S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND, Season One Omnibus by Saul Tanpepper

It’s not like there’s going to be a blinking sign pointing the way: Access to illegal tunnel to LI .
    Micah pulls into a deserted parking structure and stops the car. We’re the only ones there. We get out and follow Reggie, who’s got his Link held in front of him like a divining rod. After a few minutes, we reach the end of building and he points out about a hundred feet. “Should be right about…there.”
    All I can see is a big gaping pool of water, roughly three hundred feet wide. It stretches out for at least a quarter mile until we lose it in the distance.
    â€œ Look! You can see the sides of the entrance ramp there!” He thrusts his arm to the right and, sure enough, we can see part of the ancient roadway surfacing a few hundred feet away, looking like the tongue of sleeping beast hanging out of its wet mouth. He swings his hand in the opposite direction and adds, “So, that walkway there should be the old overpass covering the mouth of the tunnel.”
    Ashley pulls out the reassembled tablet and boots it up. The thirty or so seconds it takes feels like forever. Old tech, I think to myself. How did people ever have the patience for it? Makes me realize how lucky we are to be constantly connected, constantly on.
    When it’s ready, Ash opens an old photograph of the tunnel entrance and we all crowd around to see. The resolution’s horrible, but now we can see the familiar landmarks. The walls look to have been constructed from hewn stone. The tunnel opening stops approximately twelve or fifteen feet below the top of the overpass. Now, only the upper five or six feet of the structure are above water, but there’s a muddy high tide line just below the surface of the road.
    â€œ Must be connected to the river here,” I say.
    Micah nods. “Half of lower Manhattan is.”
    There’s no water in the photo, of course, just ancient cars going into and out of the tunnel.
    â€œ Shall we try and get closer?” Micah says, extending his elbow to Ashley.
    She twines her arm around his and answers, “We shall.” They’re acting like this is all a game. I’m actually feeling a little giddy myself.
    Micah, Kel and I follow. We go down a couple flights of stairs and reach a sidewalk that surrounds the building. To the left is a loading platform for watercraft. It’s probably less than fifteen years old, but it looks much older. To the right, the walkway arches out past the edge of the building.
    Kelly holds back. “Seriously, guys? What are we doing? So we get closer. Then what? How’re you going to know if the tunnel’s open?”
    â€œ We draw straws,” I joke. “The winner gets to go swimming.”
    They all look at me. But I shake my head. “Except me. I left my medicine at home.”
    It’s got to be one of the lamest things I’ve said in a long time, and a really bad excuse to boot. Reggie laughs at me. He shakes his head and says, “Nobody’s going swimming. We’re just scoping things out today. I just want to see how close we can get. Next time we come back—tomorrow, maybe, or Saturday—we’ll be better prepared.”
    â€œ Prepared for what?”
    Reggie raises his eyebrows at Kelly. “Duh. A little exploratory work.”
    This clearly doesn’t please Kelly. He drags his feet while the others follow Reggie. I lag behind to walk with him.
    â€œ What’s this all about?” I ask him, when the others are out of earshot. “Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”
    â€œ What do you mean, Jess?”
    I roll my eyes. I don’t know what else to say that won’t make things worse, so we walk along for a few more minutes without speaking. Then he elbows me and gives me a wry smile. “I can’t believe you forgot your inhaler. Tsk, tsk. What’s the Colonel going to say?”
    â€œ Grandpa doesn’t know.” I shove him