Dean watched Danny disappear into the hole and, shrugging, followed him.
The shaft was dark and airless, the atmosphere incredibly hot and it stank of decay. It was obvious that it was rarely used. In fact, Dean figured, it probably hadn’t been in use since Danny had left the ville. There was a metal rung ladder that was bolted to the concrete side of the shaft, and Dean felt his way down it gingerly, hearing Danny’s boots on the metal a few feet beneath him. Then he heard his companion’s feet touch dull-sounding concrete or brick, and he knew that they had almost reached the bottom.
“Duck when you get to the bottom,” Danny whispered, “the shaft is only about four feet.”
“I hope you know the way from here,” Dean replied. “I don’t want to end up heading back out into the center of the ville.”
“It’s only one way we can go, don’t worry,” Danny replied with amusement in his voice.
It was pitch black at the bottom of the shaft, and the heat subsided into the coolness of a subterranean tunnel, the stifling confinement of the entry shaft now past. Dean bent forward and followed Danny’s footsteps, unable to see him as his eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the darkness. The boy had been right about there only being one direction they could head. The bottom of the shaft had been a tunnel in one direction, and a wall at the other, although Dean could feel, as he lightly ran his hands along the sides of the shaft to try and detect its width, that there were pipes and cables running along it that ran straight into the wall by the shaft.
“What the fuck was this for?” he asked.
“Dunno for sure,” Danny replied. “I figure that it must have been to do with the power supplies for the building before skydark, and mebbe the generator Baron Al’s got going when he moved in later. I do know that this runs under some of the other buildings, too. We need to take the first shaft up, which should be about here,” he added with a distracted tone, as though looking for something where he couldn’t see. “Shit, found it!” he exclaimed triumphantly, adding, “just in front of you, about five yards. You need to pull yourself up.”
Following the sound of Danny’s voice, Dean reached up into empty space and groped for the bottom rung of the metal ladder that, once again, was bolted to the side of the shaft. Pulling himself up, he winced as strong light penetrated the shaft, then flooded it, as Danny opened the trapdoor at the top of the shaft.
“This is it?” he asked as he followed Danny up into a bare side room that was only ten feet by ten.
“Ah, that’s the joy of it.” Danny laughed. “The shaft is put out of the way of general use so it can’t be a hazard. Which means it gets hidden away from the prying eyes of any sec—especially those who can’t be bothered to check too well.”
Dean replaced the trapdoor in the floor carefully and looked around the empty room. Dust motes were visible in the air, and like the entire building, it was lighted by ceiling panels, a few of which were either dead or blinking erratically. In one wall there was a simple metal door. “This should bring us out into the ground floor corridor—most of the tech and all the paperwork is on the upper level,” Danny stated, opening the door slowly and scanning the empty corridor. Both he and Dean listened intently, but could detect no signs of activity. Danny indicated that they should move, and readied his Uzi in case he needed it. Dean had his Browning Hi-Power to hand, checked and reloaded. Given Danny’s inability with a blaster, as he proved during the fight with the mutie cat pack, it was precaution Dean felt to be more than necessary. The building seemed deserted. There was no sign of activity, and the only sounds were the low hum of a generator and distant electrical activity, none of which indicated a need to be on triple red. Nonetheless, neither of the young men was willing to take a chance.