A Darkness Below: Chapter 6
Well, after that little bit of a break, it's back to it with another chapter of my book. Please feel free to leave critiques and reviews in the comments section. Every bit of feedback is going to help me make this thing better at the end of it!
If you're just coming to A Darkness Below, you can check out the previous chapters here:
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4|Chapter 5
Maggie hurried back to her desk at the typing pool and sat herself down, grabbing a stack of reports that had been left in her inbox by the desk sergeant. She was thankful to have something occupy her, even if it was something as dreary as filing and correcting typing mistakes. She could already feel the ache in her knuckles and fingers from the typing she’d be doing, addressing issues that other hunters should have fixed the first time through, but it was better than being stuck down in that dungeon.
The first file she pulled was an after action report written and filed by another hunter from her section, detailing an interrogation he’d done on another contact that they’d been cultivating. She’d heard about it, but she’d been too wrapped up in dealing with Finnigan to really take note of what the others were doing. Reading over the report, though, she was dismayed to find that the interrogation had turned up what Finnigan had thrown at her: there was word on the street that the Order was going to be attacked. She sighed and pulled out her red pen, marking down the spelling errors and typing mistakes she’d need to correct.
“Living vicariously through field reports, Maggie?”
She jumped in her chair, sending a streak of red across the paper and causing her to curse. Looking up, she stared daggers at Daniel. He pretended to be hurt by the glare, placing a hand over his chest and staggering back before chuckling and sliding his hand back into his pocket.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help it. How’s it going? Looks like Taskmaster gave you the most soul-crushing thing he could find for you to do,” he offered, an apologetic smile crossing his lips
“It could be worse,” she said, silently reminding herself of what she’d had to do not more than ten minutes earlier.
“It could be, it could. How’ve you been? I don’t even see you in the mess for dinner now. Everything alright?”
She bit the inside of her cheek, trying to figure out what the answer to that question was. She was doing alright. Sure, the work was awful and she’d much rather be in the field, but it hadn’t been a real punishment. The worst thing was going downstairs to feed Jasen his weekly intake. Both times she’d gone down she’d felt like coming out of her skin and bolting back upstairs. Every time she went down there, she was reminded that he was a different breed than the dredges of the underworld that she was accustomed to dealing with. It was a reminder that did nothing to assuage her unease at being tasked with feeding him, nor did it lessen the growing disdain she had for herself for treating him as poorly as she did.
“Yeah, fine. Just not feeling very social. What about you Danny boy?”
“Oh you know me, I always take care of myself. Keeping my nose clean and staying out of serious trouble, and all that sort,” he offered, rocking back and forth from his heels to the balls of his feet. “We just got back from Ennis, clearing out a den. Took three of the bastards down without much trouble.”
“Did they say anything about attacking us?”
“One of them told us to piss up a rope and go for a climb, but other than that, no, nothing; why do you ask?”
“I’ve been filing these reports and correcting them, like you see,” she said, motioning to the stack in her inbox. “And a few of them have had references in detail about these leeches banding together to take down the Order. Not just empty threats. They had substance to them.”
Daniel furrowed his brow and tucked his hands into his pockets, mulling it over. She hadn’t let what Finnigan had said drop since their botched job in Limerick, but the fact it was mentioned in other reports was a little disconcerting. Still, his gut wasn’t telling him to be worried about it, and if he trusted anything, it was his gut. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.
“Report it up, I guess. But I still don’t think there’s anything to them. Sure we’ve only got about forty people here now, and less than half of our hunter corps, but we’re more than a match for those morons. We’ve got home turf advantage, too.”
“You’re probably right,” she said, turning back to the paper in front of her and letting out a sigh. She circled another typing error in red and continued down the page. Daniel rolled onto the balls of his feet before rocking onto his heels again.
“Hey, you wanna grab a drink tonight, after you’re done? Kinda feel like unwinding after all that in Ennis.”
“Maybe. I’ll come by your room if I feel like going out. Fair enough?” She didn’t look up from her paper as she continued working, circling another error and flipping over to the second page. Not expecting anything more out of the conversation, Daniel just gave a nod and patted her shoulder as he stepped past her toward the mess hall.
Maggie waited until he was well on his way down the hall before setting her pen down and pinching the bridge of her nose. She’d told Warrick about it. He’d told her not to worry about it, even though he still mentioned it to Captain Barclay. The good captain had politely ignored her concerns, of course, but she hadn’t expected any less from the pantywaist. She’d told her father, and he’d done essentially the same thing, though he’d at least entertained her concerns a bit longer. Reporting it up was pointless, at least right now; it hadn’t accomplished anything, and she still had that sinking feeling in her gut that something was wrong. She wouldn’t be able to do anything about it for at least another couple of weeks, though, so she had to sit here, in the typing pool, stewing in her anxiety.
She rubbed her eyes and snatched the report over to the side of her desk, spooling a piece of paper into her typewriter before starting to type the error-laden report again.
Good stuff bro. Quit taking breaks. I have to go back and reread stuff. I have that problem Dory the fish has ya know? I think...
I'm sorry! A lot of stuff going on, a lot of irons in the fire so to speak. But I will be on my regular schedule from here on out, and I'm going to post another chapter this week (probably Friday) to make up for the gap. Fair enough?