Page 96 of Never Enough

Nemo nodded. “All of us would take care of her without him asking, but there’s a complication, so yeah, he asked me specifically to watch out for her.”

“Audio check,” Waters said.

“TB copy.”

“Nemo copy.”

“Midas copy.”

“Steel copy.”

“Demon copy.”

“Mythos is online. Loki copy.”

“Gilgamesh copy.”

“Medusa copy.”

“Cerberus copy.”

“Gem copy.”

“Waters confirmed. Good luck.”

Gem and Nemo turned and began the descent into the tunnel, with Gem leading the way.

The tunnel was ragged inside since it was created by a jackhammer. Had the miner possessed the proper equipment, the tunnel would have been smoothed and large enough to stand up in. As it stood now, most of it they had to crouch or crawl through jagged rock. More than once, Nemo had to unhook her from something she got snagged on.

“Nemo, report in.”

“Miss me already, Midas?” he quipped.

“Waters wants regular check-ins.”

“Worried I’m eloping with Gem?”

A snort from in front of him clued him in to how she felt about that comment.

“Steel crawled in after you about twenty-five feet and took an air sample. There are some remnants of underground gasses Nova hasn’t identified yet. Watch yourselves for signs of hallucinations or other weird behaviors.”

“If they’re in here, then they’re also going to be in the mine. If nothing has been noted, we’re probably okay,” Gem responded.

“Yes, but the cavern is also much more open. They could dissipate and not affect the miners. Could be nothing, but better safe than sorry.”

“We’ll check in, Midas,” Nemo reassured him.

“Cerberus is on his way to his location. TB, Steel, and Demon are heading into position for their part.”

“Copy.” Nemo tapped Gem on the leg. “You start feeling woozy, let me know.”

“Copy,” she replied.

After an hour of crawling, there was a moment of panic when an explosion went off in the mine. They knew it wasn’t Cerberus’ work since they had that in their packs, so it was obviously a blast to clear rock in a tunnel. Unfortunately, that tunnel was underneath them, and it caused a small shower of rocks and dirt to fall on top of them as the rock strata resettled. When the rain of debris stopped, there was a squawk over their earbuds.

“You two good?”

“Yeah, Midas. We’re good. They’re blasting in a tunnel beneath us.”

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