Read Online World of Fire (Dev Harmer 01) by James Lovegrove - Free Book Online
Authors: James Lovegrove
Tags: Science-Fiction
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geode, a cavity formed by a gas bubble rising from Alighieri’s molten core and cooling.
It was no dead-end, since a narrow fissure linked it to another, similar geode. Dev squeezed through the crack on his hands and knees, to find that this geode joined on to two more, and on and on. There was a clustered mass of the things, like geological foam, all interconnected.
In all likelihood this was where Glazkov had taken refuge. He seemed to know the layout of these tunnels intimately. He was sneaking through the geode maze, intending either to elude Dev or lead him astray.
Trouble was, it was working. On both counts.
Dev soon realised, to his dismay, that he had ventured too far into the crystal-lined labyrinth for comfort. He had been doing his best to log his progress, memorising the position of each geode relative to its neighbours. At some point, however, he had got muddled up. All at once, his mental map ceased to make sense and became more or less useless.
He doubled back, but the next geode he crawled into wasn’t immediately familiar to him. Nor was it un familiar. Had he been through this one already or not?
So he returned to the previous one, but here there were two other fissures to choose from, two possible ways out.
Shit.
Brilliant, Dev, he told himself. Just brilliant.
Not only had he lost his quarry, he’d lost his bearings. The damn geodes were all of similar dimensions and hard to tell apart. One set of glittery mineral outcrops looked much like another. He should have taken the precaution of leaving a trail. Markings scratched into the rock. Something so that he would be able to tell which way he had come.
He had been too eager, overconfident. Figuring a junkie like Glazkov wouldn’t be about to outwit him.
Now he was a bit fucked.
He reached out via commplant into the Alighierian insite. There would be a proper map cached there somewhere, surely. He couldn’t be the first person to have got lost down here. Given a 3D schematic of the geodes, he would be able to navigate back through to the tunnels, using his commplant’s GPS.
No service available.
“You what?” Dev exclaimed out loud. The close quarters and the jagged inner surfaces of the geode lent his voice a weird robotic timbre.
There was no signal. He couldn’t connect to the insite. He was too deep down, maybe. Out of range. Too much rock in the way. That or the composition of the geodes was somehow interfering.
Dev was not the kind who got easily flustered. He prided himself on that. Nor was he prone to claustrophobia.
Even so, he couldn’t help but feel a tingle of anxiety which, if he wasn’t careful, might easily escalate into full-blown panic.
It was time to get methodical. He started exploring again. Now he did make sure to mark the fissures, using a small scrap of rock. Little etched Ds that said Dev came this way .
Didn’t help. The geode maze seemed infinite. Many-layered, too; he was going up and down as well as sideways.
After what was probably an hour, but felt longer, he stopped for a breather. He sat on his haunches, wrists on knees, and tried to calm himself.
This was stupid. Lost underground. How had he let it happen?
One thing he was adamant about: he was not going to die down here. As long as he kept his head, didn’t flap, he would be all right. He would survive.
Think about it sensibly. Kahlo would notice his absence. Perhaps not straight away, but at some point. If not tonight, then tomorrow morning for sure. She would chase it up. She knew he had followed Glazkov. She was bright. Diligent. She would piece it together, work out where he had gone.
There would be a search party. Kahlo would arrange it. Alighieri must have dedicated cave-rescue squads on standby for just this sort of contingency. They would look for him down below Inferno. They would find him.
That was assuming Kahlo was concerned enough. Assuming she cared...
Dev smiled weakly. Kahlo didn’t care about him. But she cared
It was no dead-end, since a narrow fissure linked it to another, similar geode. Dev squeezed through the crack on his hands and knees, to find that this geode joined on to two more, and on and on. There was a clustered mass of the things, like geological foam, all interconnected.
In all likelihood this was where Glazkov had taken refuge. He seemed to know the layout of these tunnels intimately. He was sneaking through the geode maze, intending either to elude Dev or lead him astray.
Trouble was, it was working. On both counts.
Dev soon realised, to his dismay, that he had ventured too far into the crystal-lined labyrinth for comfort. He had been doing his best to log his progress, memorising the position of each geode relative to its neighbours. At some point, however, he had got muddled up. All at once, his mental map ceased to make sense and became more or less useless.
He doubled back, but the next geode he crawled into wasn’t immediately familiar to him. Nor was it un familiar. Had he been through this one already or not?
So he returned to the previous one, but here there were two other fissures to choose from, two possible ways out.
Shit.
Brilliant, Dev, he told himself. Just brilliant.
Not only had he lost his quarry, he’d lost his bearings. The damn geodes were all of similar dimensions and hard to tell apart. One set of glittery mineral outcrops looked much like another. He should have taken the precaution of leaving a trail. Markings scratched into the rock. Something so that he would be able to tell which way he had come.
He had been too eager, overconfident. Figuring a junkie like Glazkov wouldn’t be about to outwit him.
Now he was a bit fucked.
He reached out via commplant into the Alighierian insite. There would be a proper map cached there somewhere, surely. He couldn’t be the first person to have got lost down here. Given a 3D schematic of the geodes, he would be able to navigate back through to the tunnels, using his commplant’s GPS.
No service available.
“You what?” Dev exclaimed out loud. The close quarters and the jagged inner surfaces of the geode lent his voice a weird robotic timbre.
There was no signal. He couldn’t connect to the insite. He was too deep down, maybe. Out of range. Too much rock in the way. That or the composition of the geodes was somehow interfering.
Dev was not the kind who got easily flustered. He prided himself on that. Nor was he prone to claustrophobia.
Even so, he couldn’t help but feel a tingle of anxiety which, if he wasn’t careful, might easily escalate into full-blown panic.
It was time to get methodical. He started exploring again. Now he did make sure to mark the fissures, using a small scrap of rock. Little etched Ds that said Dev came this way .
Didn’t help. The geode maze seemed infinite. Many-layered, too; he was going up and down as well as sideways.
After what was probably an hour, but felt longer, he stopped for a breather. He sat on his haunches, wrists on knees, and tried to calm himself.
This was stupid. Lost underground. How had he let it happen?
One thing he was adamant about: he was not going to die down here. As long as he kept his head, didn’t flap, he would be all right. He would survive.
Think about it sensibly. Kahlo would notice his absence. Perhaps not straight away, but at some point. If not tonight, then tomorrow morning for sure. She would chase it up. She knew he had followed Glazkov. She was bright. Diligent. She would piece it together, work out where he had gone.
There would be a search party. Kahlo would arrange it. Alighieri must have dedicated cave-rescue squads on standby for just this sort of contingency. They would look for him down below Inferno. They would find him.
That was assuming Kahlo was concerned enough. Assuming she cared...
Dev smiled weakly. Kahlo didn’t care about him. But she cared
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