Page 48 of Jump or Fall
The day had finally arrived, so he went through his supplies for the hundredth time. Naxos was less than fifty miles away, but anything could happen out on the road. Some posters in the forums spoke of being robbed by roving gangs, and others said a breed of tigers still lurked in the forest. That wasn’t even mentioning the insects and snakes.
His ear chimed.
“Gordon.”
“Hey, it’s Kim. I’m ready to meet at your bike. There’s a tunnel entrance close to where you parked it.”
“See you soon.”
One last check. Everything was there—like the last two times he’d looked.
He grabbed his bag and did a quick sweep of the room. The chair was still wedged against the knife drawer.
Just move it back. They can’t jump out at you.
Gordon tentatively approached.
One might be sticking out and could cut him.
Don’t be fucking stupid.
With each step came images of somehow falling on one of the knives. The blades slicing into his skin and ripping through muscle and fat.
Sweat broke out on his forehead and he stopped.
Fuck it.
He turned on his heel and bolted out the door. Every step away from that drawer of horrors brought sweet relief.
The next tenant would figure it out.
Before he crossed the threshold out of Eight, he put his helmet on and flipped the visor up. Kimmie was leaning next to his bike, doing something on her tablet when he approached. She caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye and looked him up and down.
“What?”
She shrugged. “Ready?”
“Yeah.”
They walked the bike to the tunnel door across the street. The sun was low, and dark clouds covered the sky.
Please don’t rain on me.
Kimmie inserted a key, and the door clicked open. Inside, a long tunnel stretched out at the bottom of a set of stairs.
Without prompting, she grabbed the other side of the bike so it wouldn’t tumble downward.
He was already exhausted, and this was only the beginning of the journey. Another nightmare had woken him up early, and eating had been a struggle all day.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Kimmie stopped him. “I have something for you—well, a couple of somethings.”
She removed the gun holster around her hips and held it out to him, gun included. “You need this if you're going out there.”
“Thanks.” He fastened it around his hips.
Then she opened the bike’s storage compartment and withdrew the spy bird. “My tech guy, Aaron, was able to wipe it. He figured out it has some imprinting feature, so it knows who its human is. We were able to pull the picture.” She smiled. “When you turn it on, it’ll imprint on you, but he said no one would be able to get the picture. Something about encryption—he said you’d get it.”
He turned the bird over in his hands and looked into its eyes.
