Part 35 (2/2)
He frowned. It didn't really matter. They would have to be killed. They prohibited his access and that simply wouldn't do.
The question was how to get them to open the door.
Nezuma slid back and to the side of the door, checking the entire perimeter of it. It didn't seem to have a lock.
So why not just open it?
He grinned. The two monks on the other side were about to get the surprise of their lives.
He gripped the door handle and pulled.
”ANNJA?”
She felt higher and found skin. Searching for the inside of the ankle, she tried to palpate the skin and detect a pulse.
There was none.
”I think I just found another seeker who didn't quite make it.”
Ken scrambled back and b.u.mped into her. ”You okay?”
”Just a bit startled. I was going to comment on how cold your leg felt, but then when I realized it was a corpse, I felt better, if you can imagine that.”
”Probably better than finding another live person in here with us,” Ken said, sounding shaken.
”Yeah.”
Ken sniffed. ”He hasn't decomposed. Is it stiff?”
Annja nudged the body. ”Yeah, definitely rigor mortis but not decomposition. Is that even possible?”
”I don't know. I'm not used to being around the dead.”
”Let's move,” Annja said. ”Staying in the room with a dead body doesn't do much for me.”
”Good thing,” Ken said. He scrambled back up but not before taking Annja's hand and placing it on his ankle. ”You ready?”
”Now I am.”
Ken started crawling and Annja followed.
NEZUMA KNELT in the darkness of the room. On either side of him, the bodies of the two monks lay with their necks snapped. He'd decided it wouldn't be good to shoot or stab them. Too much noise and too much blood. in the darkness of the room. On either side of him, the bodies of the two monks lay with their necks snapped. He'd decided it wouldn't be good to shoot or stab them. Too much noise and too much blood.
By snapping their necks, they could still be positioned in such a way that they looked as if they were meditating.
Provided no one examined them too closely.
It ought to buy him some more time.
That was all he needed.
Nezuma stood and stole down the new corridor.
”I'VE HIT A WALL.”
Annja came up alongside Ken. She let her hands travel up and over the surface, but she found nothing but solid stone. ”Weird.”
”How far do you think we crawled?”
”Felt like it had to be at least two hundred feet.”
”That's what I thought, too.”
Annja sighed. ”Have you been checking your internal compa.s.s?”
Ken chuckled. ”Good phrase for it. Yeah, I have. And everything seems to indicate this is where we need to be.”
”I agree.”
”But what is here?” Ken asked.
”Let's check all over the walls and see if we can find something that we'd be able to see immediately if we had light.”
She felt Ken's hands on her. ”Something's been bothering me,” he said.
”What?”
”How did the person back in the room die? We haven't seen anything that I'd say is dangerous for a while now. So what made him die like that? And why hasn't he decomposed?”
”Maybe he's the swamp vampire,” Annja said.
”I'm being serious.”
”I know. I've been wondering about that, too.”
”The only thing I can think of,” Ken said, ”is that there must be something in here that killed him.”
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