CHAPTER TEN
The words filtered into my brain slowly as I stood there wondering why I wasn’t dead yet. This woman that was now trying to speak with me had disarmed me like I was some sort of kid. Not knowing what to say in retort, I wondered at her outline for a moment. In the enclosed place that we had found ourselves in, I could only make out her faint outline in the darkness. She had known where and when to disarm me, so I guessed her visual acuity to dark places was far superior to that of my own. Dumbstruck at the thought of making conversation on peaceful terms for more than a year had taken me aback slightly, I didn’t have a clue what to say…
“What?” was all that I could think of.
There was a slight smirk in the air, even though it couldn’t be seen in the shadows.
“I said, what the hell do we do now?” I heard her picking up the pistol magazine from the floor, and surprisingly, she placed it gently in my right hand. A few more seconds passed before I thought of saying what again, what the hell was wrong with me?
“What do you mean?” the words made me sound sheepish, when really I was stalling for time, I had no idea how to take this female, I needed to find out where she was from, even though it apparently wasn’t on her agenda to consider.
“Well, we survived the drop into that croc infested pool-“
“Alligator…” the word came out of my lips without me even thinking about it, I looked at where I guessed her eyes were. There was a short pause before she continued.
“-I’m sorry?”
“Alligators, those were alligators in there, not crocodiles.” Now the next words that I were expecting were along the lines of ‘Who the hell cares!’, but she seemed to give my statement a little thought.
“How could you tell?” The question sent parts of my brain into overdrive that I hadn’t used for a long while. I tried to think of a simple way of putting it, so that I wouldn’t sound as though I was a field specialist. She may think that I’m slightly more adept at things that I was currently letting on.
“They sounded like alligators.” It was the best that I could do to put it into layman terms. Hopefully it would work
“Ah, I see. You’re a little more intelligent that you’re letting on mister.” I could tell that she was smiling, my bluff had failed, she was probably now wondering how specialised I was and at which particular subjects.
“My name is Sapphire Dupré, you are?”.
Now there was a question, her name sounded French alright, I wondered if I should try and make up a name, but opted for the honest approach. My bluffs on this woman hadn’t worked so far, there was no point in trying again, it would probably get me killed.
“I’m Kobin.” I extended my hand once I replaced the magazine in the pistols empty chamber.
“Kobin, I’m sure glad to have met you, where are you from?”
It was at that moment the tone in her voice wavered, the first sign of nerves from someone who sounded so sure of themselves only moments ago.
It was crunch time, do I tell her my heritage? Or do I try and play safe by saying American? I figured I still had the intact rifle slung over my shoulder that she hadn’t made an attempt for. I attempted to take in the surrounding enclosed space as much as my eyes had allowed. The sound of the rock that Sapphire had clearly thrown to distract me had definitely tumbled with the flow of gravity, echoing into the silent depths below. Judging from my fall after being chased here by the Jackhammer, I felt I had dropped at least two flights. Perhaps three.
“I’m Canadian.” I said with a resigned tone, if she was going to kill me, now would be the time to do it, the next few moments of silence passed like years, the aching frame of mine reminding me that I was in no great shape for hand-to-hand combat. Especially with a female who seemed to be able to take care of herself.
There was a deep inhalation of breath from her, and my fists clenched, poised for her pouncing on me with whatever weapon she had concealed on her. The intake was quickly followed with what sounded as a sigh of relief.
“Sheesh, that’s great to hear.” Then something out of the ordinary happened, again.
She hugged me.
I was startled at first, thinking it was a sly form of attack, but I was surprised to find myself returning the gesture after a moments hesitation.
Jesus, she felt good, but from what I could tell she was barely dressed, maybe wearing a thin t-shirt and underwear.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” it was the first question that sprung from my lips during the initial meeting. Maybe her answer would shed some light on the reason why I woke up in this dark shadowy place. Her name didn’t ring a bell but the French connotation reminded me of something that the Englishman said before his South African friend had shot him accidentally in the head.
Heller-Fontaine.
I wasn’t going to ask her about the name this early on, for all I know, she could be working for him or this Benedict that was mentioned earlier.
“Beats me, I woke up a few hours ago in some room somewhere above this level, it’s a long story, but to cut it short I ended up falling into that disgusting pool that you did.” I heard her thudding against the wall and rubbing something, her feet maybe?
“You ok?” genuinely interested in her welfare, if she were telling the truth, then she would be the first Canadian that I had met since… since…
I tried not to think about that.
“Yeah, my feet really hurt, running around barefoot around here really doesn’t do well for my soles. As I was saying, you’re the first person that I’ve seen or heard ali-“ her voice trailed off into the darkness and my ears shot up, along with the hairs on the back of my neck.
The faintest of echoes came in to breach the silence, we were both holding our breath as someone, or something was making a noise in the distance. I could tell that it was above us, and that there was a noise of metal against stone…
Metal... against stone…
Then a piercing shriek came through the darkness, the echo multiplying the sound so it sounded like there were hundreds of voices screaming in the darkness, enough to drive anyone insane…
“We need to move.” Sapphire had moved closer to me, placing her right hand on my left arm as we both stared upwards.
“I know.”
We both tested to see the width of the steps, I grabbed the railing in the centre of the large stairwell, Sapphire grabbed the outside. We began running just as there was a explosive crashing into the stairs two floors above, or maybe three?
It was the Jackhammer...
