I resisted the urge to vomit looking down at the body. Laverck had been lacerated from ear to ear, a bloody smile carved across his face.

Ildat grabbed the sleeping bag, lifting it up and spilling the body and a pool of blood onto the rocky ground of the cavern. Everyone backed up as the pool crept across except Ildat, who just stared at the blood staining his shoes in disgust.

“We need to leave.” I stared at the body lying crumpled on the floor, the cuts deep enough that the head was barely hanging on. I couldn’t begin to imagine the amount of strength behind shearing through Laverck’s neck.

“Agreed,” Sofi said next to me. “Ildat, how long till he comes back?”

“From this? A few hours.” Ildat laid the corpse out, positioning it like Laverck was asleep. “If Kostnikov is our traitor, we don’t have time to wait.”

“We can’t just take him with us?” I asked as the others were already moving and packing things away. I hadn’t unpacked anything after finding what I hoped was a secure place last night.

“The spirit stays where the body was slain.” Ildat shook his head. “We take that away, it’ll take longer and be even more imperfect. If he comes back mostly himself, even captured, Laverck would prefer being himself.”

I couldn’t argue against that. “You said if Kostnikov is the traitor?”

“Can’t dismiss any options, but I’ll admit it looks really solid,” Ildat replied while getting out a piece of paper and writing on it quickly, then took off Laverck’s shoe. “I’ll handle this, you pack.”

I didn’t think not dismissing all options was the reason for that slip, but now wasn’t the time for a confrontation. I got everything ready as Ildat put the piece of paper inside Laverck’s shoe.

“Sofi, what direction do we take now?” Ildat asked as he put the shoe back on the corpse.

“Elevators. We don’t have any choice.”

Ildat’s cool cracked before being recomposed, just a flicker in front of my eyes. Crap. How bad an option were the elevators?

It didn’t take long to pack up. Someone had taken Kostnikov’s packs and then had gone through Laverck’s as well. They hadn’t touched anyone else’s, which was stranger. Maybe they couldn’t carry more? If I were them I’d at leas thave tried to sabotage the remaining supplies.

They had stuck me right in the middle as we went through the tunnel. With Karvek right behind me and Ildat in front. I was pretty certain it wasn’t for protection.

If Kostnikov was the traitor Ildat had said. The implication was definitely that he had cut Laverck’s throat, but had he? None of us had woken up while his throat was being slit, but I’d been woken up just by Ildat creeping towards the sleeping bags?

Had Kosnitkov run away after filling his bag with rocks as a disguise? Or had someone dragged him out, killed him, and left him to be reborn and deflect the blame for them?

And more specifically, did they think I had done that?

The tunnel was cramped, my arms occasionally hitting rough patches of rock as we continued down the tunnel. Lights kept everything shining brightly but after a while that grew almost as oppressive as complete darkness would have been.

The tunnel seemed to stretch on forever, a slightly uphill slant to its floor that after what could have been an hour or just ten minutes began to make the muscles in my legs burn. How far had I fallen? Were we going to walk all the way up that distance? Couldn’t be, since they mentioned elevators, but how far till we reached those?

The burning wasn’t just in my legs anymore. My lungs were feeling it as well. I’d lost track of how long. The patterns of rock in the tunnel changed, but the tunnel itself did not as we continued through it. How long had we walked?

Ahead of me Ildat suddenly came to a halt just as I felt like I would collapse. He stepped through an archway, formed out of mortared bricks.

There was another chamber not too dissimilar to the one we had left. It was smaller, with only five distinct tunnels including the one we just entered from, but otherwise the same general dome shape. Triangle markings were next to each door, starting with one then up to four joined together in a square and a fifth one on top for the last one. Ildat cursed as he ran his fingers across one of the walls.

“A week. They carved this out in a week?” He yelled before punching the wall, shards of stone flying off of it.

“Who, the Night Manager?” I took the opportunity to take a step away from my position in between him and Karvek.

Sofi shook her head. “She is the least likely to be expanding the underground. Miners with permits she granted would be most likely, except that there is nothing left to mine. The last three attempts showed nothing, the earth searcher they hired found nothing.”

“So why would anyone be making new tunnels?”

“Maybe it’s the shadow people,” Helovr interjected.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“The what?”

"How much are you going to pretend to not know about, Suitcase?" Karvek sneered, and I balled up a fist.

"Do not call me that."

“Both of you, quiet,” Sofi interjected. “I doubt it is them. Unless they are givento using Maelander markings. And if they exist. Worst case scenario, the Night Manager leased out the underground without notifying the staff. Wouldn’t be the first time. Ildat did they collapse the old tunnel when they made this?”

Ildat was part of the way down one of the tunnels, which curved so that he was almost out of sight. “No, this is the one,” he yelled back. “But it looks like they carved new ones branching off. Quickly and freshly as well. Trying to get on the elevator might be more difficult.”

“We will take ten minutes to break then. Everyone, enjoy a moment, rest. It will be a harder climb to reach our destination.”

