Chapter Eighteen
Hiding in the shade of the old boarding house, Nadia peered up at the sun; hanging high in the sky, it glared back at her, apparently unwilling to be a cooperative timepiece. Deciding it was easier to check her watch than blind herself using the old-fashioned method of telling time, she saw it was twenty-five minutes to one in the afternoon. Looking to Thomas, she sighed. "I guess it's about time we go in."
The pair had driven out to the parking garage nearly an hour before, determined to be there ahead of Orion to keep themselves advised of any funny business; Thomas' suggestion, of course. Unfortunately, on the way there he had begun to look increasingly ill and Nadia was honestly worried about him by this point. He had practically fallen out of the car when they arrived and even now he let the wall of the building support most of his weight, instead of his legs. They had spent the bulk of their time leaning against the front of the old, faded building watching what passersby there were in this area go past; Nadia had hoped it would help her friend get over whatever bug he has picked up, but he still seemed pretty green around the gills.
The sick fellow in question nodded mutely at her suggestion and, taking a steadying breath, he deprived the wall of his company and made for the door. Letting Thomas precede her inside, Nadia silently cried for joy when she saw the drunken lecher of a manager was not presently in his usual spot. Actually, there was no one at the 'desk' at all. Frowning, she glanced around her friend's shoulders to peer down the hall; no one anywhere today, apparently.
Looking around, she gave voice to her thoughts. "Do you suppose he's already here? Orion, I mean?"
Thomas shrugged, suppressing a queasy burp with one hand before answering. "I don't know. I mean, we only gave him like fourteen hours to get from wherever he was to here."
She nodded in confirmation. "True, but I figured if he was in regular contact with Black on the bulletin board he had to be fairly local."
He sighed, covering his mouth a second time as the simple exhale nearly transitioned to a different, more disgusting, action. "I guess."
Moving to his side, she felt his forehead; his temperature was only a little above normal, but he was pale and just a little moist from sweat. "Are you okay? You've been kind of listless since we left this morning."
He tried to smile, but his face went a little greener as he did it. "I'll be fine. Just a touch of nausea, nothing major. Nerves, probably, you know me."
She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I do, that's why I'm worried. You be sure to let me know if it gets worse, all right?"
He nodded mutely, sucking in a breath to swallow down whatever it was that was presently trying to crawl its way up his gullet. The pair started upstairs; Nadia still alert in case the lecherous manager decided to make an appearance while Thomas concentrated most on the simple act of not throwing up. Reaching the second floor they could see, even from down the hall, that the door to Black's room was already open. Approaching it cautiously, Nadia poked her head around the corner; the room had always been fairly bare, but the lack of a bulletin board in the corner suggested that the manager had finally gotten around to clearing the place out entirely. There was no sign of anyone inside at the moment, though, so she led her queasy companion through the door. Moving to the far wall, she looked through one of the windows. She could see only the boarded-up old parking garage and, craning her neck, the weathered, grey side of the tall wooden fence that framed the very edge of the boarding house's small parking accommodations between the two buildings.
"Not much of a view. I wonder what they built that garage for, anyway. It's not even on a main road; no wonder they had to close it up."
Thomas burped again, smiling apologetically as best he could before swooning ever so slightly over to the wall next to her to regain his balance. "Sorry. And I don't know, either, it is a pretty useless place for a three-floor garage."
Turning to her companion, she let her concern show on her face as she saw the paleness of his skin beginning to tinge a greenish-grey. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but you look awful."
"I don't feel so hot," he admitted. "I think I need to take a quick trip to the washroom."
She nodded, watching him go with no small amount of worry. Nerves she expected from him, but not real, visible illness. It couldn't have been food poisoning from her meal last night, she had triple checked every ingredient to be sure she had done everything right. She almost wished it could have been her fault, so at least she would know what it was making him so sick. Sighing, she nosed about the apartment while she waited for him to return. Unfortunately, cleaned out the way it was, she did not find much to distract herself with.
Thomas, having staggered into the washroom, made his way to the toilet without turning the lights on. Feeling his legs give out, he fell to his knees and gratefully bent over the porcelain throne to relieve the roiling contents of his stomach. Blindly reaching for some toilet paper, he found none on the roll and remembered that the room had no boarder. Pulling himself upright, he stooped over the sink, washing his face in the thankfully still running water. Groaning as he felt his stomach beginning to heave again, he straightened up to return to the toilet, but froze as his bleary vision showed him, not his reflection, but twin crimson orbs scant inches from his nose. Shouting in surprise, he jumped back and, tripping over himself, he fell hard. Striking the back of his head against the tiles, he lost consciousness.
