“We need to get closer,” I said. “I need samples, readings.”
Rav grabbed my upper arm. “It could be dangerous. If they’ve been working here, they might have left surveillance behind.”
“Or booby traps,” Percival added.
“I’ll take care of that.” Mario tapped the controls on his tablet, and the display slowly tracked in a circle. “I’ll have him do a more detailed pass and cross-reference the results with known video of this section of the sewers. It should take only fifteen or so minutes to confirm the path ahead.”
Percival squeezed past Rav and me to watch the screen with Mario, pointing to areas he wanted double-checked and confirming Hermes’s progress.
I turned to Rav, extinguishing my headlamp so I wouldn’t blind him, then meeting his concerned gaze directly. “I need to see it, Rav. If they’ve already started installing components, I can identify what delivery system they’re planning. Maybe figure out a way to sabotage them.”
His jaw tightened, but he nodded. “I don’t like seeing you in dangerous situations.”
“It’s hardly the most dangerous situation we’ve ever been in.”
His shoulders tensed. “I didn’t like seeing you in those either.”
My hand operated on autopilot and landed on his chest. He was as solid as he’d ever been, and the sensation grounded me. Made me want to vomit a little, too, for how damsel-in-distress I was being, but touching him made me feel safe. “That’s why I’ve got you, right?”
Of course, I didn’thaveRav. He wasn’t there for me. He was there because a crazy group of fanatics was trying to kill a lot of people. Or trying to heal them, and they’d end up killing everyone in the end.
He stared down at me, not moving a muscle other than those in his jaw.
Memories of his soft lips and strong hands draped over me. Of how effortlessly he could carry me across a room. How his touch made me forget all the ugly things going on around us.
“Good to go,” said Percival.
Rav didn’t say anything to me, didn’t look down at my hand, just shifted his gaze to the men behind me. “Let’s get the doc down there.”
“The doc,” I said, sliding my hand off Rav’s chest and turning my headlamp back on. That’s all I was. Maybe all I’d ever been.
Keep moving, Brooke. One foot in front of the other.
We moved deeper into the drainage system until Mario suddenly halted. He neared one of the walls, running a hand over it. “Someone widened this passage.”
“Widened?” Percival asked.
“Sì.” Mario pressed a cheek against the wall, looking down the length of the tunnel. “You can see the marks where they worked. This happens occasionally in newly excavated areas, but not here. They’ve expanded it by thirty centimeters or so.”
Why would they expand the tunnel by a foot? And how had they accomplished that, in an active park? “Do you think they worked at night?”
“They must have.” Mario’s lips tightened. “Tomboroli—you might call them grave robbers—don’t usually come into the park looking for things. They’re typically outside the walls, at other locations. But if someone needed to move things underground at night, there are plenty of people who could guide them on how to do it.”
“Rav,” I said quietly. “I think this might be a good spot for the cameras.”
Mario turned to us, his headlamp nearly blinding me. “Cameras?”
“Standard operating protocol,” Rav replied, removing his small backpack. “We’d planned a five-camera setup to monitorthe highest risk areas. If Fenix was responsible for expanding the tunnel, they must have had a reason for it, so maybe they’ll come through here again.”
“You didn’t mention this,” Mario said, frowning.
“We came up with it after you left this morning,” Rav explained, removing a small camera from his pack. “They’re motion-activated, wireless, with a ten-day battery life.”
“Leaving equipment in the archaeological park is strictly prohibited without authorization.”
“This is a bit more important than authorization,” I said.
Mario sighed. “I’ll file additional paperwork claiming they’re part of a structural monitoring study. If the superintendent discovers unauthorized equipment, he’ll have it removed immediately.”
