Overlord

15

“Has anyone seen Jeff?” Aston scanned the cavern, trying to catch sight of the annoying cameraman. Funny, when you didn’t want him around he was omnipresent. But now he seemed to have vanished.

People stopped packing, looked around themselves.

“The cameraman?” Dig asked.

“Yeah,” Slater said. “Anyone see where he went?” She put her hands on her hips and let out an annoyed huff of breath.

“He was right beside me in the cave there, when we were looking at the body,” Marla said. “I didn’t see where he went when we came out.”

There was a general shaking of heads and murmuring, people looking to one another to confirm no one was wise to the man’s whereabouts.

“Well, he couldn’t have gone far,” Slater said. “It’s not like there’s far to go.”

“Plenty of caves and tunnels down here,” Larsen said.

“That way.”

Several heads turned to see who had spoken. Ronda Tate pointed to the dark tunnel mouth on the other side of the small stream.

“You’re sure?” Aston asked. She nodded. “Why didn’t you say something before?”

Tate shrugged. “I assumed he knew what he was doing.” The woman’s eyes were hard, her expression stark beneath brown hair so short it was almost a crew cut.

“You didn’t think to stop him? Or tell any of us?”

Tate smiled like she thought Aston was asking her to sprout wings and fly. “We’re here to protect you, not babysit you.”

Aston smirked. “But it was definitely that tunnel?”

“Yes. It’s the only one you haven’t checked yet anyway, and as he hasn’t come out I’m guessing it’s not another cave. Looks like it goes a fair way.” Tate looked down the tunnel, then back at the group. “He only kinda stuck his head in anyway, it didn’t look like he planned to leave. I didn’t realize until you brought it up that he wasn’t here. But he definitely didn’t come back past me.”

“Tate, we need to be more vigilant,” Reid said, giving his subordinate a hard look. “As it happens, we are here to babysit these people. From now on, I want everyone to stay together. Tate, Gates, if either of you sees anyone going off on their own, you call them back.”

Tate pressed her lips together, clearly embarrassed to have been so publicly scolded. She nodded sharply.

“Yes, sir,” Gates said, throwing a grimace of commiseration in Tate’s direction.

“You better go ahead and check,” Reid told Tate. “See if you can catch up to him.”

“Wait a minute,” Sol said. “It’s the direction I was going to suggest we go next anyway. Let’s all move on together and we can probably catch him up.”

Slater frowned, shook her head. “Why did he go off on his own? That idiot.” She looked over to Marla. “Did he seem okay to you?”

Marla shook her head. “As okay as you could expect, I guess. He’s a bit weird, after all.”

“Everyone ready?” Aston asked, trying to keep the annoyance from his voice. “We’d better find him before he gets in trouble.”

Packs and bags were hoisted into place and the group gathered near the stream. Reid sent Tate out in front, the rest of the group to follow, and he and Gates brought up the rear. They lit their head-mounted torches and entered the dark mouth of the tunnel.

The walls were rounded, the floor mostly flat and smooth. The ceiling of the passage arced above them, just beyond Aston’s reach. Even a little more than an arm’s length above his head, the place felt claustrophobic. They traveled a long way, several hundred yards by Aston’s estimation, and eventually came to a fork. The larger passage led off to the left, a smaller one to the right.

“I’m going to fire that idiot,” Slater said, for only Aston to hear. “I wanted to replace him before this job but there wasn’t time.”

“Hardly worth it at this stage. Not like you can hire a new cameraman right now. Just put up with him. He’s annoying, but he’s good at the job, right?”

“I suppose so, if I give him constant nudges to keep working.”

“I could do his job and mine just as well,” Marla said, with a cheeky grin. “For what it’s worth. Of course, I’d need the camera.”

Slater returned the young woman’s smile, but Aston saw the concern in her eyes.

“Which way?” Sol asked.

Aston shone his torch into the left-hand tunnel, then the right. Down the right side he saw something wet on the ground and took one step forward. He glanced back and saw Slater, Marla, and Dig side by side just behind him, also looking at the wet patch. By Slater’s expression and Dig’s suddenly pale face and tight lips, he figured that they shared his opinion that it was blood. More from the same source as before, just beyond the door? The blood there that may or may not have belonged to the fidget spinner guard? This could be more of his. Or it could be new, maybe Jeff’s. Or it could have come from someone or something else entirely. Terry Reid moved up beside Aston, saw the blood on the floor, and gently pushed Aston’s hand aside, moving the beam of light away from it.

Aston frowned at him and the big man said, “Let’s not panic everyone.”

“Panic them? That was blood, right? You think it might be Jeff’s?”

“I don’t know what to think. It had to come from somewhere, but if that’s your cameraman’s blood, why isn’t there a trail?”

Slater frowned. “Maybe we’d find one if we went looking that way?”

“I didn’t see one leading away, did you?”

“I guess not.”

Sol, Larsen, and Syed had moved a little further down the left-hand tunnel and Sol called back to them. “More green glow this way.”

Aston and Reid shared a long look. Eventually Reid said, “Let’s just keep our eyes and ears open, okay?”

“Maybe you and your pals could go all up front now? You know, as you’ve got the guns.”

Terry grinned. “Sure.”

Slater looked from Aston to Reid and back again. She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Jeff! You up there?”

They all paused, listening hard as her voice echoed away. There was no reply.

“We should go look,” Slater said. “I know Jeff is an idiot, but we can’t ignore that blood or the fact that he may be up there. Maybe hurt.”

Reid nodded. “Gates, Tate.” The other two mercs came over. “I want you two to go up this passage, lights on, stay alert. The cameraman may have gone this way. Give it a few hundred yards, see what you find. If the way splits, you come back and tell me. If you find anything, you come back and tell me.”

“And if we find nothing after a few hundred yards?” Gates asked.

“Guess.”

“We come back and tell you?”

“Right.”

With a nod, the two moved off, shining their lights left and right. “Come on,” Reid said, and led Aston and Slater back around to the other tunnel. The rest of the team waited a few paces along.

“Anything?” Sol asked.

“No.” Slater’s face was dark. “Reid sent his two to have a look.”

“Okay. Meanwhile, let’s go this way. We might find Jeff up here.”

Slater didn’t reply, but exchanged a knowing look with Aston and Reid. They clearly didn’t expect to find Jeff any more than she did. They moved ahead, towards the next gentle green glow.