by Tawny Weber
"See," the kid said, rapping on the siding between the door and rock wall. "Same false façade you spotted when you blew-up my picture."
Jake examined the siding that extended across the neighboring stone wall. He stepped back, bumping into Bliss. As though the contact released a static charge, her presence arced between them. He'd meant to send her with Dozer and Ash this afternoon, put distance between them. But, when the moment came for the five of them to split up, he'd sent the two men off without her.
"What is it?" she asked quietly from his side.
He drew a deep breath, bracing himself against the urge to let that calming voice seduce him. "We're at the base of the mountain."
"And there's a tunnel into it locked away behind a door," she stated, lifting her chin at the terrain climbing away from the street, the buildings…them.
Most civilians would have just seen a mossy mound of rock that'd been carved out of a mountainside, if even that much. But not Bliss. She, like him, questioned the purpose of a tunnel carved into a mountain from a city alley. He'd heard it in her voice, could see it in her eyes. Damn but he liked that they thought alike.
"It's locked, same as it was that day Munch and me found it," Rob said, pulling Jake's attention from Bliss.
The kid pointed toward the back of the opposite building. "And that's the doorway we hid in when we heard someone coming down the street. It was just dumb luck we got to the door before it closed after the guy went in."
Jake held up his smart phone to Rob, on its screen a shot of a narrow passage carved through stone. "And this tunnel is behind that door?"
"Yeah and a bunch more. They're really cool." The kid rocked from foot to foot, excitement crackling from him.
Jake texted Ash. Sending GPS coordinates. Meet us.
By the time Ash and Dozer arrived, Jake had picked the lock, put away his tools, and taken out his flashlight. "Rob and I will take point and you two bring up the rear."
"Guess that makes me the lone middleman," Bliss said, with a forced cheerfulness.
Guilt niggled at Jake. He'd been pretty harsh when he'd confronted her about his picture on her computer. But he had good reason—reason that went beyond protecting his family, his identity, or distrusting those who would seek the facts about the first two. He couldn't let Bliss O'Hara any closer to him than she already was…no matter that everything about her drew them together.
"It was lit up in here when Munch and me entered," Rob said as the door closed behind them, cutting them off from the sunlight.
Jake and his team were already sweeping the walls with their penlights, easily finding the bulbs strung on electrical wires high on one wall.
"No switches," Ash called as he scanned the walls around the door. "Lights must be controlled from somewhere else."
"The tunnels built beneath the city for vehicle travel angle down from street level," Jake reasoned aloud. "This one climbs steeply and has steps only wide enough to accommodate the passage of one person at a time."
He drew a deep breath considering the possibility they could be walking into an ambush, their flashlights marking their presence and turning them into sitting ducks.
"Either of you guys bring your night vision gear?" he asked Ash and Dozer.
"Got my full head gear," Dozer said, swinging his pack from his back.
"Same here," Ash said.
"Here's how we're doing this," Jake said, digging his own head gear from his pack. "Dozer, you bring up the rear, night vision gear on. I'll take point with illumination on. That should be enough light source for our NVGs. Rob, you take Ash's NVG and stick close to me. Ash, you're out on the street, plugged into communication. Look around for any cameras and keep an eye on the door for visitors."
"And me?" Bliss asked.
"You stay with Ash," Jake said, trying not to look at Bliss who was haloed by a pool of flashlight beams.
"I'm not leaving Rob."
"That wasn't a request," Jake said, taking his gun from his pack.
"I've been separated from my brother for over two years. Either he stays back with me or I come with you."
"He's the only one of us who's seen the inside of this place," Jake said. "I need him with me."
"And I need to be with him."
"Bliss, I can't watch out for both of you."
She lifted her Sig into the halo of light. "I can watch out for myself."
He could argue shooting a man in the flesh wasn't the same as shooting a paper target, that most civilians hesitated a heartbeat too long when firing on someone up close and personal. But they'd already wasted enough time arguing.
"New plan. Ash, give Bliss your head gear. Rob, hang back with your sister. Step high and you won't trip."
Ash slipped out the door, momentarily casting a wedge of light over them. Jake caught and held Bliss' gaze as she strapped on Ash's Night Vision gear.
He slapped the tunnel wall. "Bullets ricochet off stone. No wild shooting."
"Got it," she said, accepting the earplugs he handed her to protect hers and Rob's hearing should they draw gunfire, the light retreating from her as the door closed.
She might not always agree with his orders, but she was no loose cannon. She did get it. He'd seen it in her eyes, the sobriety with which she'd looked back at him as she'd answered. And it wasn't just about ricocheting bullets.
She understood they could be walking into danger, and she was prepared to put her life on the line to protect someone she loved. That was something he understood. He'd spent half his adulthood putting his life on the line for the country he loved. He'd continued because it was all he knew—because the men who worked for him would do no less for him.
Because the family he left behind needed protection from the bad guys of the world. And this civilian—this woman in front of him was prepared to do the same.
Focus.
He swallowed back the emotion scratching at the back of his throat and turned his attention to their surroundings. "Dozer, you're the tunnel guy. What do you think?"
