Page 52 of The Tomorrows After You
18
Nicolette
Getting locked in a strange basement should have made me nervous, but I’d been held at gunpoint during my month in Saudi Arabia after a misunderstanding about a few choice words I’d had for one of the leaders.
Okay, I’d called him a misogynistic, slave-trading pig and his security guard detained me for six hours.
I pulled out my phone. One bar of service blinked on and off as I moved about the small space. A wave of sadness and insecurity crashed over me, realizing I had no one to call. Chelsea had three girls and I couldn’t ask her to bring them into this. Whateverthiswas.
My thoughtswentto Riot. I could call him. Ishouldcall him. He would be here in an instant, I know, and I tried not toletwhat that meant distract me from my task at hand.
I think it’s just been a really long time...
My finger hovered over his name on my phone when my eyes caught one of the file cabinets labeledLand Permits & Geological Surveys. I recalled what Dr. Moore had mentioned about needing to do more extensive research on the mine to determine whether there were other carcinogens.
Iscouredthe files for anything thatreferencedthe coal mine but therewasn’tmuch. Itwasprivate property after all. Thereweresurveys for the land around the mine but nothing for the mine itself.
The coal minewassuspicious, but itwasn’tthe common denominator. Too many people who neversteppedfoot in that coal minehadgottensick for that to be the root cause.
Leafing through the folders and drawers, I landed on the year of the fires. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for so I pulled my phone out and snapped pictures of every page I could find that had information about the fires and the homes that were built as a result.
As I shuffled the pages, I paused to listen but there was silence. My heart started to pick up. I looked at my watch. Half an hour had gone by. I glanced down at my phone. One little bar remained for the moment and I wished Brennan had his driver’s license.
He had been helpful when I’d asked him for help the other day before his rude brother found us and freaked the fuck out.
Ihadbeenhopinghe could fly his personal little drone over the coal mine land to check out what kind of activitywashappeningthere.
“I can do better than that.”Heswirledin his desk chair andstartedtappinginto his computer.“The coal mine ends on the edge of the town. Right over the town border begins the UAS test field.”
“The what?”
“Unmanned Aerial Systems, betterknownas drones,”hesummedup somewhat pedantically.“Thereisa brand new Airborne GPR that can give us a thermal image of not onlywhat’shappeningon the coal mine but inside of it.”
“Really?”Iasked,bendingover to see better at his computer but the code wasall gibberish to me.
“Yes,I’llneed to hack into their intranet to navigate the launch systems but I can run a scan protocol that should break in by tomorrow.”Hespunback around andgrinnedat me.“Do you want to play a game while we wait?”
So we had pulled out Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots and started betting Twizzlers when Riot flew in like a madman. And then that kiss.
I think it’s just been a really long time…
Regardless of what had transpired between us, I needed to get out of here. Who knew what Geoffrey Brown, or whoever the boss was, what their intentions were. I steeled myself before hitting Riot’s number. It rang once and as soon as he picked up, the line went dead.Call Failed,my phone mocked me.
I tried one more time and again it rang but this time Riot picked up halfway through the first ring.
“Nic?”
“Riot, I need your help. I’m stuck in the basement of the county office building,” I rushed out.
Silence.
Call Failed. I knocked a couple of folders to the ground in frustration.
Igroanedwith irritation, moving to type out a text message.
Lockedin basement of county office building.
I hit send and waited to see if it would go through. The little service line disappeared. I hung my head and flopped down on the ground, cluttered with papers.
