He gently grabbed her hand as her voice trailed off, her busy mind at work. “We need to be cautious.”
She looked down at his hand, then back up at his face.
“Of course. And aren’t you here to keep me safe?” A small smile played at the corners of her mouth as she gave him a challenging look. “I’m not planning to go down there to confront this mysterious creature, whatever it is. But this is an incredible discovery, and we need to learn as much as we can about it.”
He sighed, knowing she was right.
“I agree.” Unable to resist, he ran his thumb along the soft skin on the back of her hand. “We’ll investigate. But carefully. And together.”
Her smile grew.
“Does that mean we’re going into the tunnel?”
“Only if you promise to do everything I say,” he growled. “If we’re going down there, I’m not taking any chances with your safety.”
“Deal,” she said quickly, squeezing his hand, and his pulse quickened before his nanites brought it back under control.
“All right. What’s next?”
CHAPTER FIVE
Cass grinned at Zach, more relieved than she cared to admit that he’d agreed to help her investigate, and bent back over the scanner.
“Look at these dimensions,” she said, zooming in on the scan. “The tunnel is nearly three meters high and almost twice that wide. And it extends…” She manipulated the controls, trying to get a more complete reading. “It goes beyond Roland’s scanning range in both directions.”
He leaned closer, and she did her best to ignore the warmth of his big body and focus on the scanner. His scent was distracting, a mixture of musk and leather and something else that she couldn’t identify.
“It would be a good place to store supplies, or possibly take shelter,” he said thoughtfully.
“Yes, but there’s no evidence of any previous drilling or excavation in the area.”
“GenCon didn’t always make its activities public.”
The mention of the corporation made her hesitate. He was correct that they’d engaged in some highly illegal—and unethical—activities before Earth Government discovered what they were doing and put a stop to them. Border Town itself had originally been a secret GenCon settlement.
“It’s possible,” she agreed reluctantly. “Which makes it even more important to get down there and see for ourselves.”
Roland chirped from below, his sensors sending a steady stream of data to her scanner.
“Roland’s found something else,” she murmured, frowning at the new readings appearing on her screen. “There’s a natural fissure next to the shaft he dug. It’s narrow, but it could provide access.”
“If there is something down there, I don’t want it finding an easy way to the surface,” he said, his voice taking on that authoritative tone that both irritated and reassured her.
“I don’t think that’s likely. Whatever made these tunnels, they’ve been here for a while. And the anomalies we detected were well below ground level—not the kind of movement you’d expect from something actively trying to reach the surface.”
She set the scanner down and moved to the edge of Roland’s excavation. The hole was deep enough now that she could see the darkness below.
“Roland,” she called softly. “Come back up.”
A series of chirps echoed from below, and moments later, the armadillo emerged, his exoskeleton coated with fine red dust. He scampered to her side, his golden eyes glowing with what she could have sworn was excitement.
“Good boy,” she murmured, brushing some of the dust from his plating. “Now we need to get down there ourselves.”
“I’m still not sure this is wise,” Zach said, but she could hear the resignation in his voice. He knew as well as she did that they couldn’t ignore this discovery.
“We need proper equipment,” she said, already moving towards the rover. “Lights, rope, tools. I have most of what we need in my field kit.”
He watched her for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll widen the opening along the fissure. The rock will provide support.”
