2041 Sanctuary (Dark Descent) (74 page)

‘It’ll be fine,’ Sarah said, ‘it has to be.’

Chapter Fifty One

A perfectly choreographed dusk crept over the upper level of USSB Sanctuary; the dimming synthetic sunlight shrouding the subterranean city below in a ruddy hue, long shadows casting phantom nets over the final vestiges of the day. Replicating this eternal ballet of perceived time, in perfect synchronisation, were the other many levels and chambers throughout the base, allowing all Sancturians to indulge in this most fundamental of solar events.

Traffic within Sanctuary’s transport system ferried passengers through its vast network, the high-tech and high-speed vehicles an enviable collaboration of man and machine delivering the former safely to its intended destination. As day turned to night human activity slowed, the corridors of the SED emptying much like the museum located on the levels above. Further out, in the Exploration Division’s residential apartments, people returned home from a hard day’s work. Amongst these predominantly civilian individuals, three unassuming renegades stood on the very edge of rebellion, but only two were fully committed to the road ahead.

‘Sarah!’ Trish called out to her friend. ‘You need to go!’

Sarah sat on her bed fiddling with her multifunction card, turning the dense metallic rectangle over and over in her hands as she stared off into space.

Jason poked his head around her bedroom door. ‘Saz, you need to get a wriggle on.’

Sarah looked up, her fingers stopping to caress the emblem of USSB Sanctuary embossed into one side of the card. ‘Huh?’

‘You need to get going,’ he said, ‘the clock’s ticking.’

Sarah checked her phone. It was late evening and the plan was a go. She stood up, feeling detached and unreal, almost like she didn’t exist. ‘Right,’ she said, walking out into the lounge area where Trish and Jason had laid out their kit for their journey.

‘Are you okay?’ Trish asked.

Sarah focused on her friend. ‘I’m fine.’

‘Are you sure? You’ve seemed down all day, distracted too.’

‘I’m fine!’

Her ferocity took her friends by surprise, the two of them exchanging a meaningful look in response.

‘I’m fine,’ she said again in a calmer tone, ‘don’t worry about me. Just meet me where we agreed, okay?’

‘Okay,’ Trish said, ‘but if there’s anything wrong you need to say now as it’s all our necks on the line, not just yours.’

Sarah ground her teeth. ‘I know. Look, I’m just nervous. I’ve got a lot on my mind, a lot to remember and I don’t need you winding me up.’

‘She’s not winding you up,’ Jason said, ‘she’s just concerned.’

Sarah looked from Jason to Trish, their faces looking anything but confident before the off. ‘I’m sorry.’ She picked up her rucksack to check everything she needed was inside. Her manner became businesslike. ‘Is everything ready?’

‘I think so.’ Trish looked around at the bags, equipment and clothing laid out around them.

‘Shaped charges?’ Sarah asked.

Jason scooped one up. ‘Check.’

‘Air-shuttle manual?’

Trish pointed to it.

‘Waypoint beacons?’

‘Yes, check,’ Jason said.

‘Deep Reach maps?’

Trish nodded.

‘Deep Reach uniforms?’

Jason picked up one of the red and blue jackets and waggled it about.

‘Excellent.’ Sarah looked to Trish. ‘Have you got the pill?’

Trish handed her a small mauve capsule.

‘And you’re positive this won’t hurt him?’ Sarah rolled the small oblong object around in her palm.

‘One hundred per cent,’ Trish said, ‘it’s a perfectly legal sedative. It’ll knock him out for twelve hours and he’ll wake feeling like he had the best sleep ever.’

‘Until he realises you stole his card and fled the base,’ Jason added.

‘Shut up, Jason,’ Trish said, furious.

Sarah placed the pill in the pocket of her grey uniform before looking around the apartment one last time, making sure she hadn’t left anything behind. Satisfied, she made to leave. ‘I’ll see you both at one a.m. then.’

‘One a.m.’ Trish gave her a brief hug.

‘Don’t be late,’ Jason told her.

Sarah mustered a smile, turned and walked out of the door.

♦

It didn’t take Sarah long to reach Riley’s home as it was located in the same chamber as hers, which was just as well as she was already getting cold feet; any longer and she may have wimped out before she’d even started.

She rang the doorbell and waited for him to answer. The door soon opened and her fear – or was it hope? – of him being out shrank to nothing.

