Christina hung by her fingertips from the edge of the trap door. Her feet dangled into the dark, but she trusted it. Well, she trusted the dark below her. The weathered and damaged floorboards she clung to, not so much.
At least, if the flooring gave way, she would only drop a few feet to the packed dirt floor below. The rope was still tied around her waist, only this time, Noah Kimball grasped the other end rather than the porch rail. She might have trusted the railing more on that one.
Their alliance was a bit uneasy, and she was quite confident that he had to know she still didn’t fully trust him. But he let the rope out a few feet and said, “Ready when you are.”
Letting go, she quickly hit the floor, not prepared for a ground she couldn’t see. Sharp pain radiated up from her ankles, even though the drop hadn’t been that far.
Damn, she thought, definitely getting older. But out loud she called up, “All good down here. You're next.”
With each move she made, Christina considered how Noah Kimball could screw her over. Right now, all he had to do was cut the rope and leave her here, which was exactly why she hadn't told him everything.
“Coming down,” his voice carried into the dark. She stood in the empty space with the only light coming from the open trap door above her. She had to wonder if anyone was watching from the corners.
A point in Noah’s favor had been that he'd left her with the rope.
Her erstwhile partner swung down, feet-first and not tied to anything. Stepping to the side, she watched as his form blocked out most of the light as he descended through the square above her.
With a softer thunk than she had made, he landed beside her.
“Okay,” he said, immediately pulling out his flashlight. “Now what?”
She put her hand over his, motioning silently for him not to turn the light on. Not yet.
They stood and waited. Christina listened hard. Noah mostly stared at Christina, seeming to wonder what the hell she wanted.
In the end, she admitted, “I don't hear anything.”
She began to untie the rope.
“I thought you wanted to be attached?” She could hear the frown in his voice. “There’s plenty of rope. You can move around.” He made a sweeping motion with his hand, as though she could roam her way around the entire downstairs of the house.
She ignored him and sniffed at the air. Her sense of smell was not as good as Donovan’s, but decent for a human. The space smelled of dirt. Not just any dirt, but a specific scent that hit her with a sense memory of the trap door opening in the main house and wolves pouring out of the underground and into the fight.
She shook the image away and tried to focus on what she could glean now. There was no hint of dust or disuse, but the smell was full of moisture with a hint of loam.
Still, the house had more than conveyed a feeling of abandonment that matched its looks. Down here? She didn’t know, but it didn’t seem quite as … desolate.
Following Noah’s sarcastic sweeping hand, she put her light on. Slowly, she flicked it toward all four corners, knowing what she was looking for. When nothing pricked at her ears, she was willing to move forward.
She hadn’t told Noah quite what they were in for and she wasn’t sure she would.
“Here we go.” She dragged the words out in time with her light catching on one of the corners and watched as Noah’s eyes widened.
The family could have put the tunnels dead center to the four walls, and though it would have made spatial sense, they hadn’t done that. Instead, they’d attached them at the corners, as if they'd known to hide the entry points in the shadows. The locations meant that a person like Noah, even standing in the middle of this room, wouldn't see the tunnel until someone shined a light directly on it.
“Holy shit…” There was a pause as he took it in. “Do you know where it goes?”
“No.” She decided she was going to have to spill some of the beans. “However, given the orientation of this house, we should be facing back toward the big house right now. That tunnel aims east, not quite the right direction at first glance, but I'm going to guess it'll ultimately connect back.”
If it was possible, Noah’s eyes grew even wider. “That’s more than a mile away.”
Now it was Christina's turn to be surprised. She thought that Noah's shock was due to seeing the tunnels in person. She’d known they were here, but that hadn’t been enough to prepare her for the sight of them. They were the marvels of construction she’d anticipated, carved out of earth and rock, with only the occasional wooden support. They never gave her the feeling that she was in danger from a collapse or faulty mechanics.
Managing to be almost perfectly symmetrical, the tunnels still fit relatively well into the natural underground landscape. Occasionally, the passages would curve around big boulders here and there, but mostly they kept the perfect shape. Now she realized Noah’s surprise was because he’d had no clue about the tunnels at all. “Westerfield didn't tell you?”
For the barest hint of a second, Noah’s eyes narrowed. She didn't need to hear the words to understand that not only had Westerfield not explained the tunnel system, but that Noah was irritated about the omission.
Good, she thought. It changed the way she was thinking. She certainly hadn't told Noah everything, and she wasn't going to. All she had to do was tell him more than Westerfield did to gain his trust. For a moment, she relaxed. But then she remembered his thumb could hit that phone button at any point and call Westerfield. The existence of the call would be enough to let their boss know that Noah had found her.
If Noah was physically close to her, and if he was fast enough, he could actually have her handcuffed in a matter of seconds. Since he seemed immune to seeing the walls set on fire, or believing the world turned to water beneath his feet, it was unlikely she could get him to uncuff her and set her free.
If he was as smart as he seemed to be, he would do the standard maneuver of twisting her wrists and pulling her hands back to back, making it impossible for her to get to her handcuff key.
Shit. She aimed the flashlight into the tunnel as she slowly slipped her hand into her front pocket and felt for the tiny, flat universal key.
“You go first,” Noah said.
Double shit. That made it harder to do this without his noticing.
Flashing him a smile, she stuffed the key into her back pocket, taking a bet that he would cuff her hands behind her, rather than in front.
Then she headed into the pitch-black tunnel with only her light and an agent that she didn’t quite trust.