Kraken Rising: Alex Hunter 6 Read Online Free PDF Page B

and combined with perspiration to run like oil from the men’s faces. His dig foreman, Li Peng, waved him over.
    Zhang Li nodded to him. “What is it?”
    Peng shook his head. “Not sure. We’ve opened a cavity – a big one.”  He looked briefly over his shoulder before turning back to Zhang Li. “There’s also a signal emanating from inside. It was trapped behind the rock face.”
    “A signal – man made?” Zhang Li stepped past him. “Looks like the earth has done our tunneling for us. And now, we better make sure we really are alone.”
    *
    Zhang Li ran for his life. His breathing was ragged and hot, and he blinked at stinging perspiration that ran greasily into his eyes.
    They were all gone now – the engineers, the workers, and even the military guards. He cast his mind back; the first few had vanished in the night – simply wandered off in the darkness they had thought – cold madness or got themselves lost somewhere in the newly discovered labyrinths. But then more disappeared during the daytime dig, sitting down for a break, or moving into a side tunnel to take a piss, always by themselves. One minute they were there, and the next they had vanished as if they had been nothing more than smoke.
    As their numbers dwindled, some of the men had said they saw their missing comrades and had rushed headlong into the dark after them. Their screams and scuffmarks on the cave floor were all that remained.
    Zhang Li had followed once, and then seen them – the guilao – ghost people. One of his missing security men had stood there in the darkness, unmoving, unnatural. The guard seemed glisteningly wet, and though his mouth was open, no words came. Sho Zhen, the geologist, had approached – he took only two steps before the guard had attacked … or rather sprang at his colleague so fast that he seemed to fly. From there, reality had become a confused nightmare.
    He changed; it wasn’t a guard at all, but something stinking and fleshy that stuck to his friend, sucking on to him, and agonizingly impaling him to then drag him away screaming into the darkness. Zhang Li had remained standing rod-straight for several minutes, mouth gaping, feeling nothing but a warm wetness spread at his groin. He slowly wiped a hand over his face, feeling the slick perspiration.
    His remaining team had gathered behind him, demanding he return them to the surface. But instead, his jaws clenched with determination – he was the leader of the team, and a respected scientist, not some superstitious villager. His guards had guns; he needed to take control. He decided then; he would do it, bring them all back safely .
    Against their wishes, Zhang Li had taken their remaining crew and ventured down into those dreadful, stygian depths. Drag marks against the stone marked their path, and deeper and deeper they had descended, until they eventually found their answers … the horrifying answers to his missing team members.
    … and now those answers pursued him, the last man left, all the way to the surface.

CHAPTER 4
Buchanan Road, Boston, Massachusetts – Midnight
    The floorboards felt cool and smooth under Aimee Weir’s bare feet. She knew just where to place her toes so the boards wouldn’t creak.
    This was a habit now, waking at midnight, usually jolted alert by fleeing nightmares about her past, or chasing the specter of a love long gone. Perhaps it was her young son, Joshua, who kept the ghost of Alex Hunter alive. Joshua’s features and his unique abilities reminded her every minute of every day of the Special Forces soldier who changed her world. His presence lingered in the dark corners of her mind, refusing to dissipate. I’m right here , Alex seemed to say, every time Joshua smiled up at her.
    She stopped in front of her bedroom, deciding. Her partner, Peter, slept soundly, and only a small part of her wanted to return to share the bed with him. She had wanted a father for Joshua, and Peter had played that role. But as