Chapter 119

Chapter One Hundred Nineteen

For Connor, seeing the technology of the builders wasn’t any more of a relief than hearing that they’d created this subterranean marvel as a prison for some terrifying destroyer.

All of that served to emphasize the problem he was facing as he rushed down the broad avenue: This place was a prison.

The towering ceilings that amplified and distorted every sound he made, the mechanism that lowered the temperature of the sprawling maze, even the stolen artifacts they intended to return—they were all part of the prison.

And that prison was meant to keep intruders out and prisoners in.

Behind him, Elise gasped. “Slow down!”

When he turned to check on her, she was bathed in the green glow of her pocket computer, which showed the map of the underground structure.

He slowed, then when she caught up, hacked up more of the dust that had been spewed by the ceiling collapse. The smell of that crumbled stone and composite was still on him—dry and ancient.

The archaeologist stopped at his side and slowly turned around. “Okay.”

“Okay, what?”

“Okay, this appears to still be the right direction.”

“How many options are there?”

She pointed the device back the way they’d come, washing the walls in green light. “We had two turns back that way, and another one ahead of us.”

“More tunnels like this? Just to confuse people?”

“It almost worked on Mosiah.”

“A little too late for that, don’t you think?”

Elise lowered the computer. “Does it seem appropriate to take your frustration out on me?”

“No.” Connor looked away. “Sorry. I’m worried about them.”

“They don’t have this map, so I doubt they’re making the time we are.”

It was time Connor could have halved on his own.

No. That was being unfair. Elise was doing great, keeping up better than he had any right to expect of an academic. Plus, she was being the rational one, while he struggled with emotions like some rookie.

She brought the computer back up and muttered under her breath.

He took a drink from his canteen and wondered how the team holding the defensive position above was doing. The scorpions would have to come back eventually, and when they did, no place aboveground would be safe.

That thought made him freeze.

“Why—?” Connor shook his head. “Why aren’t they down here?”

“What?”

“Those scorpions. If they can burrow through the ground, why aren’t they down here?”

“Maybe they can’t burrows through the composite down here.”

“They did through the floor, remember?”

“That floor was old and cracked. I told you that everything down here was in remarkably good condition.”

“You did.”

The archaeologist wiped sweat from her brow, then pointed the way ahead. “Looks like about fifty meters, then a left.”

Connor took the lead, but he maintained a more reasonable pace. “Did that thing say anything about guardians?”

“After hearing what he said, my take is actually the opposite.”

“That they’re prisoners, too?”

“I think what we’ve seen—all of it—is the result of Mosiah and his people stealing those artifacts.”

“Okay. Sure. That makes sense. If those artifacts were holding back its influence, once they were stolen, the influence grew.”

“Here. On this planet.” Elise walked in silence for a moment. “That could explain some of the behavior of my colleagues.”

“And mine.” Like Selen and Kalpana, Connor thought.

Had others acted oddly and he’d missed it? That seemed likely. Rudy’s death made more sense with the explanation that some outside influence caused him to lose discipline.

But that realization only made the need to get off the planet more pressing.

Connor picked up the pace again, boots scraping loudly.

Elise jogged after him and grabbed his arm. “Stop. You’re going too fast.”

“They’re walking into a trap. Selen thinks she’s headed for a payday—”

“Did you look at that computer I gave you?”

“The broken one?”

“I fixed the screen. That’s just a scratch now.”

“I’ll look at it when we get out of—”

The archaeologist shook her head. “You need to look at it now.”

“But we’ve got all the answers we need. It all makes sense.”

She stopped and crossed her arms. “Look at the computer.”

It was all Connor could do not to storm forward and leave her behind. These were his teammates at risk.

He set his feet wide apart, anchored in the stone, and pulled the device out.

The computer was old and simple, even cruder than what the team had today. Elise had hacked the security, making it possible to dive straight into the main user interface. He pulled up the purchase date, the hardware and software information, the owner…

Selen’s face smiled at him from the user profile page.

She was young, with enough softness to a face gone hard that she could legitimately be called pretty. Her photo had been taken in the winter, against a snowbank that made her leather jacket truly stand out.

The jacket—

On the security video Elise had recovered from the data cores of Mosiah’s abandoned ship…the female form passing beneath the camera…

Connor flipped through stored data.

Images of Selen and Gustav, Connor’s predecessor, both as second-in-command and Selen’s lover.

Images of Selen and Mosiah on what looked like a tropical beach.

And an image of the man in the same recovered security video—one of Mosiah’s accomplices. Only in this image, the man seemed normal, not warped and twisted by shadow.

The stern look on Elise’s face relaxed. “You’ve been deceiving yourself.”

“What?”

“You said you had to know what was going on, but when I gave you that, you set it aside. Same with the data cores. We could have spent more time recovering those on my ship, but you just had to hurry back to the Lucky Sevens.”

Had he been pushing off the truth? Was that how the influence affected him?

“That mercenary ship was hers?”

Elise took the repaired computer, fiddled with it, then handed it back. “Stolen. Apparently, your boss is pretty capable with computers herself, and she knows her way around the black market.”

Connor read through Selen’s log. It was all there.

He powered the device off and put it away. “We still need to get to them.”

Without hesitation, Connor resumed his hurried march.

Now it was less about rescuing Selen and more about discovering what she was up to.