Chapter 36
No one was waiting for Conn around the corner.
So much for the foreboding he’d felt.
He took a few steps, stopped, and listened. It was utterly silent and pitch black here.
Where were Toole and the others?
Then, suddenly, he did hear something.
There was a faint tapping like footfalls from behind them. Then a soft thump, as if a piece of the roof had dropped to the floor.
He heard Sheffield, who was still around the corner in the main passageway, shift rapidly and hiss, “Behind us, Conn.”
Then, abruptly, everything was light and noise—impossibly loud noise—and concussion and pain.
In that same instant, Conn was thrown forward. He hit the ground hard and felt the mine collapse on top of him, burying him and pitching him into an even deeper darkness and silence.