Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 106839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
“WDV-907.”
“—that’s right, door number WDV-907—in one hour, the consequences will be dire.”
Charlie’s words come out with a sneer. “I don’t even have clearance for the tunnel that leads to that door.”
“Well, it’s a good thing that this exchange doesn’t require your presence then, isn’t it?”
“What you’re asking isn’t even possible, Amon. Let’s talk this over. I can get the boy. I can have him delivered to you by tomorrow night.”
“Charlie? It’s Nash here now. And I’m just gonna go ahead and say it plain so there are no misunderstandings. If you don’t get that boy down to door WDV-907 in one hour, I’ll be sending irrefutable proof that these tunnels exist to the mouthiest, most outspoken and annoying conspiracy theorists on the internet and that shit will be blasted all over the world in a matter of hours. And if you doubt that the world will take this information seriously, mark my word, they will. Because I’ve hacked into every security camera down in those tunnels in a hundred-mile radius and I’ve got seventy-five livestreams set to broadcast on every single social network in existence in one hour and one minute.”
Everyone within hearing distance of that monologue just kinda chuckles.
Nash hands me the phone back and I take over again. “You get that, Charlie? One hour.”
Then I end the call and look at Nash. “Is that true? About the livestreams?”
Nash points to himself. “Do I look like a fuckin’ liar?”
I just laugh. “Damn. I forgot how fuckin’ ruthless you were, Nash. I thought all that paperwork was turning you soft.”
He raises his hand up and I clap it.
Then we all turn to the one hundred and four men of Disciple and Edge who just watched this whole thing go down and find that every single one of them has a hanging jaw.
“Welp.” Collin slaps Jim Bob on the back, nearly making him choke. “I just burned a really nice bridge, Jim Bob. You understand what this means, right?”
Jim Bob looks panicked for a minute. Like Collin Creed is about to shake him down like a mobster looking for protection money. But then he pulls himself together and nods. “Collin.” He even smiles. “I am happy to announce that Disciple, West Virginia, is gonna hire you full time for Revival security to the tune of…” He hedges here, his eyes dartin’ back and forth like he’s gonna lowball. But the rational side of him beats down the greedy side of him and he says, “A hundred thousand dollars a week, just like we discussed.”
Collin nods, then looks at me and grins. “Looks like this is your lucky day, Amon. We’re out from under Charlie’s thumb and we can still pay the bills. Now you and Ryan go pick up that boy of yours while the rest of us stay here and keep an eye on things.” Then he flashes me a little salute.
I snap off a salute of my own in response and fall in next to Ryan as we take off for the woods.
Once we enter the mine it takes about forty minutes to make our way down to the first door. This is the one that leads to the control room with the ancient, but still working, computers. They’re all turned off when we enter. “Everything has a shelf life,” Nash said earlier. “They work now, but that doesn’t mean they’ll work tomorrow.” So he copied all the files he could find using some kind of hard drive hack, and then we shut them down to preserve whatever life they have left.
This control room isn’t the one with the door we’re looking for. It’s just the starting point. On the other side of this room there’s a large open hallway about thirty feet across, and from there, a maze. Not literally, but it might as well be, that’s how many choices one has.
Door number WDV-907 is the very first one once you get out in this hallway. On the other side of this door—according to the map—is a straight-shot tunnel that leads directly to Blackberry Hill. Or whatever’s underneath it.
Once we get to this door, Ryan says, “All right, you ready?”
We’re both wearing armor and carrying heat. Ryan aims his rifle at the door and stares at it, waiting.
I stare at the door too. Waiting as well.
Our hour is nearly up, and we don’t even know if they’re coming, so this wait is pure agony.
Then we hear it. Some banging or something on the other side. “They’re coming,” Ryan whispers.
Sure enough, about thirty seconds later, we catch a faint echo of footsteps. They get louder, approaching. And then someone is fucking with the locking mechanism on the door.
There is no handle on this door. There’s no keypad or padlock or anything like that. It looks like a hatch you’d find on a ship. Something that, when locked, can seal one compartment from the next. Which means we can’t get past the door. Well, I guess we could if we blew it open, but it’s clear that this hatch was built to be some kind of boundary between this station and the one on the other side.