by Jamie Davis
As she rested, a distant voice reached her. It was so faint, there was no way she’d have heard it if she’d been moving. Quinn couldn’t make out what they said, but it came from the direction in which she headed.
Gaining a boost in energy from the excitement that she might be close to getting out of the tight confines of this cave, Quinn picked up her pace as much as she could. She couldn’t push too fast without risking getting stuck.
The voice ahead turned into multiple voices. They grew louder as she moved downward in the sloped tunnel. Occasional cries of pain now reached her, interspersed with shouting and animal-like roars. Based on that combination, she expected werepanthers and the werebadger miners, too.
Quinn slowed her descent as soon as she realized a faint light filtered into the gap ahead of her. She had to be almost to the outlet of this tunnel.
Wriggling through one of the narrowest gaps yet, Quinn finally reached an area that opened up enough for her to sit upright and take stock of herself.
Quite a few scrapes and bruises adorned her skin where it was visible. A few thick locks of brown hair had fallen free of her ponytail. Reaching back, Quinn pulled the elastic free, letting her hair fall to her shoulders. She gathered it up again and used the band to re-secure it. If she had to fight, she didn’t want her hair getting in the way.
Quinn shook her head at the last thought. “No fighting, Quinn. Remember?” she muttered to herself. There would be no way to get help if she got caught in a running battle down here. The best option was to stick to her scouting mission.
Finishing her brief rest, Quinn leaned forward, happy to have enough room to crawl on her hands and knees for a change. The light ahead grew brighter as she continued, illuminating more of the tunnel.
She turned a corner and stopped, finding herself inside a jagged crack that opened into a rectangular stone tunnel. Quinn heard voices to the left but saw no one. They sounded pretty far off.
Quinn leaned out into the tunnel and looked both ways. There were electric lights attached to the wooden supports that had been placed in the tunnel to keep it from caving in. A long black wire connected the lights leading up the sloped tunnel to the right.
Opening her HUD, Quinn tried to see if her map function was working. Once she’d moved underground, it would only show her where she’d been and not the layout of the tunnels around her.
As the transparent overlay dropped into place, Quinn saw only the tunnels leading to the storm drain. She’d be able to find her way back to where she’d been and could climb back out that way if she had to. Nothing was shown, other than what she could see from her current vantage point. She tried to get her bearings in relation to the surface layout.
If her reckoning was correct, the way to the right led back toward the area beneath the Victorian home. The left-hand branch moved in the direction of the tallest part of Federal Hill. The latter was the direction from which she’d heard the voices.
Quinn climbed down from the gap in the tunnel wall and listened carefully. The voices had quieted for the time being. They could have moved down the tunnel or perhaps resumed their work of clearing the way.
She was here to scout the area, and Quinn decided to move to the left. There she could get an idea of how close the miners were to Gemma’s objective. She dipped into the shadows again by whispering “mist” as she moved with caution deeper into the tunnel system.
Quinn kept her right hand on the tunnel wall, staying close to that side. She stopped in the shadows between the lights and listened as she went along the curving passage. She didn’t want to surprise anyone.
In her HUD, Quinn double-checked that the scout icon was still illuminated so she could access the new Enhanced Recon skill. She felt like an opportunity to use it might come up soon.
As she dismissed the HUD, Quinn’s nose caught a hint of wet fur. Soon after, the voices picked up again. Judging by the gruff shouts and whimpers, there were werepanthers ahead, driving the miners to dig.
Quinn hugged the inside wall of the curving tunnel. She half-expected to be surprised by someone coming along the tunnel at any moment.
She wasn’t wrong.
Only because her basic stealth mode was engaged and she stood between two widely spaced lights did she avoid detection as a pair of werepanthers strode up the tunnel. The two had changed into humanoid panther form, although they still wore their leather biker jackets over their t-shirts and jeans.
Quinn crouched in the deepest of the shadows and held very still. She gripped the hilt of her Bowie in case it came to a fight. The pair talked as they passed.
“The boss ain’t happy with our progress, and now the little buggers won’t dig any farther because someone saw a ghost or something. I don’t know why you didn’t keep trying to drive them onward. You should’ve made an example of one to make the others keep going.”
The second shifter said, “I’d already beaten one of them bloody and damn near unconscious. If that wasn’t going to make them dig, I don’t see how nearly killing all of them is going to help us. There aren’t any of them left to add to the crew as it is. We’ve lost too many to the cave-ins.”
“All I know is, you’re calling her this time, not me.”
“I want to try something first,” the first one said. “We caught that clan mother or whatever she is. Let’s bring her down and threaten her. Maybe that’ll get them digging again, if only to save her life.”
“It’s your funeral. You know we have to keep her alive for some rite the boss has planned.”
“Yeah, but they don’t know that. Here’s what we’ll do…”
Quinn tried to hear the rest of the plan as they kept going up the passage. She was tempted to follow so she could listen in. They had to be talking about Inez. If she could free the werebadger matriarch, maybe it would cause an uprising or something with the miners.
On second thought, though, Quinn changed her mind. She wanted to get a look at the work crew and see what was going on where they were digging.
