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Bosaru flicked on his lightstick and the close quarters of the tunnels came into view.
The space wasn t large considering the residents of the neighborhoods had dug and
shaped all this when they weren t struggling to make a living, that was
understandable but he could stand up straight, and he liked that.
And unlike the uncertain acoustics of the shrine, those of the tunnels were
straightforward. He could hear Imreen s footsteps running, as it were and the
direction was unmistakable. Away from him.
 You re not going to get away this time, Bosaru muttered. He took off after her.
He was or had been, depending on who he asked an officer of the Secret
Sciences Police, meaning that he protected and kept safe the most dangerous
technologies that the mad scientists of the galaxy came up with. The oscillator that had
destroyed the Neotian homeworld had been one of those, but between the informants
and the espionage and the downfall of an entire society, it had been spirited away from
the SSP s vast vaults. Because that was always a possibility, SSP officers were taught to
track and pursue. And pursue. And pursue. They didn t let up. It wasn t in their design
to let up, and it wasn t in their oath.
As far as Bosaru was concerned, he was no longer an SSP officer, but he was going
to keep to the oath he had taken. More than once, the tunnels split and he had a choice.
Each time, he took the path that he could hear footsteps still hurrying down.
By this time, he didn t care whether Imreen Dal was guilty or involved. She was
hiding something and he was going to find out what it was. If it was something
connected to his father, all the better. If not well, as Dame Mirel reminded him, it was
all connected somehow.
The footsteps were getting closer, and this time it wasn t a distortion of the
acoustics. Then the sound of the steps changed, and he heard a click and a slam.
She must have gone into one of the buildings. He didn t know which one, and at
the moment it didn t matter. He chose the most likely one, just far enough away that it
would have given her time to slip in. He grabbed the handle and twisted. He was going
to find her
60
Echoes of Passion
He cursed again in frustration, the sound echoing through the damp tunnels.
The door wouldn t give!
61
Eilis Flynn
Chapter Seven
Through The Tunnels
No matter how much he pulled at the handle, it wouldn t budge. Was it braced on
the other side? Did Imreen Dal know something about this particular entrance that he
didn t?
It didn t matter. There had to be another form of access close by. If she went up that
way, he could try to follow her through another. He was going to find her.
He was going to find her if it killed him.
By this time he had figured out the pattern to the exits from the tunnels one
hundred steps, quick right, quick left, twenty steps and he found the next one. This
one was poorly maintained, making him doubt about whether it was still in use. After
all, those burned-out buildings he had seen along the way had probably had their own
exits to the tunnels. And that didn t seem to have helped the residents of those
buildings at all.
That door gave easily, but again into a place with no light as he had surmised,
that entry was into what was left of a building no longer in use. He held the lightstick
above his head, and from what he could see, there were steps, covered with rubble. At
least the steps were solid as he made his way up.
It was as dark at the head of the stairs as it was at the bottom, but there were gaping
holes in the spaces that had probably been windows, allowing for some air and some
daylight. He stepped on and brushed by things he preferred not to think about, not
until he could conduct a more thorough investigation.
What had this place been? The lightstick didn t put out enough light to give him a
concrete idea, but a cautious sniff, and the faint scent of rotten meats, made him think it
had been a grocery of some kind, but not a butcher the smell of meats wasn t strong [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]