by R. J. Blain
My doubts and curiosity waged a brief but intense war, and I buckled in. Instead of hopping on my lap as I expected, Colby jumped to the back and nested on Rob’s overcoat.
I was grateful my macaroni and cheese roommate no longer left smears of neon-orange sludge and powder in its wake. The months with Rob had improved my perception of value to some degree. Replacing the coat wouldn’t hurt his bottom line in the slightest, but the thought of such a beautiful thing being ruined bothered me.
It was just a black leather coat, but when Rob wore it, it brought out the blue in his eyes and made me stop and stare at him. He rarely smiled when he wore it, which intrigued me almost as much as the fact he didn’t wear it often despite the early winter chill.
Rob drove with the confidence I lacked, obeying the speed limit as he always did whenever I was in the vehicle with him. While I worked up the courage to ask questions, Rob kept his gaze fixed on the road, waiting in silence.
“Doesn’t it bother you that you have to rely on people so you don’t die?”
“It doesn’t bother me at all. The company is stellar, the perks are downright sinful, and when I make you happy, I’m happy. Why would that bother me? It doesn’t, and it shouldn’t bother you, either. You require food to survive—food that also came from living things. Other people farm it or raise the animals. In a way, I’m better off than you; I eat, but I don’t hurt you—I actually benefit you. That said, I can eat the same foods you do, although I’d eventually starve.”
I frowned, and no matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t think of a single way to contest his point. I did require food—food from living things, and when I ate, I did kill them. “True.”
“Don’t worry. I fully support your carnivorous ways, as long as I don’t end up on the menu.”
“We’ll see.”
5
There’s really a treasure trove of old history in here?
I managed to find my way back to the elite’s estate through a mixture of luck and good memory. The last leg of the drive, I worried about how we’d bypass the vault’s security system. If I had been smart, I would have taken some time to prepare before getting caught up in the moment and deciding it was a good idea to break into the damned place again.
The heist had been my easiest job after I had defeated its alarm system. Years ago, I had come prepared with tools.
I really needed to start thinking things through a little better. All of my common sense dribbled out of my ears when it came to Rob.
I wanted to make him happy, and the newness and uncertainty of having someone I wanted to please had gotten the better of me yet again. Rob liked the knife I had given him a few weeks ago as a gift for putting up with me, but a laptop like mine would even the scales between us. For people like us, an unmonitored system was priceless.
Still, getting the dae a dagger he could hide up his sleeve gave me peace of mind. I had gotten my katana at the same time, an unexpected bonus to the venture. Leaving it at home had been stupid, not that I expected any trouble so far out of the city and in a difficult-to-access vault.
Getting through the alarm system, unfortunately, would be the real problem. If I was lucky, it wouldn’t take me long to remember how to read braille. I had spent several weeks of hard effort learning the language enough to defeat the vault’s door, but I hadn’t used it since.
Relying on years-old memory was stupid and reckless at best. If I couldn’t remember enough braille, we’d both end up in a lot of trouble.
Before Rob had come around, I never would have done something so reckless.
The access road leading to the home was strewn with leaves and short brush, and Rob muttered curses under his breath. “If this turns out to be a bust, I’m going to be disappointed,” the dae admitted.
“Mommy,” Colby agreed.
I grinned at Rob. “You just want a laptop like mine. There’s going to be a small road to the right in a few minutes. Take it.”
Rob fell quiet until he found the turn, and then he sighed. “Damn straight I want one like yours. Freedom from surveillance is something every sane elite wants. I’d be able to do my work so much easier without anyone watching me or my data being copied and scrutinized. It explains why those murders occurred after the repetitious pornography, too. Even if the government reviewed the videos, they’d check the first bit of the film and never discover they are hiding murders.”
“You’ve been thinking about this a lot.”
“Yes, I have. The world’s a much better place without his filth polluting it.”
“I’m not going to argue with that.” I wrinkled my nose and stared out the window into the darkness, wondering what lurked in the trees. Had animals fallen prey to the dae, too? While tempted to ask, I kept quiet.
“So, should I just keep driving down this road?”
“The house is at the end of the driveway.”
Rob grunted. “This is a driveway? This guy really likes his privacy, doesn’t he?”
I shrugged. “Living out in the boonies is a good way to keep unwanted people from making unexpected visits.”
It hadn’t stopped Kenneth Smith from sending me out to do his dirty work, dropping me off at the end of the road with strict instructions not to call him unless I had what he wanted. I could have returned to Baltimore sooner than I had, but the mansion had been so much more than I’d expected, that I hadn’t been able to resist the lure of exploring the entire place.
I had lied so many times to Kenneth upon my return, explaining the place had been locked down worse than a government installation. My boss hadn’t seemed surprised and had seemed happy enough with what I had given him to not question me much about the lengthy expedition.
Even back then, the route to the home hadn’t been easy.
“It doesn’t look like anyone lives here anymore.”
“It hasn’t changed all that much,” I assured him. The road had battled with the plant life a few years ago, and I wasn’t surprised by the continued decay. “It’s secluded. I don’t think the owner visited more than a few times a year. On the outside, it looks like every other summer home out there. What we want is actually beneath the house.”
