"When I let you go, find a place to hide. Understand?"
In answer, Moggle flashed its night-lights right into her face.
"Stop doing that!" Aya hissed, stumbling blindly to a halt.
"What was that?" Miki called. "Aya, where are you?"
Aya blinked away spots, standing up to peer across the cylinder tops. The Sly Girls were fanning out randomly across the room.
But Eden Maru was rising into the air, her hoverball rig using the metal cylinders for lift. She flew swiftly across the ranks of cylinders, arms outstretched like the wings of a bird of prey. She would have serious infrared, of course - most intercity hoverball games were at night.
Aya swore, ducking lower and running as quickly as she dared. She had to get into another room..
But was there any way out of here?
Suddenly Moggle was tugging at her grip.
"Not yet!" she whispered, but the hovercam yanked itself free, pulling Aya off balance. It shot away through the ranks of cylinders like a cannonball.
Aya stumbled to a halt, squinting into the darkness, trying to see where the hovercam had disappeared.
"Lose your flashlight, Nosey?"
She looked up to find Eden Maru hovering just above her.
Aya tried to think of some excuse for putting her flashlight away, but failed. "Yeah, I sort of dropped it."
"Nice going." Eden's eyes scanned the darkness. "So what are we chasing, anyway?"
"Beats me." Aya shrugged, careful not to look in the direction Moggle had fled. "I think maybe Miki's seeing things."
"That doesn't sound like Miki," Eden murmured, her surged eyes scanning the cylinders. Her gaze came to rest in the direction Moggle had flown. "What's over there?"
Aya squinted into the darkness. The other Sly Girls' flashlights were growing closer now, and her unsurged eyes could just make out where the ranks of metal cylinders ended. She took a few steps closer, and saw a meter-wide circle of blackness - the mouth of a passageway.
Aya let out a silent sigh. Moggle must have decided to hide in there. Eden Maru was already on her way, gliding through the air.
"Maybe we should wait for the others," Aya called, jogging after her. "Whatever it is could be dangerous."
"I thought you said Miki was seeing things," Eden said. She landed in front of the circular hole and crawled inside.
As she ran to catch up, Aya realized that the opening was exactly the right size for one of the cylinders to pass through endwise. At its mouth, she felt the familiar pattern of inlaid studs beneath her palms, metal to carry the cylinders on hover-lifters.
Aya crawled after Eden as fast as she could. "Find anything?"
"Yeah. But it doesn't make sense."
A few of the Sly Girls had reached the tunnel entrance behind Aya. Flashlight beams flickered down the tunnel, revealing what Eden had discovered.
A thick metal door stood open, one small window glinting in its center.
Aya frowned. "That's the only door I've seen down here."
"You mean airlock," Eden said, pointing ahead. "There's another one up there."
"An airlock?" Aya shook her head. "Why would anyone have an airlock inside a mountain?"
But as they crawled farther, she saw more metal glinting ahead - another heavy door, standing open just like the first. She swallowed. If this really was an airlock, this tunnel had to be a dead end.
Which meant that Moggle was trapped.
"I better go first!" she said, pushing past Eden.
"But you can't even see!"
Aya ignored her, scrambling down the tunnel. At least she could warn Moggle that someone - judging from the echoing voices behind her, everyone - w as coming.
"Moggle!" she said with the barest hiss of sound.
She slowed a little, trying to listen. Somehow the air felt different in here.
A step later Aya's foot twisted beneath her, coming down wrong on an uneven stretch of floor.
She grunted, reaching her hands out ahead to steady herself...
They touched nothingness.
And then Aya was rolling forward, falling into a void.
SHAFT
Aya dropped in absolute darkness, spinning head over heels into the mountains depths.
She reached for her crash bracelets, hoping they would find enough metal to keep her from splattering. At the first twist, the bracelets found purchase, jerking her upright with a shoulder-wrenching snap. Her feet swung out with unspent momentum, and one cracked against solid stone.
Aya hung there stunned for a moment, pain sparkling against the solid blackness. As her head cleared, the echo of her own breathing pressed close around her. She swung her feet out - they connected with stone, pushing Aya backward into a wall of rock. The impact prized a cry of pain from her lungs.
"Quit kicking!" came Eden's voice from the darkness just above. Seconds later strong arms wrapped around her waist, lifting her up. The agony in her shoulders lessened a little.
"You okay, Nosey?" Eden said.
"I'll live. But maybe no more falling tonight."
"I hope you don't keep trying to get killed just to impress me."
Aya only grunted. As Eden carried her back up through the formless darkness, she felt the tingle of blood rushing back into her hands.
Eden set her down firmly on a ledge - the one she'd just plummeted off. "Maybe you should leave the exploring to people who can see in the dark. And can fly."
"Sure," Aya said, gingerly rubbing her shoulders. "And thanks."
"Thanks again, you mean."
Voices echoed around them - the other Sly Girls were headed down the tunnel.
"Slow down!" Eden shouted. "It's a trap ... or something."
"Yeah, something," Aya muttered, pulling out her flashlight and leaning carefully over the shaft. It was circular, big enough across for the cylinders to travel down. The walls were striped with copper coils as thick as Aya's arm, laid into the stone under clear plastic.
The shaft also continued upward, past where her flashlight faded in the distance.
Moggle had certainly found an odd place to hide.
Eden grunted. "I see you found your flashlight, Nosey."
"Oh, yeah." Aya shrugged. "I guess it was in my pocket all the time."
Eden nodded slowly.
"You found something?" Kai's voice called. She pushed her way past the other Sly Girls crowding the tunnel, crawled to the edge of the shaft, and peered into its depths. "Wow. What is this?"