out? I don’t think so,” she said, although she was far from sure. She caught Reggie’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “They’ll be okay.”
“Yes, I think you’re right,” Reggie said.
“What’s down there?” Scout asked.
“I don’t know. I always kind of hurry past this bit,” Reggie admitted. “It feels too much like something is sleeping down there, some enormous monster. Something you never, ever want to wake up. I mean, obviously I know there isn’t.”
“I get you,” Scout said. “I wouldn’t want to go down there either. The air feels strange.” She held out her hands, fingers spread wide. It was clammier here, and there was a definite cold breeze moving past them. How far did this cavern run?
Reggie was just about to speak again when they both froze at the sudden sound of angry barking. Both of the dogs were in high alert mode—not behind them in the labyrinth, and thankfully not down in the immense cavern, but further on the way Reggie had been leading her.
Reggie raised the lantern high as they both jogged along the sandy ledge as it widened and then expanded out into another natural cavern. The far side of the cavern ended in a squared-off mining tunnel, the opening outlined in dim red lights.
They found the dogs on the right side of the cavern barking at something behind a forest of stalactites that Scout couldn’t see. Shadow was bristling all over, every muscle in his little body tense as he crouched low and barked and even snarled. The black hair on Gert’s back was raised up in a ridge that made her seem even larger than she already was, and her deep barks echoed painfully through the chamber.
“What is it?” Reggie asked. “Not a rat.”
“Oh, it’s a rat all right,” Scout said as she drew close enough to see Tucker trying desperately to balance on the top of a boulder. One foot kept slipping over the wet surface, finally slipping enough for Gert to lunge in and take a chomp at it.
“Call off the dogs!” Tucker wailed.
“No,” Scout said, crossing her arms. “I really don’t think so.”
“This isn’t good,” Reggie said, close at her elbow. “If he’s here, they know you’re gone.”
“No one else knows yet, but please call off the dogs!” Tucker said, nearly toppling off his precarious perch. “Someone is going to hear them.”
Scout frowned. He had a point. “Shadow, Gert, come!”
Shadow was at her side in a flash, albeit still growling low in his throat and standing at attention. She had to call Gert’s name twice more before the dog would stop trying to climb up the side of the boulder after Tucker. His foot kept almost slipping back into her reach and walking away from that was hard for an untrained puppy. But Scout put all the command she could into calling one last time and Gert reluctantly obeyed.
“Thank you!” Tucker said. He was looking quite pale, but Scout felt no pity. His dog fear had a way of waxing and waning to whatever level was convenient for him. She wasn’t going to indulge him by taking it seriously.
“Don’t thank me,” Scout said. “I’m just thinking it would be quieter to drag you down from that rock and throw you down the hole back there.”
“You don’t want to do that,” Tucker said. “I’m here to help.”
“Help me what? Reggie already busted me out,” Scout said.
“If you let me talk to you I can explain everything,” he said. “Please, just have Reggie take the dogs away for a moment. I just need a moment. Please?”
Scout closed her eyes to the sight of him pleading with her, his face contorted in what really looked like sincere regret and desire for the chance to make it up to her. She turned to Reggie.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“Me?” he asked, hand on his chest.
“Yeah,” Scout said. She supposed not many people around here asked the littlest kid what he thought about anything. “You’ve known Tucker a lot longer than I have. And I believe you have my best interests at heart. Mine and the dogs’. So, what do you think? Do I trust him?”
Reggie looked at Tucker as if seeing him for the first time. Tucker kept silent as the twelve-year-old thought carefully before answering. “I’ll hold the dogs,” he said at last. “But I’m not going away. We’ll be right here where I can let them go again if he tries anything.”
“So you don’t trust him?” Scout asked. She was surprised to find herself surprised by that.
“I’m not sure,” Reggie said. “Most times he’s cool. He lets me help with stuff and seems like a great guy.”
“I a
m a great guy,” Tucker said, but he fell silent again at Scout’s sharp glare.
“But other times?” she prompted Reggie.
The boy looked up at Tucker, then moved closer to Scout to speak too low for Tucker to hear. “It’s just a feeling I have. Sometimes I think he makes trouble between my sister and my dad. Not enough where anyone could ever say it’s his fault. Not enough where I can even tell Joelle about it, because I have no proof, just a feeling. I think he thinks he should be in charge when the grown-ups are away, not my sister, but I don’t think he should. And no, I don’t trust him.”
Scout put a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks for that.”
“No problem,” he said. It was too dark in the cavern to tell for sure, but Scout just knew he was blushing. He knelt down, putting an arm around each dog and hugging them tight to his sides.
Scout turned to face Tucker, who slid down from the boulder, brushing clammy grit from his hands as he walked up to her. If he was bothered by not having heard exactly what Reggie had said to her, he didn’t show it.
In fact, he was smiling at her again, that maddening smile that was always looking for a response. She had no qualms about not returning it. She did, however, take a deliberate step back when he tried to get within arm’s reach of her. A step closer to her dogs. Tucker stopped moving, hands raised to show he meant no harm.
“Talk from there,” Scout said, crossing her arms once more.
“Sure,” Tucker said. He kept glancing past her at the listening Reggie, and she was sure he would have preferred to talk to her alone but apparently knew better than to ask. There was no way she was stepping away from her dogs now. “Listen, did you even know what you were carrying?” His gray eyes were shining brightly and Scout felt her heart sink. Whatever was on those disks, they had it now. And apparently it was killer.
