Chapter 133
Through the doorway, Connor found not a ledge but another short passageway. Beyond that, he found a ramp. Once again, it descended farther than his lights could reveal.
His boots scraped with the first step, and the sound echoed all around.
The air was fresh and cool, as if the K’luuta technology were working overtime.
But there was no way to erase the stain Selen left on everything. She’d been here. She was still nearby.
Another glow stick, maybe even another flashlight, and he would have had more confidence leading the others down.
It was the strategy typically employed in war: bleed the enemy of resources.
First Rudy and Drew, then the slow elimination of other teammates.
Then ammunition. Then fatigue.
Selen had worn her team down to almost nothing, pushing far harder than a responsible commander would have dreamed.
More than likely, she had sabotaged the ship and the shuttle, too.
He remembered the way the water had gone foul in the Lucky Sevens. How could the spider-like creatures get into the pipes through the filters?
The answer was obvious: They couldn’t.
Selen had put them there. She’d manifested them somehow.
Or she’d manually put them into the pipes.
What had she said? Something about as a captain, she’d worked every position on the ship herself at some point. That had been her excuse for pushing him to be everyone’s backup.
It hadn’t just been about saving money or setting him up for failure.
She’d been keeping him so overwhelmed that he couldn’t see what was happening, couldn’t begin to suspect that it was her behind all the strange occurrences.
Elise turned toward him. “What?”
Conrad tilted his head. “What’s that mean?”
“You grunted.”
“Did I?” He almost laughed. “I just realized how deeply involved Selen was in everything going bad.”
“Just now?”
“This was before you joined our merry band. On the way out here— No. Before that. She put us into a bad financial situation, and that drove off two of our critical people. It nearly drove off Yemi.”
“That makes sense. There’s no need to fire or kill people if you can have them leave on their own.”
“And I didn’t see it. I didn’t see it when those spider things fouled out water and recycler lines.”
“Oh.”
“You hadn’t thought of that?”
“No. But now that you mention it…” She shook her head. “I should have.”
“The point is that she put us here very deliberately. Just you and me.”
Elise bowed her head sheepishly. “And maybe Mosiah.”
“Unless he’s under her sway.”
“Possible.”
They reached a landing and waited for the old man. He was drenched with sweat and wheezing when he caught up.
His chest heaved. “Invigorating.”
Connor waved for one of the bags. “You can’t—”
“I meant no irony. It truly is…” Mosiah caught his breath. “Invigorating.”
“We can hold here while you rest.”
“Rest is for the wicked.” The former criminal bowed his head to indicate they should descend the ramp.
Elise seemed ready to challenge the older man, but Connor was beginning to appreciate the idea of atonement.
He took the lead, and Elise fell in behind him before catching up again.
She chewed her lip. “He’s not going to make it.”
“I think he knows his limits.”
“Do you?”
Connor winced. “We can’t actually afford limits, can we?”
She looked away. “I’ve been thinking.”
“He’s not going to budge—”
“Not about Mosiah. About what you were saying—Selen planning all of this.”
“All right.”
“So… Why hire Dr. Chong? Why send an archaeologist expedition here? Isn’t that a waste of money?”
“She was already planning to leave the Devils broke.”
“There were better ways to do that. She could just filter funds off to a private account. You didn’t know where she was really spending it.”
“Fair enough.”
“Then why fund us?”
Connor thought about that. “She planned to push the Lucky Sevens until it broke down. Your ship was her escape.”
Elise’s eyes widened. “She sent our whole team here just to be sure she had an escape ship? That’s cold-blooded murder.”
“Is that really so shocking?”
“Apparently not.”
“Maybe she hoped for you to be a distraction. Or she could have hoped for your team to actually find something.”
The archaeologist smiled. “You’re trying to make me feel better.”
“Did it work?”
“Up until you made it clear you don’t really believe it.”
“Sorry. Consider this, though: You brought along tools and such that helped our team out.”
Elise shuddered. “Ugh. That makes her seem even more terrible.”
“I have a hard time considering her more terrible than I already do.”
At the edge of his light, the ramp ended at a stone floor, which quickly became part of another chamber.
Mosiah staggered the last bit of the ramp, then dropped to his knees, gasping. “I’ll take you up…on your offer of…rest.”
Connor patted the old man’s shoulder, then drew his blades and turned left to pace the perimeter of the room.
After three right turns, he came to a stop at a doorway.
Another doorway was visible at the edge of the light.
The amulet Toshiko had given him felt warm, and it seemed like it was guiding him to that second doorway, but something about the sensation felt wrong.
Could Selen be influencing the ancient device?
Mosiah’s panting was to Connor’s right. He traced his way back using that sound, pausing when he spotted a third doorway beyond the one that drew him.
Threes. How many times had he seen three doorways?
He stopped in front of Elise and nodded back to the openings. “Three doorways. I feel like the middle one’s the one we want. But…”
“But?” She squinted.
“It feels off. I can’t describe it better than that. Like maybe Selen is influencing it.”
“Let me give it a look.”
“Just…be careful.”
He led them to the doorway, the sense of wrongness growing with each step. Even drawing close to the opening felt bad.
There was heat mixed with the cold, and the reek of Selen’s passage was there.
Elise leaned forward. “There are symbols! You see?”
Connor saw them now. “What do they mean?”
“I recognize a few. It’s odd. They haven’t been on other archways. They’re almost like…” She reached out to touch one.
The sense of wrongness jumped.
Connor reached for her hand. “Don’t touch—”
But her fingertips connected to the stone. “I think it’s a warning.”
Then an explosion blew them back from the opening, and everything went dark.