John shook his head. “This is getting a little crazy, there was no sign of anything that could have evoked such a delusion. No holograms, no nandrugs, no gasses or subliminal messages…nothing…”

“You figured out ye can’t be relying on all that techie stuff all the time yet?” asked Lyra. John ignored her piercing eyes and continued onwards. The group had barely moved a few meters when he stopped them again.

“More trip wires. More explosives too. Trips deactivated…now,” He then used his torch to point out the black boxes of lifeless explosives hidden in the cracks of the cave walls. Theseus and his robot companion moved to gather the supplies.

“All too easy,”

Suddenly, John cried out. “Dammit, Theseus, get away from there!”

Theseus didn’t hesitate and pulled himself away just as gas began hissing into the cave, a faint haze illuminated by the group’s myriad of flashlights.

“They hid a trap behind the explosives!” said John, hitting things like crazy, “Gotta find the release system…Dammit, no good, it’s too archaic. It’s just a pressure valve. I can’t do a thing! And that’s nerve gas – inhale it and, well…just don’t inhale it, okay?”

Phoenie had never expected John to be beaten by technology, let alone something so archaic. She figured it just went to show that even the most mundane of tools could defeat the most advanced – all the lasers and magic, all of John’s sensors and Lyra’s…whatevers… and they’d been caught out by something as simple as a gas valve. Maybe their tactics had to simplify to deal with it, but how? The tunnel was starting to fill up, the cloud of gas building into a misty wall barring their progress forward…

“Swim!” shouted Andromeda; “The water should be deep enough to pull yourself under the gas!”

Theseus responded in an instant, throwing himself under the water’s surface and thrusting forward like a pro – he was the Survival expert, after all. Lyra followed his example. Joel Gibson took a deep breath and fell to his knees, then began crawling through the current, his guitar threatening to dislodge itself from his back.

“I can use my propulsion-pack to fly through,” said John, “At that speed I should be safe,”

“Can you carry people?” asked Katrina, her camera slipped securely under her coat, “I know I’m not like the smallest of girls but…”

“Yeah, same here,” added Kaori, “I…I don’t wanna swim…”

John turned his back to the girls, but Phoenie knew he would be blushing. “T-the momentum should carry us through,” he stammered, “Just give me a chance to get things set up…”

Phoenie didn’t like the idea of swimming, nor of John Smith flying her through the cloud like he was some kind of emergency rescue hero. Casting her eyes across the choices presented to her, she noticed Theseus’s robot hovering gently on the water. It was worth a shot. Throwing aside her reservations and embracing a moment of anxiety-fuelled madness, Phoenie left onto its back and wrapped her arms around the cold metal dome.

“How fast does this thing move anyway?” she asked. John turned around, his flushed face breaking into a rare smile.

“Fast enough,” he replied.

***

Chapter 49
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