“Yeah.”
She didn’t sound convinced, and he wondered if he sounded more certain than he felt. They had to try. No matter what, the fate of the city could lay in their hands now. The data she carried might be critical to Verity’s next phase. They had to escape.
The pounding of boots on the wet pavement startled him and Maddox turned in time to see a squadron of Sentinels heading down the road, long gear and Lancers in hand.
Headed right toward them.
Tactically intelligent, but emotionally brainless, the Confessor’s soldiers would shoot to kill, or worse torture them. Maddox’s heart shrieked panic, but his brain went into overdrive. Think, man. Run?
“Maddox!” Allana yanked his jacket.
He turned to tell her to be quiet, but she wrapped her arms around his neck. Before he could take a breath to speak, she had pulled his head down and had her mouth pressed to his.
Raindrops slipped down his forehead and slid down his nose, but he kept his lips to hers. The tromp, tromp of boots passing behind lulled him and for a moment he forgot the danger and relished the sweet sensation that was Allana’s kiss. With the bulky cloak draped over her, he couldn’t get a good grip on her back so he held the wet folds of fabric tight. She was the perfect height for him to bend his head and meet her mouth with his own. She put her hands on his face and kissed him softly, though he knew if he could feel her heartbeat, it would be racing as hard as his.
A dangerous kiss.
Suddenly, the sound of boots faded and only the rain remained.
“They’re gone.” Her eyes opened wide, a deep blue or maybe dusky purple in the dimly lit park. Raindrops settled on her lashes and she blinked them away. “Maddox?”
He shook his head. Back to business. “That was a smart diversion.” He winked.
She stared.
“We’ve got to get to the rain sewer before we run across more Sentinels. This way.” He smirked and strode off.
“They teach us how to handle anything,” she called from behind.
“Bet they do.”
Chapter Two
THE SMALL BRICK building that held the entrance to the rain sewer’s overflow gate wasn’t guarded—it didn’t need to be. Not only would no one have a reason to break in, but also the electronic lock on the gate was impenetrable to anyone without high-tech, code breaking experience. The Confessor didn’t want people leaving the city. He preferred captive subjects, and the Sentinels were enough deterrent for most people.
Verity had provided an EM pulse to break the lock code. Maddox held up his wrist screen, started the program, and waited.
Allana paced the muddy ground in front of the gate like a creature afraid for her life. If the Sentinels caught her and didn’t kill her on the spot, she’d be tortured before being executed. He would be too, but all he could think about was the press of her soft lips against his own. Her sweet, very soft lips. He shook his head and looked to his wrist screen. Almost done. He’d better focus on the task ahead so he didn’t screw it up. Escaping the city wasn’t going to be easy.
Beep.
The lights flickered on his wrist screen and one by one, the code unraveled the lock like blue laces untying from a shoe, slipping the electronic knots until the gate opened. Beep, beep, beep.
“We’re in.” He pushed the gate aside and looked into the darkened depths. A musty odor wafted up from the stairwell. If any Sentinels were waiting in the tunnels below, then he and Allana were dead. They’d never be able to fight them off in the maze.
Allana joined him at the entrance of the steep stairwell. “Are you sure this is the way?”
A loud crash rang out in the distance and beamcar sirens pealed again. A spotlight lit the sky and signaled to and fro over the gray clouds in a slow search pattern.
“Yes! Of course I’m sure.” Maddox gave her a nudge toward the entrance. “Go. We’ve got to get out of sight.”
They headed down the dusty stairs, Maddox closing and locking the gate and door from the inside. Using light from their screens, they maneuvered down the slippery steps into the depths of the storm water sewer system that ran under the city. The stairwell, brick like the building above, was filled with chalky dust that had fallen from the deteriorating concrete. He stepped carefully over piles, some sticky where the dampness had turned the dust to sludge, holding on to the small metal handrail that wound down into the sewer’s depths.
He’d trained for weeks underground and he still didn’t know every tunnel and pipe, but he had learned enough to escape the city and get to the rendezvous point. That was all that mattered. The rigorous training had kept his mind off Meera, for the most part. She had been the only family he had left. Now, he was alone.
“One more flight.” He shone his light at the curved brick ceiling. The whole place was a masterwork of engineering to have withstood the war so well. It could become their tomb tonight.
Allana went down the last stairs in silence, her light trained on the steps below as she walked.
When they reached the bottom of the debris-covered stairwell, the room opened up into a large water-filled cavern that split off into many tunnels in every direction, each carrying rainwater out of the city like rivers flowing off a massive lake. They turned off their wrist screen lights. Each numbered, gray concrete wall was lined with Biolumen strips, the bacteria colonies feeding off the dank moisture in the underground. The weak greenish light gave an eerie glow to the cavern, but provided enough illumination for maneuverability at least.
“Wow.” Allana pushed her hood down. “This place is huge.”
“It has to be. There’s a lot of water falling up above. It’s got to go somewhere.”
