He stepped into the hole and thrust the lantern out before him, chasing the shadowy darkness inside back little more than arm’s length. It didn’t leave much margin for error.
“Dog’s eyes glow,” Jak said softly in his ear, “you get close enough. See them coming.”
“Yeah.” Dean pulled the Hi-Power from its holster and got down on his stomach, promptly landing in piles of dog turds. Some of it was fresh. He swore at the stench and the greasy feel, but he made himself go forward into the tunnel he’d found. Taking on the Baron’s men, followed by the coldhearts, was something none of the companions wanted to do.
Dog shit or not, the tunnel offered a way out. Dean kept crawling.
“CAWDOR!” NAYLOR BARKED from outside.
“Dammit,” Ryan called back, “I’m checking arms. Give me a minute.” He waved the SIG-Sauer meaningfully at the three men.
One of the men rolled his sleeves up without hesitation, revealing bare inner elbows.
“Sit down,” Ryan instructed, moving on to Elmore and the other man.
“Was that a dog I heard in there?” Naylor demanded.
“Had one left over that recovered,” Ryan replied. “Thought the bastard was dead. It is now.”
“Hope he believes you,” J.B. said quietly. “Otherwise we might have company.”
“It’ll be easier for Dean and Jak to find the other end of that tunnel than for Naylor or his people to find it.”
“Mayhap,” Doc said, wrinkling his nose against the sour stink that pervaded the room from the open trapdoor, “they would not want to traverse it even should they chance upon its location. The very pits of Hell should not be any worse, I would wager.”
“Wouldn’t have to go through it unless they just wanted to,” J.B. said. “Put a man on the other end of it and have him shoot anybody trying to come out of it armed. Then it’s a matter of who runs out of rations first.”
“And there’s always the coldhearts waiting in the wings,” Mildred reminded them.
“Doesn’t matter,” Ryan said. “One way or another, we’re not going to be here much longer.” He pointed the pistol at Elmore. “Let me see your arm.”
Elmore rolled up one sleeve and showed the scarred interior of his elbow.
“Now the other one,” Ryan instructed.
“We need to talk,” Elmore said.
Ryan rolled the hammer back on the SIG-Sauer, dropping the trigger tension down to near nothing. “I’ll chill you and have a look myself if I have to.”
“I thought you said if we threw in with you you’d stand by us,” Elmore said. His eyes narrowed in anger and fear, and his throat tightened, giving a chopping rhythm to his words.
“I’ll save who I can. Can’t do any more than that.” Ryan stared at him over the blaster’s barrel, holding it to the center of the man’s chest.
“They get their hands on me, they’ll chill me.”
“That’s not my problem,” Ryan said harshly. “Got myself in a whole world of trouble coming around here as it was. I’m ready to be rid of it.”
Elmore rolled up his sleeve, revealing the tattoo.
“You’re with the Heimdall Foundation,” Mildred said.
Surprise filled Elmore’s eyes, bringing glints of hope with it. “You’ve heard of the Heimdall Foundation?”
“Once,” she answered.
“Then you know what they’re trying to do there.”
“No.”
“Whitecoat stuff,” J.B. stated. “And usually that’s not a good thing.”
Ryan knew that was true. In the companions travels, most research facilities left over after the nukecaust had degenerated in their purpose or their personnel. And usually the whitecoats running the research labs were as coldblooded and vicious as any baron.
“What we’re trying to do is find out the truth about alien visitations to this planet,” Elmore said. “It might help us understand more about what’s happened here. You can’t possibly understand how important that could be to our futures. All of our futures.”
“My dear Ryan,” Doc said calmly, “maybe we should barter with the sec chief. At least buy a little more time to find out if Jak and young Dean are, indeed, able to find a way from this structure that will not put us beneath the crosshairs of enemy weapons. I, for one, would endeavor to discourse with this man at length about the conspiracy theories he might have. When I visited the first future I was subject to, conspiracy theories were all the rage. No little of them were dedicated to aliens and abductions and numerous other phenomena.”