Owen stopped at a vault-like door outlined with thin lines of glowing green energy. He unclipped the lockpick. Alice heard a sharp click and the muffled sound of a bolt. The door opened.
Owen paused on the threshold and took a bolo tie trimmed with an amber stone out from under his jacket. “I brought this in case you didn’t have your own nav amber.”
“I won’t need it,” she said. She pulled the amber pendant of her necklace out from under her shirt. “I have my own.”
In addition to the necklace, she was also wearing tuned and locked amber in her earrings and watch.
He nodded. “Thought you probably would. That’s how you escaped the asylum, isn’t it? You stole some amber and got out through the tunnels.”
He knew or had deduced far too much.
“Just to be clear,” she said, “I did not steal the amber; I borrowed it. I mailed it back to the owner anonymously after I was able to get some of my own.”
The edge of his hard mouth twitched in what looked suspiciously like a barely suppressed smile.
“You borrowed it and then you returned it. I should have known. Okay, nav check.”
No matter how much you trusted your amber, you always,alwayschecked it before you stepped into the wildly disorienting paranormal atmosphere of the tunnels.
She rezzed her senses, feeling for the vibe in the tuned amber thatmade it possible for humans to navigate the shifting currents of the Underworld. Even a few steps into the glowing tunnels without good amber was a probable death sentence. They said you went mad long before you died of thirst.
“I’m good,” she said.
“So am I. Let’s go.”
He stood aside and waited for her to move into the jagged, six-foot-high rip in the green quartz wall of the tunnel. The ancient Aliens had used the stone to construct the maze of underground passages that crisscrossed the planet. They had built their surface cities of the same nearly impervious material. But it was evident they had never been comfortable aboveground. The experts assumed that something in the atmosphere had proved toxic to them.
Even though they had evidently thrived in the Underworld, creating whole cities and a vast rainforest belowground, in the end they had abandoned the planet thousands of years ago, leaving no biological trace of their existence. No burial sites, no bones, no representational art had ever been discovered. No one knew why they had left, but the astonishing wonders they had constructed of the psi-infused quartz endured as proof that humans were not the first to colonize Harmony.
Sebastian chortled and fluttered through the rip in the tunnel wall. Dust bunnies did not need amber to navigate the tunnels. They were as much at home in the maze as they were on the surface. The benefits of having evolved on the planet, Alice thought. Harmony was awash in paranormal energy currents.
She followed Sebastian into the radiant tunnel. The faint rush created by the invisible tides of psi flooding the Underworld hit her like a mild tonic. Her spirits lifted. She was no longer trapped in the nightmare hotel. She was safe, temporarily at least, in the tunnels. She had Sebastian and she had her go bag. If Owen March showed signs of being dangerous, she was pretty sure she could duck into a side tunnel and disappear. Heramber was tuned and locked—thanks to a certain tuner who had come highly recommended by Vinnie the Broker. No one could follow her through the Underworld.
Unaware or unconcerned that she might be developing contingency plans, Owen pulled the heavy mag-steel door closed and rezzed the lock. He unclipped the locator on his belt and hurried after her.
“We need to move quickly,” he said. He started walking, setting a swift pace. “It will take some time for the goons to realize that we’re not hiding in one of the hotel rooms, but sooner or later they’ll find the hole-in-the-wall in the basement. I assume your amber is locked?”
“Of course,” she said, proud of her knowledge of such sophisticated matters.
“So is mine. That means they can’t follow us down here, but since they are ex-Guild, one or more of them will have a locator. Those guys never leave home without one. They’re all paranoid about getting lost in the Underworld. Unfortunately for us, a locator will tell them where the nearest charted aboveground ruins are. They’ll realize that’s the exit point we’re most likely to use.”
“Is it the exit point we’re going to use?” she asked.
She was forced to break into a trot to keep up and silently gave thanks that she was wearing sneakers. But the go bag was heavy. It bounced uncomfortably on her back.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t have much choice,” Owen said. “I needed the closest one I could find. The other two possibilities are miles away.”
“I’ve got a lot of questions, Mr. March.”
“I understand, and I’ll answer as many of them as I can once we’re in the car and heading away from here.”
“What destination did you have in mind?” she asked warily.
“Illusion Town. It’s the nearest large metro area, and it’s easier to keep a low profile in a city with a fluid population.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. Illusion Town was home. In the pastseven months she had come to know it well. Once inside the city limits, she could disappear.
“Good choice,” she said, trying not to sound too enthusiastic.