When the droughts had come and the government had found a way to make it rain, they’d built the infrastructure to support the extra water that would pour into the city, not realizing that they’d saved the city from flooding when the rain system went haywire and the rains had never stopped. Maddox remembered how amazed he’d been the first time he’d been underground, before the Confessor came to power. On a childish dare, he and two friends had slipped into the storm drain on the way home from school. Good thing someone had seen them, otherwise they might’ve been stuck underground for a long time. Most of the city’s residents had no clue what lay below them.
“I’ve never really thought about it. No time now.” Allana scanned the area. “So, how are we getting out of here?”
A loud clang reverberated through the room and Allana jumped. Maddox spun in the direction of the noise.
“It’s just the pipes.” He didn’t know if he was trying to convince Allana or himself. “They’re noisy. I remember that from training.”
“Are you sure?” She crouched and scanned, her poncho spread around her like a shield.
“Yes. See? It’s gone.”
Sure enough, the sound died away, replaced by the hiss of rushing water and the remaining echo of their voices through the cavernous room.
“We’ve got to get out of here. My nerves can’t take it. There must be fifty tunnels leading from this room and Sentinels could be hiding in any one of them.”
“Forty six. And I don’t think there are any Sentinels down here yet, or we’d know it by now. But we’d better get moving before they get here.” Maddox looked at his screen. It glowed a pale blue. “Not much of a signal underground except for our own biometrics, so we’re off-grid.”
“That’s expected?” Her eyes widened and she stood. “Fantastic.”
“Yeah, now we see how good my training is. This way.” He directed her around the water to the far side of the room, walking at a brisk pace. “Only one set of tunnels leads to the main flow out of here—and only one is on the path we need to follow to get out of the city near the rendezvous point. Some of the others lead to recycling or waste management. Or to places far from where we need to be.”
“Great. This gets better and better.” She jogged to keep up.
“I know which ones we need to
take. Don’t worry.”
“You better know.” She smiled.
“You trained as an assassin. This is what I trained for.”
“I hope you’re as good as I am.”
He paused and looked around for the easiest path. Me too. “At least we’re alone. No Sentinels.”
“Yes, thank the gods for that. If we say it enough maybe it will remain true.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Or maybe it won’t.
She shook the water from her cloak. “It’s warm down here. Much warmer than on the surface.”
“I told you it was. We’ll ditch our coats once we get out of this main area. We won’t need them.” Maddox adjusted the backpack. “I don’t want to be caught here, and this is the most likely place the Sentinels would look if they came underground.”
“Then let’s go.”
“There it is. We need the big tunnel over there, to the right. Number seventeen-fourteen.”
Maddox led her around the large pool to the round tunnel that spoked off the center and headed mostly due east. With a small metal walkway suspended over the rushing water it carried, this tunnel would be the easiest they would navigate on their way out. The tunnel had been painted at one time, and flaps of decaying and molded paint hung like giant drips from the curved ceiling.
“This place is bound to be a health hazard.” Allana held her nose.
“No doubt about that. But not as much of one as Sentinels are. You go on ahead. I’ll bring up the rear.”
Allana nodded and headed into the tunnel. With a last glance behind to make sure no one was there, Maddox followed her.
They held the thin rails as they walked across, the biolumen strips on the walls lighting the way, barely, casting a greenish glow over the whole scene. The tunnel domed over them and the walkway swung and creaked as they moved.
“You should see this when there’s a deluge.”
“Why? I already feel like I’m inside a snake.” Allana grasped the railing. “A moving snake.”
Maddox laughed and the sound echoed down the tunnel. She sure was a nervous assassin. “We only take this tunnel a little ways then we stop at a hub and get into a smaller one.”
“Great.”
He smiled. Something about Allana made him curious to know more about her, even though she was a Verity assassin and she wouldn’t be in his life very long. She’d killed the most hated man in the city and Verity would keep her hidden away for the rest of her life as protection. He’d get one day with her, two at most. Then he’d never see her again.
He watched her walk, the heavy wet cloak draped over her. Still. “The tunnels diverge up ahead. Not much farther. Stop when the ceiling opens up again. We need to move to a different fork there.”
She nodded, keeping her gaze down, maybe watching the water or maybe her feet swaying as the platform moved. Even with her cloak, he could see the tension in her body in the way she carried herself.
They soon came to the hub and Maddox leapt to the concrete platform jutting from the side of the tunnel. He held his hand out to help her, but she jumped to the ledge without taking it, sending a shower of loose pebbles into the water below. He set the backpack down and unzipped his jacket. He should’ve gotten more sleep the night before, but the anticipation of the day’s activities had kept him awake. He yawned then chastised himself for not being on guard. He needed a stimshot. He knelt to unzip his pack.
“Why is it so hot down here?” Allana tugged at her cloak. “I can barely breathe.”
“The machinery that pumps the water heats the air, I guess.” He scanned the tunnel ceiling and sides, noting the greenery sprouting from every crack and hole, then dug in his pack and pulled out the small injector. He held it up to Allana. “Need one?”
“No thanks, I’m still on adrenaline.” She studied the water. “The pumps are still running after all these years? I thought gravity ran these rivers? I mean, I just thought they flowed right out of the city by themselves.”
