by Roland Smith
I nodded.
“Why did you take so long to leave?”
“I was on the bridge when Lod came out of the elevator. I listened for a few minutes. I got to the infirmary just before you came in. Sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about. If Coop had been gone when Lod walked in, the Rotts would have been on you before you reached the basement. That’s about the only good luck we’ve had.”
“What’s the matter?” Coop asked.
“My grandfather. He has almost the entire compound out looking for Pat. He’s calling it the Christmas Drill. But what he’s really trying to do is prove me wrong. I embarrassed him publicly.”
She looked at her watch.
“And in about forty-five minutes, when they bring your dinner to the infirmary, he’s going to be proven right.”
“With the radios out it will take them a while to let him know,” Coop said.
Kate shook her head. “The radios are back up. Not only that, he’s making everyone work in teams just like we do up top. I teamed up with Mike. The Originals are in the control room tracking us right now … especially me.”
“You don’t have your Bluetooth,” I said.
“I left it with Mike along with my radio. Turns out he has a weak stomach. When I started down the sewer tunnel he lost his Christmas breakfast. A lot of people do the first time. I told him that Lod would never make him a Shadow if he found out. He’s waiting up ahead with Enji.”
“What are we going to do about him?” Coop said.
“He won’t come to the sewer tunnel looking for me, but he’s not going to wait where he is forever either. He’ll call in and say that we got separated or something. I don’t want to hurt him, but if I have to …”
Coop reached into his pocket and pulled out his handcuffs. “These didn’t hurt and they kept me from wandering around.”
“Those will do nicely.”
Coop offered to give her a hand with Mike, but she turned him down, saying that Shadows were well trained.
The diminutive Kate walked off with the cuffs.
“You’ve spent more time with her than I have,” Coop said. “What do you think she meant by that?”
“I think she meant that Mike wouldn’t be a problem for her, and neither would we if she decided to kick our butts.”
with two radios clipped to her belt and Enji at her heels.
“What’s to stop Mike from yelling his head off for help?” Coop asked.
“Pride, and his ambition to become a Shadow. After I got him handcuffed to a pipe I told him that I could cover more ground on my own. If he started hollering, the Shadows would come running and Lod would want to know how a girl that he outweighed by eighty pounds managed to handcuff him. His Shadow dream would be over. I told him that I would be back for him.”
“What now?” I asked.
“I’ll check in with Lod, then we go for a boat ride.”
She put her Bluetooth in and turned on the speaker.
“Lod?”
“Go ahead.”
“Mike and I are with Enji. She’s picked up something, but it comes and goes. Can’t tell if it’s Coop’s old scent or someone else’s, but Enji’s going crazy.”
“Dogs are onto something here too, but there’s no clear trail.”
“I don’t believe it’s his brother, but I think you’re right about having an intruder down here. Maybe Coop wasn’t alone.”
“I’ll have our friends from the mush rooms have a chat with him about that when we get back to the compound.”
Kate let out a harsh laugh.
It was chilling how she could switch personalities so easily.
“We’re going to head up and meet the Shadows coming down. Enji has a better nose than the other Seekers. We’ll see if she can pick up something they missed.”
“Are you going to take your secret shortcut?”
Kate hesitated. “You know about that, huh?”
“Of course.”
“We’re going to take it. I thought it might be a good way of testing Mike. See how he does.”
“If he makes it through that rubble, I’ll make him a Shadow.”
“He’s grinning.”
“Keep in touch.”
“We will.”
Kate took the Bluetooth out.
“He knew about the detour,” I said.
“They must have discovered it when they backtracked from up top. They probably sent a Seeker through and had it wait at the other end. Which means Lod is toying with me. He knows more than he’s saying, but he doesn’t know as much as he thinks.” She unclipped the radios, attached them to Enji’s collar, then spoke very deliberately to the little dog. “Slow. Shortcut. Up top. Avoid.”
Enji trotted off into the darkness.
“If she goes too fast, Lod will figure out that she’s carrying the radios. Avoid means that if she encounters people up ahead she’s to take another tunnel, or hide until they pass. It will buy us a little time … but not much. Turn your headlamps off and follow my light at a distance. Look for potential hiding places. If I run into someone, stop and hide. I’ll backtrack and find you.”
Kate backtracked three times.
It seemed that the Deep was overrun with People of the Deep.
None were Shadows.
None had radios.
All three were perplexed over why Lod was having a drill on Christmas Day.
One man was hopelessly lost.
He nearly wept with relief when Kate told him how to get back to the compound.
through a small but long side tunnel, crawling single file, with Kate in the lead.
“I was afraid of that,” Kate said.
She was in front of us peering over the lip of the opening.
The water sounded fast.
“Afraid of what?” Coop asked.
“The water level fluctuates. The canoe is twenty feet below.”