“I don’t think anyone’s been around here for years.”
It was entirely possible the data Kenneth Smith had sent me to retrieve had resulted in the elite’s ruin. I had piled up so many regrets over the years it was hard for me to pick any one of them as my worst crime.
Kenneth Smith had always been in the business of ruining people, and I had done a good job of helping him accomplish his goals.
Halfway down the driveway the plant life retreated, leaving a light covering of leaves on the asphalt. Rob made a thoughtful noise.
The house was as I remembered it, covered in thick blankets of ivy. The dark shapes of windows peeked through the foliage. Rob parked in front of the steps, whistling at the hulking structure. “Someone built a five floor monstrosity in the middle of the woods and left it to rot? That’s excessive.”
“I’m astonished you know the meaning of the word excessive,” I muttered, unbuckling my seatbelt. Everything about the dae was excessive, right down to his shiny shoes, but after the first few weeks, I had stopped worrying about his shoes and had focused on everything else about him.
I wasn’t supposed to like any of the elite, but I couldn’t help but think Rob was different. Maybe the owner of the house was different, too. That would explain a lot, including the vault beneath the property.
“There’s really a treasure trove of old history in here?” Rob asked, his tone doubtful.
“There used to be. I have no idea if it’s still here,” I warned him.
“So you mentioned. Lead the way, Miss Daegberht.” The teasing tone of his voice warned me he was using the formal version of my name to get a rise out of me.
I scowled but kept quiet. Instead of heading inside the house, I circled the building, heading across the overgrown lawn towards the trees. Find
ing the right spot would be a challenge in the dark, but it wouldn’t open in the day.
The door only functioned in the total absence of sunlight, and there were sensors scattered all over the lawn. There was some room for error, accounting for moonlit nights, but unless every single sensor was covered and the correct code was input, the vault would remain sealed.
“What are we looking for?” Rob hissed in my ear.
“The door,” I replied, kicking at the grass with every stride. The section of lawn I searched for was uneven due to the door forming a depression in the ground. To activate the initial mechanism, I had to stand in just the right place. Finding the correct spot underneath the rampant foliage would be the biggest challenge.
Once I got to the door, I’d be able to crack into the vault. I didn’t know every reference the door gave, but I had a good memory, and I enjoyed literature. Most of the elite wouldn’t have a clue how to unlock the door, but my love for history and forbidden books gave me everything I needed to gain access to the wealth hidden beneath our feet.
“Anything I’m looking for in particular?”
“A dip in the ground. It’ll be subtle. If you find it, I’ll open it up.”
“Just what sort of vault is this?” Rob demanded.
“As long as it hasn’t been destroyed, you’ll find out soon enough.”
Knowing what I was looking for helped, but it still took me over an hour to locate the door. I sighed and whistled for Rob and Colby. The two dae hurried over.
“This is it?” Rob demanded.
My macaroni and cheese roommate bounced on the ground at my feet and muttered something too soft to hear. Despite my inability to distinguish which of its two words it grumbled, its discontent and doubt came through loud and clear. I laughed, prodding Colby with my booted toe. “Move it, noodle brain. I’ll show you.”
The lawn hadn’t been mowed in years, and it took me several minutes to find the right spots. The unchecked growth forced me to jump up and down to activate the sensors beneath my feet. The click warned me to move, and I hopped out of the way before the gears whirred into motion. There was a grind and a ripping tear as the mechanism tore through the grass and dirt and popped open.
“And you doubted me,” I murmured, dusting invisible dirt off my hands. I’d get dirty soon enough, opening the hatch leading to the door below. I grabbed hold of the wheel and gave a yank, grunting at the effort it took to get the wheel spinning. I turned it three full revolutions one way, half a revolution back, and three more turns forward before it clicked. I lifted up, grunting from the effort. The hiss of air warned me to hold my breath.
Rob spluttered, backing away and waving his hand in front of his face. “That’s vile. It smells like a corpse down there.”
Dry and dusty I expected, but like a corpse? I tensed, shivering. “No light. If you use any lights, the internal locks will activate, and we won’t be able to access the vault until tomorrow.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?”
I shot him a glare. “Once we go in, unless we leave tonight, we stay in there until tomorrow night. Do you have a problem with that?”
“We’ll be missed.”
Sometime soon, the dae would finish testing my patience. How would I snap? Then again, would I? I could make him pay me back for my tested patience using his body. The vault even had a few choice spots for a tryst. “Last time I was in here, there was a connection to the government systems. I’m sure you can send a message if it’s a problem.”
“You could have warned me earlier!”
I snorted. “That’s no fun, Rob. You wanted to come. Don’t be a wuss now.”
Rob spat curses at me, which I answered with laughter. Maybe the vault smelled of corpses, but it wasn’t any worse than Baltimore’s river. There were some advantages to being a fringe rat, and I descended into the darkness, leaving Rob and Colby to decide for themselves if they came down with me.
They did.
I found the body by tripping over it. I crashed to the floor and cracked my chin on the concrete hard enough stars burst in my vision. The shock of pain lancing from head to toe froze me on the floor. Rob cursed somewhere behind me, grabbing hold of my elbow to haul me upright.
