Jeff gave me his standard great kiss while the others started in. “You be careful, baby,” he said when he ended the kiss.
“I’d rather be in bed.”
He grinned, his eyes smoldered, and his eyelids drooped. “Nice to see you remain focused on the priorities.” He looked, as he so often did, like a jungle cat about to eat me. I loved this look. That I wouldn’t get to see it in the pipe or however long it was going to take us to solve our latest crisis was just another one for the Hate The Bad Guys column.
It was finally our turn. Jeff helped me down, patted my butt, and then I followed Adriana into the pipe, Jeff right behind me.
We could have used hyperspeed to get through, but Christopher didn’t want us racing in. I wasn’t sure if this was because he was burned out and hadn’t regenerated yet or was actually based on cautious wisdom. However, I agreed that conserving our strength for the battle or battles ahead was wise, so hadn’t questioned this.
The downside was that stagnant water with extra special “don’t look and you’ll be happier” additives and the fact that the pipe seemed endless, though I knew it wasn’t. It was just a lot slower going with ten of us versus five of us.
Wasn’t sure if not being able to see what we were crawling through was better than knowing exactly what we were sloshing around in or not. Especially since A-Cs had better vision than humans, and, once in for a couple of minutes, everyone’s eyes adjusted. Meaning we could make out more than just blackness. Decided not looking was probably the best course.
“You doing okay?” Jeff asked quietly.
“Yeah, just glad I have hand sanitizer in my purse. Be sure to take the time to wash off if you’re able.”
“I can only hope we’ll have time to clean up before we have to fight. If not, hopefully whoever attacks us is a germaphobe.”
We went on in silence. I listened for the sound of someone behind us. After all, the last time we’d used the pipe to get in, Ronald Yates had followed us. But I didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary, other than quiet sounds of cursing or someone being grossed out by whatever they’d just put their hands in.
Finally reached the fork. The old baseball mitt Jeff and Christopher had played with when they were little boys was still here. We’d taken the bat and ball, and used them, too, during Operation Fugly. Took the mitt. Couldn’t shove it into my purse, but I brushed it off, shook it out, and put it on my head.
“Seriously?” Jeff whispered.
“Yes. We might need it, you never know.”
“Only my girl. By the way, I can’t feel you now, so we must be within the range of the nearest emotional blocker.”
“That’s good, I guess. If you can’t feel us, neither can anyone inside.”
“Let’s hope. Be careful, baby, and never forget that I love you.”
“I love you, too, Jeff. Be safe.” I crawled to the left and caught up with Adriana. Heard Jeff go off to the right.
There was more light in here. At first I thought it was because I was closer to White, then remembered he was still about the same distance from me as before. Looked around and realized this part of the pipe was getting a little larger.
Neither Jeff nor Christopher had mentioned this. Would have liked to have confirmed if it was just that they hadn’t remembered or if it meant that this side wasn’t as forgotten as I was counting on.
However, the extra space was appreciated. There was less stagnant water on this side, or else the extra width of the pipe meant the water was more spread out and so dried up more quickly.
After what seemed like forever, I bumped up against Adriana. “We’re here,” she whispered. She also stood up, offered her hand, and helped me up.
We’d exited into a metal room. Plenty big enough for the four of us, with room to spare. It wasn’t huge, but after the pipe it felt incredibly spacious for a rectangle—Jeff and Chuckie would have been able to stand upright, but anyone taller would have to hunch over.
“It’s nice to stand up.”
“It is,” Adriana agreed. “But there seems to be a problem.”
Resisted the urge to say that of course there was, but it took effort. “What’s wrong?”
“Richard can’t open the hatch,” Gower said.
Gower was holding the flashlight, which meant I could see better now. He handed it to Adriana, then went to help White try to wrench the hatch open.
Not that I was some sort of expert, seeing as I didn’t spend my days in pipes or small metal rooms attached to pipes, but this metal seemed different than I remembered the metal on the other side being. There was more rust, for one thing. And there were handholds near the hatch. In fact, there were handholds all over this room.
There hadn’t been anything like that on the other side, either a room or handholds. Christopher had wrenched the grate off, but it had come off more easily than the grate had today. He’d said the metal was a special alloy, too. But this metal just looked like iron.
The hatch made a creaking sound. “Almost got it,” Gower said through gritted teeth.
I got a very bad feeling. Maybe it was instinct. My gut. Feminine intuition. It was more likely that I’d seen a lot of movies and TV shows and I was fully aware of the way our luck ran.
“Richard, Paul, make sure you’re holding tight onto one of those metal handles nearby. That’s an order. Adriana, you too,” I added as I made sure my purse was closed and securely over my neck, and followed my own advice. I put the mitt onto my free hand.
“What do you expect, Missus Martini?”
“I expect us to not like whatever happens when you get that hatch open.”
“What if nothing happens?” Gower asked.
“Then we can laugh at my overactive imagination. Adriana, try not to lose the flashlight.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Super. Then go for it, guys.”
White and Gower pulled, and, as they’d expected, the hatch finally opened.
And as I’d expected, we didn’t like what came out.
CHAPTER 31
WATER GUSHED FORTH. Prayed there was nothing “extra” in it, but I was a lot more focused on holding on.
The water’s force shoved the hatch fully open. This was great, only Gower was trapped behind the hatch now. And White’s grip on his handhold was slipping. We were in the process, as we so often were, of redefining the term “really bad.”
“Kitty, catch!” Adriana said, as she threw the flashlight at me.
Taking the mitt was proven to have been prescient. Adriana’s toss wasn’t accurate, but the mitt gave me just enough extra grabbing reach and power that I caught the flashlight. Barely, but I caught it. There were benefits to having been, as Jeff would have put it, a jock for all of high school and college.
Adriana caught White as he lost his grip. There were a few frightening moments when it wasn’t clear if she was going to hold on, or if they were both going to slip. If they did, they’d knock into me and take me with them back down the pipe.
If we fit, that is. But if we didn’t fit, we’d get knocked out. Heck, we could get knocked out whether we fit through the pipe or not. And if a body got knocked out and blocked the pipe, then the water in this metal room would fill up fast.
But White was able to grab a metal handhold. This jostled Adriana enough that she lost her grip. White hauled her back. They went back and forth with this for a little bit. It had the potential to be humorous. When we were out of here and dry. Maybe.
Meanwhile, I had a flashlight held precariously in a baseball mitt, Gower was trapped, and the water wasn’t slowing down.