Page 108 - World of Darkness
P. 108
“I didn’t sign up for this shit,” Corporal Peters said, trying to shake
something that looked like shit off his boot.
“You’ll do what you’re told, Corporal,” Sergeant Johannsen responded. “Now zip
it and check out that tunnel.” He motioned with his assault rifle toward a
man-sized opening. “Take Kopacek with you.”
Peters grimaced and glanced down the tunnel. It looked like every other part
of the sewer in which the soldiers found themselves, built who knows how long
ago and coated with years of filth.
Kopacek poked Peters on the shoulder. “We gonna go or what?”
“You in some kind of hurry?” Peters asked. “I don’t care what they say. No way
is a terrorist living down here. Nobody’s that crazy.”
“Orders are orders,” Kopacek said.
“But why us? This is police shit.”
“They say this guy killed someone on the governor’s staff. That means it’s our
job, I guess. You don’t fuck with somebody that high up without getting the dogs
out on your trail.”
Peters sighed. “All right. Goddamn it, let’s get this over with.”
The tunnel curved for several hundred feet before emptying into a junction,
with three more tunnels emptying rivers of sludge into a large drain.
Kopacek flashed his light in all directions. Peters’ heart leapt into his throat
when he thought he saw a man’s shadow thrown against a wall. It lasted for a
second and was gone.
“Turn that light back!” Peters said, raising his gun.
“What? You see something?”
Peters looked hard, but saw nothing more. “I guess not.”
Kopacek fell silent and absently held the light still. In the reflected glow,
Peters watched eddies and whorls steadily appear and disappear in the water,
drawing a straight line toward him.
“Weird,” Peters said half to himself.
“What?”
“I dunno. It looks like… footsteps.”
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