“Thank you, Liana. Be safe. We’ll see you soon.”
“You, too, Lord Fawkes.”
She hung up, and I set the receiver back in its cradle.
“Well, that’s fun,” Wiley said with a tight smile. “A door with a sign and maybe some hallways going East. I couldn’t tell you which way East was even if Iwasn’tin an underground bunker, so this should be great. Please feel free to eat my corpse when I get lost and die.”
I slung my arm around his shoulders and pulled him in for a hug. “My echolocation lets me see hallways with great clarity because they’re enclosed spaces, so sound goes farther. I’ll beable to see quite far ahead of us and should see a tunnel stretching from the city out here easily enough.”
He sighed and slumped against me. “I really did have such great plans for tonight, and now we’re running from fake ICE agents instead.”
“Well, we don’t technically need to run.”
“Smart ass.”
I kissed his forehead and stood as I encouraged him upright. “Let’s get started. I’m going to turn out the lights so we don’t leave evidence of our presence behind.”
“You busted the door.”
“Too much evidence then.”
I reached over and flicked off the overhead lights. Wiley immediately grabbed my upper arm and the blanket across my chest. I tucked him against my side and headed for the door opposite the one we’d used to enter. Thankfully, it wasn’t locked.
“Are there rats and bugs and things down here?” he asked before he very audibly gulped.
“Not back here.” Because there had been several before we’d gone into that office, presumably as that part of the storm drain was open to the forest.
“Can you see doors and signs?”
“I can. I believe this is the one we want.” I tried the handle, but it didn’t budge. “I’ll have to break this one, too,” I said before putting my hip into it. The metal frame bent enough to let the door swing open.
Wiley’s grip on me stopped us from walking through. “Oh, lovely. A very long dirt tunnel to nowhere lit by ominous red lights. We’re gonna die.”
“No, we’re not.” Though it definitely wasn’t the friendliest view I’d ever seen. “At least you can see now.”
When I lifted my arm to release him, he stayed exactly where he was.
“Dude, I’m betting on you being the scariest thing in here, so if we come across any gnomes that aren’t in the mountains, I want them to know I’m definitely yours and should not be fucked with.”
I huffed a laugh before clearing my throat. “I’m not sure what a gnome monitor like this mysterious Rokin does, but I do know that gnomes probably dug this tunnel for much the same reason ants dig theirs.”
“So we’re on their turf. Invading. Do you think I stand a chance against a gnome or?—”
“They won’t hurt either of us. They’re peaceful miners and nature guardians. And they do literally look like the garden statuary some people collect.”
He stopped clinging to me but stayed under my arm. “So I could punt them.”
I rolled my eyes. “If anything, should a gnome find us in here, they’d probably offer to help.”
“Oh.” Now he moved to walk beside me, holding hands. “Okay then.”
After a few minutes of walking quietly, Wiley looked down at his feet. “I know my shoes won’t fit you, but do you want to wear my socks?”
I shuddered to think of putting socks on over my filthy bare feet. “No, it’s alright.”
We came to a fork in the tunnel, and Wiley looked at me expectantly. I gave a call and closed my eyes, getting immediate feedback on the many passages branching off from here. Only one connected to a tunnel coming from the city. “This way,” I said and went left.
“Scream squeak for the win.” He briefly punched the air with a fist.
