His words shock me. “Shut up. How?” Excitement starts to dance in my stomach.
Owen explains to me that all week long, he’s been making arrangements. He helped set up a secret yoga class by sending materials and instructions through the tunnels to the other side. Where the tunnel came out on the inside, they have a helper known only as The Librarian. She has plans to every building in the elite district, and she carries out Owen’s instructions without ever getting her hands dirty.
“Wait a minute. Why would someone on the other side take instructions from you?” I ask, dread building in my stomach.
He studies my face for a moment, his grip on me becoming tighter, like he thinks I’m going to slip away from him. “Because I’m the leader of the Insurgence.”
“No, you’re not,” I say, laughing and leaning back in his arms.
His face doesn’t change and there’s no evidence of a joke pulling at his lips.
“Come with me,” he says, putting me down and taking my hand.
I throw on one of his shirts and a pair of shorts. I have no idea where he’s taking me, but I want to be dressed in case it’s somewhere cold. Owen, however, just walks around his place totally naked like it’s no big deal.
With our fingers locked together he leads me to the back of the room, behind the row of the brewery’s mammoth, empty, cone-shaped fermenters. He moves aside a stack of boxes and then pulls back the edge of the rug revealing an old wooden slab on the floor.
“See that door? It goes down to the old storage room. Open it.” He steps back a little, giving me room.
I look at the door in the floor and look back at Owen. Is this really happening?
Putting my hand on the brass handle, I pull on it and the door opens easily. I look down and see a narrow staircase leading down into the darkness.
“Go on.” He nods to the stairs.
“What? No way am I going down there.”
He smiles at me again, then pulls me into his arms and takes my mouth in a deep kiss. I melt into him, forgetting about the door and everything else. He does that to me. When he pulls back I’m breathing heavily.
“I’ll lead the way,” he says.
I tug on his hand and then look down. “You’ll lead the way with pants.”
His hard cock is pressing against me and though this doesn’t feel like the moment, I could really go for another round with him right now.
“Pants. But then I want more naked time,” he says, giving me a wink.
He walks back to our room and a second later appears with sweats hanging low on his hips. I’m tempted to tell him to get a shirt, too, but I like the view myself.
He descends the stairs into the darkness, and then I see a light come on. Looking down I see him holding a flashlight in one hand and holding out his other hand to me. Without hesitation I take his hand and go down the stairs. I trust him with my life, so even though it may seem crazy, I follow him into the creepy basement.
Looking around, it doesn’t appear to be any different than a normal storage area. Lots of metal equipment lines the walls, along with a few old kegs and tubes that are left behind from the brewery.
Then Owen walks over to one corner, where a pallet holds up a stack of empty kegs. He crouches down to the floor and reaches under the pallet, pulling out a rope. He moves an industrial black mat to reveal a small set of tracks indented in the floor. He pulls at the rope and I brace myself for the inevitable avalanche of kegs, causing certain head injuries to the both of us. Instead, the pallet moves smoothly, with everything piled on top of it intact.
The whole thing comes about two feet forward and nothing falls. I’m amazed, and after taking a closer look, it looks like all of the kegs have been welded together, forming one huge wall. He, or somebody, has gone to an enormous amount of trouble to hide the door to the tunnels.
“Are you going to come look at this or what?”
He winks at me standing behind the wall of kegs he just moved, waiting for me. In the cinderblock basement wall next to him is another door. It isn’t very visible and there aren’t handles to give it away, but when Owen leans against the blocks, the hidden door swings inward, revealing the secret tunnel.
I walk over and stand next to him, staring off into the darkness.
“So this is how it’s done? This is how you carry out attacks against the Regime?” I glance at him, feeling unsure about all this now. I don’t like the idea of anyone getting hurt on either side.