I know.
Even before Arc’s opened the door.
She’s definitely gone. Kissu too.
Arc rushes to search the house, and I check my gun’s power charge before I go down to my workshop and grab the torch. The door out to the caldera is open, snow flurries whirling inside.
I don’t close it.
Shock is waiting beside the door when I get there. He grabbed two more guns, a long knife, and… a fire extinguisher.
The small silver canister clips onto his leg like one of our guns would.
I don’t ask what we’ll need it for. If he’s bringing it, we will. That’s all I need to know.
Cutting the door open is easier than it should be, the air inside is stale.
We still step inside with guns drawn, but it’s empty as well.
“Kissu’s gone too,” Arc says as he stops beside me.
“I know.”
“We can’t waste time with this, we have to go after them.”
“We have to clear this first,” I tell him.
“Why?”
“We’ll find out when we get down there.” Gun back at my shoulder, I nod at Shock, and he hauls open the machinery disguising the access points.
Two of them are too small to get down. Vents of some kind.
Arc moves toward the third, flicking his light on and probing the darkness. “Why didn’t we ever check?”
“We never had a reason to,” I state the obvious. “Before now.”
“We should have checked when Kissu said there were ghosts.”
“Probably.”
Shock hands me one of the fully lethal weapons. “We’re not going to leave it to chance this time.”
Arc already has one. He adjusts his suit and says, “I will put a bullet in his skull before I let him hurt any of us again.”
“And I’ll hack him into tiny pieces to make sure it sticks.” Shock twists the long, curved knife in his hand.
“You’ll have help,” I tell them.
… After we spring this trap. And now, I know itisa trap.
Arc takes one step down, and I pull Shock into the stairwell before Arc hits the third step.
It shifts under his weight, and I prevent him from tumbling as we pass.
The room behind us fills with fire and it licks into the stairs, catching the back of Arc’s suit. But Shock already has the extinguisher out.
“Gas vents.” I look back at them and take another step into the well. “The only way out is down.”
