The Road to Hell Read Online Free PDF Page A

opened to reveal a ladder leading down to the darkness.
    “ In case you haven’t noticed,” said Harrison, climbing down the ladder, “someone wants you dead. Not only you. But anyone that comes in contact with you. You’re bad news, lady.”
    Water dripped from the ceiling.
    A series of dull lights glowed at the bottom of the ladder, casting a dim light over the old construction tunnel. Susan hurried after him, determined not to be left behind.
    “ Make sure that hatch is shut tight,” Harrison barked.
    Rust flaked off the ageing iron pipes, crumbling in her hands as she closed the hatch, sealing them in the darkness.
    “ Slow down,” she called out.
    Harrison stepped off the bottom of the ladder and walked off into the tunnel.
    “ Why are you so hostile towards me?” asked Susan, slipping on the ladder rungs as she hurried down the shaft.
    “ Hostile? I’m not hostile. You make it sound like I’m the bad guy in all of this.”
    “ You’re mad at me.”
    “ Mad? I’m not mad. I’m absolutely pissed.”
    “ I don’t understand,” Susan added, stepping off the bottom rung into soft clay, dusting her hands off against her clothes.
    Harrison paced back and forth.
    “ Quit playing games, lady. You’re not a prostitute. You’re not from 7G. Just who the hell are you and why does the entire goddamn police force want you dead?”
    “ My name is Susan.”
    Harrison spun around with his finger pointing at her face, just inches from her nose, the muscles in his arm flexed and tense.
    “ Get this straight, Susan. I don’t like you. I don’t trust you. At the moment, you’re excess baggage. The first chance I get I’m dumping your ass, preferably somewhere the cops can find you so I can get on with my life.”
    “ But my sister-”
    “ Your sister, what? Come on. You talk about trust. But you don’t trust me. Why the hell should I trust you? Trust is a two way street, honey. Who sent you to me? Who told you to come to the old city to find me, huh? Or did you just wake up this morning and decided you were going to go downtown and frack someone’s life over? Is that it? Pick out the dumbest Private Eye you could find?”
    Even in the dim light, the crumpled photos she held in her outstretched hand reflected a soft, oily rainbow off their glossy surface. Harrison hadn’t seen her pull them from her purse, but she held them out for him as tears welled up in her eyes. The photos looked old, with large creases running through them where they’d been folded repeatedly.
    “ And what’s this supposed to be?” he asked, taking them from her.
    “ Trust.”
    The image quality was poor, as though the photos were taken from an old computer monitor rather than with a camera. Why nothing modern, Harrison wondered, why no holograms? These things looked like they were taken before the war.
    “ This is what they were after. This is why they want me dead.”
    There were several shots of a man in a black cloak. One in what looked like a hotel kitchen and another in a stairwell that could have been taken anywhere in the old city. But it was the third photo that intrigued Harrison. The body of a naked woman lay strewn across a double bed inside some seedy hotel room. Each shot had a date and time stamp on the bottom right-hand corner. Harrison was surprised to see they were only a couple of days old. They looked much older.
    “ That’s it?”
    Susan reached out and pulled a fourth photo from the back of the shot of the kitchen. The moisture in the air had caused the poorly developed chemistry to become sticky. Water damage marred the photo but it was clearly another shot of the seedy hotel room, only this time the shadowy figure appeared to be helping the young lady stand. Only at this point she wasn’t naked. She had a cloak draped over her shoulders.
    “ So what? I don’t get it. Looks like a drug deal gone bad. Why would someone want to kill you over this?”
    “ Look at the time stamp,” replied