I hadn’t seen any canoes on my way through the Deep.
Coop hadn’t mentioned canoes in his recordings.
“We can climb down,” Kate continued. “But it’s slippery. I’ve fallen in more than once.” Suddenly she switched her headlamp off.
“Back up! Quick! Quick!”
Coop and I backed up like crawfish.
A light flashed across the opening.
“They know,” Kate said.
“They know where we are?” I asked, scooting farther back.
As if that would help.
“Not yet,” Kate said. “But that was Lod’s boat that went by. He wouldn’t be on the river unless he’s discovered that Enji is carrying the radios, or that Coop is not in the infirmary. He’s heading downriver to the upper entrance and there’s another boat coming behind him.”
Another flash lightened the tunnel, then went away.
“Does Lod know about your canoe?” Coop asked.
“If he knew, he’d be tied up below waiting for us!” Kate snapped.
This was the first time I heard her speak harshly … at least to us.
“Sorry,” she said immediately. “I’m just … well … I mean … The River Styx has turned into the River of No Return. I’ve lived in the Deep my whole life. I have friends here … or I did.”
She was crying.
I think.
I couldn’t see the soles of Coop’s boots.
“No light,” Kate continued. “No talking. Voices carry over the water. And I’m sure there are Shadows posted along the path above the river watching and listening. I’ll climb down and throw a rope up to you.”
I decided it wasn’t a good time to tell her about our swimming problem.
Coop didn’t mention it either.
Knowing Coop, he may have forgotten that he didn’t know how to swim.
This turned out to be true.
Three minutes later, when I slipped on the rocks and fell into the river, Coop dove in to save me.
Which is when he remembered that he couldn’t.
&nb
sp; Kate dove in to save both of us.
Me first, since I had been drowning the longest.
Coop second.
There was nothing silent about the mishap.
As we held on to the side of the canoe hacking and spluttering, Kate snapped at us for the second time.
Without apology.
The only good thing about the incident was that she was sure there were no Shadows nearby.
“If there had been,” Kate said, “the Pod would be all over us right now.”
was as black as the river.
Kate paddled in front.
Coop paddled in back.
I sat in between.
Shivering.
Trying not to cough.
Wondering what kind of deadly bacteria I had just sucked into my lungs.
I probably wasn’t going to live long enough to find out.
Searchlights appeared up- and downriver.
The canoe was matte black inside and out, and virtually invisible against the rock wall. Kate handled it expertly, keeping it close to the wall as if she’d done it hundreds of times before.
“Kate!”
The Lord of the Deep’s megaphoned shout ricocheted off the rocky walls like bullets.
This did not cause even the slightest hiccup in Kate’s rhythmic paddling.
“We know everything!”
Kate continued paddling.
“The Pod are everywhere!”
Slicing through the water.
Left.
Left.
“All of the exits are guarded!”
“You cannot get away!”
Right.
Right.
Smoothly.
“I’m willing to put this all behind us! Just bring me those boys!”
Left.
Left.
Steadily.
This is when I realized how strong Kate was.
If I were her, I would be shouting back.
You murdered my parents!
You kidnapped me!
You lied to me!
Right.
Right.
Silently.
With each quiet stroke she was destroying the man who destroyed her parents.
“Kate!”
The searchlight in front of us was getting brighter.
“I know you can hear me!”
Kate brought the canoe to a stop.
“I know you’re frightened!”
She reached out and pulled the canoe snug against the rocks.
“There is nothing to be afraid of if you do the right thing!”
She motioned for us to lie flat.
I stretched back.
Coop stretched forward.
Face-to-face.
A searchlight passed over the canoe well above the waterline.
A woman was talking to Lod on the radio.
I switched the recorder on.
Coop grinned.
“… the other one was inside the compound too. Seekers tracked him up to your floor outside your door. We didn’t go inside, of course, but we’re assuming …”
“He was inside the compound?”
“Definitely.”
“How could that happen?”
“We’re trying to figure that out.”
“Maybe they’re still inside.”
“We’re still searching, but I doubt it. We just found Mike.”
“And?”
“Kate slapped the kid’s cuffs on him. The only way those cuffs could have …”
Lod’s boat motored out of hearing distance.
Kate whispered, “The dock is around the bend. Shadows and Seekers will be waiting. The river’s wide there. Normally they can’t see the other side, but they’ll have searchlights. I need to switch places with you, Pat. I’m going take us past there on my own.”
“Where does this river go?” Coop asked as we switched.
“It empties into the Hudson, but you can’t get there from here. The final quarter mile is completely underwater. We’ll take a side tunnel before we get there. I suspect Lod has dropped Shadows in some of them. I just hope they aren’t in the passage we’re taking.”
As we switched places it occurred to me that we weren’t rescuing Kate.
She was rescuing us.
