Masks

Chapter X: The Golden Nose-Ring

Ashley didn't know how long she cowered there, but it was long enough to make her whole body ache. Her heart pounded against her ribcage, lost in a frenzy of chaotic, primal fear. She was acutely aware of every inch of unguarded flesh, every hairy straining out of its pore, desperate to flee. Still struggling to breath, she almost collapsed.

She cursed the dust, and it was this which saved her. A deduction. The realisation that her brain was still functioning brought back her sense of purpose, and Ashley returned to the job. 

She cursed the dust, but it was a gift. Ashley trod lightly, but even she left a trail. The criminals, thuggish men, must have disturbed it. The dust, having almost revealed her presence, would reveal theirs.

It didn't take her long. A carpet, unusually clean, but otherwise unremarkable. If she hadn't been looking for it, if Ashley hadn't known there was a hidden lair, she would have walked right over it. After breaking in, wary of an attack, she may have done so. The state of the carpet had been the least of her worries.

Ashley pulled it up, and gasped. It was less in shock at what she saw, and more in shock at what she'd smelt. It was the same odour as before, raised several magnitudes of potency. She physically recoiled, but clenched her teeth and returned to the task. 

In fact, what she saw hadn't been a shock at all. It was a small, circular hole. As trapdoors went, it was unimpressive. It lacked the big, iron ring used to lift it, for a start. Instead, it was a set of perfectly unremarkable floorboard. Instead, it had this hole. Ashley deduced that a finger could be inserted, allowing her to grip and raise the door. Again, had she not been looking for one, she would never have identified it as such. It was very clever.

It did, however, have one flaw. If fingers could go in through the whole, light could get out. If Ashley lowered her eye to the hole, she could make out movement. They'd given her a peep-hole. She could spy on them, and they would never know she was there.

Fortunately the basement had lights, whereas the house was completely black. Once Ashley's eyes had adjusted, she could see almost everything that went on below, but nobody could see her. The darkness of the room was so thick as to be almost tangible, and an onlooker from below would be unable to tell that the carpet had been removed, or that a face had replaced it. Ashley's only worry was her eyes, which might reflect the light beneath. Besides that, with the one-way vision, her position was one of strength.

Still, it could be strengthened further. Ashley still had some wire, and she wasn't about to leave it unused. That would be wasteful. She taped some to the walls, criss-crossing over the trap door. Effectively strapped to the floor, it would take a lot of force to lift it. The men were trapped. They would be able to push their way out once they realised, as the tape barely held the wire, but it would buy Ashley some time to escape.

With her preparation complete, she got on with her spying.

Her first observation about the cellar was that it didn't seem to be one, as such. Whilst the house was all one consistent style (Ashley didn't have to be an expert architect to see the rooms looked similar), this basement stood out. It seemed to have been added later, as an after-thought. It was roughly dug out of the ground. It also had tunnels leading off in every direction. 

Perhaps Ashley had underestimated the scale of the lair. It seemed to stretch for miles, possibly covering the whole city. A complicated network of tunnels, hidden beneath the Earth. She wondered why nobody had discovered it. Why nobody had noticed it being built.

Then she realised that they had.

Of course they had. They had used it every day. The government had build it, and everyone had watched them do it. These tunnels, this mysterious lair, was nothing but London's sewage system. This particular incarnation seemed disused, and must have become obsolete as the city had developed. The criminals had simply moved in.