Iron Heart (The Gauntlet #2)

Chapter 43 - Grey Areas

It was a thrill that sent Codi all the way back to her days on Kantha, back when she'd been the biggest nuisance on the continent, terrorizing schools left, right and centre. Following Rokki, being somewhere she knew she shouldn't be, it helped her remember the old Codi James. Some of that life was better left behind, but she didn't mind the nostalgia.

And from the way he'd effortlessly broken them into one of the most secure areas in the building, she suspected Rokki Thakkar had a similarly colourful past. He moved with a dismissive confidence, as though the rules and regulations of civilised society simply didn't apply to him.

The four of them had descended well into the guts of the Arena, well beyond even the construction sub-levels that had been home to their first clandestine meeting. The place was eerily quiet after the constant noise and chaos of the Gauntlet up above.

Kye had a small backpack strapped tightly to him, containing the apparatus he needed to make his examination of Darkwood's exoskeleton, if and when they reached it. With the focus of the team and the coaches on Chris O'Leary's current fight, it left them a small, unimpeded window of opportunity to get to work.

She'd watched with a mixture of amazement and apprehension as Rokki Thakkar broke into a hard-sealed maintenance panel with what she could only describe as a magnet. One by one he held the strange tubular instrument up to the bolts that held the plate of metal in place, and one by one each of the flat-headed bolts fell out into his waiting palm.

"Can't just break 'em open," he explained with a hint of pride. "Otherwise they'll know we were down here. Use this gizmo, shake the little bastards loose and then we can stick 'em back in on the way out."

And so it proved to be. He vibrated the bolts loose and with Kye's help they removed the heavy metal panel and placed it silently to one side. The passage they currently stood in was long and thin, barely wide enough for them to walk in pairs and white circular lights in the ceiling filled it with a tepid glow.

The passage revealed by the panel was much smaller.

Codi stepped forward to peer inside the dim-lit tunnel. It was maybe a meter square, if that, and only lit by thin lines of white that ran down the centre of the floor and ceiling. The air smelt strange, tinged with some kind of chemical that she couldn't place. She wrinkled her nose. Not the most inviting place.

"What is this thing?" she asked quietly.

"Circulation coolant maintenance shaft," Rokki reeled off. "There's millions on Io. Need to keep the blocks cool, y'know?"

"What's one doing here?"

"Think the gear they have down there doing all the building runs cold?" He gave her a wry smile. "These things let the extra burn out from all the machines that do the buildin' and the Lock-Tech. Runs right through the middle of it."

She smiled shaking her head slowly. "How the hell did you know about this?"

"I've been around the Gauntlet a few years. And I got a few curious bones."

"Do you know your way once you're inside there?" Kye asked, his tone making it clear that he had severe doubts about it.

Rokki shrugged. "I've got a pretty good idea."

"Pretty good?" Ripple gave Codi a dubious look. "Care to up your confidence on that one?"

"Just trust me, Goldilocks."

Ripple stiffened visibly at his blasé attitude, but Codi, despite herself, had to stifle a laugh. She looked at her team mate, shrugged, then nodded to Rokki.