“Why would they need that here?” Darren cut in, jogging over to where Aiden was standing with folded arms.
Nyle snorted.“Certainly not to keep the place running.”
Forehead creasing, Aiden glanced at Darren and worried his lip. “Nyle. Can you pull up the cargo belts’ routes with the access you guys have? I want to know which sectors they go through on the way to Area N.”
“One sec… Got ‘em. Kesley, what are you afte—Ooh, I see. You better head back up to sector C-12. It so just happens that the route of our suspicious liquid oxygen runs right by the secret room.”
Arching an eyebrow at Aiden earned Darren a self-satisfied smirk, but no explanation. “You two lost me. What’s going on?” he demanded, following the direction in which Aiden was pointing.
“See that protruding section of the ventilation shaft? It looks just big enough to house the conveyer belt with the liquid oxygen. I think that’s our way in,” Aiden said, the smile not dropping.
Oh. Darren felt a buzz of excitement spread through him.Yeah, that could definitely work if Aiden’s theory wasn’t wrong.And Darren had a hunch it wasn’t.
Brushing his fingers along the low of Aiden’s back, Darren grinned. “Let’s get going. The quicker we get the ring, the quicker we can get the fuck out of here.”And away from Marcus’ reach.
“Agreed. Keep the comms open so I can capture additional data and guide you.”
Conscious of the same guards they’d passed by earlier, Darren and Aiden made it back to the ramp overlooking the busy offloading area. There didn’t seem to be a designated route to get to the level below, so they were forced to improvise. Using the supporting columns and beams to climb down onto the belt, they headed toward the opening in the wall where the oxygen tanks went.
Crouching low for better balance and to fit inside the tunnel, Darren led the way, passing a dozen or so of the tanks by the time they’d reached the shaft they’d been staring at not twenty minutes ago. At its opening, the conveyer belt branched into two, with the majority of the tanks flowing into the shaft that seemed to lead right into the power room behind the reinforced door.
“Nyle, are you getting any readings?” Darren commed as he and Aiden emerged out of the shaft into the vaulted room on the other side.
Here, the conveyer belt sloped down at a gradual angle, sticking to the walls. Tall power banks filled the space, though the belt didn’t lead to them. Instead, the liquid oxygen tanks disappeared into yet another opening at the bottom of the wall, right behind one of these tanks.
When no reply came after Darren inspected the rest of the room, he repeated, “Nyle?”
“It looks like there’s interference or… they have advanced jamming in place,” Aiden said over the low but audible hum of fans and machinery.
Sparing the metal door a moment of his attention to check that it couldn’t be opened from this side, Darren nodded. “We shouldn’t be long anyway.”
The belt did another gradual descent once they were past the opening in the wall and eventually flattened as they reached the floor. Unlike the muted gray interior of the corridors on the upper levels, this one had a silver glint, making it look more like the prelude to a high-tech lab than a place to store trinkets and spoils. Rows of recessed ceiling lights came to life as they pushed forward, Aiden taking the lead as Darren stopped to try the comms again.
He had no luck this time either, but just as he rounded the curve of a corner, static noise made it through his earpiece. For a moment, he thought he heard Nyle’s distorted voice shouting something on the other end.
A bad feeling began in Darren’s stomach. They’d expected possible interference that would prevent their comms from working, but they’d not encountered it throughout the rest of the warehouse.Was it isolated to this part then? That didn’t make sense.If Marcus had something like that in place only here, then just like Nyle speculated, he had to be hiding a lot more than valuables from the Valrais Estates.
The foreboding feeling spread from Darren’s stomach to his chest. They needed to get the ring as quickly as they could, because he reallyreallywanted to be out of here and away from Mars ASAP. Preferably in bed with Aiden on the Maine while Nyle fawned over Sara’s ring.
“Hey. I’m ge—” He bumped into Aiden, his distracted mind making him miss the moment Aiden had stopped. “Shit, sorry.” He circled his motionless companion and stood next to him. “Hey, I think there was a gap back… there, and I heard… Nyle…” he trailed off, jaw dropping as he took in the monstrous vault that opened up in front of them.
Aisles and aisles of racks with neatly organized containers were arranged in a semicircle, looming over the expanse of empty unlit space in the middle. There was something there,Darren could tell by the outlines, and that something revealed itself as the two of them approached. Light from below and above chased away the darkness, revealing consoles and two cryogenic suspension tanks on an elevated platform as Aiden stopped dead in his tracks and his body suddenly went rigid on a sharp inhale.
It took Darren one confused moment to realize why, and when he did, his own breathing turned into something wild and uncontrollable.
Because he recognized the bodies in those two tanks in the middle. One was that of his friend and mentor, Liu Zhihao, and the other was that of Claudia DuLaurent, the woman he’d murdered and the reason he now stood here with Aiden by his side.
