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Chapter Thirty-two

The baseo The stairs went down about ten feet, and were only about two and a half feet wide My i Renfield with a , bullets tearing all three of us to shreds in the space of a heartbeat My stomach writhed in pure nervous fear, and I forced s

The walls had been mortared and painted white, but cracks and inal color At the botto maybe three feet square, and then a second set of stairs led farther down, the air getting more cramped and colder as they went

The stale air s and our movements sounded incredibly loud in the otherwise oppressive silence that followed, and I found un forward, over Murphy&039;s head and Kincaid&039;s shoulder, so that I could start shooting as soon as soood it was likely to do Against any nor, the weapon would do little but uely aromatic

The stairway ended at a half-open old door

Kincaid nudged it slowly open with his spear, already crouched

Murphy aiun at the black doorway

Me too The end of un quivered involuntarily

Nothing happened

Silence reigned

"Dammit," I muttered "I don&039;t have the nerves for this crap"

"Want me to find you a Valium?" Kincaid asked

"Kiss my ass," I said

He reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a couple of plastic tubes He bent thean to shine with cheed up to the doorway and flicked one to the left, the other to the right, bouncing them off the walls so that he wouldn&039;t expose himself to anyone in the hall beyond Then he waited a beat and leaned out, peeking around "Nothing hts But it looks like that oes about ten feet, then ends at the door to that closet Open hall on , and opens into a room"

"Closet first," I said

"Cover me"

Kincaid flowed down the last couple of stairs and through the door Murphy kept within a foot of his back Kincaid peeled off to the right Murphy dropped into a crouch, shotgun aireen-lit hall to the left I wasn&039;t as smooth, but I went after Kincaid, paintballs and staff ready

The closet door was only five feet high and opened out, toward the hall Kincaid listened at the door, then leaned aside to let me touch it first I couldn&039;t feel any enchantrip on the spear so that he&039;d be ready to drive the tip of it into anything that came at him froht from his spear flickered around a dank little cha to be a proper closet and too small to be a room Patches of moisture and mildew blotted the damp stone walls, and the smell of unwashed bodies and waste rolled out of the door

Half a dozen children, none of theainst the back wall of the closet They were dressed in castoff clothing, , and they wore steel cuffs on their hands The cuffs, in turn, were locked to a larger chain attached to a heavy steel ring bolted into the floor The children reacted in silent terror, flinching away froht

Children

So, hell, this block apart with nothing but raill andto pay Even the ain, I guess that&039;s why they call them monsters

"Son of a bitch," I snarled, and ducked my head to step into the rooainst rowled

"Daet out of my way," I said

"It&039;s a trap, Dresden," Kincaid said "There&039;s a trip wire Go through that door and you&039;ll kill all of us"

Murphy checked over her shoulder and returned to watching the darkness for trouble

I frowned at Kincaid and picked up the plastic light stick, holding it out "I don&039;t see a wire"

"Not a literal wire," Kincaid "It&039;s a net of infrared beams"

"Infrared? How did you-"

"Dammit, Dresden, if you want to know about raphy like everyone else"

He was right It was a little late to be worrying about Kincaid&039;s background now "Hey, kids," I said "Everybody stay really still and keep back, okay? We&039;re going to get you out of here" I lowered et them out of there?"

"Not sure we can," Kincaid said "The beaed up to an antipersonnel mine"

"Well," I said "Can&039;t we just can&039;t you put a weight on a land er down, it doesn&039;t explode, right?"

"Right," Kincaid said "But that&039;s assuone back in time to World War Two" He shook his head "Modernpeople, Dresden This one&039;s British, pretty recent"

"How can you tell?"

He tapped his nose "The Brits use a different chee than most It&039;s probably a bouncer, very nasty"

"Bouncer?"

"Yeah If soe activates Several individual subet blown up into the air, or sideways, or however they want to set it up, in a pattern Then they explode maybe five or six feet in the air Sends a couple of thousand steel balls out in a big cloud Kills everything in thirty, maybe forty meters if you&039;re in the open, ht space like this If it was ht down this hall All these stone walls, the shrapnel would shred everything real good"

"I could hex dohatever is sending the bea it," Kincaid said "Thus kablowie Thus death"

"Dammit" I sed and took a step back froic wouldn&039;t screw up the device in a"I can shield us, if it&039;s all co in from one direction"

Kincaid arched an eyebrow "Yeah?"

"Yeah"

"Damn But it won&039;t help those kids much They&039;re over there"

I scowled ferociously "Hoe disarm the device?"

"You still don&039;t want the Bolshevik Muppet solution, right?"

"Right"

"Then so it off, find the explosive, disable it and unhook it froht," I said "Do it"

Kincaid nodded "Can&039;t"