by Nolan, Kait
“Find her,” growled Mackey at a nearby group.
Well that answers that.
The sergeant gestured and the pair of meatheads trying to cut off circulation in his arms hauled him out of the ring and forced him to his knees before Mackey. “Who are you?” he demanded.
Gage put on his best outraged celebrity face. “I’m Cade Shepherd. What the fuck is this about? Let me go.” He jerked experimentally against the hold on his arms. He could shove to his feet, get loose, but he wouldn’t get far.
“Your little… manager has disappeared.”
“So what?” Gage asked, trying to interject boredom in his voice. “She probably just got lost on the way back from the bathroom. This whole fucking place is a maze.” Please, dear God, don’t let them find her. He nodded at her escort. “I thought he was supposed to bring her back.”
As Mackey’s reddened face turned toward him again, the soldier took another step in retreat. “I… I was. But she was mighty sick. Throwing up. Said she’d be a while and didn’t want me to miss the fight.” His cheeks reddened as he realized he’d been taken.
“Fucking idiot!” snapped Mackey. “Take them to the detention level. Pattenson, Rictor. Take your teams and make a sweep. Find that woman.”
Gage was hauled to his feet and marched toward the same doors through which Adan had entered. “What the hell, man!? I’m a U.S. citizen! You can’t do this to me! I have rights!”
Nobody paid a bit of attention to him. Their contingent had eight guards. Gage noted that they hadn’t taken the time to put Adan back in his shackles and chains, and clearly they weren’t worried about him personally. He cataloged the route as they marched. Down the corridor, into a large elevator. Down more than ten floors below.
How the hell were they going to get out of this?
* * *
Embry’s heart slammed into triple time as the alarm blared. Fuck. Clearly her absence had been discovered. But she didn’t slow the fingers that flew over the keyboard. She checked the video feed of the security camera just outside the lab. No one yet. She’d made it through the first three firewalls and was beating her head against the fourth.
“C’mon. C’mon,” she chanted.
She was almost there. She’d almost cracked the security around the information on Level 36. It was an awful risk she was taking, banking that this was where her father was being held. But there wasn’t time to search the entire system, certainly not now that the soldiers had been alerted. It was a calculated risk.
Her eyes went to the video feed again. Still nothing.
Just another few minutes…
There! She was in.
She accessed a separate video feed for Level 36, and the widescreen monitor was swallowed by a grid of cameras. Each one focused on a different room. No, not rooms, Embry realized. Cells. It was a detention level. Even from the tiny images, she could tell the walls were iron. There were narrow cots in some of the rooms. A metal toilet. And prisoners. So many prisoners. “Oh my God.”
Conscious that she could be found any minute, Embry scanned each cell, searching for a familiar broad shouldered figure. And though she saw many Mirus species represented—Christ, they even had a banshee— her father was not among them.
“Damn it!” Her fisted hands struck the table and rattled a rack of test tubes further down.
She didn’t have any more time. There was no telling how they’d reacted when the alarm was triggered. No telling what they were doing to Gage. Her heart clenched at that, terror for his safety weakening her limbs. She needed to move to get that power grid down.
Resolved, she closed out of the cellblock video feed, intending to upload the virus and get out. Then she saw the folder labeled Project Prometheus. What have we here? She opened the folder and clicked on an icon.
Of course the files were encrypted. That could wait for later. She dragged the lot of them onto a portable hard drive, fidgeting impatiently as they transferred at a snail’s pace. You’d think the government would have something faster than USB 2.0.
She checked the video feed to the hall again and thought about killing the lights. But here, a dark room would be more suspicious than one with every light burning. As the files continued to transfer, she went over the schematics she’d pulled up for the rest of the base. A main power generator was one floor up. If she could take it out, they might have a shot. Assuming none of the bunker doors sealed as a result. Blowing through iron would take more time than they could steal. And there was the tiny matter of not knowing where either Gage or her father were at this moment.
The files finished transferring. She dragged the virus file onto the desktop. Taking one last look at the hall on the monitor—still empty—she snagged the hard drive, stuffing it into one of the pockets of her cargo pants, and double clicked the virus. The entire network would crash in minutes.
