Mind Games Read Online Free Page A

drain.
    Cameron noticed through the glass that the final room to their left was still pitch black. As they stared at their own reflections in the glass, Vince knocked on the panel. A faint echo traveled back to them from below.
    Upon opening the final room, Cameron found a ladder leading down.
    “Hold it, princess,” Vince sprayed. “I have the light, so that means you get to go down the ladder.”
    “Fine, but if I don’t come back up, you’ll have to live with that.”
    “I’m sure I’ll get over it.” Vince sneered.
    Cameron swung his foot down and placed his weight on the top rung. Suddenly, the entire ladder shifted down several feet, pulling Cameron’s chin near Vince’s boots. The doors to the other rooms simultaneously slammed shut.
    Cameron felt his heart pounding in his throat.
    “What the hell was that? Was that you, Cameron?”
    “I guess so.” Cameron tried to catch his breath from the sudden drop. He continued down the ladder for a few seconds and looked up. He was now about twenty feet below Vince’s boots.
    Darkness ruled below.
    “There’s no floor to this room!” Cameron called up.
    “Keep going and see where it leads. I’m not gonna leave you here. Yet.”
    Cameron lowered himself and soon felt concrete beneath him. Relieved, he stepped away from the ladder and peered up.
    “Heads up!” Vince dropped the flashlight into the darkness, and it bounced against the concrete, shattering the bulb.
    Cameron and Vince now stood in pitch black.
    “Nice going!” Cameron yelled.
    Vince responded with a hint of fear in his voice. “Can’t you catch anything?”
    Amy carefully felt her way through the narrow hallway towards Vince. “You guys are real pros, you know that.” She cracked three glow sticks. “I’m going down there.”
    “Alright, I just hope Stefani doesn’t wake up to find us in his underground labyrinth,” joked Vince as Amy descended towards Cameron.
    Once at the bottom, Amy and Cameron walked together through a maze of more kitten posters on narrow walls. The maze seemed to have no real pattern, but it soon became illuminated by the same glowing fiber optics that lead from above. The lights lined glass casings within the winding walls and led them deeper underground.
    In the distance, they could hear the ferocious clacking of an old keyboard.
    After a few more twists and turns, the clacking sound increased. Then, after one more turn, Cameron and Amy reached a room sealed entirely by glass walls. Amy gestured for Cameron to look around the corner. He saw an overweight man with shaggy white hair typing lighting fast on an old computer with a dusty monitor. Frightened by the presence of the unsuspected man, Cameron hid again behind the wall.
    The keyboard clacking stopped abruptly, and they heard a chair move. Then, the room vibrated as if the walls were shifting around them. In another moment, there was complete silence.
    Amy now looked as the cords of light fed through holes in the glass walls and met at one focal point: a horizontal tablet computer the size of a coffee table.
    Cameron looked from the glass room back to Amy. “It’s like he vanished straight through the walls.”
    Two glass chairs accompanied a rickety office chair that slowly swiveled to a stop. Strangely, the two computers used technology from separate eras spanning at least twenty-five years. Amy stepped into the glass room and the touch screen table lit up, displaying several brands of guns, all paired with prices in a variety of currencies.
    “This station might have been used for video calls between these other men,” Cameron said.
    “Looks like we’ve got a couple black market weapon dealers.” As Amy took another step forward, the touch screen displayed a local map of San Francisco. Several neighborhoods on the map began blinking. Then, an ominous hum fell over the room.
    Amy checked her watch. “We’ve got to get the tech unit down here tomorrow. This can of worms is going to rot