But for now, I’m going to focus on saving my cricket. I’ll figure out the rest later.
I’m going to save my cricket and I’ll figure out the rest later.
Still, I have the sick feeling, as Tragen parks at the fringes of the gloomy forest, that Tragen’s got more up his sleeve.
He confirms it a moment later. “Did Piper mention something about a paper? A paper with her name on it?” he asks carefully, and though it’s dark out, I can feel his eyes on me.
“Uh… yeah.”
I think back to that item on my to-do list.Suddenly, it’s looking like my list is getting checked off a lot faster than I’d anticipated, and not in the right order.
The crunching of feet behind us keeps me from voicing the rest of my thought. Which is good, because I have a feeling the less information I give Tragen, the better it will be.
The five soldiers fall into formation behind us, and I’m vaguely aware of how stupid it is for them to be automatically walking two by two over the tiny path that threads its way through the forest.
Then my thoughts turn back to the paper with her name on it.
I care a lot less about it than I do Piper herself, but if Tragen’s mentioning it now as we traipse through the forest, I figure it must be important.
“Yeah,” I confirm again.
“And you heard who had the paper?”
I nod, before realizing that in the darkness, he probably can’t see me. “Yeah.”
“You know whose desk it was on?” he insists.
“Yeah.”My dad’s.I keep my mouth resolutely shut, wondering if Tragen’s trying to get that information from me, or just making sure I know.
Clearly, it’s the latter, because he says, “Good. Now, don’t forget it.”
I stare at him in confusion, hesitating to ask another question, but before I can, we’ve stopped in front of what looks to be a large boulder.
He bends down, and I can’t see what he does in the darkness, but soon, some sort of door is opening from it.
“What the fuck?” I breathe.
He puts a finger to his mouth, takes out his gun, and walks through the small opening.
I can’t think of anything to do other than follow him. I cockmy own gun, realizing, as I enter the first of a number of small tunnels, with the other soldiers closing the rank, that I could probably shoot him in the back now.
But I’m not a fucking coward. And it would be unbelievably stupid to alert others to my presence. Especially if those others are loyal to Coltello, and they have Piper.
So I follow along, my entire body on high alert. The only small satisfaction I derive is that being brought through the secret door of a boulder, then down a bunch of tunnels, probably somewhat cheered my Nancy Drew-loving bookworm’s heart.
Then Tragen pushes himself against one wall, and I and the other soldiers do the same. We’re standing just before a very short tunnel leading straight out into a large cavern, its walls uneven and deeply recessed. It’s crowded with men. No Piper, though. My heart sinks.
In the glow faintly emanating from the space, I can just make out Tragen holding up fingers.One… two… three…
Then we barge in, guns out. There must be more than a dozen of them, but we have the element of surprise on our side. The detonation as we empty out our guns onto them is deafening, the clouds of dust that rise from the dirt floor and dirty stone walls make me choke and go momentarily blind. I hear loud grunts of pain, followed by thuds, including some from behind me. Those are Devil soldiers, and they’ve died, giving their lives for… well, I’m not entirely sure.
I reach the other side of the cavern, somehow unscathed except for a wound on my arm. Nothing that will keep me from getting to Piper, if she’s here.
I fall to the floor, shielding myself from the ongoing gunfire, and manage to spot a small tunnel through the smoke. Battling my urge to stay in the cavern and kill every single one of the fuckers, I crawl through the tunnel, determined to get to Piper before Tragen.
But I know that if I do, it’ll give a chance to Tragen to get to her before me.
Soon, I find myself in another much smaller space, and—there she is.
