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At the bottom, the tunnel expands into a tall, earthen chamber, braced with person-sized shelves, stacked with varying levels of decomposing corpses.
“Fuck.” Sean throws his light along the bodies and frantically begins to scan. “Not here. Not here. Oh, Rosa, please don’t be in here.”
He’s tall enough to see and reach the bodies on the highest shelves. His hand stretches out to one and then another body. He pushes hair from a face and gives a heartbreaking gasp muffled by his mask.
My heart drops. “Is it her?”
“No,” he says, lowering his hand. “I don’t know her.”
Struck wordless in the middle of this nightmare, I nod and silently promise myself that the person responsible for this will pay. Even if that person isn’t part of the mission I’m technically here for.
“Sean, we can’t stay here long. That smell means death in more ways than one.” Decaying bodies give off hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and methane. “The dead down here seem too far gone to be Rosa, but let’s check quickly. When we’re done, we can head back and make an anonymous call to the policia.”
I don’t add that I can’t face off with the policia in this guise because I’m sure he gets it. At night, in the dark, on the street, it would be hard to associate me with Sister Dee, but that wouldn’t hold up to any close scrutiny. If they suspected my cover had been compromised, The Guild would order me home quicker than they could sayserial killer.
With a nod that seems all he can manage, we turn to begin examining the others.
Weary and ready to be out of here, I finally get to the last body on my side. There’s something glinting on the corpse’s chest. Cringing, I pull it out then realizing what it is, I shudder. “Sean. Look at this.” I hold it up to him. “A weird place to find a nail file, right?”
He takes it from me, examines it under his light. “It’s his.”
“Who?”
“Armand. He’s got a dozen of these things. Man’s obsessed with his nails.”
“It looks ordinary, though,” even though there’s dried blood, “with no special markings.”
“It’s his.”
“It’s not really proof, but along with the bodies, it might be enough to get Javier to do his job.”
He grunts his agreement. “Let’s get out of here.”
We turn at nearly the same instant when an explosive noise stops us dead.
I shove Sean to the ground and dive next to him as the noise moves like thunder, down the tunnel and a heavy spasm of heat and pressure, dirt and grit, slams us.
16
SEAN
Something heavy drops across my back, pinning me. Face pressed into dirt, fighting for air, I cough and shift as creaks and groans settle around us like a closing coffin lid.
Ears ringing, leg barking fire, I fight the pressure against my back, shoving into a pushup to dislodge the heavy debris. It takes all my strength to throw off what I assume is wood from the shelving… but turns out to be bodiesandwood from the shelving.
I near vomit. Air coated with dust rushes into my lungs.Fuck.“Dee?” I break into a fit of coughs. “Dee, you hurt?”
She emits a series of her own hacking coughs, but manages, “I’m fine.” Her flashlight flicks on illuminating curtains of dust-soaked air and the fact that she’s already on her feet. “You?”
Feels like someone took a hatchet to my leg. “Aye. Fine. What happened?”
Speaking delivers dirty air to my throat, and I break into another coughing fit. My mask is gone, so I spit, then tug my shirt collar up over my nose and mouth.
“A booby trap, likely.” She sounds angry. “I missed it.”
Her light flashes toward the tunnel we came down. There’s a gap leading up, though debris clogs the entrance. It’s open enough to climb up to the next chamber. It’s impossible to tell what lies that way. That’s where the explosion was. “Let’s see if we can get out of here.”
I inch my way to her, and she uses her light to guide me past fallen bodies, broken limbs, and debris.
