Page 49 of Undercover Shadow
“I already read through the files on the flight over,” Vanguard said, tapping his tablet when Tag returned, scowling worse than when he’d left. “I’m up to speed.”
“Great,” I said when Tag didn’t appear to have heard him.
The next thirty minutes passed in a blur of final preparations. Vanguard gravitated toward me, asking questions about what we’d found during our previous searches. His attention was flattering, his interest genuine, and every moment of conversation between us hurt because Tag was across the room, pretending not to watch.
We loaded our gear into packs—torches, rope, chalk for marking passages, radios, water, emergency rations in case wegot turned around underground. The physical tasks kept my hands busy and gave me something to focus on besides the man who was so often the center of my attention.
“Ready?” Tag asked when we’d finished, addressing us without glancing in our direction.
I shouldered my pack, feeling the weight settle against my back. “Ready.”
Vanguard did the same.
“This way,” Tag said, leading us out of the castle and across the grounds.
The morning air was cold enough to see our breath, and the sky was heavy with clouds.
We followed Tag to a stone outbuilding with walls covered in ivy that had been recently cleared away, that appeared to have once been a stable or storage shed.
He pulled the heavy wooden door open, revealing stone steps descending into darkness. He clicked his torch on, and its beam cut through the shadows, illuminating rough-hewn walls.
“Comms check,” he said in a clipped voice. “Nightingale?”
“Check.”
“Vanguard?”
“Check.”
Tag nodded once, then started down the steps.
I took one last look at the sky before descending below Glenshadow. One last breath of cold morning air before entering the labyrinth where I’d be trapped underground with Tag and the man he thought I wanted instead.
The stone steps curved downward, and the light from above faded behind us.
The temperature dropped as we descended, and the air grew damp and heavy with the smell of earth and old stone.
At the bottom of the steps, the passageway split into four directions like spokes on a wheel. Tag pulled out one of the maps, though we all knew it wouldn’t help much.
“We split up here. Nightingale, you take north. Vanguard, east. I’ll cover west and south. Mark your path with chalk every twenty meters, and check in every ten minutes. If you find anything—recent activity, hidden openings, anything unusual—call it in right away.”
“What if we hit a dead end?” Vanguard asked, adjusting the strap on his pack.
“Mark it and backtrack. Try the next branch.” Tag’s gaze swept over us, avoiding lingering on me. “Given the complexity of what we might discover, we could be down here for hours, so pace yourselves. Don’t go farther than two hundred meters without reporting in.”
I pulled out my chalk and checked my torch battery one more time.
“Remain alert,” Tag added. “There’s a chance we aren’t the only ones down here.”
The thought should have unsettled me more than it did, but right now, the prospect of encountering hostiles felt less dangerous than spending another moment standing where I was pretending I was fine.
“Move out,” Tag ordered.
I headed north as instructed. Light bounced off walls that narrowed and widened unpredictably. The ceiling dropped low enough in places that I had to duck, and water seeped through the stone, leaving mineral deposits in a line to the floor.
The silence was absolute except for my footsteps and breathing. No wind, no distant sounds from above, just the heavy quiet of earth and stone pressing in from all sides. However, for the first time since last night, I could breathe without feeling like my chest was caught in a vise.
Down here, I didn’t have to keep up the pretense of Tag not mattering to me.
