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SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

Nemo

During preparation time, Midas barely left his computer, only complying when Gem dragged him away, reminding him he’d be useless to them on the big day if he didn’t sleep. Still, he was able to add to their intel daily, updating them on comings and goings. It was becoming normal to hear him talking to Nova nonstop. Not that they didn’t find it a little creepy since he treated her like a real person, but it felt normal to hear the conversations. Nemo told Gem the man needed to get laid, but he kept back the information that it was about as likely to happen as hell freezing over.

The group barely saw Demon. The man spent almost forty-eight hours on the beach, probably sleeping there if he slept at all. Since they were on a job, he wasn’t medicating, and that meant he was grumpier than the devil. Not that he was all that pleasant when he was medicating .

Waters and Loki closeted themselves with the telecommunications, finally able to get in touch with God. Waters was concerned. God had never stayed off the grid so long before, and the team leader said the man sounded strange. Almost as if he was drugged up himself. He didn’t offer the distress code, so Waters was leaving it alone for the time being. They were also talking to Cherry, who was cranky as fuck, and very pointedly not asking about a certain medic. When they weren’t talking to one of those two, they were bothering Midas for updates every five minutes. Waters only took breaks to talk to Kubrick, and Nemo joked that the phone sex had to be costing him a small fortune.

TB was just as bad with Flame, but at least they saw him most of the time. He spent the bulk of his time working with Steel, poring over maps and contingency exit strategies out of Zimbabwe.

The downtime they had saw the crew playing poker, napping, or reading Flame’s latest book, much to TB’s dismay. Apparently, it was her steamiest one yet. Nemo had read it before it was published, so he spent his off time focusing on Gem.

Nemo couldn’t put his finger on it, but something had changed with her. She’d withdrawn from him just when he thought he’d been making progress. They slept together at night, and there had been some making out but no sex since the first morning. Even after replaying the conversation in the kitchen over and over in his head, he couldn’t figure out what had been said that caused it. He knew he should just corner her and ask, but he was more than a little afraid of having that discussion. His best bet at this point, he felt, was to let things play out, and maybe they’d just naturally return to normal.

Before they set off with Itai, Cerberus had given them a lesson on how to set the distraction charge while they were in the tunnels. He, with the help of Demon, had also gone over how to use the oxygen masks and tanks should they get themselves caught in a situation with noxious gasses or, heaven forbid, a surprise cave-in. They’d have roughly three hours, which was very little time in the event of a cave-in, but it was better than the thirty minutes they would have had with Tribe’s equipment.

On the trek down the river yesterday, she’d spent a lot of the time sleeping. He’d been reluctant to disturb her, even though it would have been the perfect time to talk in private. Distracting her would be the worst thing he could do.

Now they were on the riverbank going over the plan one more time. His head was on a swivel, constantly worrying about the hit that had been contracted on her. Out in the open like this, even in the dark of the early morning hours, snipers were still a concern. His inner radar wasn’t tripping, but he did find it odd that no attempt had been made yet. The contract wouldn’t have been bid on if the individual hadn’t been relatively sure of where she was and how to get to her.

With Midas in his ear watching the drone footage with Nova, the six of them and the dog made their way across the lowland to where Gem and Nemo would use the tunnels.

“Good luck,” Steel wished them.

Nemo looked at TB. “Scheherazade?—”

TB clasped his shoulder. “I know. I’ve got her.”

The dog looked up at Nemo, who crouched down at her side. Forehead to hers, eyes closed, he scratched her behind both ears. He whispered to her in Afrikaans. He knew the dog wouldn’t understand the words, but she would understand the tone.

“ Gaan saam met TB,” he said as he stood.

Scheherazade gave a soft yip as if in agreement.

As the dog took her position at his side, TB absently petted her head in comfort and glanced one more time at Nemo. “And… the other thing?” he asked.

Nemo nodded. “Always. Like my own.”

The giant smiled sadly.

Turning to Gem, Nemo saw the question in her eyes. “Requests. In case one of us doesn’t come back. TB will take Scheherazade if something happens to me.”

She grimaced and gave a slow, single head nod. “And you’ll watch over Flame.”

Nemo nodded. “All of us would take care of her without him asking, but there’s a complication, so yeah, he asked me specifically to watch out for her.”

“Audio check,” Waters said.

“TB copy.”

“Nemo copy.”

“Midas copy.”

“Steel copy.”

“Demon copy.”

“Mythos is online. Loki copy.”

“Gilgamesh copy.”

“Medusa copy.”

“Cerberus copy.”

“Gem copy.”

“Waters confirmed. Good luck.”

Gem and Nemo turned and began the descent into the tunnel, with Gem leading the way.

The tunnel was ragged inside since it was created by a jackhammer. Had the miner possessed the proper equipment, the tunnel would have been smoothed and large enough to stand up in. As it stood now, most of it they had to crouch or crawl through jagged rock. More than once, Nemo had to unhook her from something she got snagged on.