But she might not have left if Coop hadn’t gone down.
Two of them.
A third on the path above.
Searchlights dancing.
Kate back-paddled just out of reach of the beams.
Watching.
Waiting.
If there was a pattern, I couldn’t see it.
Kate paddled forward, then stopped, just as two beams swept past the bow and the stern.
Close.
I could hear her breathing.
Stop.
Go.
Back.
Forward.
I thought the dance would never end.
But it did.
Kate let out a long sigh as the dock disappeared behind us into the gloom.
and we climbed onto an outcrop barely big enough for the three of us to stand on.
“You can use your headlamps now.”
She pushed the canoe out into the current and watched it float away.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Beneath the reservoir. Sometimes the Librarian waits for me right here as if he knows I’m coming. I was hoping that would be the case today.”
“Let’s go find him,” Coop said.
“You don’t find the Librarian,” Kate said. “He finds you.”
She led us around a large boulder. On the other side was an opening to yet another tunnel.
“How’d you find this place?” I asked.
“I’ve been exploring the Deep since I was ten,” Kate answered. “I just hope Lod doesn’t know about it like he knew about the detour we took.”
It was a tight squeeze, but once inside we could stand.
Bats hung from the ceiling.
“They’re hibernating,” Kate said. “Try not to disturb them … they’ll fly out into the cold and die. I’ve found some of my best passages by following bats in the spring when they wake up.”
But the rats were not hibernating.
Hundreds of little shiny eyes darted around as we made our way up the steep path to the reservoir to find a ghost.
Then the eyes vanished.
“That’s strange,” Kate said, stopping.
“What,” Coop said.
“The rats. They’re gone.”
Kate started walking again, cautiously.
We stepped into a very large cavern.
Three lanterns burned.
One of them was on a flat rock.
Next to the lantern was a small stack of books.
No Librarian.
“Something’s wrong,” Kate said.
A Rottweiler stepped out from the shadows.
Forty feet away.
Snarling.
“Game’s over.”
A mush room Guard stepped out and stood next to the dog.
He raised his radio to his mouth.
“Got ’em.”
“Where?” Lod asked.
“Reservoir.”
“All three?”
“Yep.”
“Don’t hurt Kate.”
“What about the boys?”
“They’re yours. We’re about a half hour out.”
He clipped the radio to his belt. “You heard him,” he said.
Kate flipped her headlamp off.
“If you run, I’ll send the dog … but not after you. The young boy first. He’ll be dead in five seconds. You know our dogs, Kate. They aren’t weak like your dogs.”
“You’re going to kill them anyway,” Kate said.
“We all die, but I can think of a lot better ways of going than being torn apart by a Rott.”
Kate took Coop and me by the arms and pulled us close to her.
“I can think of a worse way to go,”
she said. “His name’s Lod.”
She took a step toward the dog and pulled us with her.
The Rott snarled.
The man reached down and grabbed the dog’s collar. “What do you think you’re doing?” he shouted.
“I’m betting that if you send your dog, he won’t be able to control himself. He’ll kill all three of us. Then you get to explain that to my grandfather. We’re going to turn around and walk out of here. Together.”
The man reached for his gun.
An explosion ripped through the cavern.
The dog flew into the air and hit the ground.
Dead.
“Drop the gun, cowboy.”
The Guard looked around wildly.
A second shot peppered his boots.
“The game is just beginning. Next one’s in your chest.”
The mushroom man dropped his gun.
“The Taser and the radio.”
He dropped the Taser and the radio.
“Who are you?”
“Step away from the weapons.”
The mushroom man stepped back with his hands up.
An old man stepped into the light.
A ghost with a shotgun.
The Librarian.
“Sorry about the dog,” he said. “Turn around.”
The Guard turned around.
The Librarian picked up the Taser.
watched the Guard convulsing.
“I would have rather shot him than his dog,” he said. “But I couldn’t control the dog.”
“Will he be okay?” Coop asked.
“You mean will he live? He’ll be out for a while, and when he comes to he’ll be sore, but he’ll live. His kind always lives. We have to leave. Follow me.”
He walked over and picked up the stack of books.
All three of us hesitated.
I don’t know what Kate and Coop were thinking, but I was still shocked.
Killer dog.
Dog killed.
Guard twitching.
My ears were still ringing from the shotgun blasts.
“I know you,” Coop said.
“Right. We met in the library. I told you about the under —”
“I know you too!” I said. “I talked to you at the post office. You said you didn’t know Coop … I gave you five bucks. ‘Merry friggin’ Christmas.’ ”
“Merry Christmas to you too,” the man said. “Now let’s get out of here. I need to get you above and on your way. You’ve stirred the wasp’s nest. In a couple of hours they’re going to be swarming the streets looking for you. I’ll explain everything when we get to the library.”
