Usher's Harbour

Quinn moved along the passage until he reached the privacy screen. Once again, it had been turned on. It must have been on automatic reset; he was certain that they hadn't reactivated it when they left. He proceeded cautiously through it, his glolamp held high. A sharp report from the darkness beyond shattered the silence, and the lamp exploded in his hand. Instantly the blackness enveloped him, and he pressed himself against the nearest wall. "Projectile weapon," he thought. "He got here ahead of me." Several more bullets buzzed past him and pinged off the carbocrete walls. The hiss of a portal opening and closing nearby, then silence filled the Stygian void surrounding him. ... He slid along the wall, his arm outstretched, feeling his way. A few meters along, he felt a smooth edge, a break in the smooth wall. Following its contours, he determined that it was a low portal .... Opening it cautiously, centimeter by centimeter, he edged his head around the expanding opening. ... He slipped into the passage and stayed close to the wall, proceeding warily towards the light. ... He'd gone no more than thirty meters when a nearby movement caused him to advance more slowly and guardedly, back to the wall. A voice broke the shadowy silence. "Stay right where you are, professor. We wouldn't want anything unfortunate to happen to either of us, now would we?"