"Manmade for the most part," Dozer said, stowing his flashlight and flipping down his NVG.
Pretty much Jake's take on it. He positioned his head gear and headed up the tunnel. Soon the channel narrowed. In some places, he had to duck to clear the ceiling. In others, the tunnel flared and curved.
"We climbed really far before we found the chamber," Rob said from close behind him.
"Got my com on super hearing," Jake said of his communication device. "Keep it to a whisper in case we have company."
The incline of the passage lessened and he saw the tunnel widen and turn sharply ahead of him. Squatting, he doused his light source and switched to his infrared monocular, poked his head around the corner, and pulled back.
No gunfire. No response of any sort. No heat signatures, either.
But, without armor, he had no protection. Keeping his low profile, he gave the cavern beyond a longer look on his second glance. Still nothing.
He rose and eased around the corner into an opening larger than the common room back at the hacienda. Bliss' cinnamon scent chased away the metallic, damp smell of the place and he held out an arm, blocking her from advancing any further. She got the message, hanging back as he eyeballed the rectangular room.
One crevice appeared on the far end of the cavern appeared big enough to hide a man. Next to it was another tunnel like the one they'd entered through but easily three times the size. Gun trained on the far opening and shadowed crevice, he motioned Dozer forward.
Dozer moved through the darkness, his infrared gear likewise in place. Checking the crevice and opposite tunnel, Dozer gave a thumbs up, adding in a low voice, "Stairway behind the fissure goes up and rails in the tunnel floor go down."
Jake lowered his gun, flipped up his NVG, and turned on his flashlight. Bliss followed suit.
"What is this?" she whispered, shining her flashlight around the space.
"Old silver mine," Jake said, torn between wanting to dist
ance himself from her heat and wanting to hang on to her so she wouldn't trip on the rails half buried in the ground.
Rob bounded past, his flashlight beam bouncing around the space. "I told you there was a silver mine in the city."
"Most are further north," Jake said, turning down the sensitivity of his com before the kid blew out his eardrum…and thinking how they couldn't get much closer to the city than this. Jake made a mental note to find out more about where Rob got his information. The kid was proving to be more than he appeared on the surface.
Just like Bliss.
"Holy shit," the kid yelled, wheeling about between a flat-topped stone and a row of seats carved into the long arcing wall facing it. "It's just like in the game."
"The game you were creating?" Jake asked.
"No. The BETA game we got our idea from. Only, in the game, the altar was more like a throne and there was a big oval table between it and the stone chairs."
"That's one big coincidence," Bliss said from Jake's side.
"I don't believe in coincidences," Jake said.
"Give me your phone, Sis. I gotta get pictures of this."
"Didn't you get in enough trouble already by taking pictures?" Bliss asked, not reaching for her backpack.
Good girl.
"What's it going to hurt?" the kid groused. "Nobody's here and I'm already in trouble."
"No pictures," Jake said. "That your shots don't include this room or any of the men in it might be the only bargaining chip we have to get you out of trouble."
The frenetic energy vibrating through the kid evaporated.
Given his lack of belief in coincidence, Jake asked, "What possessed you to follow someone through a locked door?"
The kid dropped his chin and peered at him through his lashes. "When the picture of the door came up, I told you it was just like the one in the game."
He remembered. At the time, he'd thought the kid was talking about the game him and his buddy were creating. He needed to learn a lot more about this game stuff Rob was into.
"You were talking about the BETA game when you recognized the door, not your game."
"Right," Rob said. "Our game hasn't even been built yet."
Oh yeah, they were in for a long talk.
"So you followed some guy up to this chamber. What did you see?"
"Didn't get far enough around the corner to see that this was like a scene out of the ga—the BETA game. But I saw like four or five old geezers. Heard a few more."
"Old as in what?" Bliss asked, her tone droll. "Forty-something?"
"They were griping about how hard the climb was—that they should find a new meeting place."
"You understand Spanish?" Jake asked.
"I read it better than speak it. Munch was translating for me. I think that's how they caught us. They must have heard him."
"And that's when they came after you," Jake stated more than asked.
"Good secret meeting space, but none too comfortable," Bliss murmured, trailing her hand along the edges of the stone seats. "They're well-worn, like they were carved a long time ago."
Jake moved to her side, shining his light on the armrests. "And used a lot longer than the lifespan of a bunch of old geezers."
"What kind of group would exist from generation to generation?" Bliss asked.
"A secret society."
She raised alarmed eyes at him. He frowned.
"Better check in with Ash."
He turned away and tapped on his communication device. "Things okay out there?"
"Yeah. No visitors. No cameras…so far. How's your spelunking going?"
"Found something that looks like a meeting place. We're doing a more thorough recon. Check back in a few."
Disconnecting from Ash, Jake headed for the crevice on the far end of the cave, informing Dozer as he passed him, "I'm going up, see where these stairs go—see if I can get close enough to the surface to get a GPS reading. Take Rob and Bliss and check out where the second tunnel goes. And get some shots of the chamber."
"Hey," Rob protested. "You said no pictures."
