Chapter Three
“I didn’t kill him,” Alice said.
She knew she sounded defensive. She couldn’t help it. She had to make him believe her, at least for now. He might not be the ideal rescuer, but she had to work with the material available.
“At this point, I don’t give a damn.” Owen turned away from the shower and aimed the light at the mirror. “Right now, we need to focus on getting out of here.”
“Right. Focus.”
There were no fog jets inside the bathroom, but the heavy vapor from the main room was flowing through the open door, threatening to fill the space.
The hallucinogenic visions were getting stronger.
The handheld showerhead was now a gleaming viper, jaws agape, venom dripping from its fangs.
She had to work to suppress a primal jolt of terror.
“Close the door,” Owen said.
“Right. Should have thought of that.”
She closed the door, cutting off some of the vapor, but the stuff continued to flow under the bottom edge.
She watched Owen move to the full-length mirror. He used the grip of the flamer to tap the nearby wall tiles.
“Are you sure there’s an emergency exit from this room?” she asked.
“I did some research on the way here. Found the original construction plans. Each room has a hidden door that opens onto an interior passageway that runs throughout the building. But the hotel was built decades ago under old construction codes. It was sold at auction and then remodeled by the new owner. Then it was closed for a while after—”
“After my husband jumped off the roof,” she said, her voice very tight. “Yes, I know.”
“Sorry. The question is whether the old emergency exits have been boarded up by the current owner.” He tapped another tile. “Here we go.”
He pressed the tile. The mirror swung open, revealing a narrow, unlit passage. A draft of air spilled out, stale and infused with a hint of mold. But the interior appeared free of hallucinogenic fog.
Sebastian chortled and fluffed up, thrilled with the new discovery. He wriggled out of the crook of Alice’s arm, bounded down to the floor, and zipped into the shadows of the concealed passage.
Alice’s spirits soared. “He doesn’t detect any immediate threat. That’s a very good sign.”
“Yes, it is. Let’s go.”
“Wait, I need my stuff.”
“We are not hauling your luggage with us,” Owen said.
“I didn’t bring any luggage. I had no intention of spending the night here.”
She took a deep breath and held it long enough to open the door and dart out into the other room.
She groped her way through a junglescape of scaled and fanged creatures—giant snakes, dragon-sized lizards, an assortment of crocodilians.
When she reached the dressing table, she seized the coiled snake that was the strap of her small backpack, slung it over one shoulder, and returned to the bathroom.
She shut the door and released the breath she had been holding. “Got it.”
Owen was already inside the passage, waiting for her. His expression was grim and his eyes burned with a little energy. She knew he had rezzed his senses and she was pretty sure it wasn’t just because he was using psi to suppress the hallucinations. He was annoyed by the delay.
She considered reminding him that he claimed to be responsible for the fact that she needed rescuing, but decided that discussion could wait for a more appropriate time. She followed him into the dark hall. Sebastian bounced up and down, eager to explore. An object glinted in one of his paws.
“What is that?” she asked. “It looks like a mirror.”
“It is,” Owen said, clearly not pleased. “While you were fetching your luggage—”
“My pack.”
“—Sebastian went souvenir hunting. He found that hand mirror in the trash basket under the sink.”
“He does like bright, shiny objects.”
“I noticed. No more delays. Understood?”
“Absolutely. No more delays.”
Owen closed the mirror door quietly but very firmly and led the way using the flashlight on his phone to navigate.
She resisted the urge to try to defend Sebastian and herself. There was no good reason to test the patience of their rescuer, at least not while they were in the process of being rescued.
“If someone is monitoring all the exit points, how do we get out of the hotel?” she asked, determined to change the subject.
“The stairs at the far end go down to the basement. There’s a hole-in-the-wall entrance into the Underworld. I’m betting the people who are after you don’t know about it, at least not yet.”
“You’re betting on this plan?”
“It wasn’t possible to verify every single detail. I had to work fast.”
“And you know about this tunnel entrance how?”
“I used it to get into the hotel tonight. There was a note about it on the old construction plans.”
“If that’s the case, why did you come through the door of my room?” she asked, a fresh wave of suspicion welling up. “Why not use the mirror door?”
“Three reasons.” Owen stopped at the end of the passage and started down a narrow flight of steps.
“Number one, there was no way to know if that door was locked from your side. Number two, I was afraid that if I suddenly appeared in your bathroom, you would shoot first and ask questions later.” He paused.
“I didn’t want to end up like the dead guy in the shower. ”
“I told you, I didn’t kill him,” she said. “But you were probably right. I was hiding in there because I was expecting someone to break into my room. If you had opened that mirror door, I would have rezzed the flamer out of sheer panic.”
“The third reason was because I wanted to do a little recon.”
“Is that how you were able to, um, take out the front desk clerk?”
“Yes. Just to be clear, he’s unconscious, not dead like, say, the guy in your shower.”
“I can explain—” She broke off as a large metal canister appeared in the beam of the flashlight. “What’s that?”
“A storage tank for the hallucinogenic vapor. Looks like there’s one behind the wall of each room.” Owen paused at the top of another narrow staircase. “No more talking.”
She heard the muffled thud of heavy boots accompanied by a harsh male voice.
“Let’s go. We’ve waited long enough. They’ll be hallucinating like mad by now, begging to be rescued from the nightmare. Don’t forget your gas mask. The boss said the vapor works fast.”
“How the fuck did a simple grab-and-go job end up going to green hell?” a second man grumbled.
“We’ll be sure to ask Burley and Hoyle, if they’re still alive. But I wouldn’t count on it. We heard two mag-rez shots a few minutes ago.”
“We got bad intel on this op. No one said there was competition for the woman.”
The pounding footsteps were very close. Alice realized the two men were now directly overhead on the lobby stairs.
In another couple of minutes they would open the door of her room and discover that she and Owen were gone.
There was no way to know what they would do next, but it seemed reasonable to expect that they would launch a thorough search of the hotel.
Owen was right. Definitely time to hit the road.
He was already halfway down the basement stairs, the beam of his flashlight bouncing off the treads.
She grabbed the rail and flew after him.
Sebastian bobbed along ahead of them, the mirror gripped triumphantly in one paw.
He was fluffed and cheerful. She knew that as far as he was concerned, they were playing hide-and-seek.
For dust bunnies, everything was a game right up until it wasn’t.
At that point they got very serious, very fast. As the old adage held, By the time you see the teeth, it’s too late.
They were halfway across the basement when the hotel’s emergency intercom crackled to life. A man’s voice came from the speaker.
“Attention, Ms. Radstone. You are in great danger. We know you’re here in the hotel and that there is someone with you.
The individual is not your friend. He was hired to kidnap you with the intention of holding you for ransom.
When he gets what he wants, he will kill you.
My team was sent here to protect you. We’re going to start a room-by-room search.
You must believe me, Ms. Radstone. Your life depends on it. ”
Alice tried to ignore the voice. This was no time for second guesses. She had made the decision to trust Owen, at least until she and Sebastian were out of the hotel and into the relative safety of the Underworld. Once they were in the psi-infused tunnels, she would have options.
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, always checked 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 that made 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.”