“Hmm?” Maddox pulled off his jacket and stuck the injector to his forearm, closing his eyes against the cold sting of the stim. He pressed his lips together as the med yanked his body awake and sent his heart pumping, then looked up at Allana. “Some of the pumps do still run. I’ve seen them, from afar of course. I guess the Confessor realized he had to keep the water out of the city, and that would mean he needs pumps.” His vision cleared as the stim fully excited his nerves. Every crack in the tunnel looked like a canal and the water had layers. Allana might still be boosting on adrenaline, but she was going to crash eventually. He’d have to be ready.
His hands shook and his thoughts cleared.
He was ready for anything the Sentinels could throw at him now.
Allana flung the wet cloak off and it landed on the concrete with a heavy thud. “Yeah, I guess so. The bastard wasn’t stupid, that’s for sure.”
Maddox stared at her impressive female figure, dressed in only a black skinsuit that clung to her in all the right places. Curves everywhere. He cleared his throat.
“Never seen a woman before?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Well…” His face grew hot and he took a step back. Now was not the time or the place to be having a reaction to someone in his charge. But damn, not only was Allana smart and interesting, she was hot! “I’ve seen a few.” Surely the stimshot was making his reaction more profound than normal, because Sentinels be damned, he enjoyed the sight of her lean body.
“I’m sure.” She kicked the cloak into the water below. “Guess we shouldn’t leave anything behind for them to find. I sure don’t want to have to carry this heavy wet thing tomorrow.”
“No, I don’t either. We’ll get new coats from Verity. They’ve always taken care of us.” He pushed his damp jacket over the edge and watched it float away. He couldn’t lose complete track of the mission.
“Yeah. But next time, I want something a bit more practical. Maybe with some pockets.”
Maddox laughed. “I’m sure they’ll give you anything you ask for.”
“Maybe, maybe not. And now, this. Thank goodness.” Allana tugged at her hair, loosening it around the edges and peeling it until the wig came free. Underneath the long blond tresses, black waves unleashed, falling just below her shoulders.
“Wow, disguise?” Maddox raised his eyebrows. Allana’s black hair fit her smooth pale complexion so much better than the blond hair, setting her face off in stark contrast. “I didn’t even guess.”
“Yep. You could say that. Do I look different?”
Studying her for a second, he debated telling her how much better she looked, but hesitated. “Yeah. You look…tougher.”
She shook her head so her hair fell over her face, trying to hide her smile. “Yeah?”
“Definitely.” He noticed the Lancer in her boot, a newer model than his own, and made a quick check to see that he still had his. He’d almost forgotten. “We’ll need to stow our weapons in my pack to keep them from getting wet,” he said. “We’ll be in the water soon. Do you mind?”
She hesitated, her gaze meeting his. “If you try to hurt me, I’ll kill you.”
“You can trust me. I’m Verity, remember?”
She stared a few seconds more, then nodded. “Fine. But don’t forget what I said.” She handed her Lancer to him.
“I won’t forget, nor will I betray you. You can count on it.” He slipped both weapons into his pack and zipped it up and sealed the over-flap. Lancers could withstand rain and some water, but not submersion. “Waterproof pack. Now let’s go. Umm, tunnel number twenty-six, forty-four.” He scanned the branching tunnels. “There. That one.” He pointed.
“How much farther till we’re out of the city?” Allana’s voice broke and trembled, all signs of the toughness she’d just displayed, gone. “That tunnel looks a lot smaller. A whole lot smaller.”
Maddox turned. Allana didn’t seem like an assassin any more. Not even in the dark skinsuit. She looked a little afraid and a lot like a woman who needed
a strong bit of comfort. Something he wasn’t used to providing. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not a fan of small spaces,” she said. “And that’s pretty small.”
“We’ll hurry through it.” He wanted to give her a pat on the shoulder, or some other gesture to show her he’d take care of her, but pulled back. He’d make sure Allana was safe, but he couldn’t console her any more than he would a male assassin. No matter how pretty she was. She wasn’t really weak. She was probably stronger than he was.
“Yeah.”
“Come on. You’ve been through worse already today.” And she had. Who knew what she’d had to do to kill the Confessor. “We’ll be out of the city before you know it.”
“Then let’s get this over with.”
They headed down the concrete walkway along the side of the smaller tunnel. The water gushed below them, rushing by in its escape from the city. Leaves, paper, and little bits of debris that had made it through the grates swirled along the top of the roiling current, making trails of bubbles in the wake. Though they only had about five and a half feet to stand up in, the water was likely more than seven feet deep at this point, though it was getting more shallow the farther they traveled from the main distribution point.
“What’s that?” Allana jumped, almost knocking Maddox to the ground.
He stumbled backward, grabbing the railing and barely keeping from falling.
“What?” He grabbed at her but she moved ahead and began stomping and kicking.
He joined her just as she kicked something large and furry off the ledge.
“Oh, my god.” She leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. “I’ve never seen a rat that size.
Maddox’s stomach turned. “Ugh.” Rats. He hated the germy creatures. They’d told him there were rats down here, but he hadn’t seen any during training and he’d blocked the information out of his memory. And they certainly hadn’t said the rats were so big. “Here, let me lead. We need to get out of here.”
Come Undone: Romance Stories Inspired by the Music of Duran Duran Page 25