Claimed by Cipher - Lolita Lopez Page 0,21

to sway him otherwise. Torment was sneaky and underhanded. The two of them working together would be nothing but trouble.

Yet, as Cipher helped Torment plan the assault, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was exactly the sort of trouble he needed.

Chapter Four

Coughing into her bent elbow, Brook took one last look around the cabin. If she survived planting the explosives, she would leave the mountain forever today. She had packed those few precious items she couldn’t bear to leave behind in her pack, but there were so many more important things she wanted to take with her. The quilt, especially, was hard to leave, but it was too heavy and bulky to fit in the one bag she had been allotted to bring.

Knowing she was on a strict schedule, she blinked back the tears that burned her eyes and left the cabin. She traipsed through the darkness, letting the moonlight guide her feet on a path she committed to memory. As she trekked toward the Drowning Door, she ran through the list of tasks the man called Torment had given her. Place explosives. Set timer. Move to a safe distance. After explosion and the completion of the mission, meet at the rendezvous point.

She had been hoping to speak with Cipher again, but it had been the other soldier who had answered her transmission. Torment lacked the warmth and kindness of Cipher. He had been all business, and it had been painfully clear to her that she was expendable to him. Beyond planting and successfully detonating the explosives, she was of limited use.

Glad for the long walk to mine, she tried to work out the nervous energy vibrating through her body. Shaking, sweaty hands would be dangerous while handling the explosives. Last night, after bathing and having a double serving of rations, she had calculated and recalculated the amount of explosives she needed. Then, in a surge of anxiety, she had redone the calculations seven more times, just to be sure.

The explosives were neatly packaged in her pack, ready to be assembled and placed once she was in the ventilation shaft. She had a timer, but also planned to place a secondary line as switch. She wanted redundancies in place.

As she drew near to the ventilation access, she placed her backpack holding her belongings on a tree branch. She checked her watch. Of all the things she had ever been given by her father, the watch was her most precious. He had saved for years to get one for her. It was waterproof, shatterproof, illuminated and even had a glow function. It had all the bells and whistles, and she had never needed them more than she did right now.

She set a timer for the moment the explosives were due to detonate. Low on her belly, she crawled forward and scanned the area she needed to access. There was just enough moonlight to let her see that it looked exactly the way it had when she had left it. Even the small stones and twigs she had placed along the edges of the grate were right where they should be.

Satisfied her entrance hadn’t been discovered, she exhaled a steadying breath and crept forward. Resolute in her intention not to die today, she carefully removed the grate, buckled her helmet in place and climbed into the shaft. Balancing on the second rung, she hauled the grate back over the top of the shaft. She couldn’t risk an unexpected patrol finding it gone and stumbling onto her existence.

Down and down she descended, following the same route she had taken yesterday. Before she secured her anchor ropes, she checked her watch and was relieved to see she was ahead of schedule. Hooked into the harness, she climbed backwards down the sharp incline of the shaft until she reached the the section directly below the duct system she had accessed the day prior.

She swung herself across the shaft, paying no mind to the unending black drop below her. She racked her ropes into place and ratcheted her harness to give her the stability she needed to work with the explosives. Taking her time, she measured the spot where she intended to plant them and marked it with chalk.

The hand cranked drill she used to bore the hole was freshly oiled and spun as quickly as her arm could rotate the crank. It was quiet work, only the sound of her breaths and the twinkle of falling rock echoing around her. She stopped to measure

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