‘Hi,’ Riley said, ‘didn’t expect to see you tonight.’

‘No, guess not.’

‘You’re lucky you weren’t in work this afternoon, Locke was asking after you; you’d better make sure you go in tomorrow or he’ll be out looking for you.’

‘Can I come in?’ she asked, finding it difficult to maintain eye contact with him.

‘Sure.’ He stood aside to let her through.

Sarah moved past him and into his lounge where she was pulled up short by the sight of two of her Deep Reach teammates standing in the kitchen, drinking beer.

Jefferson, the broad black-bearded archaeologist and Cora, Riley’s second in command, both turned as she entered.

‘Sorry, I didn’t realise you had company.’

‘Not a problem, do you want a drink?’

Sarah shook her head, eyeing his multifunction card which hung, as ever, on a chain around his neck.

Jefferson ambled up to them. ‘Ri, we’re going to go; see you in the morning, yeah?’

‘You don’t have to.’

‘Yeah we do.’ He gave Sarah a small nod and a smile before leaving.

Cora downed her bottle, handed it to Riley and then gave Sarah a look that could kill before following Jefferson out of the door.

‘Sorry,’ Sarah said after they’d gone, ‘I didn’t mean to disturb your plans.’

‘No biggie.’ He cracked open another bottle of beer and took a swig.

‘About this morning, I didn’t mean to leave you like that, I just—’

‘Don’t worry about it, water under the bridge.’

They stood staring at each other, the silence between them growing uncomfortable.

‘I think I will have that drink,’ she said, breaking the awkward moment.

Riley put his drink down to get her a beer and Sarah, her fingers already clasping the sedative inside her pocket, slipped the pill into his drink, the capsule fizzing as it dissolved on its downwards spiral to the bottom. To hide these extra bubbles she picked up the bottle and handed it to him on his return. Accepting a bottle of her own, she watched as he raised her concoction to his lips.

‘Wait!’ She seized the drink from him before he could take a sip and placed it to one side.

He looked at her in surprise. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing.’ She was lost at how to explain away her actions. ‘I—’

He cut her off by leaning in to kiss her. With a rush of passion clouding her mind, Sarah’s thoughts and fears drifted away as she kissed him back, the plan she’d worked so hard over falling broken and discarded by the wayside; the laced bottle of beer continuing to effervesce unseen on the kitchen worktop.

Chapter Fifty Two

Sarah opened her eyes to darkness. Getting out of bed, she ran her hands through her long tresses and picked up her phone to check the time. It was half past two in the morning. Using the dim light of her phone to guide her, Sarah collected her clothes from the floor and retreated to the bathroom to put them on. Returning to the bedroom she tiptoed around to Riley’s side, stopping to watch him sleep, his breathing steady and slow. She drank in his form as she contemplated her options. Stay in Sanctuary for the rest of her life with a man and a job that made her happy, or return to the surface and expose Sanctuary and the Anakim, and seek justice for her mother. There was no in-between here; one way or the other it had to be all-in.

Riley moved in his sleep and Sarah looked to his bedside table where his multifunction card lay, unguarded and exposed.
As soon as I take his card my time at Sanctuary is at an end
, she thought
. No more Riley, no more Sanctuary, no more Deep Reach. The end – finito – no going back.
Her thoughts strayed to the surface, the freedom she experienced journeying to many lands, savouring different cultures, exploring new realms. Why should she give that all up? Sanctuary shouldn’t be kept secret; it should be for all peoples to visit as they pleased, not for the select few. The existence of Homo gigantis, perhaps the greatest discovery mankind had ever made alongside Sanctuary itself, should be part of human history, not covered up by the GMRC, the U.S. Government or the Roman Catholic Church. She stretched out her hand to pick up the card, but hesitated, her memories of the Deep Reach mission flooding back to her; her times with Riley and her new friends, the wonders she’d seen in the vaults and at the SED. She pulled her hand back before another memory exerted itself, a powerful memory of smoke, fire and pain. Anger swelled within her as she reached down again and grasped Riley’s card, her fingers curling around it. Taking a deep breath she picked it up and placed it in her pocket.