“No lights,” I hissed through clenched teeth. My entire face throbbed from the impact with the ground. I lifted my hand to touch my chin, and blood covered my fingers. “Ouch.”
In good news, I hadn’t broken any of my teeth. Having located a silver lining in my current situation, I checked the body I’d tripped over with my toe, blinking at the resulting clatter on the stones.
Rob grunted. “Well, whoever they were, they’ve been dead a long time. Nothing left but bones.”
“I haven’t been here in three or four years. Maybe a bit longer.”
“Is that enough time for a body to become a skeleton?” Rob made a thoughtful sound. “I guess the answer is yes.”
“Thanks, Captain Obvious. I figured that out about the time I tripped over it.”
Rob helped me to my feet, stepping over the body. “You’re sure we can’t use any lights in here?”
“Positive.”
“I don’t suppose you’re going to explain why there’s a corpse down here?”
I had a good guess, and I tried not to think about it too much. If I failed to get us through the next door, we’d share the intruder’s fate, although I had an ace up my sleeve: Colby. While I disliked damaging the vault, my macaroni and cheese friend could probably get us out if I couldn’t get us into the place. “I have a theory.”
“Are you going to share this theory, Miss Daegberht?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Are you going to chicken out if I tell you?”
“It is entirely possible,” the dae hissed at me, and he gave my arm a squeeze before releasing me and checking my chin with a gentle touch.
While I bet my blood tempted him, as it did most dae, he didn’t lick his fingers. One day, my curiosity would get the best of me, and I’d test his reaction to my blood, but I’d do so at a better time and place. Then again, I might not.
If I tasted anywhere near as good to him as vampires did to me, I’d have trouble on my hands. And if Rob tasted half as good as vampires, my patience and will would be sorely tested. No, it was better if we avoided that little facet of dae-human relations.
Well, for the moment.
To derail my inappropriate thoughts, I grabbed his hand and wiped the blood off on my shirt. “I got into the vault just fine the first time. I can get in again. Okay, so fine. The top level door locks once you try to unlock the next door. If you can’t crack the code, you can’t move on and you can’t get out.” I lifted my hands in a gesture of surrender. “The door only opens at night, too.”
“Just how long were you in this vault again?”
“A month.”
“And you didn’t starve to death?”
I laughed. “Of course not. Do I look like a corpse to you? I obviously got out alive. Unlike this poor guy, I wasn’t stuck. Anyway, you’ll see. The vault has everything in it. You could probably live down here for decades without a problem.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Mommy,” my roommate agreed in a grumble.
“If you’re worried, you can wait up top.”
“And what if you can’t open the vault? I can open it again stepping where you did, right?”
Maybe I couldn’t make out the details of Rob’s expression in the darkness, but I felt his glare on me. I rubbed my aching chin and opened my mouth as far as I could, wincing at the pain in my jaw. “Who knows. Maybe? Maybe not. Never tried it.”
“You’re not filling me with confidence, Alexa.”
“Hey, Rob?”
“What?”
“Just think about it this way. If we die down here, at least we’ll have good company, right?”
Rob sighed. “You’re terrible.”
I laughed, dusted myse
lf off, and headed down the corridor leading to the next door. Behind me, I heard the hatch clang closed. The grind of gears echoed, and when the tunnel fell silent, Rob spat curses.
“Don’t worry, Rob.”
“And why shouldn’t I be worried? You’re a magnet for trouble, and there’s already one corpse down here. I’d rather not add ours to the collection.”
“Oh, ye of little faith,” I chided. “You have me. Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”
Rob cursed me, the corpse, the vault, and himself while I laughed.
The vault door was as I remembered, a wall of braille text prone to shifting beneath my fingers. The first and last time I had been to the vault, I had brought a braille tablet with me at Kenneth’s recommendation, but he had claimed it back long ago, leaving my memory the only thing standing between us and a permanent stay in the vault’s corridor.
At my side, I heard Rob suck in a breath. Like me, he ran his hands along the wall. “This is writing.”
“Braille,” I informed him. “Words for those who can’t see.”
“This is a dead language.”
In a way, I supposed he was right. Very few people needed braille; eyes could be replaced, and the blind could be made to see with the marvels of modern science and medicine. Like so much within the vault itself, it was protected by a language lost to so many people.
“A fitting guardian for the vault,” I replied, running my fingers over the door’s surface. The most disconcerting part of trying to read with my fingers was the alien sensation of translating dots, lines, and empty spaces into words.
“Kenneth Smith sent you down here to retrieve something for him?” The anger in Rob’s voice made me pause in my work, and I sighed.
If Rob became offended every time someone used me for their benefit, he’d be nothing but angry all the time. “This was one of the safer jobs. I thought you had that figured out by now.”
“He could have gotten you killed.”
I needed more time than I had to come to terms with how much Rob valued me—and how offended he became over every damned time someone tried to kill me. “Surprise, surprise. He didn’t, so stop your bellyaching and let me concentrate. I don’t have a braille tablet with me this time, so I have to actually work at this. It’s been a few years.”