Something Strange and Deadly (Something Strange and Deadly #1)(63)

“I am... honest, I am. Now shut pan, Empress.”

A yellow glow appeared, faintly illuminating Daniel and the immediate surroundings. I gaped at the light and waited for my eyes to adjust.

The light came from a jar in Daniel’s hand, and whatever emitted the glow resembled a squirming mass of something alive. “Is that light moving?”

“Yeah. Glowworms. Can’t risk fire near the dy***ite.”

It was so clever, so typically clever of Daniel.

His rough hand slid into mine. “Come on,” he murmured. “Don’t touch anything, and I’ll find what we need. Looks like they rebuilt the warehouse exactly the same.”

We moved away from the door. I focused my attention on the ball of light and on my steady footsteps over the earth floor. Around me, I had the sensation of open space.

I leaned close to Daniel’s ear as we walked. “What’s in here?”

“Tables. It’s where they put the dy***ite ingredients into cartridges. We’re going to the end where they load the finished stuff onto riverboats—that’s where any complete dy***ite will be.”

“What’s in the other two huts then?”

“The middle hut is where they make an absorbent that soaks up the nitroglycerin. And then in the last building they make the nitroglycerin. That’s what causes the dy***ite to explode.” He lifted his arms and spread them wide. My arm rose with his, our fingers still clasped, and the light of the glowworms beamed around the room.

“They brew it in huge vats,” he said. “All it takes is a teaspoon of the stuff to blow you to pieces, and there’s hundreds of gallons in that building. The vats keep the nitroglycerin cool, so it doesn’t explode. The safety of everything and everyone in that building depends on a thermometer. Seventy-two degrees. Nitroglycerin’s gotta stay at that temperature.”

The echo of our steps died, and we stopped our slow creep through the room. I realized we had reached the end of the building. Daniel raised the jar of glowworms and scanned the area.

“There.” He pointed to a waist-high crate. The yellow light showed a label.

STUMP

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s dy***ite for clearing farmland.” He set the jar in my hand and tossed the empty sacks beside the box. “And it’ll do perfectly. We need a hammer or—”

“A crowbar?” I gestured to a metal rod set next to the crates.

“Yep. Help me get this open.”

Soon, after many smothered grunts and much creaking wood, we had the crate’s top off. Inside, wrapped carefully in straw, was stick upon stick of explosive dy***ite. They were small cylinders, no longer than my hand. How could so much power fit into something so tiny? It reminded me of Jie.

“You hold the bag open.” Daniel pushed a sack into my hands. “I’ll put this stuff inside.”

“How much are we taking?”

“As much as we can carry.”

The minutes passed in silent packing until the bags were full. Each sack held twenty sticks of dy***ite packed securely in paper and straw. We knelt to heft the lid back on the crate.

Daniel suddenly froze midway. “D’you hear that?” he whispered.

I held my breath and listened.

Then came a shout. Unmistakable. It was a man’s cry of alarm, and he was outside the building.

“Shit. You left footprints, didn’t you? Shit, shit.” Daniel heaved the bags on top of the crates and shoved me into a narrow crevice between the boxes. “Shit, shit, shit, Empress.”

My heart began to beat frantically in my ears. “What’s going on?”

“Shh.” He set the jar of glowworms into my hand. “Joseph was right to say I might need you. I do. You gotta get the bags, or at least one of ’em, back to the Exhibition. I’ll distract the guards. If you can’t get to the fence door, wade in the river.” He backed away from the faint light until he was part of the darkness. “I’m sorry, Eleanor. I promise I’ll keep you safe.”

His footsteps thumped loudly away, as if he wanted to make as much noise as he could. I slid the jar of glowworms inside my shirt.

It was all too fast for me to understand. What was Daniel doing? Was he turning himself in?

Over my wild pulse, I barely heard the hut’s door swing open. There was a slapping thud like flesh hitting flesh. Then came shouts, feet scuffling on the dirt floor, grunts, more thuds, and finally calm. I cowered in my corner, my breathing so shallow and my heart racing so fast I thought I might pass out. I kept my shirtsleeve over my mouth to muffle the whimpers that threatened to escape.

“He broke my nose!” yelled a whiny voice.

“Shut pan and get him outside,” rumbled another voice.

“I ain’t going nowhere—” Daniel’s words were cut off by crunching bone and a desperate howl. He was hurt.

A cry writhed in my throat, but I bit my tongue until the pain filled my brain.

“You’re in for it now,” said the whiny man. “I reckon you saw somethin’ you shouldn’t have seen, and we can’t have you tellin’ no one. So dead meat for you.”

There was the scraping sound of a body being dragged along packed dirt. Then the door slammed shut, and no more sounds seeped into my ears.

My hands trembled uncontrollably as I eased the jar of glowworms out from my shirt. My lungs worked overtime, sucking in and shooting out air. It was a strange feeling that coursed through my whole body. Intense heat, intense cold. Up and down, as if my body didn’t know what season it was.