Resuming her careful approach, Quinn reached a point where she could see an open intersection ahead. The four-way crossing had only been partially excavated. The left- and right-hand tunnels were filled with rubble that had been hauled out of the area directly ahead.
It looked like a narrow gap had been opened to an area just beyond the intersection. Quinn couldn’t see what was through there, but that was where all the attention was focused.
Five werepanthers, all partially shifted into cat form, stood over a huddled group of dirty miners. She looked around for some evidence of picks or shovels but didn’t see any. Then she realized the shifted werebadgers were using the powerful claws at the ends of their sturdy little arms.
The leading werepanther stood peering into a cracked opening. “I don’t see no ghosts or nothing else. What I do see is an opening into an older passage. That sounds like what we’re looking for.”
One of the cowering werebadgers pointed at the gap and said, “I saw it. It looked like an old miner wearing a hat with an old oil lamp clipped to it. He warned me the passage wasn’t safe and then disappeared. I can’t go in there, not if it’s inhabited by the dead. We’ve had so many cave-ins already. We can’t lose anyone else.”
“Sure, you can,” the looming werepanther said. “Because if you don’t, my pals are gonna come back and start killing you, just like your little friend there.”
He gestured at a crumpled body on the ground by the freshly dug opening. Anger welled up in Quinn and she fought to push it back down. She wanted to run down there and start showing those big cats what a real adversary could do to them.
Quinn took a deep breath and calmed herself. She had to figure out her next move. There was something through that gap, and the werepanthers seemed to think it was what Gemma had been looking for. She couldn’t let that happen.
Studying the gap, Quinn figured she could make her way through the narrow opening if she had a few seconds to contort herself the right way. It
looked like they’d already started shoring up the area around it with wooden planks so the miners could widen the opening.
Judging the distance from her position to the opening, Quinn figured she could make it past the huddled miners and the guards with enough time left to get through the opening before sixty seconds were up. That meant she could use her Enhanced Recon ability to get in and check out the far side, then use it again on the way back out so she could get back to the surface.
Quinn edged as close to the brightly lit area as she dared, then opened her HUD and clicked on the scout arrow icon. From the open menu, she selected Enhanced Recon and closed it.
Immediately a countdown timer began running. That surprised her. She’d thought she would be able to start it sometime after she selected it. She lost valuable seconds before realizing the time had started.
Moving from her place in the shadows, Quinn walked at a smooth pace into the middle of the intersection. No one paid any attention to her, and she smiled. This was going to be easy.
Quinn wove between the guards and around the scattered miners seated on the ground until she stood next to the opening. A glance at the HUD told her she had ten seconds left.
Lifting her leg, she slid it through the lowest part of the gap in the tunnel wall until it reached the other side. She reached up and gripped one of the shoring timbers and pulled on it to haul herself through the opening. As she did, the wooden support beam shifted, and a few large rocks slid past her into the intersection.
“Hey, that board moved,” one of the werepanthers said.
“It’s the ghost,” a bunch of the miners shouted as they crab-walked away from the gap.
Quinn bit back a curse and pulled harder to shift her body, now wedged in the narrow crack. Time ran down, and she still hadn’t gotten through.
Two of the werepanthers moved toward the opening, peering into the gap in which Quinn was stuck. They had almost reached her.
Pulling at the wooden supports on both sides for leverage, Quinn heaved herself free and shoved herself the rest of the way through the opening as her timer hit zero. The force of her push was too much for the hastily placed supports, and the timbers on both sides came loose.
Quinn rolled over. Two werepanthers stared in at her, their eyes wide. They clearly saw her on the other side. Before they could act on what they saw, rocks dropped from the ceiling. Both shifters had to jump back from the gap as a substantial collection of rocks and dirt cascaded from the ceiling. The sudden cave-in drove them the rest of the way out of the opening. The rocks and dirt poured down on Quinn, too.
She rolled to her stomach and scrambled with hands and feet to move from where she lay. It was too late. The initial cascade of dirt and rocks pinned her legs to the ground. The rest of the avalanche rolled over her as she covered her head with her arms. With the cascade of dirt came darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Quinn woke and gasped, inhaling a cloud of dirt. She coughed for almost a minute as she struggled to clear her throat. She tried to move and found she could lift her head a little, clearing some of the dirt from around her face. She attempted to lift herself up, but something pinned her to the ground from the shoulders down.
Clearing her throat, Quinn croaked out through the dust caking her mouth, “Dammit, I need to see.”
The gray-green haze lit the darkness around her, and she got her first good look at the area she’d entered through the gap in the wall. Worked stone sheathed the curved walls, which formed an oval about twenty feet across at the widest point. Another tunnel led away from this room at the far end of the oval, opposite her position.
Twisting her neck so she could see behind her, Quinn spotted what held her down. Dirt and stone from the cave-in covered her to a depth of several feet, starting at her shoulders and extending to where the gap used to be.
Quinn pulled her arms around even with her shoulders and tried to push upward and lift her upper body from the pile trapping her. Some of it shifted away, letting her lift up down to her waist.
