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Harry should never have listened to Betty. She was evil incarnate. Entertaining evil. But evil nonetheless. His big brain had failed him. Betty had hacked his IQ and uploaded a virus. A virus called hope.
Which was how he’d found himself trapped in an abandoned mine outside of Invertary, waiting to be rescued and praying that the hill wouldn’t collapse on his head.
“You’re a bloody idiot, you know that?” his cousin Matt Donaldson, the sole police presence in Invertary, shouted through the air vent next to the door. The door that Betty had jammed shut.
Yes. He was that much of an idiot. He’d been trapped in a mine by a tartan-clad geriatric. It didn’t get much more stupid than that.
“Are you there, moron?” Matt’s voice echoed through the cavernous room where Harry was currently trapped.
“Where else would I be, dumbass?” Harry called back.
He heard laughter. No doubt Matt had already texted Harry’s older brother Flynn to fill him in. Growing up in the shadow of “the testosterone twins” had been no easy task for a certified geek. The fact the three boys had managed to stay close friends was a miracle. But then, they’d had to unite at an early age to defend themselves against Matt’s younger twin sisters.
“Flynn says I’ve to take pictures,” Matt said.
Harry hung his head. Yep. He wasn’t going to live this down anytime soon.
“Seriously,” Matt said. “You okay in there? Don’t go wandering off. Stay near the door so we know where you are.”
Harry surveyed his surroundings, which were dim in the faint sliver of light that seeped in from around the door. Without his flashlight on, he could make out shadows and shapes for a couple of feet in front of him, then it all turned to inky blackness. At least it wasn’t damp. He sat on the floor, leaning against the wall beside the door, his legs stretched out in front of him. According to the clock on his phone, he’d been in the mine about an hour. It felt longer.
“I’m fine. I’m great. I’m waiting on a megaton of rock and dirt to fall on my head and crush my brain like a grape, but apart from that I’m hunky-dory. When are you going to get me out of here?”
At least Betty had called for help after she’d locked him in.
“Hunky-dory? Is that what all the cool kids are saying these days?” Matt was laughing at him. Seven years older than Harry, his cousin found every opportunity he could to call him a kid.
Harry worked to stop grinding his teeth to dust. “When this kid gets out of here, he’s going to kick your backside for taking the piss.”
There was laughter. “You might be good at that fancy martial arts stuff, Harry boy, but I can still take you in a fight.”
Yeah. Right. “What’s happening? What are you doing to get me out of here?”
“Well, here’s the thing.” Matt sounded like he was grinning. “The door is seriously warped. There’s a warning sign on it so that no one will shut it. Its spring-loaded, and about ten inches thick. Every time it slams shut, it shakes things loose above it. We need to make sure it’s possible to open it without causing the entrance to weaken. Last time this happened, it took two days to get it open.”
Harry shot to his feet. “Two days?”
“Don’t tell me you’re scared,” Matt mocked.
Harry’s super brain calculated the chances of a cave-in. He didn’t like the odds he came up with. The mine was over 150 years old. When was the last time there was a collapse? He needed more data. He reached for his phone, ready to do an internet search, but remembered he had no connection.
“I need more data. When was the last time this mine collapsed?” He tried to keep the worry out of his voice.
“Not since I’ve been the police in town.”
That was what? Seven years. That wasn’t long. Harry wasn’t reassured. He was going to die trapped underground. It was not the way he thought he would go. He assumed he’d die of unrequited love.
Matt’s voice cut through his anxiety. “We’ve got an expert coming to rescue you. They’ll come in from another entrance and lead you back out with them. You should be out of there in a few hours.”
Harry glared in the direction of his cousin’s voice. “You couldn’t have started with that instead of letting me think I’d be in here for days?”
All he heard was laughter. Harry plopped back to the ground.
“It gets better.” Matt’s delight at Harry’s predicament was beyond wearing thin. “Guess who the resident mine expert is?”
There was so much glee in Matt’s voice that Harry knew the answer. He closed his eyes and gave in to the wave of resignation that hit him. “Magenta’s coming to save me.”
“This is turning out to be the best laugh I’ve had since Flynn joined the school musical to impress a girl,” Matt said.
Harry resisted the urge to bang his head on the wall as he listened to his cousin laugh at his expense. For the first time since he’d made the decision to relocate to Invertary, Harry wondered at the wisdom of coming home.