The Gemini Age: Book One

[9-2] What Lies Below - Part Two

    From the outside, the facility looked little more than an embalmed husk of bleached brick and splintered wood. The bold, rounded letters of its signs hung lifelessly from the scaffolds along the roof, and rust streaked across the metal walls to confirm that any paint bound to those surfaces flaked into the gutters long ago. A single scan of the front of the building counted more chipped and cracked windows than those still intact, and no pane of glass remained untouched by clumps of dust and parasitic spores. In front of the main doors, a jagged trench cracked its way through concrete slabs to separate the facility from the path around its perimeter, its depth matched by the sightless pothole consuming the bulk of the far corner of the eastern carpark.

    It did not strike Skye as a place filled with interesting work. As Trigger punctuated his mumbled phone conversation with non-committal noises, her wandering mind came across the thin strands of magical energy. Their force was faint, too faint for her to bother following in normal circumstances. With nothing demanding her attention, however, Skye let her mind grasp at the strands. 

    At their far end hid a dazzling blossom of power so potent that Skye snapped out of her trance before she even comprehended its general form, let alone its magnitude. She glanced at Wilfred in time to see him jolt in the same way. His face betrayed no discomfort, and within a heartbeat he studied the building as if nothing was amiss.

    Wilfred cocked his head as he contemplated the storm-battered sign creaking over the main entrance. "This is one of Lord Locke's properties," he observed with a slight intake of breath. As if to project his shock, a chill breeze blew over the bare flesh of Skye's arms, and she pressed her palms to her skin to fight the cold that gripped her. "I didn't expect men with such impressive vehicles to settle for squatting in derelict buildings."

    His face devoid of expression, Laz lumbered past Skye and made his way to the main door. Trigger pocketed his phone and smiled as he grabbed Wilfred's arm and sighed with satisfaction. "Chin up, feller. If it 'elps ye, we ain't squattin'. We've got permission to be 'ere from the lan'lord 'imself." With a swift slap of the councillor's arm, Trigger motioned for Skye to follow him into the facility.

    "But that would mean..." Wilfred let his head hang heavy from his neck, absorbing the shock of every weighted step with a bouncing bobble. "I see. Locke always seemed too good a man for this kind of business."

    Gravel lifted from the carpark floor with every skid of Skye's boots, the waves of sharp rock followed by a spray of warm rainwater. Skye reached Wilfred's unoccupied side and folded her arms. "Are you really surprised that he's been playing you? Don't you get by now that people aren't all they seem to be?" she said, rolling her eyes in his direction.

    Wilfred glanced at Skye from the corner of her vision. "All too true."

    At the entrance, Trigger knocked on both of the doors three times and placed his ear to the crack between them, moving away in time for the crack to widen and reveal a gloomy lobby area. A figure hidden within dark grey fatigues appeared and studied Trigger and Laz before muttering something to them, though Skye could not decipher what they said due to the black scarf slung around the lower half of their face. The Nomads, however, understood well enough to give whatever answer the guard sought, and the door made way to release another pair of guards, one armed with a long, coiled whip. 

    Lining up behind the men, Skye tried to avoid the keen gazes of the newly arrived guards. Suddenly, a hand landed on her shoulder, and Skye batted it away with a defiant flame. She shoved the offending guard into the facility's outer wall, burning them as much with the supernovas ensconced in her eyes as with the knife of flame she held by their neck. "Touch me again, and you'll need more than a scarf to hide what I'll do to you, thug!"