Sophia's left heel caught on a seam of one of the vent sections, and her head nearly slammed into the metal side if she hadn't reacted quickly enough to throw her forearm against it. She came to a complete stop, ignoring the smarting of her forearm. The crash echoed through the ventilation system, but other than that she couldn't hear a thing.
The air smelt acrid, and it burned at the back of her throat. She couldn't tell if it was something actually in the air or if it was the strange, broken chords that resonated in her head from violins and tubular bells. There was a single flute piping out high notes of panic that were staccato and painful. Sophia felt like there were hands on her chest and back, pushing against her when she attempted to inhale.
"You're the smallest," she said, in a mocking imitation of Alexander. "And the most flexible, you should be able to get through easy."
Sophia snorted and lowered herself down onto a slanted section of vent, using the incline to control her progress more easily than the vertical chute she had just came out of.
"Never mind that I'm a ballerina," she added to no one. "Not a fucking spy. I'm going to get killed in here, and then who will they get to break the seals, huh?"
The flute suddenly let out a blast that it would make if the flutist pushed as much air into it as possible. It was high and rough. Sophia looked down to a grate that was half a foot in front of her, and then reached out and grabbed it, pulling herself above it to look through. This must be where the strange music was coming from. It had haunted under the usual song of the town, making Sophia feel nauseated and unbalanced.
She pulled the grate up, wondering how far underground she was at this point. The air was damp - Maxwell had cut off the air conditioning before Sophia went into the ducts. She remembered he told her that the underground structures were close to a natural underwater spring. That must be why the air was so wet. At least she wasn't thirsty anymore.
Gripping the edge of the grate opening, Sophia rolled out and lowered her legs down slowly while holding herself in chin-up position. At this point she was thankful for the control yoga gave her over isolated parts of her body, as she had to quickly lift her legs back up and slide into the vent when she heard a door screech open.
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