Page 58 of Descent

“It’s still got power…” I muse, eyeing the casing for an opening. No gaps. No screws.

“Let me see if there’s anything in the other info Anake sent…” Circe growls in frustration, digging through her bag for her phone.

Tilting my head, I rest my thumb on the keypad. My eyes close. My hand moves, punching in a code automatically.

The door beeps, unlocks.

14

CIRCE

“Are you sure this is wise?”

“It needs to be done, Circe,” Ananke says matter of factly. “Besides, I need those hard drives. And this will be an opportunity to test him. To see if the programming holds.”

Ero steps into the hallway beyond the door, his steps cautious.

He’s been acting strange all day. And not the normal kind of strange he usually is. There’s tension to his whole posture, almost imperceptible. Except I know everything about how he moves.

“Ero …”

He doesn’t respond. In the dim emergency lighting ahead, I see him glance from side to side, checking doorways. In the red gloom, I lose sight of his shape halfway down.

Take a breath, Circe. Still need to find those computers.

I follow slowly, my gun ready, my throat dry.

How is there power down here still? Must have its own system.

My mind races as I pace down the length of the tunnel. Ghosts of occupants long gone crowd in on me, a palpable presence of a place with a horrible history.

We shouldn’t have come here.

I find the server room before I spot Ero. Slipping inside, I recall the instructions, the log numbers. With trembling fingers I unclip the drives, slipping them into my satchel.

“There!” A muffled, recorded voice echoes through the space suddenly, making me jump.

“He’s finally awake. Check his vitals.”

“We need to see if he’s…”

“Brain-dead?”

Exhaling slowly, I follow the sound to the second to last door. Ero’s here, sitting in front of a monitor, the light from the video reflecting off of a wide, wall-to-wall window behind it. Barely visible past the reflection of Ero’s face, I see a chair, equipped with wrist and ankle straps.

And on the screen…

“Quickly! He’s going into shock again,” the accented voice on the recording shouts. Figures rush to subdue him, injecting him with something.

Objectively, torture never bothered me. I’ve killed. I’ve questioned people for answers. Broken bones.

But seeing him …

Tied to that chair, electrodes and wires plastered to his shaved head. His body writhing ever so slightly. Straining in the throes of a seizure…

“This is where they did it,” Ero mumbles, his eyes distant. “This is where they took my life away from me.”

“Kiss me again…”I moan.

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