Jinx on a Terran Inheritance by Brian Daley Read Free Book Online Page A

chamber at the end of this adit that our research team used as a base of operations," Redlock said. "We'll proceed to that, then check other areas if it seems appropriate. Everyone is to stay within sight of those ahead and behind them. Fitzhugh and Floyt, make sure to relay the passwords to my troops when they arrive."
    The main party moved out. The Celestials were silent and wary, the Severeemish methodical and rigid, looking as if they were just waiting to open up on everything in sight. Everyone in the group seemed to be old hands at what they were doing, even Dorraine. The adit curved gently to the left.
    "King's Ransom ought to be here inside ten minutes or so." Alacrity frowned. "Now what d'you think's so important Redlock couldn't wait and send a whole friggin' armored column down there?"
    "If you want to tell me, tell me," Floyt prompted. "I hate being a rhetorical sounding board."
    "I can't. Yet."
    The main party followed the bend in the tunnel, the last rearguard musician finally disappearing.
    Alacrity started forward, into the tunnel mouth.
    "Hey!" squawked Floyt.
    "Ho, I'm going to take a look around, and it's not going to be on Redlock's guided tour. I'm not going to steal anything, and I won't run into any trouble because Redlock's marching band will be out there in front. So don't lecture me."
    "That was 'Hey' as in 'Hey, wait up!' you ass."
    "Sorry, I can be a jerk sometimes. Next tour group leaving right now."
    They stayed close to the wall, easing through the semi-darkness as quietly as they could, but not trying to copy the nightstalk tactics of the governor's bunch. Their footsteps echoed softly. The incline grew steeper.
    "Is this a typical Precursor construction?" Floyt whispered.
    "There's no typical Precursor anything."
    The walls were flat and smooth, but seemed to have a fine grain. Every thirty meters or so a buttress ran file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...aley%20-%20Jinx%20on%20a%20Terran%20Inheritance.htm (27 of 320)19-2-2006 17:12:28
    [Fitzhugh 2]-JINX ON A TERRAN INHERITANCE
    along both walls and across the floor, so the two were obliged to hike themselves over a waist-high barrier. In their worse-for-wear condition, it was a complication they didn't need. It was also proof the place hadn't been built for foot traffic, at least not the human kind.
    "Redlock forgot something," Alacrity realized. "Earplugs."
    "What for?"
    "If one of those honeys lets fly with an H.E. rocket in this place, you're gonna know what for."
    The worklights had apparently been turned off at some central point. Soon the two were feeling their way along the left side of the tunnel with their left hands, right hands on their weapons. As their eyes adjusted, they saw that the tunnel walls gave off a dim glow, a ghostly green-white that came from what appeared to be a whorled grain in the walls, but the material felt icy cold.
    "Heat sink?" Alacrity puzzled as he led the way. "Redlock called this an adit. I wonder just how big the place is."
    The barriers were a good spot for an ambush, or for one of Redlock's crew to shoot them accidentally.
    They crossed with all caution, guns drawn. Floyt repeated the challenge and countersign to himself several times to make sure he had them straight. Their conditioning was bothering them less than their own apprehensions but, having started, they were drawn on by the mystical feel of the Precursor site.
    There was a sharp, not human or even organic smell to the place—not mustiness but definitely old.
    "All right then, who were the Precursors?" Floyt had once asked Alacrity during the voyage to Epiphany.
    "Ask anybody; they'll tell you. Then ask somebody else and you'll get a different answer. It's the biggest guessing game since religion."
    They crossed still another buttress, almost two hundred meters into the tunnel by Alacrity's calculation.
    He went over first, then motioned Floyt on, a motion barely visible in the glow of the walls.
    But now they could make out