Page 61
Then part of the rock shifted.
Not opened.
Shifted.
A seam I hadn’t seen split down the center, revealing a narrow landing bay beyond it.
I stared through the viewing panel. “That’s subtle.”
“It is meant to be.”
The transport slipped inside, and the rock closed behind us.
Sunlight disappeared so completely it felt less like entering a building and more like being swallowed. Every instinct I had immediately objected.
No windows. No public access. No obvious exits.
One enormous, armed alien male between me and everything outside.
Excellent.
The transport settled with a low vibration that traveled through the floor and up the soles of my shoes. When the engines powered down, the sudden quiet left a faint pressure in my ears.
Veyr killed the controls and was out of his restraint before I had mine halfway undone. He checked the viewing panel, then the console, then a small indicator near the hatch before moving to another.
I watched him. “You always do that?”
He glanced at me. “Do what?”
“Check everything five times.”
“Twice.”
“That was more than twice.”
He stood. “Stay here.”
“No.”
His head turned.
“I’m not sitting in a locked transport inside a mountain while you disappear.”
“I am checking the site.”
“Then I’m checking it too.”
His expression remained flat. “You do not know what to check.”
“I know whether someone jumps out and tries to kill us.”
“That is one possible indicator.”
I stared at him.
He opened the hatch.
Cool air moved inside. Not fresh air. Filtered air. Dry and faintly metallic, with that sterile recycled smell every sealed Zunatorian facility seemed to have beneath whatever else was present.
