Obsidian Prey by Jayne Castle Read Free Book Online Page A

meditation?”
    “Shortly after you told me your real name and walked out the door. I thought the classes would help me deal with the stress and my hostility issues.”
    “Any luck?”
    “Let’s just say that if you had come looking for my assistance two months ago, I would have told you that your research team and those two Guild men could stay in that chamber until green hell freezes over.”
    “No,” he said. “You wouldn’t have let five people suffer because of what I did.”
    He sounded far too certain of his conclusion. What could she say? It was the truth. She pretended she hadn’t heard him and concentrated on keeping her balance on the dizzying staircase.
    The steps were fairly wide, but they twisted down into the green world in a convoluted pattern that made no sense architecturally. Like everything else constructed by the aliens, the proportions were slightly off to human eyes. But the heavy dose of psi flowing up from the tunnels gave her a familiar little rush. She knew that Cruz felt the buzz, too.
    Vincent wriggled out from under her arm. She set him on a step. He scampered ahead of her down the staircase, his little red beret flopping in a jaunty fashion.
    “Looks like he knows where he’s going,” Cruz observed.
    “As far as I can tell, dust bunnies are right at home down here. They don’t seem to have any trouble navigating the tunnels or the jungle.”
    “Unlike us humans.”
    No one knew why the aliens had constructed the vast network of catacombs that crisscrossed the planet. In two hundred years of excavation and exploration, the descendants of the colonists had succeeded in charting only a small percentage of the seemingly endless maze of tunnels.
    Recently the discovery of an even greater mystery, the massive underground rain forest, had attracted so much attention from explorers and archaeologists and treasure hunters that mapping the tunnels had dropped to a low priority for most corporations engaged in underworld business. The strange jungle held out the promise of far more scientifically and financially rewarding discoveries.
    As the Guild men had promised, the little utility sled was waiting at the foot of the staircase. Cruz got in behind the wheel. Lyra slid onto the bench seat beside him. Vincent bounded up onto the dashboard, where he had a clear view. He looked like a fluffy hood ornament.
    Cruz ran a check of the sled’s navigation instruments. Lyra automatically pulsed a little psi through her bracelet as well as the standard resonating amber she always carried with her. Getting lost in the catacombs was all too easy, and the results were deadly if you didn’t have tuned amber. Independent prospectors became downright obsessive about amber. In addition, loners like her were always at risk of falling prey to thieves and the antiquities gangs underground. Both had a nasty habit of getting rid of people by stranding them in the jungle or the catacombs without amber. She always carried plenty of backup, and a lot of that backup was concealed.
    “The jungle gate we’ll be using is about ten minutes from here,” Cruz said.
    He rezzed the sled’s simple little motor. More sophisticated engines and high-tech tools and equipment in general did not function well, if at all, in the heavy psi environment. The small vehicle raced along the corridor at top speed, which was just a little faster than the average person could run. Vincent leaned into the light breeze and made happy little noises.
    “He likes to go fast,” Lyra said.
    “I remember.”
    They passed a dizzying array of vaulted chambers and rooms, all fashioned of glowing green quartz, all empty. In a rotunda intersection that served seven branching passageways, Cruz paused to check the instruments again. Then he swung the sled to the left. They made a few more disorienting turns before Lyra spotted the gate that opened into the rain forest.
    Several people were milling around the opening. In addition to a number of