27. Savior

27

SAVIOR

“ H ow goes it with the tunnels?” I asked Mairi when she rapped on the office door, then came in.

“May I have a word, sir?”

My eyes scrunched, and I glanced over at Gus.

“Mum, what’s wrong?”

“I need to speak with the two of you urgently,” she whispered, leading us out into the hallway.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s Miss Fallon…I don’t have a good feeling.”

“Can you be more specific?” Gus asked.

“Earlier, I thought I saw her speaking with Ambrose, and then she was asking about the tunnels. It just didn’t feel right.”

“Odd that she was speaking with Brose, but it was Sullivan who requested they meet with you about the tunnels. Are they still in the library?” I asked.

“Yes, sir, err, David.”

“Let’s pay them a visit, shall we?”

As we got closer, I noticed the library door was open. When I rushed inside and found it empty, a cold terror coursed through my body.

“Where are they?” Gus asked.

“Look!” Mairi pointed to where the books in one of the cases were askew. A couple had fallen to the floor. “It could be a passageway to the tunnels.”

“How in the bloody hell does this open?” I shouted, rushing over to it.

Mairi came up behind me and began tossing books to the floor. “There should be a latch behind here, somewhere.”

“This?” Gus asked, putting his hand on a metal lever.

“Yes! Stand back,” Mairi shouted.

“What’s going on?” Con asked, racing into the room with Tag just as the case swung open.

“Sullivan’s gone. We think she’s been taken into the tunnels.”

“Come with me,” he said to Tag. “We can head them off from Thistle Gate.” The two raced out of the room.

“This way,” said Mairi, motioning for us to follow her through the dark opening.

I pulled my mobile out, turned on the spotlight, and readied my weapon. Gus did the same.

We were a few paces inside when we came to a fork. “You go that way. I’ll go the other,” I said to Gus, pointing to the right.

“Nae, go left,” said Mairi from behind me.

“Are you certain?”

“Aye. We only go to the left.” She said it almost by rote, as though she was repeating something she’d been told again and again.

Narrow steps led to long corridors, which led to more narrow stairways. “You’re sure this is the right way?” I asked, not hearing any sound in the dark, damp corridors that grew narrower as we went.

“Yes, this way.” She’d lowered her voice to a whisper. “Shh. Listen.”

It was faint, but I could hear people shouting.

“It’s not much farther.”

I’d just rounded a bend in the passageway when I heard a woman’s blood-curdling scream. I couldn’t say why, but something in my gut told me it wasn’t Sullivan. I raced forward, cocked my gun, aimed, and fired.