This is waaaay too easy.Sydney’s mind raced through the possibilities. She’d just reached in and retrieved the sword, if in fact the gooey remnants of leather sheathed the rapier. "Hey, Mulder, you believe in fate? You think there are some people we’re meant to meet in our lives? I mean, if there’s only one person out there for you, would God let you just miss them, or do you think he sets up road signs so you can’t miss them?" She continued to crawl backwards through the sewer line. It simply wasn’t possible to turn around in the damp, dark confines. "Talk to me, I think I took a wrong turn!"
"I don’t see you!" he called back. His voice was muffled, and Sydney realized she had to be moving away. There had only been one turn. How could she have gotten confused in such a simple grid? Her hands flailed out into the inky darkness ahead of her.
Gooseflesh rose on her arms.
The floor of the pipe fell away into nothingness. She had nearly tumbled into the hole unawares. Tucking the grimy leather bundle into her shirt for safekeeping, she fumbled with the miniature flashlight. Before she could send its tiny beam through the blackness, it slipped from her slime-covered fingers, clattering against the wall for only a second. Sydney strained to hear it strike the floor. She shivered. There was no reassuring sound of final landing. It was as though she was poised on the cusp of absolute abyss.
She licked sweat from her lips. "Mulder? You still there?"
It seemed an eternity before his words drifted back to her. "Yeah, I’m here."
Drawing a deep, trembling breath, she confessed, "I have no idea how I got here, but I’m lost. I don’t suppose you’ve got another flashlight?"
Seconds later, a second brilliant beam sliced through the air.
And a third.
And fourth, and fifth, sixth, seventh.
Tiny mirrors angled from every crevasse, weaving a kaleidoscope pattern that shifted with each move of the light.
Mulder seemed to read her mind. "Oh shit," he remarked. "You know what you were asking about fate?"
"Yeah?"
"I’m hoping it’s true. And I’m hoping it’s my fate to choke the life out of Attila the Hun."
Go to Part Thirty.