“We looked for another corridor that led to the other side of the closed gate. One of the doorways in the lobby branches off into a total labyrinth of corridors and rooms. I looked around a bit and heard shots close by.” He shrugged. “It was luck, mostly.”
Jeff nodded. There was no doubt he’d been extremely lucky. “Where’s Finni?”
“He stayed behind in the lobby. He wanted to keep the others updated and keep trying to make radio contact with you. Why didn’t you contact us with your handheld?”
Jeff shrugged. “I was clumsy, and broke off the antenna by mistake.”
Green nodded and checked out the room with the beam of his flashlight. “Interesting.”
“Yes,” Jeff agreed. “Looks a bit like a transport hub in a space station or asteroid.”
Green looked at his handheld, then pointed at the big, closed doors. “The cavity ought to be exactly in that direction.”
“Maybe this is where passengers had to check in,” Jeff mused.
“If the others haven’t found anything…” Green began.
“… then we have to go this way,” Jeff ended his sentence.
“We can try and open the doors,” Green said, walking toward them.
“No,” Jeff said, and grabbed him by the arm.
Green turned around in surprise. “You’re still trembling.”
“Whatever,” Jeff said. “I want to get everyone together again first. Let’s go back to Finni and get the others to come to the lobby.”
Green shrugged. “If you say so.” Then he turned on his heel and went back through the door. Jeff followed him down a short corridor that led to another from which further forks led left and right at regular intervals. Green was right. It really was a labyrinth. By now, Jeff had completely lost his sense of direction and Green kept looking down at his handheld.
Jeff took his own computer out of his pocket. Although the antenna was broken, the inertial navigation still worked fine. “But that’s not the way to the lobby,” he said out loud.
Green nodded, without turning around. “No. But a little further on there’s a turnoff that leads back to the lobby.”
“It’s a miracle you found me at all.”
“I told you, I was lucky.”
“Without our handhelds we’d never find our way out of this maze,” Jeff said. “We really need to be careful not to split up again. If someone’s handheld really breaks, then they won’t stand a chance.”
“I don’t know why that damned hatch suddenly closed,” Green said and turned left down another corridor.
“Maybe it was triggered by a sensor. But I don’t understand why it didn’t open again.”
“Maybe the manual controls are broken.”
“Possible,” Jeff replied. “After all, there seems to be more than one way of getting to every destination. How much farther is it?”
“Not far, we’re nearly there. Down there, round that curve, and then the first door on the left.”
Jeff followed Green and a few minutes later they were walking into the lobby. It was pitch black.
“Finni?” Jeff called. Why hadn’t he put on his flashlight?
“Where are you, man?” Green shouted.
Jeff shone his flashlight on the closed door that had separated him from his shipmates earlier on. He walked toward it and pressed on the small square next to it on the wall. As he expected, the door didn’t budge. Jeff turned around and followed the beam of Green’s flashlight as it panned around the room.
“Maybe he went back to the others,” Green sounded uncertain.
The cone of light fell on an object on the floor.
“Stop! Hold on, there was…” Jeff switched on his own flashlight and walked toward the spot.
It was Finni’s handheld. It was completely destroyed. The rear panel was shattered and small electronic components lay scattered all over the floor.
“Looks as if he flung it full force against the wall,” Green said.
“Finni?” Jeff called, shining his flashlight around the lobby again.
Had one of the light aliens been here? Had it abducted Finni? Or had Finni run away and was now in one of the other corridors?
“Green! Try and contact Owl and Shorty, and…” Jeff trailed off as he saw Green, standing stock still at one of the doorways leading out of the lobby, his flashlight directed at something Jeff couldn’t see from where he was standing. But he guessed what it was. Or who.
The body of their shipmate was lying face down. He could only tell from the mussed up hair that it was Finni. He was lying in a huge pool of blood, his arms stretched out on either side of his body as if he were trying to fly.
“Fuck,” Green finally whispered.
Yet another one of them had been murdered. This couldn’t be happening.
“How long was he alone?” Jeff asked hoarsely.
“Since just after you got separated from us.”
Jeff felt anger welling up inside him. “You shouldn’t have left him alone,” he said.
Green turned around and looked at him coolly. “Sure. Then you would now be…” He didn’t finish his sentence.
Jeff took a deep breath and turned away. Was the engineer right? If Green hadn’t found him, Jeff would probably now be lying slashed up on the floor of that strange check-in hall. Instead, Finni was dead.
It’s my fault! Mine alone!
Jeff shook himself. He mustn’t think like that. Neither he nor Green was to blame for the actions of these savage creatures. Hopefully the rest of the group was OK.
“Try and contact the others. Give them the coordinates for the lobby and precise directions. They should come as quickly as possible.”
20.
“He was slit open,” Joanne said, after she’d finished examining Finni’s body. She was very pale. “From the lower lip down to his anus.”
Jeff shuddered. “To his anus? But…”
“His penis and testicles were cut off and inserted into his abdominal cavity.” Joanne swallowed. “Together with his eyes.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Owl put his head in his hands.
“No!” Castle moaned. “No! Who would do something like that?”
Nobody answered.
“You shouldn’t have left him alone,” Mac snapped at Green.
“I was trying to find Jeff.” Green appeared nonplussed.
Mac snorted. It was obvious whose death he would have preferred.
“You should have gone in search of Jeff together,” Joanne said calmly but reproachfully. Green shrugged and turned away to pick up the remains of Finni’s handheld.
“All three of you might have died,” she continued. “And we would have had to come searching for you in this labyrinth and possibly never found you.”
Jeff pursed his lips and nodded. Joanne was right, of course. It had been a dumb decision to split up the group. He had wanted to save time, and now Finni was dead. If he had made a different decision two hours ago, his shipmate would still be alive now. Never mind the fact that the damn hatch had crashed down behind him wasn’t his fault, and the same thing might have happened if they’d all come to the lobby as a group.
Green shouldn’t have gone looking for him alone, but Jeff hadn’t really established any rules for that kind of scenario. He would lay down some ground rules now, but that didn’t change the fact that Finni was dead.
Jeff pulled a thin, striped blanket from the equipment sled. He stepped gingerly into the pool of blood, which was unpleasant, but it was so big, he had no choice if he wanted to reach the body. Then he spread the blanket gently over the body of his shipmate and placed his backpack with his personal belongings beside him. He touched the blanket where Finni’s shoulder must be, and muttered a short prayer. Although most of his family had been churchgoers, he had never really been a believer, and the prayer gave him little relief.