Seera threw her talent out in front of her. The cave dwellers had stopped to inspect the battlefield between Mister Shanahan and their comrades. She wondered what they thought of the scene.

She knew marines were trained to fight. She had not seen anything like what happened outside of one of the weapons descending on an insurgency and wiping it out. She wondered how Emil would handle more Shanahans descending on his hex and burning things to the ground.

She decided she didn't need to kill this other group as long as they could evade them. And she thought she had a way to do that. All she needed was a bit of time.

Mister Shanahan had suggested this, but at the time she didn't have any idea on how to make it work. She thought she did now.

“I want you to move over to Mister Shanahan,” she whispered to the Wu Chi. “I think I have an idea.”

The three masters did as she asked. Everett moved with them, using the ceiling to his advantage. Seera moved over last, keeping her rifle pointed at the closest of the enemy she could feel in the distance.

She hoped they couldn't see her group moving in the dark. Her plan wouldn't work if they had.

“Mister Shanahan,” she whispered. “Can you dig us a bolt hole and cover it in the next few minutes before they come down the tunnel?”

Mister Shanahan turned and pressed into the rock. That created more room in the alcove, but not much more. He gestured for them to get inside. Then he pulled nearby rocks over the opening with his extraordinary strength. He reached into one of his equipment pouches and dropped one of the chemical lights on the floor of the redoubt so they could see in the greenish yellow light.

“Can they see and hear us on the outside?,” he asked in a whisper.

Seera sent her talent out. It came back they were completely shut off from the outside.

“No,” said Seera. “How much air do you think we have like this?”

“Depends,” said Mister Shanahan. He went to the back wall. He pressed into it, listening to the rock. The stone cracked against his pushing, dropping to floor as he carved out more room for them with his hands. “We might need to poke an air hole for us if they decide to stay out there.”

“Hopefully we won't have to stay in here that long,” said Everett. “I'm regretting joining this expedition.”

“Can you carve a hole right here?,” asked Seera. “I think we're close to the other tunnel. Once you punch the hole, we'll have to be quiet until they're gone.”

“Ready?,” asked Mister Shanahan.

Everyone gave their consent. He punched the wall just enough to break through. He listened. The move seemed to have gone unnoticed.

Master Yuen pulled out his paper. A model of where they were formed as the thing shaped itself to show them where they were. Little markers represented the group and the cave dwellers. Everyone but Mister Shanahan and Seera watched the miniature stage.

The marine had his ear to the hole in the wall in case something came along and decided to investigate the small light from the chemical burner at their feet. His hand was on the pistol holstered on his leg.

He didn't have the room to extend the rifle in any meaniful way. If an enemy came on them, he would have to rely on the pistol until he had to get close enough to use his hands and knife.

Seera stood at the door. She let her rifle hang on its sling as she waited by the door. Her talent told her the relative closeness of her enemies. It would have been easy to massacre them, but maybe it was better to let them head back to their homes and follow them from a distance.

How many more parties were out riding through the caverns on whatever they were riding on? She sent out her talent to check. It came back with a count of four. None of the other groups were close to where they were now.

She realized that she had guided her group around the others except for the one that had put the giant snakes on them when her check told her some of the groups were above where they were at the moment. They must have passed them without either side knowing.

She was glad for that. She hadn't agreed to lead the Wu Chi into the hex so she could kill any people they might find living under the surface. That was something Earth people thought about when they imagined their world was hollow.

She glanced at the map. The cave dwellers were milling around outside their protective room. She thought it looked like they were casting for a scent. That made sense depending on how sensitive their noses were.

The burnt gunpowder probably covered their own scents, but she couldn't count on that. The only question in her mind was would they camp outside the door, and if they did, how long would they stay in place?

She hoped Emil didn't pop in to have a chat while they were waiting. That was the last thing she needed. She supposed as long as he could feel her moving around, he would be more willing to leave things in her hands.

Too bad she couldn't have brought a working radio, or phone, to talk to the surface. That would have brought some comfort from the knowledge help was a call away.

The cave dwellers moved away from the door. Evidently they had decided the group had descended deeper into the caverns.

How long did they have before the hunting party decided to come back to try to scent their trail again?

It was time to move down as far as they could before they were discovered.