“Nemo, report in. ”

“Miss me already, Midas?” he quipped.

“Waters wants regular check-ins.”

“Worried I’m eloping with Gem?”

A snort from in front of him clued him in to how she felt about that comment.

“Steel crawled in after you about twenty-five feet and took an air sample. There are some remnants of underground gasses Nova hasn’t identified yet. Watch yourselves for signs of hallucinations or other weird behaviors.”

“If they’re in here, then they’re also going to be in the mine. If nothing has been noted, we’re probably okay,” Gem responded.

“Yes, but the cavern is also much more open. They could dissipate and not affect the miners. Could be nothing, but better safe than sorry.”

“We’ll check in, Midas,” Nemo reassured him.

“Cerberus is on his way to his location. TB, Steel, and Demon are heading into position for their part.”

“Copy.” Nemo tapped Gem on the leg. “You start feeling woozy, let me know.”

“Copy,” she replied.

After an hour of crawling, there was a moment of panic when an explosion went off in the mine. They knew it wasn’t Cerberus’ work since they had that in their packs, so it was obviously a blast to clear rock in a tunnel. Unfortunately, that tunnel was underneath them, and it caused a small shower of rocks and dirt to fall on top of them as the rock strata resettled. When the rain of debris stopped, there was a squawk over their earbuds.

“You two good?”

“Yeah, Midas. We’re good. They’re blasting in a tunnel beneath us. ”

Nemo squinted into the distance beyond Gem. “Am I seeing a light, Gem, or is that a trick of my eyes?”

“No,” she replied, “that should be the exit hole into the cavern. We’re close, Midas. No need to panic.”

There was grumbling on the other end of the airwaves, something to the effect of “Don’t panic, she says.”

Gem informed Nemo, “I’m turning off my headlamp. I don’t want it to shine out into the cavern. It probably wouldn’t get noticed, but I don’t want to take the chance.

“Copy. Turning mine off as well.”

For the last fifty or so yards, they basically crawled in the dark. When they made it to the end, the opening was definitely wide enough for Gem to sneak through. Nemo would be a tight fit, but he was pretty sure he could make it.

“I need your hand, Gem.”

There was a snort from one of the others on the comms. “Really? The tunnel? That’s ridiculous, even for you,” Steel spit out.

“I need her to cover the glow of my watch, dickhead. I do have some sense of timing, you know. Besides, this would be uncomfortable as hell.”

“For you, maybe,” Gem replied softly. “I’d be on top. No way I’m lying on my back on the floor of this tunnel.”

There was a round of soft chuckles from everyone online. She tossed a smile over her shoulder at Nemo, and it was almost like they’d returned to normal.

She put her hand back, and Nemo moved his arm up her side so that it covered the green glow of his watch.

“Midas. Confirm oh-five-twenty-two.”

“Confirmed.”

“Gem,” Nemo asked. “How are we looking?”

“We need to lie low for a little bit. There’s a considerable amount of activity in the central cavern. They’re probably waiting for the dust to settle after the blast.”

“Any idea how long that might be?” Waters asked.

“Well, it’s been about thirty minutes since the blast. Probably thirty more, maybe less. They’re not going to supply the miners with proper breathing equipment in there, so they’re going to be cautious,” Gem answered.

“Will that leave you enough time?” he worried.

“Should be in and out with plenty to spare. I know exactly where I’m going.”

“Keep us apprised. Midas is still watching drone footage. Cerberus has been in for approximately five minutes and is setting the charges in the maintenance shed.”

“I didn’t hear him check in,” Nemo said.

“No,” Loki chimed in. “He works radio silent, no matter the situation. He did send us a signal that he was in and good, and Midas caught him on the drone.”

“Nothing like a rogue teammate,” Nemo muttered.

“Don’t fret, Nemo,” Gem reassured him. “He’s good at what he does. You know that. And he’s cautious. If something even has a hint of hink, he’ll be out of there.”

Nemo and Gem lay in the darkness, Gem keeping an eye on the cavern as best she could without sticking her head through the tunnel opening. He desperately wanted to ask her what was wrong, but between the tenseness of their situation and everybody listening online, it wasn’t the best time. After twenty minutes, he couldn’t do it any longer. He had to know.

“Midas. I’m closing out communications for a couple of minutes. I’ll be able to hear you in case you need us.”

“Not advisable, Nemo,” Waters grouched.

“It’ll just be for a couple of minutes,” Nemo assured him.

Nemo closed the voice channel with a tap of his finger. He patted Gem on the ankle, and through hand signals, he asked her to do the same. She scowled at him but complied. Her head turned back to the tunnel opening.

“I see guards and people starting to go into the corridor, but something…”—she shook her head—“something’s not right about what I’m seeing. I can’t figure it out. The miners look… wrong, somehow,” she whispered.

