Ghost Canyon (The John Decker Supernatural Thriller Series Book 7) Anthony Strong (popular romance novels .TXT) 📖

“If you must stay, keep your opinions to yourself.”

“Hey,” Charlie said, stepping into Robyn’s line of sight. “Deep breath. He’s just trying to rile you up.”

“He’s doing a good job of it, too.”

“We won’t achieve anything with the pair of you snapping at each other.” Charlie motioned to Glenn. “Why don’t you take Miss Miller out into the lobby and take her statement.”

Glenn nodded. He placed a gentle hand on Robyn’s elbow and steered her out of the room.

Charlie watched them go and then turned his attention back to the man at the table who hadn’t yet spoken a word. He approached and pulled a chair out.

“Mind if I sit down?” Charlie asked.

“Free country,” the man replied. He looked up, then quickly dropped his gaze again.

“Thanks.” Charlie took a seat and observed the man for a few moments, noting the distant look in his eyes, as if he were barely aware of his surroundings, and the way he rubbed his hands back and forth on his thighs. “What’s your name?”

“William Fenton. Bill.”

“Hello Bill,” Charlie said. “I’m Officer Walters. Going to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?”

Fenton nodded.

“Good.” Charlie leaned forward with his elbows on the table. “First things first, we need to find out what happened to your friends. Get them out of that mine.”

“You can’t go in there.” When Fenton looked up, his face was a mask of terror. “It’s not safe. Besides, you won’t find them alive.”

“That’s something we’ll have to confirm for ourselves.” The geologist’s answers and demeanor confirmed what Charlie already suspected. The man was suffering from psychological shock. “How far in were you when the accident happened?”

“It wasn’t an accident. Something attacked us.”

“That’s not possible.” Charlie shook his head. “The mine’s been closed for years.”

“I’m telling you, there’s something in there. It had the devil’s eyes, and it tore my friends apart like they were confetti.” Fenton looked at the police officer with wild eyes. His bottom lip trembled.

“Okay. Calm down.” Charlie was aware of Carlton, still watching from the bar. He wished the man would leave. “This is important, Bill. Where were you when this happened?”

“I don’t know. About half a mile in, maybe more.”

“How do I find that location?” Charlie knew that the gold and silver mines dotted throughout the surrounding hills were akin to underground mazes. He’d accompanied rescue teams a few times over the years, pulling out lost hikers. Sometimes alive, but more often, not. “Can you take us back there?”

“There’s no way I’m going back into that mine, and you can’t make me.”

“Then you’re going to have to tell me how to find your friends.”

“Just follow the adit until you come to a fork where the drifts go off in different directions. That’s where it happened.”

“Drifts?”

“The horizontal passages in the mine. The adit is the entrance, the rest of the tunnels are drifts. There are probably some vertical shafts in there too, but we never came across any. Didn’t go deep enough.”

“Ah. Got it,” Charlie said. He sensed movement to his rear and glanced around.

Glenn was standing in the doorway. “Paramedics are here. Search and rescue too. They’re antsy to get up there. You find out where we need to go?”

“I think so.” Charlie stood up. He tapped his fingers on the table and looked at Fenton. “I’m going to pull your friends out of that mine now. I want you to stay here, understand? I may have more questions when I return.”

“Sure.” Fenton met Charlie’s gaze. “If you make it out alive, that is.”

Chapter Seven

Hunt fell silent for the swift journey down into the bowels of CUSPS’s island facility. Decker stood anxiously next to him, unsure if he wanted to see where his employer kept those it deemed too dangerous to remain free in the world. It wasn’t exactly a prison. There were other facilities serving that purpose. The residents at this location were of a more unusual persuasion. It was here they transported Grendel after the confrontation in Ireland, spirited away along with his mother by an elite squad known as the Ghost Team. The Zoo, Decker surmised, was an apt name.

When the elevator arrived at level D1, the doors slid open. Hunt and Decker stepped out into a large room with a concrete floor and walls. The only furniture was a metal table and a chair, upon which sat a man wearing a uniform that Decker recognized from his encounters with the Ghost Team. On the wall facing the desk, a row of monitors flicked between different views of The Zoo. When the guard saw Adam Hunt, he swiftly stood and snapped to attention.

“Sir,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting any activity today.”

“As you were,” Hunt said. “This is an informal visit. I’m giving our latest recruit the grand tour.”

“Very good.” The guard retook his seat and watched as Hunt approached a second optical scanner, this one mounted next to a steel door directly opposite the elevator.

“We took a retina scan during your physical this morning,” Hunt said to Decker. “It will allow you to move through the restricted areas of the facility based upon your security clearance.”

“I wondered what they were doing,” Decker said, remembering the laborious eye test they had given him. He now realized that it was more than that. “How will I know which areas I can enter?”

“Every secured door is color-coded,” hunt said, pointing to an orange decal affixed to the wall next to the optical scanner. “There are five access levels with light blue being lowest security and red being the highest.”

“Where does this door fall on that scale?” Decker asked, nodding toward the orange decal.

“One below red. Security zone four. Your clearance allows you to access zones one through three, which are represented by light blue, dark blue, and yellow color codes. We’ve given you onetime temporary access to enter The Zoo. It’s good for one retina scan only, after which it will expire.” Hunt nodded toward the scanner. “We