Page 99 of Heart of Dawn
I gagged and winced, the anemic light revealing piles of badly rotted bodies wearing white lab coats in the left corner of a square room.
Wonderful.
I examined the room. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of metal grating. An open door led into more hot darkness, the silence beyond it thick and full of terrifying mystery.
From what I could see, there were pipes and wires behind the grating, a faint hum running through them.
“Can you see anything useful?” Miko asked his beta.
“A light switch,” James answered, flipping the button by the door.
More lights revealed a long metal corridor, two slowies breaking out of their stasis to amble toward us.
Dawn still powered some of its children, then?
What a shame.
“Allow me.” Paige took care of them with her curved dagger. “Clear.”
James moved up, Miko and his replicas following, Cate and I close behind.
“All good,” Paige said, facing the left turn in the corridor.
We followed it to a door resembling an airlock on a spaceship, passing more corpses in lab coats, Paige and James taking out a few more slowies.
Where was Dawn? Why wasn’t it moving to stop us? Had it really done itself a disservice by showing off and having its children guzzle fae blood?
Hmmm.
“Locked tight,” James said, examining a panel beside the door. “Needs a keycard.”
“Can you bypass it?” Miko asked.
“Not easily. But I’ll try.”
“Excellent. The rest of you search these bodies for a keycard. Be careful.”
Many of the dead wore name badges with their details and photographs printed onto the plastic surface. James tested them on the panel one by one, getting an angry honk for his efforts and the flashing of bright red lights.
“Strange,” he said, playing with the rim of his cap. “Why have this door but no access for these people? Is there a guard or something among the bodies?”
We all checked, finding nothing.
“Weird. Unless there was someone on the other side of the door who let people in.”
“Can we blow it open?” Cate wondered.
“With what?”
She pulled oval-shaped explosives from her bag.
“Whoa…” James responded. “It really is a bag of wonders.”
“Well? What do you think?”
The beta’s brows pinched together. “Could be a disaster.” He stroked the panel. “I get the sense it’s heavily fortified, possibly with counterattack contingences. Of course, that might just be my imagination. But I don’t want to risk it.” He tapped the panel. “Sealed shut. No screws, no join to pry open.”
An airlock in more than appearance, then. What were we going to do?
