Page 42

***

The bruising on Ash’sarm hurt like a mother, but his enhanced healing ability was already dealing with it. The injury wasn’t throbbing anymore, and the bruises would be gone in a couple of days, and he’d have nothing but a dull ache to show he’d tackled a giant killer bear thing and lived to tell the tale.

He walked alongside Georgia, not wanting to let her out of his sight now he knew what was hiding in the undergrowth. Every instinct screamed at him to pick her up and hide her on the ship. But if he tried that move, she’d shoot him.

The tracks they followed led them out of the trees and over to a gray rock face.

Ash turned from left to right, looking for the direction the steps had gone. “They stop right here.” His gaze moved up the rock face. “Do you think they climbed this?”

“Not unless they’re Spiderman,” Georgia said.

“A spider man? What’s that?”

“An Earth superhero. Sadly, only fictional. He got bitten by a mutant spider and turned into a wall climbing, web slinging hero. And he wore a lot of spandex.”

“You’ve lost me.” Ash shrugged. “Who needs fictional super heroes, when you have the real thing right in front of you?”

Georgia grinned at him. She tapped the rock face. “What if they didn’t go up but went in? After all, the first base we found was underground. Who knows how extensive the tunnel network is? This could be another way in.”

“If it is, they’ve concealed the entrance well. Let’s take a look along the rock face and see if we can find a way inside.” Ash ran his hands over the higher part of the rock, while Georgia bent and scoured the lower level.

“Here’s something,” she said. “It’s an indentation. Let’s see what happens when I press it.”

“Careful. You don’t know what we’ll find,” Ash said.

“You afraid, soldier?”

“Always when I’m watching out for you.”

Georgia snorted a laugh. “I can look after myself.” She pressed the rock.

There were several clicks, and then rock grated against rock. The outline of a door appeared.

“Let’s see where this leads,” she said.

“Hang tight for a minute. I’ll let the others know what we’ve found and that we’re going in.” Ash grabbed Georgia’s arm. He knew what she was like when she was obsessed with something. She blanked out all distractions, including him.

She narrowed her eyes then nodded. “Hurry up. I’ve got a good feeling about this. We could find our white tails inside.”

Ash activated the shared comm link. “We’ve discovered a concealed entrance that heads through the mountain range. We’re going in to take a look. We may lose contact for a short time if we go in too deep. How’s your tracking going?”

“Nothing exciting from us,” Daisy said.

“Same here,” Eden said. “We’ve come to a dead end. From the disturbance around the site we’re looking at, I reckon a ship landed and collected whoever we were following. We’re taking a look around, but we’ll head toward your location when we’re done if you need a hand.”

Georgia nudged him with her elbow. She jerked her head toward the entrance.

“I’ll send our coordinates.” Ash sent through the information and then gently nudged Georgia behind him.

He didn’t miss the way she glared at him, but she didn’t say anything. This was his job, and she wouldn’t convince him she should go first into this dark tunnel that could house any kind of horror.

They activated their night vision goggles as they headed deeper into the cave as the natural light faded. As before, it sloped gently down, the rough-hewn passageway only wide enough for them to walk single file.

They made swift progress along the tunnel, and after five minutes of walking, it broadened.

Ash frowned. The stench of death was strong in the air.

Georgia moved alongside him. Her nose wrinkled.