I groaned as I headed to one side of the chamber. That was not what I wanted to hear. Most of the others went to the other side, but Helvor was nice enough to join me. I sat down, sucking air in as he settled down next to me. There was talking going on across the chamber I couldn’t hear the specifics of, but for now, Helvor was silent. I was the first to break that.

“So, elevators to get to the hotel, how does this work?”

Helvor grimaced. “I haven’t done it myself, but the idea is to ride them to the hotel ground floor.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” I commented. There would be people up there of course, and I had no idea to get on, but it didn’t sound too difficult.

“We need to ride the top of them.”

“Oh.” That was…alarming. “How?”

“Sofi did it. Once. With Laverck. They jumped as it passed through the shaft.”

Forget alarming, that sounded terrifying. “That cannot be safe.”

“It isn’t. But no one really checks the top for bodies, so you come back eventually. The bigger risk is getting an injury that doesn’t heal fast.”

Well, this could mark the first time that getting a sprained ankle would be more inconvenient than dying. “And what happens when the elevator reaches the top?”

“There’s a maintenance hatch, that leads to a tunnel. Bit tight, and there are not a lot of places to hide but it connects to most areas on the ground floor of the hotel. Probably head to a secluded spot, and figure out the plan from there.”

Right, the plan that had not been gone over yet. Why was I getting an ever-increasing feeling I’d thrown my lot in with the wrong people? “The first floor is crawling with Chainer’s Brigade. You all know that right?”

“The intercom does reach down here,” Ildat said right behind me.

I almost leaped out of my skin, swallowing a panicked yelp. I wished he would stop doing that.

“Okay,” I replied, trying to keep my voice from quavering, “So then you know they are up there.”

“Night Manager won’t let them out of the lobby. The patrons she relies on to keep her job wouldn’t tolerate the Chainer’s people being anywhere near them. She needs to keep them on her side.” Ildat had produced some kind of jerky from his pockets that he took a bit out of before passing fresh pieces to the both of us.

I paused before starting on mine. “She needs to keep specific guests of the hotel happy? But not everyone?”

“People like you, Kostnikov, most everyone, desperation is enough to keep the money flowing. This place isn’t a hotel, it’s a refuge. For some it’s actually a hotel in function essentially. Uppermost floors.” Ildat gestured upwards while Helvor tore into his own jerky. “They are the only ones that matter to the Owner really. Contribute the most money. As long as that is coming, they don’t care about the rest.”

“Does the plan involve using that against the Night Manager?”

Helvor and Ildat traded looks before Ildat said “Let’s save that for when we are in a safer place.”

I didn’t think things would get much safer the closer we got to the top of the hotel, but I wouldn’t press it. Instead, I pivoted to something else I wanted to know.

“How well do both of you know Kostnikov?”

“Not that well,” Helvor admitted. “He was assigned down here as part of the security detail, once that got removed he decided to stay and help with the fishing. Ildat?”

“We recruited him to the plan mostly because the Night Manager had a hold on him he wanted gone. He’s another person wanted by the outside, accepted a massive amount of debt to work off in return for the hotel’s safety.”

“Why don’t more people do that? Seems to be better than running out of money.”

“Typically the debt she assigns you is at minimum a few centuries of labor to work off. And while no one has lasted long enough to find out, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she found a way to add to it.”

That didn’t surprise me too much. Even with the limited personal I had with her, I could see that happening. Or maybe it was the lack of a remotely friendly or even neutral encounter with her so far.

“Back to Kostnikov. You had to know something, I don’t imagine you’d let a stranger in on this.”

“Outside yourself you mean?” Ildat raised an eyebrow.

“You coerced me at first. But you know what I mean.”

“Point taken. Kosnitkov was part of a group of bounty hunters, pretty successful group. Operated for a number of years. Then one day he and another, from the same place, they butchered their bounties, not just the bodies but the souls. Building a bridge back to their home they put it. The rest of the group found out, wasn’t pleased. Bounties were supposed to be alive. No one was happy.”

“And I was the one everyone was ready to distrust?”

“Kostnikov was quiet, helpful, non-argumentative, and more importantly was fed a few different opportunities to turn us in to the Night Manager without doing so,” Ildat growled. “Him turning now makes no sense.”

“There are others besides the Night Manager,” Helvor observed. “I never heard the part about his origins before. Who's to say he isn’t trying to make a bridge out of us?”

“Because he already wasted his chance on it. It’s why the other one deserted him. The partner made their own deal, but didn’t extend it to him because his usefulness was up. It doesn’t make much sense for it to be him,” Ildat voice had gone pensive. He taped idly with a hand, looking across the chamber.

“Who do you think it is then?” Helvor whispered, also looking across.

Ildat near jumped, almost like he has forgotten we were here with him. “Never you mind that Helvor, you just be ready when we find out for sure, alright?”

Helvor nodded, and across the chamber, Sofi got up and stated the ten minutes were up. I finished the jerky Ildat had handed me and got up, although my mind was something else. Was asking Helvor to be ready just a case of omitting me because I hadn’t been the one to ask directly?

Or was it a sign of where suspicion lay?