She spent long minutes pushing dirt and stones away to try to clear the pile from around her torso. After clearing everything she could reach while on her stomach, Quinn tried to roll onto her back.
Her legs wouldn’t budge, though. Quinn tapped her earpiece, attempting to connect with Taylor back at O’Malley’s. She heard a crackle on the comm but not the familiar chime of it connecting. “Taylor, can you hear me? I’m trapped in a cave in beneath Federal Hill. Are you there, T?”
She waited for a reply but got nothing back. She must be too far underground for the comm system to reach. It looked like she was on her own. She cleared more of the dirt from around her waist until she was too tired to keep going.
Sighing and lying back down, Quinn crossed her arms under her forehead. She ran through her options, saying aloud, “This is a mess.”
“It sure is. I’m surprised you were able to dig out as much as you were.”
Quinn lifted her head, scanning the room with her night vision to locate the source of the voice. She saw no one.
“Who’s there?” Quinn said. “Show yourself.”
She feared one of the werepanthers had somehow gotten through to her side before the cave-in sealed the opening. What revealed itself wasn’t what she expected, though.
A form shimmered into view. Standing midway between her and the opening at the far end of the room was a man about four and a half feet tall. A faint blue nimbus of light surrounded his transparent form. He wore woolen pants, a collarless button-down shirt, and a vest. A leather hat was perched atop his head, with some sort of lamp attached to it. A yellow flame glowed inside.
“You’re the ghost,” Quinn said. “The one the miners talked about outside.”
The man chuckled and smiled. “I suppose I am. At least, I’m one of them.” He pointed at Quinn. “That was exactly what happened to me down here. I guess if we wait long enough, you’ll be joining me.”
Quinn grunted and shook her head. “Nope. No way am I dying down here, trapped in the dark like some kind of animal.”
“It’s not so bad as an afterlife goes. No one bothers you. Well, not usually.”
“I don’t care,” Quinn insisted. She twisted again and started pulling at the dirt and rocks piled around her waist. “I’m getting out of here. I’m not becoming some moldy old ghost.”
“Hey, I’m not moldy!”
“Sorry. No offense intended.”
The man shrugged. “It’s all right. Some of my friends are a little moldy, but you didn’t hear me say it.”
Despite her situation, Quinn smiled. “I’m Quinn. What’s your name?”
“Upwood. Upwood Shires, at your service.” He gave a little bow and finished with a flourish of one hand.
“Nice to meet you, Upwood. You sure have those miners out there pretty worked up. What did you do to scare them like that?”
“I can look like this, or I can look like a half-decayed corpse. I showed them the corpse-y version to try to keep them from coming in here.”
“Why try to keep them away? Are you a guardian?”
“Oh, no. Why would you say something like that?”
Whatever she’d done to upset him, Upwood had become more than a little flustered.
He stammered as he continued, “Uh, um, I was just trying to warn them that the ceiling in this area is extremely unstable. It killed a whole bunch of my friends and me. Any digging is likely to set it off. That was why they gave up mining here.”
Quinn glanced at the cave-in. “Do you think they’ll be able to dig their way in here soon?” She didn’t want to be trapped like this when the werepanthers came through the gap.
Upwood laughed. “It’ll take them a few days at least to get in that way. The bulk of the cave-in went the other way. You’re lucky it did, missy, or you’d be glowing like me right now.”
Quinn took comfort from that and went back to digging to try to free her legs. She couldn’t do anything else
until she was free.
It turned out Upwood was good company. It took Quinn almost two hours to dig herself out. By the time she finally managed to drag herself clear, her legs had been trapped for a long time. She rubbed them, gasping in pain from the pins and needles sensation as the circulation returned to her lower extremities.
Upwood stood beside her, watching as she sat there rubbing her legs. “You sure do have gumption. I was sure you’d give up and let yourself be trapped down here with me.”
“I’m not the type to give up, not ever.”
Upwood cackled and waggled his finger at her. “I can see that. I can see that very well indeed.” He hooked his thumbs in the pockets on the front of his vest. “So, missy, what’s next? You gonna wait for your friends to dig you out?”
“They’re not my friends. Well, the ones in charge aren’t.” She sniffed the air. “Strange that I can still smell them, even after the cave-in.”
Upwood took a step back and said, “I’m glad you aren’t with them. I don’t like folks who hang around with werepanthers. They don’t seem to have changed much since my day, though they didn’t come into the city often.”
Quinn cocked her head to one side and studied Upwood again. “You’re a werebadger, aren’t you? Maybe I’m catching a whiff of you? I didn’t know ghosts carried smells.”
The little man smiled and shifted into his badger form and back again. “You’re a smart one, I’ll give you that. I’d guess being a ghost is about smell as well as sight for someone of your obvious abilities. Tell me something—if you’re not friends with those panthers, what are you doing down here?”
“I’m a Huntress. I came to see what they’re digging for and to try to stop them so the miners, your kin, could be set free.”
“Oh, ho, a Huntress, you say? I can’t say as I’ve ever seen one of your kind before. I knew a few men and women from the Hunter clan hereabouts. They were a scary sort, but they generally left a man to his own devices as long as he didn’t harm normal human folk.”