Sitting in Tati and Mariya’s suite, listening to Liam tell what he knew about poor Morgan’s murder, I can’t fight the sense of inevitability. Everything is falling apart. This invisible force, these bastards, they’re going to keep killing until none of us are left.
“I don’t get this,” I said, biting my nails, “Dean Christie caught Kon’s attackers so quickly. With Lauren, there was blood and the knife as evidence and still nothing? And now poor Morgan.”
Even now that I’m on the “inside” of the investigation, my helplessness is real. Does the Dean really know who killed Lauren and she’s been holding back, trying to throw a bigger net? I can’t believe Cormac would be willing to do that, he’s so protective. Losing another student today would kill him.
“It’s the fekkin’ newcomers, that’s certain.” Liam says angrily.
Konstantin, who has turned into the voice of reason, disagrees with him and they go back and forth. Looking around the room, I still can’t force my mind to wrap around the concept that one of these people - my friends that I’ve known and loved for years - could be part of this death and destruction.
When Dean Christie calls us together that afternoon with the news of another murder, my spine finally stiffens. This is insane. That shadow I saw slipping into the tunnel the night of Lauren’s memorial… that’s how they’re getting around. I know it. Only half the tunnels have security cameras, I know Cormac was wiring up the unsecured tunnels or locking them down, but if they have someone inside the security room, they could be tampering with the footage.
I’m barely listening by the time she orders us to meet with our division academic advisors. The last murder was in the gym, which is set in the most open area on campus because the fields around it are used for training.
If you wanted to get into the gym without being seen in the early morning weight-lifting crowd…I close my eyes, going through the network of tunnels. After Cormac taught me to visualize what was above the tunnel, it made it so much easier to navigate all those blank stone pathways below. If I take the tunnel behind the Library, it ends at the toolshed. There’s another entrance close to the Barrens, and I’ll bet it ends in the gym.
Shuddering, I wonder, was there a person watching Liam and me in the boulder field? Is that how they got away?
Slipping away in the crowd of students is easy, and I’m moving through the first tunnel when it occurs to me that I should message Cormac right away. Even the thought of texting him feels painful, another connection I’m going to have to sever.I’ll just get to the second tunnel and confirm my suspicions first. Besides, I know there are cameras in this tunnel. Someone monitoring the surveillance video has already spotted me.
Popping out of the tunnel’s exit like a prairie dog, I look around for the next tunnel entrance. Moving behind the first boulder, I tap my foot around until I step on something hollow-sounding. There’s the trap door, hidden behind some bushes and invisible unless you knew exactly what you were looking for.
It’s when the door is shut behind me and I realize this tunnel doesn’t have any lighting that it occurs to me that I am a complete fucking idiot. Cormac may know these tunnels like the back of his hand, but I don’t think anyone’s maintained this one in a long time. Switching on my phone’s flashlight, I play the light over the walls. Tree roots are bulging in between broken stones and moss covers everything like a fuzzy green coat, and the smell of rotting vegetation and rank water is nauseatingly strong. Closing my eyes, I picture the topography. I’d be about twenty feet from the gym, with maybe one turn.
Keeping the light pointed down and walking as silently as possible, I don’t even see the fist coming down until the last second.
Cormac…
“It’s time, Helen. You know this.”
“And you don’t know if your men haven’t been compromised.”
Laosie and I are standing in front of the Dean’s desk, and she’s furious.
“I never agreed to outside reinforcements!” She’s raging. “There’s a reason we haven’t called in assistance from the families. Can you imagine a dozen different organizationsmilling around the island, deciding that maybe one or two of the others are to blame?”
“Our people don’t belong to any of the families,” Laosie interjects calmly. “They are accountable only to us.”
Helen rubs her forehead. “Disperse them through the campus, I want at least one security guard we trust with each team, reporting back to me every four hours.”
My gaze flickers up for a moment as I see movement on one of the tunnel cameras. Frowning, I move in for a closer look. We moved all the security monitors for the entire campus - above and below - into the Dean’s office. There are only a few of the guards we trust to monitor them.
“Ivan, go back thirty seconds on tunnel eleven.”
There. Goddamnit, it’s Mala, walking alone in the library tunnel.
“Go to the exit,” I say, “do you see her?”
“Yes, she’s… right there. She’s out,” he points to another monitor. “She’s in the Barrens now. I should see her on the overhead camera in that area. She disappeared.”
“No, she didn’t.” I’m grinding my teeth in frustration. “She found one of the unmapped tunnels.”
Laosie smacks me on the shoulder, and the woman is capable of quite the punch. “If she found it, you jackhole, then someone else probably did, too.”
“Someone who could have used it to get into the gym building this morning without being seen,” I groan. “Send a guard to the east entrance of the gym, the exit is right around the corner. Try to call her.” Laosie is already grabbing her phone as I charge out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Four
In which there is a knife fight in the dark and he’ll never wear high heels again.