She raced into the hall, making for the stairwell. Just as she reached it, the elevator doors slid open. Bolting inside, she heard the shouts behind her as she ran up to Level 32. Footsteps pounded from above and below, a staccato beat punctuated by the panicked thrum of her heart. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Of course nothing here burns. She dove through the door for SL-32, no longer trying to hide, just to make it to the generator. Taking precious seconds, she heated the knob to molten, praying that the lock would fuse. Then she ran.
There were soldiers on this level. She could hear them down the hallway, doing a sweep of the rooms. Closing in.
She wasn’t going to make it out. Not from this far down, this deep in the belly of the beast. The realization of it bled through her. But she had no time to mourn. She had to take out that generator. She had to give her father and Gage a chance.
The door was locked. Every damn thing in this base was locked. Riding on temper and desperation, she blew the lock apart, the door flying back on its hinges, warped and blackened. If they didn’t know exactly where she was before, they did now.
Embry raced through, following the conduit pipes down another hall and to the right. And there they were. Not one generator, but a series of five. The drone of them echoed off the concrete walls of the big room. She wouldn’t be able to hear anybody coming. But there was only one way in, one way out.
Positioning herself halfway between the generators and the hallway, Embry dropped her shields and released the fire. Flames spun out from her hands in each direction, flowing like water exactly where she directed it. With one stream she blocked the entrance. Hopefully it would be too hot for the soldiers to approach, and hot enough to melt any bullets before they got to her. The other stream she let build and swell, stretching to encompass all five generators.
The steel began to creak and groan as it expanded. Faintly, beneath the roar of flame, Embry could hear shouting. They’d found her.
Her limbs began to shake as she cranked up the heat. Pain pulsed through her brain from the effort of controlling both streams at differing levels of intensity. Sweat trickled down her brow, evaporating before it reached her chin.
Something popped. At first, Embry thought her fire wall wasn’t keeping the bullets at bay. Then she realized with a series of successive snaps that the rivets on the generators were flying loose and bouncing off the concrete walls. Steam began to billow. Almost there…
With a scream of metal, the first generator blew. She dove to the floor as shrapnel flew through the air. A second and third explosion rocked the base as the next ones exploded. Debris rained down, burning her clothes, slicing her flesh. The wall of flames blocking the hallway was extinguished, but she managed to maintain the line to the generators. There were people in the hall, hesitating to cross the superheated threshold. Unable to re-establish the fire wall, she shot a succession of fire balls to hold them at bay until she could demolish the last two sources of power.
Thinking of Gage and drawing deep on her fire, she threw one last burst toward the remaining generators. With an explosion that left her deaf and half blind, she succeeded. Then everything went
dark.
Chapter 10
“Where are you taking me?” Gage demanded.
The question, like all the others he’d tossed out, went unanswered. Christ, he needed intel. Embry was somewhere in this bunker with hundreds of highly armed soldiers seeking her out. She needed backup. She needed an entire goddamned team of functional Shadow Walkers, not a has been and a Walker that had been beaten, tortured and who knew what else. But they were all she had.
She and Adan were all he had.
A radio squawked. “Breach on Level 32! Breach! Get a goddamned fire crew down here!” A volley of gunfire punctuated the transmission.
Fear fisted around his heart.
“Bravo team, we need backup!” Static was interrupted by more gunfire and screaming. “The generator—”
When the elevator lurched to a halt, Gage was ready. Taking advantage of their imbalance, he drove an elbow into one of his captors’ ribs and broke the knee of the other. Amid chaos and shouting, the lights went out. Instinct had him intercepting the nearest man and slamming his head into the wall. Behind him, he heard the sound of fists on flesh, the crunch of bone, and the telltale thud of bodies. Someone slammed the butt of a gun into his shoulder. He spun, driving a knife hand into the pressure point under his opponent’s arm, following with open-handed strikes to his ears. His body had barely hit the floor before Gage was feeling around the roof of the car. “Where the hell is the trap door?” Urgency was a frantic drumbeat in his blood. Embry. Have to get to Embry.
Gage could sense Adan a few feet away, but couldn’t see him in the thick black that should’ve been clear as day. So much for Shadow Walker skills coming back under duress.
“I’d ask how you came back from the dead, but I figure that’s a story that’ll have to wait until we get out of here. Why can’t you see?”