Hearing Thomas' alarm, Nadia hurried to the bathroom. He had not closed the door and she saw him sprawled out on the floor. Kneeling beside him, she checked the back of his head for injury; relieved to find no blood, she patted the side of his face, trying to rouse him. Groaning, he began to come around and she smiled as he opened his eyes. "There you are. Don't do that to me, I was worried you'd seriously hurt yourself."
"Sorry," he mumbled, wincing as he sat up. "Where did he go?"
"Where did who go?"
He pointed vaguely at the sink area. "Some prick scared the hell out of me, that's why I stumbled backwards."
She followed the direction of his point, but saw nothing that shouldn't have been there. "Do you think it was Orion?"
He shrugged, rubbing the back of his head gingerly. "Don't know, maybe."
"Well, let's get you off the floor, first of all." Bracing her feet, she pulled on his arm to assist him as he struggled upright.
With both of them on their own two feet, they moved to the sink, Nadia pausing only to turn the light on. The sink was part of a counter spanning the wall of the bathroom, with a large, broken mirror over the basin. Checking under the sink for the sake of being thorough, Nadia saw nothing but old, rusty pipes.
Sighing, she straightened up. "I believe you saw someone, Thomas, but I have no idea where he's gotten off to."
"It was at eye level, so..." He gestured to the mirror to complete his thought.
She grinned. "Not a bad idea."
Taking hold of the mirror, Nadia gave it a tug and felt it move. Prying it loose, she set it on the floor and the pair saw a gap large enough for a man to sit through had been concealed behind it; within which was a ladder leading down into parts unknown.
"Wow," was about all she could say as she realized that this had to have been here the first time they had visited Black's home. "Where do you suppose it goes?"
Thomas shrugged, but anything further he had to say was put on hold as he moved back to the toilet. Emptying the last of what was in his stomach; he flushed and then spit into the sink to clear the taste of bile from his mouth. Running the water, he washed his face again before cupping his hands to drink a little water; he was becoming increasingly dehydrated, for obvious reasons.
Nadia watched her companion with a concerned expression, before putting a hand on his arm as he straightened up. "You really don't have to come any further, Thomas. I'm getting pretty worried about you as it is."
He shook his head. "I'll manage, Nadia. This is important stuff; you went to all the trouble of setting up that thing
on T.V. to get Orion's attention. If he, or someone speaking for him, is actually here, you can't afford to pass this up."
She smiled at his determination. "You really are the best, you know that? I'll make it up to you, I promise."
Climbing up onto the counter the sink was set in, she found a grip on the ladder and started on her way down; Thomas followed suit moments later. Reaching the bottom in utter darkness, she identified the doorway she was to proceed through by the faint light able to pass beneath it. Pushing at it, she felt it open and saw a narrow corridor extending away from the building. Still unable to make out any real details, the corridor at least had shafts of light managing to make their way inside; she realized it was made of wood as she ran a hand over its wall. Hearing Thomas come up behind her, Nadia shifted out of his way and took his hand to guide him to the corridor and keep him steady. Making their way through the cramped space, they walked at an angle to avoid scraping against the sides. Wondering why she had not seen this from the window, she stopped as her foot struck something hard. Poking at it with her toe, she realized it was a step. Climbing it, and those above it, she used her free hand to test the darkness ahead of herself and felt them come up against a wooden surface. Pushing against it, she felt it move; a shaft of dust-ridden light stabbed into their surroundings and, with another shove, she got the doors wholly open. Emerging into the daylight, she saw the old, weather-beaten fence on her right and the out of place parking garage on her left. They had come out in what was apparently a small, cramped corridor between the two buildings, with the boarding house's cellar doors they had just emerged from on one side and an old, rusted metal door set into the concrete side of the parking garage on the other; Nadia supposed that, when the parking garage was first built, there had been no fence here, which meant it had been placed here deliberately to hide the two doors from those who did not know it was there already.
As she was realizing all of this, her sickly comrade bumped into her, his head dropping weakly onto her shoulder. "What is it, Nadia?"
"I'm not sure, yet. But I think we're on to something," she replied, giving his hand a squeeze. "The parking garage has a backdoor nobody can get to, because it's hidden by that fence at the edge of the boarding house's parking lot. We're on the other side of that fence right now."
"Makes sense," he managed, leaning against her more heavily than he probably intended to.
Pressing on towards the steel access door, Nadia took a deep breath before she pulled it open, revealing nothing but empty darkness beyond. Gripping Thomas' increasingly sweaty hand in her own, she took a moment to imagine how her parents would react to this situation, eliciting a short chuckle at the shades of purple she could picture the man's face taking on. And then she went inside, stepping into the cloying silence of the dusty, cobweb infested parking garage; if Orion was in here, it seemed he expected them to come to him instead of making it easy on them. She just hoped he was in a talking mood.
In Icarus' Shadow Page 31