Dark Nine ❈ Dark Nine Universe Bk1 ❈

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I don't leave through the front door of the boarding house. Or the window.

Instead, I go through the 'side wall'. It was a secret door planted by Hapeet behind a bookcase, and she showed only the Freed travellers that she had a secret exit.

It took you into the corridor of an adjacent boarding house, and then you could use their exit instead. Pretty simple but every effective.

I also turn on my stealth since I'm going to need it.

I walk out into the streets of Light Metro, and I instantly join the crowd moving down the sidewalk.

My phone buzzes in my pocket and I quickly read the text.

Danger. Pick up : Light Central Lazer Tag. 5 mins.

I input the location and run while my adrenaline is still pumping. I'm close, which I'm thankful for.

I reason Danger had ET's in secret locations, a Lazer Tag centre must be one of them. A place to look inconspicuous while holding weapons and an easy place to hide illegal off grid portals. Right? They had to be hidden, since the dust always left a trail to wherever you travelled too.

Danger was right about one thing. The crowds of a city would provide safety. I feel safer now being nestled between so many people, even while invisible.

I'm good with orientation and navigation, so I don't have any trouble getting to the Lazer Tag, which is inside a huge arcade, up a slow moving lift, on the top floor of the arcade. It's a great place to hide, I'll give him that.

I turn toward the front where you buy tickets, and as a bunch of kids are putting on their armour and grabbing their 'guns', I see Danger waiting by the entrance.

He's already in the maze, which is dark and filled with fake smoke.

Danger's blonde curly hair looks a mess, like I'd woken him up from a nap. He managed to put on his captain's coat, and a pair of dusty old jeans with too many rips. Even his boots look like they need replacing but he's clearly too busy to bother.

He smiles kindly when he sees me and he curls a finger for me to follow him into the game.

When the attendee's aren't looking – and they don't really care, anyway – I slip into the gamescape and follow Danger into the first turn, until we're both embraced by the darkness. Danger turns to me and his deep blue eyes look stricken with worry. He was so carefree when I met him, I didn't think I'd see him tense, ever. But I see pure anxiety in his face now.

"They've put a virus through my system that I've spent over two centuries creating," Danger looks pissed, and I wonder if he meant decades, because I'm not sure how he could have meant centuries, "Anywhere I go, Diana, they track me. Since when do they hunt men, anyway?" he jokes to himself, trying to smile, but he is too worried to pull off a laugh.

"If they're tracking your ET movements, why did we meet?" I ask.

"I didn't use tech to get here. I grew up here, I just chose a familial location and had family take me home for a 'surprise visit'," Danger looks paranoid, looking around consistently for any strange movements that might give away a stealthing Kor. I feel bad that he has been so impacted by helping me.

Danger grabs my arm now and drags me through the maze, just as a bunch of kids start running around playing against each other.

"You could have just ignored my text," I say to Danger as he thrusts aside a flimsy art piece and pulls me up a ramp into a back corner of the building, an older section that was cut out of the current gamescape. At the top is a platform with a bunch of mirrors.