He sucked in a big breath. “Gem?”

“Yeah?” she replied distractedly.

“What happened?” He let the breath out. The words were out there, and he couldn’t take them back.

“What happened when?”

“At breakfast the other day. We were fine. Better than fine. Then suddenly we weren’t.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Bullshit. You know exactly what I mean. What. Happened?”

She sighed. “This isn’t the time, Nemo.”

“It will never be the time,” he chastised. “There will always be something that’s pressing, so while we wait here for that cavern to clear, we may as well talk about it.”

She turned on her side. “Fine. But we cannot get distracted by this, okay?”

“I promise. I’m distracted because I don’t know.”

Gem paused. “Waters mentioned me staying. And I can’t. It was a reminder that this is temporary, and I feel bad. Like I’ve led you on somehow.”

Nemo’s chest ached. She was withdrawing. She still didn’t believe he was in this, in them, despite the fact that she had come to him on the plane after their argument.

Son of a bitch! How do I fix this?

“How do I make you understand I’m not temporary?”

“You can’t, Nemo.” Her voice sounded small and sad. “There’s too much baggage in my head right now. Too much to work through. You’ve no idea how hard it is to undo nearly twenty years of hearing you’re not worthy.

“Besides that, I’m under contract with Mythos for several more years. I can’t just up and leave. Loki could pull me tomorrow, send me somewhere else, and I’m bound to follow his direction. Just like you’re bound to Tribe.”

“What if I was willing to wait?”

She laughed. “You? Wait? It would never happen. You might be able to do it for a short while, but without being able to talk to me, without seeing me for long stretches of time, I don’t think you could do it.” She turned her head just enough so he could see her expression. “I don’t fault you for that, Nemo. I really don’t. I honestly wouldn’t want you to wait. Nothing’s guaranteed in this world. You shouldn’t bind everything up in me and then have it come to nothing. What I do is just as dangerous as you. Now with a price on my head? That just makes it more likely you’ll outlive me.”

He snorted. “You don’t think there’s a price on my head? Fuck, I’m wanted in thirty-six countries for the shit Midas and I have pulled alone. I can name at least four terrorist groups that would behead me and set me on fire on sight, and who knows how many private individuals would gut me just for fun. Your reasoning is an excuse because you’re scared. Scared I’m playing you. Scared because your da has filled your head with a ton of shit about not being worthy of anything, much less a man.

“I’m in this, Gem. I wanted in this when we met back up in Riquewihr, but you took off.” He started shuffling up along her side. He tapped her calf. “Move over onto your side facing me.” It was a tight fit, but he managed.

“Steel’s right. This is hardly the time,” she quipped.

“Cut it out. This is serious, Gem.” He raised a hand to her face. He could see her in the dim light, and there was want and hope in her eyes but also restraint, as if recognizing that hoping was foolish. “I. Am. In. This. All the way.” He kissed her lips, just a quick brush of his lips. Reflexively, he smoothed a finger across her eyebrow, then tried to push back the rebel curl. “I promise. And I don’t make promises I don’t keep. So push your father the fuck out of your life. I told you. Listen to me. My voice. I’m here, and he’s not. You’re priceless, Gem.”

They both smiled at the pun.

“Wanting something doesn’t mean you get to have it.”

“You only can’t have me if you don’t want me. Is that it? You don’t want me?”

“I—”

A shout in the tunnel distracted them. Gem tapped her ear to reestablish communication. She dared to look out the opening.

“Waters, the miners are back in the tunnel, and the cavern is empty. We’re heading in.”

“Copy. Progress report at all intervals.”

“Copy.”

Nemo huffed in frustration, then turned his earbud back on. At least he knew what he was dealing with. Conversation tabled.

For now.

He backed up in the tunnel to give Gem room to access her equipment as well as get his own together.

Pitons hammered in, cordage and rope attached, carabiners locked, Nemo looked on as Gem took one last glance out of the opening before pulling down her balaclava and goggles, then slithered through it. “Gem is rappelling,” Nemo informed the channel. “I’m following when she hits bottom.”

“Good luck,” Waters said over the line.

“Stay safe,” TB added. A yip in the background added Scheherazade’s thoughts as well, making Nemo smile .

I love that dog.

Nemo watched as Gem traveled down, putting additional pitons loosely into the wall to loop her cordage and rope around. They were simply meant to keep their gear as close to the wall as possible. While both items were brown to blend in with the walls, it didn’t pay to have the ropes hanging out free from them while they were out and about in the cavern. When they climbed up later, they would simply pull the pitons out as if they’d never been there.

The rappel down the side of the cavern was uneventful. Once on the cavern floor, they used another piton to pin the ropes off as close to the wall as possible, and luck was with them as it was behind some tractor equipment used to move heavy debris.