Page 30 of Heart of Danger
She was in this strange building at his complete mercy. The door might or might not have been locked last night, but the fact was she wouldn’t have dared to leave the room to wander around even if she hadn’t been locked in. Even supposing she’d found a way out, they were still in the mountains, far from any town. If she’d tried to escape, she’d have frozen to death.
So she was a prisoner in fact, though one who was being exceedingly well fed.
He was staring at her, that scarred face stony and cold. No clue whatsoever as to what might be going through his mind, though it didn’t look like anything good.
“I’m supposed to show you around,” he said, his voice a low rumble. “So let’s go.” He stepped back and opened a huge hand.
O-kay.
Might as well fall down that rabbit hole. Catherine stepped out, crossing the big corridor outside the door and leaning against the railing.
Wow. What a rabbit hole, leading straight into Wonderland. Gripping the railing hard, she stared.
Last night she’d been too exhausted and too terrified to really take it all in, but now in the full light of day she saw what this was. A city. Some kind of underground city, hidden from the world. It seemed impossible but there it was—stretched out before her, buildings amid lush greenery, people walking with purpose on the brick and stone pathways. Someone sweeping away leaves, someone else opening doors, putting out two tables…a café! Sure enough, a man and a woman sat down and a waiter came out and took an order.
More people started crisscrossing the area below, some following the paths, some cutting across, as people did. Everyone who looked up saw Mac and waved. A couple of men gave a sort of ironic salute.
She glanced up at Mac, saw his nods and realized that she was indeed inside a community and Mac was their king. Or at least their leader.
And no matter how forbidding he looked, no one cowered. The salutes and waves were cheery and informal.
More and more people were pouring into the commons area below. Some had specific tasks—opening a shop, sweeping the paths, taking something from here to there.
The sky above was bright blue. If she hadn’t seen it last night, she wouldn’t have imagined that overhead was a huge glass dome. She’d have thought the city open to the elements. And yet what she knew was a dome was completely transparent.
“Where are we? What is this? If it’s a city, it’s one I haven’t heard about. And I would have heard about something like this—carved out of a mountaintop. Or in a mountaintop.”
The look he gave her was sharp. She shrugged. “We travelled uphill. That’s the only thing I know about where we are. I’m surprised I haven’t heard about this place.”
“Don’t be surprised. We designed it to be off the map and off the grid.”
Catherine blinked. “Off thegrid?You mean nobody knows you’re here? But—” her mind whirred. “I mean modern towns need infrastructure, connection to the electricity grid, water mains, the internet…”
“We are completely self-sufficient.” Mac’s face gave nothing away, but she could detect a note of pride. “We have our own electricity.” He looked up and, startled, Catherine looked up, too. “That dome? It looks transparent but it’s not. It’s graphene, one of the strongest materials on earth, one molecule thick. There are tiny solar panels embedded in the dome. We have plenty of energy. And water. We have our own internet infrastructure and our own food supply.”
“The entire community must want fiercely to be off the grid. Who are they?”
He stood staring down into the huge atrium, muscles working in his jaw. It looked like he was literally chewing on his words. Three people crossing a grassy area looked up and waved. He nodded curtly.
“Mac?” Catherine hesitated, then put her hand gently on his forearm. It was covered by his fleece sweatshirt. The only thing she felt was hard, warm muscle. And a shiver running through her system.
He jerked and she pulled her hand away as if she’d touched a hot stove. Regretting her instinctive move the instant she’d made it. Nobody liked to be ‘read’ by her. Why could she never remember that?
“Sorry,” she whispered.
He shrugged. Clutched the railing with white knuckles and looked out over his domain.
She had no idea where this compulsion came from but she had to know about this place. A place she’d never heard of and could barely even imagine existed, though she was looking right down at it. A place out of space and time.
“Why do you want or need to stay off the grid?” Her voice was low because her throat was tight. It almost hurt to get the words out and if she hadn’t burned with the need to know she wouldn’t have asked the question.
He looked down for several minutes. Another person looked up and waved. The pathways below were now busy with people bustling to and fro. Very few couples. No children at all. It was as if it were downtown in a major metropolis, and yet it was isolated, somewhere in the mountains.
He wasn’t talking, though judging from the bulging jaw muscles, the words were right there in his mouth.
She swallowed. “Remember, Mac, you’re going to MIB me. Whatever you tell me will be lost to me, forever. I’m a neuroscientist and I can tell you that memories after administration of Lethe are physically lost, together with a few million neurons. So there’s no way I could talk, ever.”
She eyed him hungrily, happy he wasn’t looking at her. The memory of Mac McEnroe would be lost to her too. She’d never had a physical reaction like this to any man in her life before and it was possible she never would again. Even the memory of her body heating up, of the shivers of recognition and danger and desire would be lost forever.