Her decision made, she bent down and very lightly kissed Riley on his upturned cheek. Leaving the room she walked towards the front door, noticing on the way the unfinished bottle of beer on the side containing the pill she’d placed within it. Changing course, she picked it up and poured its contents down the sink. Without a backward glance she left the apartment, shutting the front door behind her as quietly as possible. With a lump in her throat and regret like a millstone around her neck, Sarah headed for the SED.

♦

Darkness and silence hung over the area surrounding the Smithsonian’s Museum of Sanctuary. The building, bordered by beautifully tended gardens, shone beneath the dull orange glow of the lights encircling its extensive circumference. Now directly below the USSB’s mighty dome, wrapped inside its warm atmosphere, Sarah glanced up at the simulated night sky.
Someone went to a lot of effort to make the stars flicker and shine like the real thing
, she thought, her mind suddenly picking up on every detail of the base; she noticed they even appeared to match the correct pattern of the constellations. Completing the effect was a near perfect representation of the moon; the strength of its light even managing to cast its own shadows as she threaded her way through the greenery, which in the half-light appeared as a darker shade of grey.

Sarah spied the figures of Trish and Jason sitting under a tree, close to where they’d arranged to meet.

‘Where the hell have you been?’ Trish said in a forced whisper as Sarah approached.

‘Sorry, I got waylaid.’

Jason stood up. ‘What were you doing all that time, or shouldn’t we ask?’

‘Let’s get on with this, shall we?’ Sarah told them, smoothly avoiding the inference.

‘Did you get it?’ Trish asked.

Sarah plucked Riley’s card from her pocket and dangled it on its chain in front of them. ‘Come on,’ she said, shouldering her rucksack, ‘I’ve been waiting ages for you two.’

‘Funny,’ Trish said as they collected their own bags and followed after her.

At a small side entrance to the museum Sarah swiped her multifunction card over a security pad, the little used door swinging open to reveal its quiet, dark interior. The three friends scurried through the exhibits, their footfalls echoing in the silent halls. As they descended a wide staircase they were momentarily blinded as a light was shone in their faces.

‘Hey, what are you doing in here?’ a man’s voice said out of the darkness.

Sarah, regaining her vision, saw that it was the same aging security guard she’d met on her way back from the vaults with Riley the night before.

‘What’s going on, Geoff?’ Another guard approached from behind them.

Geoff shone his torch into each of their faces. ‘Got three trespassers.’

Sarah curbed her desire to run. ‘We work for the SED, we’re just passing through.’

‘SED, eh?’ Geoff tugged at a large wrinkled ear. ‘Let’s see your passes, then.’

Sarah withdrew her card and held it up for him to see.

‘Hmm, seems to be in order, what about you two?’

‘They’re with me.’

‘Sorry, miss, can’t let people through if they ain’t got a card, dem’s the rules. It’s more than my job’s worth.’

Sarah groaned inwardly. They hadn’t even got to the SED yet and they were having problems; so much for plain sailing.

‘You’ve got my card,’ Jason said to Sarah, giving her a funny look.

‘Oh yes, I forgot.’ She pulled out Riley’s card and made sure to put her finger over the image when presenting it to the security guard.

He leaned forward, peering at it. ‘I can’t see the photo, give it here.’ Geoff whipped the card out of her hand before she could react. Sarah watched as he looked at the card and then at Jason and then back to the card again.
Shit, we’re screwed.

‘That’s fine.’ He handed the card to Jason.

Jason tried to stop himself from grinning as he made a face at Sarah to indicate his surprise.
The old guy must be partly blind
, Sarah thought,
perhaps their luck was in after all
.

‘I forgot my card,’ Trish told him, ‘sorry.’

‘Forgot your card?’ the other guard said. ‘No one forgets their card, that’s crazy.’

‘Perhaps you can let it slide this once,’ Jason suggested, trying to sound in charge of the situation, ‘as you saw I have level eight clearance. If you want I’ll give you both a tour of the SED next time I’m back through, how about that?’

‘But we don’t even know what’s down there,’ the man said, ‘how do we know it’s worth it?’

‘Oh, it’s worth it.’ Jason put an arm around Geoff’s shoulders. ‘It’ll blow your minds.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ Geoff said, after giving it some thought.

The other guard nodded; apparently Jason’s offer was too good an opportunity to pass up.

‘Excellent!’ Jason slapped Geoff on the back. ‘Catch you later.’