Blink: Leviathan (Book 2)

16

Incredible as it was, Darien didn't find the elevator very inviting. The fact that nothing actually held it up meant they would be totally at the mercy of millennia-old mechanisms: a disquieting thought at best. Nevertheless, it also represented a straight-shot to within striking distance of the Coring Well at the base of the complex. He peered inside. On the right hand side of the room where a normal elevator might have had a series of buttons, the alien machine had a holographic display that extended out from the wall, shaped like an old style tube map, with daubs of white at regular intervals over the tendrils.

He didn't really want to risk trying to Blink down to the base of the complex, not when they were still trying to read the scale of the interior map provided by the alien machine. As far as mapping the interior with their own instruments, along with human measurements, the operatives had barely secured a tiny fraction of the place. Shoving his apprehension to the back of his mind, he turned to his squad mates.

"Okay, we've got ourselves a ride," he declared. "Idas, Hekket and Amber, come with me. Niamh, stay with Brannigan and feed us directions as best you can. Keep working with the schematic and see if you can pinpoint the locations of Tundra and Vandal."

Niamh's brow crumpled with annoyance and he knew why. As someone who prided herself on being one of the toughest operatives on the force, she would not thank him for the job of babysitter. Nonetheless, whatever his misgivings about Brannigan, there was no doubting that she could handle the alien machine and was learning fast. The more they learned the better, but he wasn't about to leave the rookie operative on her own.

For her part, his second in command kept her mouth shut despite her obvious displeasure. The others stepped forward to accompany him and Idas gave the alien elevator a suspicious look.

"You sure this think won't just drop us like a stone?"

"It came up from somewhere," Amber replied, giving him a nudge with one elbow. "And made it in one piece. If it's survived this long intact it'll survive us."

"You never know," he grumbled.

Darien smiled and shook his head. "All aboard."

He stepped in first. The walls sloped in around him like the inside of an enormous bell and he found himself hunching his shoulders instinctively. He waited as the others followed. Amber and Hekket seemed happy enough, but Idas still cast wary glances at his surroundings every few seconds, as though he expected the thing to suddenly just give way just because they were standing in it.

Ignoring his friend, Darien turned his attention to the controls. The lines were layered over each other, some green, some blue, some yellow and a there was a cluster towards the bottom that pulsed gently in red. On impulse he decided not to touch any of the lights in the red section. The shape of the diagram seemed to correspond roughly to the shape the city but it didn't seem large enough or have enough what he assumed were floors to fill the space.

"This is Hammerhead to all stations," he said, sending his voice over all the comm channels. "We are about to descend right into the centre of the structure. Be advised, there's a good chance we'll lose radio contact at that point, depending on our proximity to other teams." Then he looked at his companions. "Hang on everyone."

After placing his feet slightly further apart to brace against any sudden motion, he reached out and touched a dot on one of the yellow pathways in the lower half of the diagram. To his surprise the elevator didn't move. Instead the display flashed and a completely new arrangement of lines and dots, this one much more intricate and sprawling than the last.

"It must work like the main console," Amber said after a moment. "The first map was by area. This one's zoomed in on the area of the city you selected."