The door was a sealed solid metal with old-fashioned spokes that had to be turned in order for the door to open. It was heavy, and the spokes were thick with rust that flaked off and dripped orange dust down onto their boots and the legs of their trousers.
Below them, the rats began to fight each other. The sounds of their snarling, bloodied battle sent shivers working up Jessica’s spine. Talon saw those shivers, saw the small quaking in her flesh, and he reached a hand out and laid it on her shoulders. “Take a deep breath. It’s fine.”
She looked at him and whispered, “I don’t want to breathe this air anymore.”
With those words, the door finally came open, revealing a long and wide tunnel that was thankfully clean and very well lit. It took both of them to close the door again and to turn the locking mechanism that would hold it shut against the rats and whatever else might be lurking down there in that garbage.
Their footsteps echoed on the heavy metal floor. That tunnel branched into a large open space from which ran a series of other tunnels. Jessica took one to the right, and he moved alongside her, his entire body on high alert.
They came to yet another door. There was a vast screen and monitor system beside it. Jessica pressed her palm into an identification bay and the door slid open with a pneumatic whine.
The handsome black-haired, blue-eyed man sitting behind a simple wooden desk that had nothing on it gave them a friendly smile, but there was nothing friendly about the mega blaster that he had leveled in their direction.
He spoke one word. “Jessica?”
Jessica cried out, “Yori! They didn’t find you after all!”
Yori stood. His body was impressively fit and strong below his plain coveralls. The blaster stayed level. “It seems the one that they tortured to try to find out who ran this operation never spoke on that subject. I owe you one for that, Jessica.”
Talon looked from him to Jessica. They obviously knew each other had been allies at one time, but had they been something more? The smile on Jessica’s face was beautiful.
Her next words made a small spiral of jealousy work its way through Talon’s body. “How could I ever betray you, of all people? You are the only one that I actually owed any loyalty at all to. I kept my silence even when some of the names that I should and could have named had already named me. Our palace, the one you and I built, they could never breach it.”
Palace? Talon surveyed the other man carefully. He had a palace? And one that he had built with Jessica? The jealousy grew, coalescing as he realized that she might have brought him to meet the human man who could not only aid them, but who might very well be the reason why she didn't care about him.
Yori said, “You came through the garbage tunnels.”
Jessica said, “You are still watching then.”
He nodded. “Of course I am. They are still sending those who live below to their deaths in those tunnels. I know firsthand how deadly those tunnels are, not that anyone will ever let me speak on the subject in a public forum.”
Talon said, “We need some assistance.”
He knew he was butting in and improbably breaking some kind of protocol, but the time was short. If the Gorlites truly were being given Old Earth and were on their way there now, they had to act fast.
Yori’s cold blue eyes turned to Talon’s face. “Why else would you be here? Nobody would brave those tunnels unless they truly needed me.”
Jessica said, “We have intel that leads us to believe that there are those within the Federation working to overthrow it. I personally could not care less about the Federation, but that same intel also claims that Old Earth is to be given over to the Gorlites, and fast.”
Talon expected the other man to show surprise or anger. He expected him to be shocked or startled. Instead, Yori startled both him and Jessica by saying, “Yes. It is true. The Gorlites will be arriving in a matter of two days.”
