Paradigm City - Fan Fiction - Beneath The Surface

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Beneath The Surface

Part 5

"Negotiator! Over here!" Dastun waved from the other side of the pit. Roger Smith sighed and made his way around the edge to join him. Probably another promising-looking breakthrough that led absolutely nowhere, just like the last fifteen they had found.

"What have you got?" he asked. Sure enough, there was a narrow opening that seemed to lead a good ways down. "Let’s see that flashlight." He knelt at the edge of the hole and shined the light into it, peering through the haze of dust. It definitely looked like there was some kind of room or passageway below. He sighed and flipped off the flashlight, clipping it to the inside of his jacket. Looking around, he found a coil of rope and tied one end around his chest. "Here," he tossed the other end to Dastun. "You really have me earning my keep today."

"I’ve got to justify having you around somehow," Dastun shrugged. He wrapped the rope around his hand three times and got a good grip on it. "Go ahead."

Roger carefully lowered himself into the breakthrough as the military officer played out the line. He grabbed the flashlight and flipped it on as he scrabbled down what must have once been a ladder but was now only two metal rails with bars of rust at intervals. When he reached the bottom, he untied the rope and gave it two quick tugs to let Dastun know he had released it.

He looked around to see that he was in a narrow tunnel. There was a pile of dirt and concrete about 10 feet to his right that blocked the passage. "We’ll go left, then," he said to himself. He moved the light over the walls and the rather low ceiling, checking for any hint that the concrete blocks were about to give way. When he was satisfied that nothing was about to drop down on his head, he moved forward, repeating the examination every few yards.

The tunnel curved a little and sloped downward slightly. After following it for about ten minutes, his light showed him that it opened into what seemed to be a fairly large room.

He whistled involuntarily as he walked to the doorway and played the beam of his flashlight inside. It must have been a big room once, several stories high and hundreds of yards wide. Now, it was full of twisted, melted sections of metal, some readily identifiable as sections from different models of Bigs. Had he stumbled onto the megadeus graveyard? When the night of fire was over and the terrifying armies were finally shattered, is this what they had done with the remains?

The pictures of vast numbers marching megadeuses and a city in flames played through his mind and he began to feel as though the cavern walls were closing in on him. "There’s nothing to be afraid of," he muttered through gritted teeth. "It’s over now, no matter what happened." With a huge effort, he made himself walk back calmly and tug on the rope to let Dastun know he was returning.

"Just a couple of dead ends," he said for the benefit of the others. "I thought maybe we really had something, there was a passageway almost 500 yards long, but it was blocked. He hoped Dastun caught the small gesture contradicting his words.

The archeologists looked a bit disappointed but shrugged. In their profession, the impatient quickly found other work that was more to their liking. Dastun nodded at Roger in such a way that the negotiator was reasonably certain the hint had been taken.

"Why don’t you knock off for the day?" the colonel suggested. "Anything else we stumble on can wait until tomorrow."

Roger nodded gratefully. "Stop by if you get a chance, Dorothy was asking after you." If that didn’t wave a red flag, nothing would.

"I will. Send her my regards," Dastun said casually. "I’m glad to hear she’s all mended." Roger shot him an evil look but quickly composed his expression.

"I’ll see you later then," he walked off to the Griffon.

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