"I don't like this," Brett complained as the four of them walked down the stairs to the second floor. "I mean, if they plan something, it's gonna happen soon, isn't it? Otherwise, they would have never let the guards be found by anyone."
"Well, I don't plan going back to bed, either." Jason came to a hold. He leaned against the stair-rail and crossed his arms. "I feel like we are missing something, overlooked something."
"I know, what you mean," Mera agreed. "All those FBI agents, all this equipment and still…"
"There has to be a mole," Brett thought out loud, "I mean, they've been to every single one of our hotels. They knew exactly where to go. Maybe, they are untrained but it was definitely not unplanned. Even if they had blueprints from the ground, there must have been gaps in the surveillance for them to slip through. You really think, De Souza's troops would have made that mistake?"
Jason shook his head. "No, but I don't think it's De Souza. But whoever is pulling the strings, - if that is what happened! – would be just as high. But we have no clue where to look as long as we don't know about their motivation."
"I did not feel betrayal or guilt from anyone in the room," Neri said. "But I feel we are in danger."
Brett nodded and a deep wrinkle appeared on her forehead. "If that was a movie and I broke into a hotel with high-ranking officials, I would do it for the purpose of assassination. But they came nowhere close to any of us. And they broke into all of the hotels, as if they didn't know where to look for VIPs but that doesn't make sense either. They couldn't just kill us all."
Neri shrank a little and Mera made a shocked sound. "That is not funny, Brett," she growled.
"Sorry," Brett murmured. "That was dark."
"Yeah," Jason replied slowly, "but maybe, you are wrong. Maybe they really want to kill us all." He loosened his arms as the three of them gave him another shocked look. Jason sighed. "They broke in and left again. Some were surprised by the guards but they were probably on their way out."
"You're thinking about a bomb?" Brett gasped. "That's extreme! And the agents would have found something by now."
"This is unthinkable," Mera murmured.
"We are not in Kansas anymore," Jason concluded grimly. Mera and Brett grimaced.
"What is Kansas?" Neri asked.
"That's from a book," Mera explained quickly. "It basically means that we left what we know. That we entered unknown territory." She exchanged a glance with Jason. "A dark world."
Neri nodded. "Yes, we are not on my Island anymore."
The sound of a slamming door and a person running made them jump and look around. Jason just caught a quick glance at the figure running but Brett was faster. "Amelia Bones," he cried and jumped down the stairs to run after her.
"Tell the others," Jason the girls and Mera turned around at her heals to run up to the command center. Neri followed him down to the thick metal door where Amelia had emerged from.
"This leads to the cellar," Jason assesses quickly and tried to open the heavy door. "You should go, too."
Neri shook her head. "No, I'm coming with you." She grabbed the handle and pulled the door open easily.
As there was no time to argue, Jason just nodded and they went down the stairs. The light was still on and they moved quickly. Amelia had been in a hurry to get out. Jason just hoped they could outrun whatever she just did. A laundry room with industrial washing machines, several pantries and stacks of chairs, sunshades, piles of pool noodles, a workshop … It took them several minutes to search the cellar and Jason began to hope, that there was indeed nothing to find. That Amelia had just hidden in here to wait for the right moment to escape.
"Jason," Neri cried out and pointed into a dark room. He hurried beside her and quickly found a light switch. He gasped by the huge hole in the wall Neri had spotted in the dark. It was half covered by a big broken drawer. The smell that came from the hole indicated the entrance to the sewers.
"Neri, you should really go back," he pleaded, "if Amelia didn't have the time to push the drawer back into place, …"
"Then you do not have time, either," she finished his sentenced with a determined expression. "Where you go, I go. You went with me to the Pyramid. And now I go with you. Also, I can see in the dark."
Not even waiting for his response, she entered the gap. Jason sighed and followed. There was no point in arguing. She took his hand and lead him into the stinking hole.
He could hear the sound of flowing water and as his eyes adapted to the dark, he made out the walls and the wet floor. A few meters ahead, he spotted an opening into a bigger room which was illuminated by a faint orange glow. The sound of water grew louder as they approached.
Jason moaned. The opening turned out to be a junction. The tunnel straight ahead was just as small as the one, they just came from. The crossing tunnel was twice as big in diameter. The orange glow came from dim lights at the walls about every ten meters. The sewage ran through across the floor like a small river and streamed in the direction to their left. Small pathways on either side would allow them to walk down the tunnel without getting their feet wet. If they knew where to go.
"Damn." Jason sighed. "There is no way of knowing where she came from. We should …"
Neri grabbed his arm and pulled him quickly back inside the smaller tunnel. She pinned him to the wall at his right side, gestured him to be quiet and pointed to his right. Through the splashing of water, he heard it, too: people approaching.