Strangelets Read Online Free Page A

in, there’s a way out, aye?”
    The smaller boy hesitated. “We’ve tried all day. Nico is correct. There is no way out.”
    Declan frowned, wondering if they were having him on. He said, “Maybe I’ll just take a look myself, then.”
    The blond, Nico, shrugged and drank some water. “If you like.”
    They watched as he sidled past and continued down the hall. It hooked right and ended at a set of double doors. Declan looked them over, then stepped closer. Oddest set of doors he’d ever seen—no handle visible, no lock to pick. He gave one side a push, testing it. Nothing. He tried again, pressing harder, then leaned against it with all his body weight.
    The door didn’t budge. He did the same on the other side, and finally stopped, panting and sweating.
    A low chuckle behind him. He turned to discover both boys standing where the hallway hooked, watching him. The Paki looked sympathetic, but Nico was smirking. “We told you,” he said.
    Declan ignored him. He ran his fingers all the way around the perimeter of the door. There was a tiny slit, it seemed nearly airtight. Still …
    “We find something long and thin, we can run it along the seam, see? Maybe work it open that way.”
    “We’ve already looked,” the Paki said. “There is nothing here but water.” He held out a bottle. “Would you care for some?”
    Declan resisted the urge to smack it away; the kid was just being sociable, after all. “Thanks, but no.”
    “My name is Zain,” the Paki said.
    “Declan.” He glanced around. On the plus side, no security in sight. But maybe they didn’t need it, with doors like this. He pulled out his mobile; bloody Vodafone, the network never worked when you needed it to. “Any of you got a signal?”
    “No,” Nico said, an edge to his voice. “Don’t you think we would have tried that already?”
    “I don’t have a phone,” Zain said apologetically.
    “So there’s no one else about?”
    The two boys looked at each other. “No one,” Nico said grudgingly. “We checked every room.”
    “Except the one you were in,” Zain added. “That door was locked.”
    “Didn’t hear me calling out, though?”
    They both shrugged and shook their heads. “The rooms must be sound-proofed,” Zain said.
    “That’s odd, isn’t it?” Declan mused, looking down the hall. A plain white linoleum floor, white walls, a white tile ceiling. Long, thin fluorescent bulbs cast them all in a greenish glow. It smelled oddly musty, lacking the overpowering ammonia stench of most hospitals. “No nurses or docs?”
    “We told you, no one,” Nico grunted. “We’ve sat there for hours, waiting.”
    “So you’re ill, then?” Declan asked. They looked chipper enough, even though the Paki could use a sandwich.
    They exchanged another look. Clearly he’d arrived late to this particular party.
    “We were discussing that when you came out of your room,” Zain finally answered. “Comparing notes, so to speak. I am from in New Delhi. I was in my room, studying. Everything started shaking, and suddenly, the wall, it just … it was not there anymore. It felt like an earthquake. Almost.”
    “An earthquake, eh?” Declan furrowed his brow. He hadn’t felt anything like that. And there was no way they’d transport quake victims from New Delhi to Galway—wouldn’t make any sense at all. Maybe this one
was
a bitsoft in the head. He turned to the blond and asked, “What about you?”
    “I was hiking,” Nico said, examining his hands. “In the United States.”
    Definitely mad, the lot of them
, Declan thought. Brilliant. He’d been stuck in a bloody nuthouse. Best to humor them until someone who wasn’t completely crackers showed up. He nodded as if that all made perfect sense. “Of course. Declan Murphy, from Galway,” he said, extending a hand.
    “Ireland?” As Zain shook, his voice was suffused with pleasure. “I have always wanted to see Ireland.”
    “It’s grand. And you, then,” he said