“That’s wind,” Wade whispered. “But we must be way below sea level. How is their wind down here?”
Jennifer opened her mouth to respond, but a rushing sound cut her off. It sounded as if a freight train were barreling down the tunnel. The wind increased, howling as it tossed Jennifer’s hair around her face.
Giggling, Susan clapped her hands. “Wheeeeeee! I wish we had a kite.”
“Quiet,” Jennifer hushed her. “Remember what they said. We need to stay—”
Then, from across the tunnel, Amethyst shouted, “Genova! Arroyo! What are you doing?”
Tony’s gleeful laugh cut through the noise. “Let’s get this party started!”
“Genova,” Amethyst yelled. “Tony, get back here!”
The wind slammed against their hiding space. Jennifer leaned around the rock, trying to determine what was happening. Before she could, however, she heard a clicking sound coming from behind them.
“Um, guys?” Wade gripped both of their arms. “I think we’ve got company.”
TWENTY
Tony felt himself slip into a kind of Zen state as he and Clark charged toward the main cavern. He had heard of the term “Zen” before, of course, and had always dismissed it as nothing more than psychobabble new age bullshit, but he recognized it now, just the same. It was unlike the feeling he’d gotten on past jobs. Before, killing someone— stalking them, tracking them, and then watching the light wane from their eyes as they bled out—that was nothing more than work. Tony had always assumed that a donut maker or assembly line worker approached their jobs with the same feeling. What he felt now was something different. He always felt a sense of heightened awareness right before a hit, but what he was experiencing now was that feeling amplified ten-fold.
A strange, savage wind had risen from seemingly nowhere and roared through the caverns and tunnels, lashing at them like razor wire as they raced headlong toward the fray. Tony felt it pull his lips back from his teeth in a sneer. His hair was blown straight back over his head. His ears and cheeks felt raw, as if he’d been standing outside in the cold for too long.
“What are we doing?” Clark shouted above the din.
“Pissing off Amethyst,” Tony yelled. “Reminding them who’s the fucking boss.”
“You sure about this?”
“They’re up to something, Clark. I don’t know what, but I can feel it in my fucking gut. And with the shit they can do—like Ruby reading our fucking minds—the only advantage we have is being unpredictable. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like putting my destiny in anybody else’s hands.”
“I didn’t take you for the type who believed in destiny, Tony.”
“I don’t. I don’t believe in mind reading or motherfucking magic, either. But here we are anyway. What are you gonna do, you know?”
The two fell silent as they approached the main chamber. The wind died down as abruptly as it had begun. In the aftermath, Tony noticed two things. The gunfire had stopped, and the big cavern was now glowing brightly. The source of the light was hidden inside the actual room; he couldn’t tell what it was from this vantage point. He could, however, see the shadowed silhouettes of two Dark Ones as they raced from the chamber and ran down the tunnel toward he and Clark. Tony paused long enough to raise his rifle, and then he gunned down both of the creatures while they were still yards away. The rifle grew warm in his hands, even as his palms and fingers grew numb. Tony grinned as the Dark Ones squealed. Their bodies jittered and jerked before collapsing to the floor. Leaping over their still-bleeding corpses, Tony entered the chamber. Clark was right behind him. The two men stopped in their tracks and surveyed the scene.
Tony’s first thought was that somebody had unleashed a hurricane inside the cavern. They stood in a massive, cathedral-like chamber. Cracks and fissures lined the walls, and boulders and debris were strewn about, as if a partial avalanche had just occurred. Dust still hung in the air. Scores of dead Dark Ones littered the large space. It appeared as if most of them had been slammed repeatedly into the walls or ceiling. Their bodies looked crushed. A few had been impaled on obscene, monstrous statues, twelve feet high and carved in the image of things that should have never been imagined, let alone exist in real life. Others among the corpses appeared to have been shot to death, which seemed an almost archaic method of execution when compared to the damage the rest had sustained under the windstorm.
The Dark Ones weren’t the only ones to die inside the chamber, however. At first, Tony couldn’t figure out what he was staring at. It took his mind a moment to adjust, and then he recognized the torn, bloody mess at his feet as Ruby’s torso—minus her head, arms, legs, clothing, and skin. Her appendages had been tossed around the room, and her head lay in one corner. Her sightless eyes seemed to be staring at him. He wondered if she could still read his mind, even after death?