"You taking pictures and us taking pictures are two different things," Jake said, entering the narrow stairway, climbing away from the trio.
He hadn't ascended more than a dozen steps when he heard her behind him. Or maybe it was her scent that gave her away. He should order her back down to the chamber. But Dozer was likely already well into the second tunnel. Another half dozen steps and he heard her stumble.
He paused. "Aren't you using your NVG?"
"I gave my headgear to Rob," she said.
Jake grunted. "Then turn your flashlight on before you kill yourself."
She snapped on her light. He flipped up his scope, faced her, and scowled.
"I thought the reason you came in here with us was so you could keep close to your brother."
"Place seems empty. He's safe with Dozer."
"Uhuh. And does Dozer know you're not with him?"
"I told Rob to tell him if he noticed."
Jake flipped down his NVG and headed up the steps. "Don't fall and break your neck."
"Got it," she said.
The stairway ended outside a metal door much like the one on the street. As expected, it was locked. Trading NVG vision for flashlight, he examined its locking system before pulling out his cell.
"You got a signal?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, taking a GPS reading.
"Jake."
He could live a hundred lifetimes listening to her say his name. Too bad he couldn't let her stay with him for even one lifetime.
"Are you mad at me for snooping, or for making you take me into the tunnel?"
"I'm not mad at you for anything. You snooped same as I did, and you want to protect your family just as I want to protect mine."
"Then who are you mad at?"
Myself.
"No one. This is me doing my job."
She wasn't buying it. He heard it in her silence. If there'd been room to get around her in the narrow stairway, he'd have bolted.
What irony. All the tight spots he'd been in, and it was a petite brunette that made him want to run.
"The GPS reading of the underground door matches that of this house," Jake said, laying his notebook flat on the hotel room table so everyone could see the grand hacienda populating its screen, a mansion perched on the side of the mountain overlooking the city.
"Who does it belong to?" Bliss asked, leaning over his shoulder, as ever crowding him.
Too close.
He should have left her in their room. But he couldn't watch out for her if there was a wall separating them and she needed watching, in case Ash missed any cameras outside the tunnel door and they'd been seen. Nor could he afford to sacrifice any of the team to guard duty when he needed them all working on this latest intel.
"Jake?" she prompted, as though he hadn't heard her question.
"It's the family home of Federal Judge Pena's wife," he said.
"Why would he want Rob silenced?" Bliss asked.
"He might not," Jake said. "A stairway beneath his wife's family home leading to an old silver mine isn't definitive proof he's involved."
"Though the simplest answer is usually the best one," she said, echoing his own sentiments.
But something about those worn seats in the chamber didn't add up for him. Then there was Rob's revelation that the chamber matched a scene out of the BETA game that had prompted his and his friend's ill-fated trip to Mexico.
"Rob. What about that BETA game made you think Guanajuato was the place to do your research?"
"Ah-er. I didn't exactly get that part from the game."
Unease rolled over Jake's nerve endings and he turned his full attention on Rob. "From where then?"
Rob glanced between Jake and his sister. "It came up in a secret chat group connected to the game."
"How did you even know to look for a secret chat group?" Jake asked.
Rob glanced at hi
s sister again. "Ah, um." He coughed. "I hacked the Dev—"
"Game Developer," Bliss translated, her tone tight.
"Everybody does it," Rob rushed out. "It's how we find tricks the Dev puts into the game and shortcuts to conquering or bypassing levels. It's where all chats are archived." He looked from Bliss to Jake as though he expected either or both of them to read him the riot act. "I'd never have found out about the secret group if I hadn't hacked the Dev. That's the only way to find a secret chat group."
"And?" Jake prompted, uncaring how the kid got the information.
"I hacked into the secret chat archives." Rob grinned. "Nobody can resist checking out a secret group, right?"
Bliss groaned.
"Tell me about the secret group," Jake said, of the same mindset as Rob.
"As soon as I saw it was all in Spanish, I almost didn't read on. But the game had promise and none of the English chatters had said anything useful. So, I checked out the Spanish chatters. There had to be a reason they were secret, right?"
"Right."
"What was interesting about them was how they spoke. At first, I just thought I was doing a bad job translating. But then I saw a pattern. They were chatting in code. I couldn't get it to make sense about the game, but it—they—gave me the idea for my—our game."
More evidence Rob's game was the center of this mess. Jake was willing to eat crow. But the last thing he wanted was any interaction with Bliss, so he concentrated on ignoring her…which only made him more aware of her scent, the heat of her body, the energy crackling between them.
"It was a really rad idea," Rob rushed on. "The game player goes after the Prodigy, our bad guy, thinking they have to capture him to save the world. But the real goal is to take down the puppet masters—The Twelve Counselors."
Bliss' hand curled over Jake's shoulder. "There were twelve seats carved into the mine wall."
Jake nodded, his attention having already gone laser sharp on Rob's last three words, he now clinging to that focus to keep from the distraction Bliss presented. "Twelve?"
"Yeah. The player needs to figure out it's the twelve who are controlling everything and that they have to be destroyed in order to win the game."