Page 83 of Heart of Iron
Someone caught his wrist.He barely felt it.Looking down with a snarl, he stopped when he saw the young lad staring up at him with a face as white as a ghost.
“Don’t hurt me da,” he pleaded.“They went that way.”Then he pointed toward the nearest alley, one that ended in a brick wall and a boarded tunnel into the old, abandoned ELU line.
The world came back, narrowing in with crystal precision on the boarded up tunnel.Of course.
“Undertown.”
Eighteen
“Where are you taking me?”Lena demanded, as someone tore the blindfold from her eyes.
Blinking against the phosphorescent glare of the smuggler’s lanterns they carried, she looked around.Despite the chill to the air, perspiration dampened her hair.Her head felt like it was packed full of cotton stuffing, especially her sinuses.
The tunnels stank of mold and stale air.The men were quiet and moved with confidence; they’d come this way often, she imagined.
A little quiver of fear ticked in her chest.The old abandoned tunnels of the Eastern Line were said to contain the ghosts of all those workers who had died when the tunnels collapsed.Some men had been crushed to death and others trapped in the darkness to slowly suffocate or starve.The ELU had given up on the scheme after it drove them into dun territory and nobody had ever bothered to see it finished.Slowly, year after year, the tunnels had been taken over by those enterprising enough to carve out a living below ground when the rookeries began spilling over.
People trying to hide from the Echelon or the Nighthawks for whatever reason, or those who were simply too poor to be able to rent one of the hovels above ground.She could only imagine how terrified they’d been to live here, with the whisper of ghosts and the very real presence of the Slasher gangs—those who strapped a man down on a gurney and drained him of his blood to sell to the draining factories.
Then three years ago the vampire had taken up residence here, glutting itself on everyone’s blood until the tunnels were quiet again and there were even more ghosts to whisper.The vampire was gone, killed by Blade himself it was said, but the grim tunnels terrified her.
“Who are you?”
The man they’d called Mendici waved a hand in her direction.“Shut her up.”He struck a flare stick against his leg and the burning phosphorescent glow lit up the pressing darkness.Holding it high, he took a cautious step forward, edging over the rail tracks.The tunnel opened into an enormous cavern, the rail tracks shearing off into nothing.Mendici kicked a rock over the edge and she listened quietly, barely breathing, waiting for it to hit the bottom.
A distant plop echoed up.Water.There was water down there.
Then something thrashed far below.Lena felt the blood run out of her face.“What is that?”A bead of perspiration raced down her throat into her bodice and she shivered.
“The Gatekeeper,” the young boy muttered at her side.“Here, you be quiet now.There’s other things in the darkness.You don’t want to wake ’em now, do you?”
Lena stared at his pale, ghostly face and shook her head.
A steel cable stretched into the darkness.Mendici handed the flare stick to one of his men and pulled something out of his pocket.It looked like a metal rod with a hook on it.Snapping it open, he revealed a pair of handles, then he hung the hook over the cable and latched it tight.
Her gaze went straight to that yawning, gaping pit as she realized his intentions.No way.There was no way she was going over whatever hid in the depths of the waters.
Mendici snapped his fingers at her.
Lena shook her head but two of his men grabbed her by the arm and dragged her forward.Without ceremony, she was shoved against the burly giant’s side and his arm slid around her hips.
“Rollins,” Mendici called.“You’d best go back.Can’t bring Percy over this.Take him home and grease him up.Or whatever you do with that bloody thing.”
The gaslit eye of the automaton flared to life.Then it turned, clanking steps echoing back down the hollow tunnel.
“Ready for the ride of your life, luv?”Mendici grinned at her.
“No.I’m not.I won’t.”
He snatched a handful of her skirts and shoved her toward the chasm.Lena screamed, grabbing for his wrist.Her slippers danced on the edge of the cliff, pebbles crumbling beneath her feet as her horrified gaze met his.
“Choice is yours.You can either swim, or you can go over on this.”
Her gaze darted to the tenuous handgrip.“Fine.”She licked dry lips.“I’ll go over.”
Mendici hauled her back against his side.“You hold on tight then.Wouldn’t want me to slip.”With a nasty chuckle, he dragged her hard against him.Through her corset, she could feel the hard muscle of the man and reluctantly put her arms around his neck.He took back his flare stick and held it between his teeth, then put both hands on the handles.“Rearry?”
“No.”
