“You want to go back, go.” She pointed. “You’ll have to pass all those scary signs again. Me, I’m going forward.”
“I’m not a coward.” But he did have a strong sense of self-preservation, and he’d pushed it hard enough coming into this hidden underground.
“How did you ever become a thief if you’re always worried about risk?”
“A proper theft is the one that isn’t noticed. It involves planning and then perfect execution. It doesn’t have mutant rats and radiation.”
“But on the upside, it has me!” she announced.
“Was that the bonus?”
She pressed against him. “Are you saying I’m not the best prize?”
His hands went to her hips and tugged her close. “I can’t think of a better one actually.”
“Good answer.” She leaned up and kissed him.
He might have enjoyed it more if he wasn’t imagining them starting to glow. “Let’s find somewhere nicer to finish that.”
“This way.” She pointed.
“How are you choosing?”
“Well, the next clue was the icy fields. Meaning cold, putting it north of us.”
Her simplistic reasoning had him pointing out a flaw in it. “How can you tell where north is?”
“Instinct.”
“You mean you’re just guessing?”
She laughed. “No, but your reaction was awesome.”
“Then how are you choosing our route?”
“Mouse tracks.”
“We lost those two intersections ago.”
“Glad to see you noticed. That’s when I switched to following directions. She pointed to the markings at the next intersection. “It’s written here.”
“You read Russian?”
“No, but I did a summer bootcamp over here and learned some basics.”
“What kind of bootcamp?” he asked. Because that sounded kind of fucked up.
“The kind that didn’t have flutes or canoes.” She winked. “More stairs. How far down does this place go do you think?”
Far enough that even he had to wonder what they’d stumbled upon. A secret installation for hiding nuclear waste?
The stairs were flanked by a ramp layered with rubberized grooves. At the bottom, a forklift, derelict and dusty.
Farther in were more abandoned machines, some of them stripped for parts. Those that acquired them didn’t have the same neglected look. They were parked against a wall, clean, looking ready to fire up with a few cranks.
“This doesn’t look fully abandoned,” Nora stated, eyeing the closed bay doors.
“Was it the working lights that gave it away?” Because it wasn’t their torches or windows illuminating the space. He extinguished his tusk.
She glanced overhead at the stringed bulbs. “That explains the humming I’ve been hearing.”
“What humming?” Because he heard nothing.
“Generators running. There are people using this place.”
“Are you sure? Because the mouse shit is back.” He proudly pointed out the grime he spotted running along the back wall.
“Let’s see what’s through that curtain.” She referred to the strips of plastic hanging down, only partially separating the space.
They entered a loading dock, flanking a rail system that tracked into a wide tunnel.
“Do you think it works?” she asked, eyeing the carts linked together, scuffed and rusted by age.
“Shouldn’t the first question be, where does it go?”
She pointed to the markings over the tunnel’s opening. “North.”
“And of course, you think we should follow.”
“Don’t you? It’s where the mouse is leading us.” The shit did indeed seem to border the track and enter the maw of doom.
“Or there are more of them in there, waiting for gullible meat to feed them.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe from the mice,” she taunted before heading for the carts and peeking inside them. “Empty mostly. But I smell fish?” She sounded confused.
“Fish? Are you sure?” He got close enough that even he caught the faint trace. “Could be illegal fishing being smuggled via that tunnel. It would make sense if this track reaches the sea. Boats could bring in their goods. They bring them in under cover using these carts. Once here, someone trucks them into Siberia, and they’re sold on the black market.” The presence of the tunnel and carts also explained how the radioactive shit got there, too, without the world noticing it. More than likely the installation used to serve a different purpose before the smugglers took over.
“We found the way to the ice fields,” Nora crowed.
“We found something,” he corrected even as he questioned his sanity in following the clues in a book written hundreds of years ago. But he’d come too far to give up now.
“I wonder if we can figure out how to get these suckers moving.”
Before either of them could search, there was a faraway clanging as of old machinery. Like maybe some bay doors.
Nora stiffened. “Shit. Someone is coming. Hide.”
Chapter Thirteen
As Nora hissed a warning, she pulled Peter by the hand, guiding him past the line of carts to the tunnel of darkness. Not his first choice, but probably their best one. She stubbed out her torch on the way.
They entered the rail tunnel and flattened themselves against the wall. He heard the rustle of plastic and the rapid-fire speech of two people, a man and woman by the sounds of it. One of them whistled as if for a dog. More talk then the rumble of an engine that turned into a scream of metal as the gears for the track started to chug.
“What do you say we catch a ride?” Nora whispered as she tugged him farther into the tunnel, well out of sight of anyone watching. The carts, still gaining speed, trundled past, and she threw herself into one.
He jumped into the next and gripped the edge of it. He could see nothing.
“Why are you all the way over there? Hold on, I’m coming.”
“Wait? What?” He might have said more, but he could hear her climbing from her cart to his. “Be careful,” he exclaimed just as she landed.
“Please, I’ve done that with roller coasters going full tilt. I can handle this kiddy ride.”
“You think we should stay on it? We don’t even know where it goes.”
“Guess we’ll find out. In the meantime, let’s get comfy.” She tugged him down beside her. He shifted his pack off his back. Given the chill, he grabbed his thin but thermal-rated blanket. He leaned to spread it over her and felt her warm chuckle.
“I’m not cold.”
Indeed, she radiated heat. “I’m chilly so humor me and share.”
“You need me to heat you up?” she teased. It didn’t matter he couldn’t see her in the dark. He could practically see her smile.
“Not sure now is the time.”
“Why not?”
He could have given a list of reasons. But that wouldn’t give him what he wanted.
Her.
He twisted and felt for her in the dark, his hand finding and cupping her jaw to draw her to him.