“I found it.”
For half a second neither of us moved.
Then Wheels turned toward the stairwell.“Hodge!”His voice echoed through the basement.
“What?”
“Get Twister.”
“What’d she find?”
“I think she found the damn tunnel.”
Everything upstairs suddenly came alive.Boots pounded across the floor and voices echoed above.
Less than a minute later Twister came down first, followed by Swift, Hodge, Nugget, Podge, Magnum, Method, Rev, Plug, Cord, Chewy, Sully, and Gramps bringing up the rear with Tempi and Britta on his heels.
Every one of them looked at me.
Twister didn’t waste time.“What’ve you got?”
I pointed at the wall.“This section.”
He walked over.“Looks like concrete.”
“It does,” I agreed.
“It isn’t?”
“It is.”I smiled.“But it’s hiding something.”
He looked toward Wheels.“You believe her?”
Wheels didn’t hesitate.“Absolutely.”
Twister nodded once.“Alright.”He looked around the basement.“Move every damn box.”
The room exploded into motion and boxes scraped across the floor.Shelves shifted.Dust filled the air.Old furniture disappeared to the far side of the basement and, piece by piece, the entire wall emerged.
Then the outline became visible.A rectangle almost seven feet tall and five feet wide.The seams were nearly invisible beneath decades of patched concrete.
Method finally whispered, “Holy...”
Twister stepped forward and brushed his palm over the outline.
“Door.”
I nodded.
“Not just a door.”I pointed toward the floor.“It swings upward.”
Everyone looked.
There, set into the concrete, almost completely hidden beneath old repairs, was the rusted edge of a massive steel hatch.It hadn’t been visible until every last box had been moved away.
Twister crouched and wrapped both hands around the exposed edge.“Help me.”
Wheels stepped beside him, and Magnum joined.