“Open it, Mister Shanahan,” said Seera. “We want to try to get down to the edge of the model before they come back to look for us.”

Master Yuen folded his paper away and stood. The others surrounded him as Mister Shanahan worked his way to the front of the group. He pushed on the door. It slid out of the way. He took a look out, Nothing moved according to his ears.

Seera checked with her talent. The hunting party had moved out of sight and sound for the moment. She moved forward, using her talent to move in the darkness without a light. She thought that she could get a second of surprise even if they could see in the dark and she couldn't.

The others fell in behind her. She sensed their presence. Mister Shanahan seemed to be having some problems, but the Wu Chi seemed to have trained some for this type of thing. Everett had taken to the smoother ceiling for easier travel.

She paused when she felt a danger ahead. She held up her arm to stop the others behind her. She checked on the hunting party. They were still riding away from the group.

What was the problem in front of them?

She pointed her rifle at the ground and triggered the light. She frowned at the set of plates in the floor. She put her hand over the light and looked around in the muted glow.

She didn't see anything in the walls or the roof of the cavern. She bent down, inspecting the plates in the floor. She used the rifle to touch one. A spike went by her head.

A simple trap for anyone chasing a bunch of cave dwellers toward their home grounds. Anyone less wary would be punctured at least twice before they reached the other side of the hexagonal sections.

They could swing across with some help from Everett.

“Throw me down a line, Everett,” whispered Seera. “There's a floor trap down here.”

Everett extended a line so she could grab it. He anchored the other end to the ceiling. She tested the line against her weight before she swung across the trapped section of the floor. Beyond the rows of plates was a clear spot to land on. She tested it with her rifle between swings before she dropped down on the other side of the triggers.

“Do what I just did,” she whispered. “Don't drop on the floor.”

She threw the end of the line back across the plates for one of the others to catch. She stepped back to let the next man in line swing across. She pointed him out of the way. Then she sent the web back. They repeated the maneuver until they had everyone across the trap.

“We're going to move forward until we get within sight of the people living down here,” said Seera. “I think that will be close enough to satisfy everyone. Once we do that, we're heading back up. I don't want to massacre people for just living their lives.”

“If their village is at the bottom, that's all we need to do,” said Master Yuen. “I never expected people to be moving around down here.”

“Neither did I,” said Seera. “Let's go and see what we can find out. There are still others out and roaming the caverns. We don't want to run into them before we're ready to go.”

She cut her light and led the way forward again. Her talent didn't point out any dangers ahead as they picked their way along the wide tunnel. She took a second to check out how much further they had to go. The distance wasn't as great as she had feared.

Sending Master Yuen back up the central shaft with Everett seemed the fastest way to get him and his model making skills out of the cavern. She and Mister Shanahan could lead the other two out of the caves and get them to the safety of their home hex.

They still hadn't answered where the monsters were coming from to attack the Wu Chi hex, but Seera had an idea. She didn't want to tell anyone. It might lead to an open war against the underground.

“There's light ahead,” whispered Everett. “It looks like they don't live their whole lives in the dark.”

Seera nodded. A small amount of light meant a town of some kind. It might be something they could explore if they had to go in there to get to the central shaft.

The tunnel opened into a vast open plain. A wall blocked the huge space off from the tunnels leading into it. A waterfall of glowing water dropped down out of one of the walls and filled up channels cut in the rock floor. Buildings denoted the living and business areas.

“It's a city,” said Everett. “A big city.”

Seera sent her talent out as she pointed for the others to get cover from the glow. She wanted to make sure they hadn't been seen yet. She didn't want to fight that many people.

“I think we can't get to the central shaft from here,” said Master Yuen.

“You and Everett can,” said Seera. “The rest of us will have to climb back up on our own.”

“We'll be exposed for some of the climb,” said Everett. “Also if one of the dragons starts up, we'll be right where we can be killed just because we're in the way.”

Seera nodded. She sent out her talent. The bottom of the mesa was below the city somewhere, but not too far below. She didn't think it was worth it to continue if they had to engage in open warfare with the residents.

And the first step if she wanted to declare war and join battle was cross an empty space to a stone wall, and then punch through that wall before weapons could be brought to bear to kill them.