Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Leo’s eyes flashed with white. “He’s lying. I can’t prove it, but I feel it.”
“It’s the lack of guilt,” Elias told him.
People who lost their teams in the breaches came out fucked up. Some were manic, others catatonic. He had to put divers on suicide watch before. That’s why they had a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and several therapists on staff.
“London is too aggressive, too confrontational,” Elias said. “He’s absolved himself of all responsibility. He’s right about one thing – I put him in that position. The buck stops with me.”
“It’s been three years since Lansing,” Leo said. “He hasn’t fucked up until now.”
“That we know of. One of two things happened in that breach. Either London is telling the truth, and he is a hero who saved three miners, or he’s a coward who abandoned his team to their death.”
“Which do you think it is?” Leo asked.
“I think he saw something that terrified him, and he bugged out. The only way to prove what happened is to examine the mining site and the bodies, assuming there is anything left of them. I need cause to remove him from his position.”
“And with Melissa backing him up, we don’t have any.” Leo frowned. “If we demote him, it will look like we made him into a scapegoat.”
“That’s not our biggest problem. If we demote him without proof, he will jump ship to Guardian or any other guild willing to take him. He looks good on paper. He will aim for escort captain again, because he likes that job, and the next time shit hits the fan, more people will die.” Elias exhaled. “We need to get into that breach ASAP.”
“Agreed,” Leo said.
“Did you find Jackson?” Elias asked.
“Not yet. We’re doing everything we can.”
“I know.”
Sitting on his hands was driving him out of his skin, but going into that breach without Jackson was suicide. It was both about the speed and the potency of healing. Two years ago, he was stabbed in the heart and lost his left hand, and because Jackson was there, he pulled the spike out of his chest and kept swinging, while his hand regrew itself in minutes. Something took out Malcolm’s team and terrified London so much that he fled for the exit. They couldn’t risk any more lives.
“You need to rest, sir,” Leo said quietly.
Elias looked up. Outside the window the morning was in full swing. He’d slept four hours in the last forty-eight.
“We have bunks set up downstairs,” Leo said. “If anything happens, if I hear anything, I’ll wake you up.”
Elias didn’t feel like sleeping, but his body needed it, and he knew he would pass out the moment his head hit a pillow.
“Wake me up as soon as you find Jackson.”
“I will, sir.”
Flex.
The stream didn’t glow. I stared at it some more, but I was getting only clear water. It flowed from a gap in the rock, forming a narrow but deep current that ran across a massive cavern.
Chomp, chomp…
“Will you please quit doing that?”
Bear raised her bloody muzzle from the stalker’s body and gave me a puzzled look.
“I mean it.”
She licked her lips.
We’d been moving through the tunnels for hours. We ran across two silverfish bug things and took them out. They turned out to be slower than I thought. Or perhaps Bear and I had gotten faster. I lost count of how many stalkers we’d killed. This latest trio of two females and a male died a couple hundred feet into the passageway and I carried the largest body to the stream.
Bear had developed a disturbing liking for stalker meat. Every time we had a fight, and I got distracted, she chomped on bodies like they were premium dog food. She tried to eat the bugs too, but they must’ve tasted foul because she took a bite and never went back for seconds. I had stuck to my supplies so far, but both the energy bars and the KitKats were a distant memory. We had run out of water hours ago.
I looked at the stream again. Bear padded next to me, looked at the water, and whined. She’d tried to drink already but I stopped her.
In a perfect world, I would have boiled the water, but I didn’t have any way to make a fire. And even if I could, my plastic hard hat was the only vessel we had. It would melt. Well, I could probably boil water in a canteen… It was moot anyway. I didn’t have a lighter or any fuel. What I had was two empty canteens and a very thirsty dog, who was currently dancing on the bank in anticipation.
Fuck it.
I nodded at the stream. “Go get it.”
The shepherd bounded to the bank and began lapping up the water, splashing it all over the place.
I smiled. “Is any of that actually getting into your mouth?”