Novels by ndagimanmualim

Chapter 10: The Crimson Fog"Seal the shelter," Caleb said.He said it softly. Then he said it again, in a voice that cracked across the control room like a whip. "Seal the shelter. All hands to emergency stations. Bring in everyone on the surface levels. Now."The room erupted into motion. Engineers lunged for their consoles. Guards snapped orders into radios. A siren began to wail somewhere above them, a rising mechanical scream that made the hair on Nora's arms stand on end."Forty four minutes," she said to nobody. The red numbers burned in the corner of her sight. "Forty three.""Maya." Caleb turned. "The medical bay. Prepare for casualties.""On it." Maya was already running, her kit bouncing against her hip. At the door she paused and looked back, wide eyed, her dark braid coming loose. "Theo?""Level three, with the kitchen staff," Nora said. "Go. I will bring him down.""Nora.""Go!"Maya went.Nora turned to her husband. In the flashing red light of the alarms, his face look

Chapter 9: The East Service Tunnel"I know," said Caleb.Nora stared at him.They were standing in the vault on level nine, in a cold white chamber lined with steel racks, because it was the only room in the facility where Caleb could guarantee that no one was listening. The recording had just finished playing on her phone. Gavin Pruitt's flat, tired voice still seemed to hang in the air like smoke."You know," she repeated."I have known for nine days." Caleb leaned against a rack of sealed battery cells with his arms folded. He looked exhausted, and strangely calm. "Gavin has had access to my codes for eleven years. When the numbers on my private accounts began to shift, small amounts, cleverly hidden, I suspected a leak. When the Coles began asking for meetings, I was almost certain.""Then why is he still here?""Because an enemy I can see is more useful than one I cannot." The corner of his mouth moved. "I fed him false information. Wrong door sequences. A schedule that does not

Chapter 8: Nine Levels DownNobody tried to stop them as they left the courthouse.That was what frightened Nora most. Gordon Cole simply stepped aside with a gracious little bow and let them pass, smiling, and Ethan stood rigid beside him with his hands clenched, and Brielle lowered her white roses and watched Nora go with eyes as flat as pennies. Not one of them said a word. Not one of them needed to.*How many keys,* she thought, over and over, as the black SUV pulled away from the curb. *How many keys.*Caleb had gone quiet beside her. He sat with his hands on his knees and his eyes on the city, and a muscle ticked steadily in his jaw. When they were two blocks clear of the courthouse, he said, in a voice like ice over deep water, "He was bluffing.""Was he?""I do not know." The admission came hard. "That is what troubles me."[Insight scanning. Caleb Ashford: concern for Host critical. Suspicion toward unknown party: high.]Nora said nothing. In her lap, her left hand, newly wea

Chapter 7: Twelve Oh SevenShe did not answer him that night."I need to think," Nora said, and Caleb Ashford only nodded, as if he had expected nothing else, and told the driver to take them to the tower.Ashford Tower rose from the heart of the financial district like a blade of black glass, sixty floors of silence. Nora had passed it a thousand times on her way to the free clinic and never once looked up. Now she stood in its marble lobby at one in the morning, wrapped in a stranger's overcoat, while a night guard bowed to her as though she were someone important."Guest suite on thirty one," Caleb told the guard. "Full medical clearance. No one goes up unless I say so.""Yes, Mister Ashford."The suite was warm, neutral, and enormous. A bed the size of her kitchen. A bathroom with a tub deep enough to drown in. A window wall showing the whole sleeping city, strung with lights like a net of stars. Somebody had left a tray of soup and bread on the table, and she ate every drop witho

Chapter 6: The Price of Walking Through the DoorNora did not remember deciding to run.One moment she was standing in her dark hallway with a dead phone screen in her hand, and the next she was pounding down three flights of stairs with her coat half on, hailing the first taxi that slowed at the corner. She gave the driver the address on Delancey Road and told him to drive as if the city were on fire."Lady," he said, glancing at her in the mirror, "is it?""Not yet," Nora said. "Please hurry."[Host. Entering the storage facility alone is inadvisable. Three hostile individuals. Insufficient defensive capability.]"I know."[You are carrying no weapon.]"I know."[Then why are you going?]Nora stared out the window at the blur of streetlights. "Because everything I have is in that unit. Every gallon, every sack, every pill. If they take it, I start over from nothing. I do not have six days to start over."[Understood. I will therefore offer a more useful suggestion. Do you remember t

Chapter 5: Neighbors and NeedlesHer apartment had never felt so small.Ethan stood in the center of the living room with his hands in his coat pockets, surveying the bookshelves and the secondhand sofa as if he were appraising a crime scene. Brielle perched on the edge of an armchair, knees together, wearing a gentle, tragic expression. Dr. Halloran set his leather bag on the coffee table, directly beside the folded blanket, and snapped it open with a click that echoed through the room.Nora sat on the sofa and folded her hands in her lap. In her coat pocket, the phone was recording. Its tiny red light was a pinpoint of courage."Miss Whitaker." Dr. Halloran settled into the chair opposite with an old man's groan. "I would like to begin by saying that you are not in any trouble. Ethan tells me you have recently been experiencing some, shall we say, unusual thoughts.""Which thoughts?" Nora asked pleasantly."That some sort of catastrophe is coming.""Oh, that." She smiled. "Doctor, w