Page 94 of Dark Shaman: The Lost Treasure
"Elias," Tamira said quietly, moving close to him. "What aren't you telling me?"
"I have a bad feeling," he said. "I finally realized where I heard that hum before. That's the sound the earth makes when pressure builds beneath the surface. When water finds channels through rock that was previously solid."
"You're saying that the water is coming from below and not from above?" Sarah asked.
"That's a possibility."
"Lord Navuh would not allow anything to happen to us," Rolenna said.
"Lord Navuh isn't immune to the forces of nature," Tula snapped at her, surprising everyone with her vehemence. "He might think he is, but he's not."
The lights went out completely.
Emergency lighting kicked in a second later, bathing everything in a harsh red glow that made the familiar surroundings seem hellish. The coffee maker sputtered and died. The air-conditioning, which had been struggling to pump air into the room, gave up entirely.
"Everyone, stay calm," Liliat said, though her own voice was strained.
The lights came back online, and with them, the cool air returned.
The hum crescendoed, and somewhere far below, something gave way with a sound like the world's largest pipe organ playing its lowest, most ominous note. The building shuddered, not like the earthquake tremor but like something had struck it from below.
"What was that?" Rolenna whispered.
Before anyone could answer, they heard it—distant but unmistakable. The sound of rushing water.
"No," Beulah breathed.
The sound grew louder, though still muffled by distance and intervening floors. But there was no mistaking it now. Water had found its way into their underground world, and even though water always sought the lowest level, this time it was different. It was rising, which meant that the servants living on the seventh level were in big trouble.
"Get your bags and take the stairs to the surface," Eluheed said.
Tamira turned to him. "What about you?"
"I need to help them." He headed for the emergency stairs.
"We should wait for instructions from Lord Navuh or the chief of security," Beulah said. "If we need to evacuate, they will announce it on the loudspeakers."
The lights flickered again, and this time when they went out, the emergency lighting didn't immediately return. In the absolute darkness, the distant sound of water seemed to grow louder.
32
NABIN
In the control room, Nabin studied the monitors. It was five-thirty in the morning, and he hadn't slept since the tremor. His eyes burned from staring at the screens, but the numbers refused to lie still. The humidity sensors showed a steady climb—ninety-three percent and rising. Too high for the dehumidifiers to handle, even running at maximum capacity.
"Nabin." Hassan's voice crackled through the walkie-talkie. "You need to come see this. Equipment room, eastern wall, section four."
Nabin grabbed his flashlight and headed down the emergency stairs. As he entered the equipment room, the hum seemed to intensify with each step, vibrating through the concrete.
He found Hassan kneeling beside a strain gauge attached to the wall, his face pale in the fluorescent lighting.
The engineer pointed to the digital display. "Look at these readings. The pressure's spiking. It jumped twenty-three percent in the last five minutes alone."
Nabin crouched beside him, studying the numbers. The gauge showed pressure levels that shouldn't be possible this far above the water table. Unless...
"The water table's risen," he said, the words tasting like ash in his mouth.
"Or something's redirected an underground stream." Hassan pulled out his tablet, fingers flying across the screen. "The seismic activity could have opened new channels. If there's an aquifer under pressure?—"