“Lost my mojo. Flying blind here.”
There was a click and a creak as Adan found and opened the top hatch. “You don’t have your Walker skills. How the hell did you think you were going to get out of here?”
“This was supposed to be a recon mission. Embry didn’t think that far ahead.”
Adan’s hand clamped around his arm. “Embry’s here?”
“Who do you think blew up the generator? We’ve got to get to Level 32.”
“Where are the backup teams?” he demanded.
“There are no backup teams. The Council refused to mount a rescue mission. Embry would be here on her own if Matthias hadn’t told her where to find me.” Putting an end to the discussion, Gage boosted himself through the hatch and clambered onto the roof of the elevator car.
Adan followed. “How could he let her do this?”
“With all due respect, there’s no letting Embry do anything, and you know it. What level are we on?”
“Looks like between 35 and 36. We’ll have to climb up and force the doors.”
His eyes were adjusting to the dark. Shapes were beginning to emerge from the deeper black. It was a start. “I’m guessing we didn’t catch a break with a ladder up the shaft?”
“Of course not. You still up to pulling yourself up a cable?”
Moving over to the nearest one, Gage wrapped a hand around the thick steel. “I can still outstrip you. The question is, can you climb with that rib?”
“I’ll do what needs to be done to get to my daughter.”
The faint echo of explosions reached them from above.
“Up, up, and away then.” Bracing his feet against the wall of the elevator shaft, Gage began to haul himself up the cable.
For a few minutes they said nothing, and the only sound was of scrabbling feet and the creak of cables. Gage could hear the strain in Adan’s breathing with each passing foot. The pop of gunfire got louder as they neared Level 32. He shoved back the terror that crawled through him. As long as they were shooting, she was still alive.
“Do you know anything about what we’re about to get into? Have you seen much of the base?” he asked.
“Not enough. I’ve been kept on the detention level along with about two dozen other Mirus,” replied Adan. “If we’re lucky, some of them have gotten loose.”
“Two dozen? So much for the Council hoping that they thought you were an aberration.”
“The Council are fools,” spat Adan. “They’re living in another century. It was only a matter of time before we were discovered. Stop here. The ledge is to your left.”
“I see it. Not well, but I see it.”
Gage worked his way over, testing for handgrips and footholds. Adan did the same until they were each perched on the narrow ledge. They each dug fingers into the edge of the elevator doors, prepared to force them open.
“Do you have any kind of plan?” asked Adan.
“Try not to die. Get Embry out. Other than that, winging it.”
A hand reached out, gripped his shoulder. “Be careful, son.”
“Always.”
His muscles strained as he hauled to the left, struggling to make just enough gap for their fingers to get a better grip. A narrow band of flickering light appeared. There, then gone again. They pulled again. The gap came back and Adan swore as the doors pinched down on his fingers. But it was enough space for Gage to slide his in. With one more concerted effort, they opened the doors onto Level 32 and stepped into hell.
The main power was clearly out, but the faint red glow of emergency lights illuminated the scene well enough. The shadows were broken by flashes of flame from further down the hall. The corridor was clogged with people. Most were armed. A steady stream of wounded were being passed through the chaos. No one seemed to notice them slipping from the elevator shaft.
Gage could make out a fire hose snaking in the direction of the gunfire and noise, and he signed to Adan. Can you Walk to her?
His foster father’s hands moved quickly. I’ll get us as close as I can. He laid a hand on Gage’s shoulder, and Gage felt the dark wrap around him. Sound muffled and slowed. Before them, a series of narrow black paths criss-crossed the scene. Adan pulled him onto the nearest bridge. Gage felt his body clench in protest, and fought to relax, to give himself up to the shadow.
But the shadow did not want him.
Adan’s hand slipped loose, and Gage dropped down in the middle of a scorched hallway, narrower than the main corridor.
“What the fuck?” the soldier nearest him exclaimed. Before he could raise his weapon, Gage knocked him out with a well placed elbow strike. His hands closed around the gun, and he came up swinging with it as others noticed him. He fought like a machine, cold, steady, unstoppable. Moving forward, gaining ground.
He was two and three deep with bodies. Dead or unconscious, he didn’t know. Adan had disappeared. Gage hoped like hell that he’d get to Embry and Walk her out of this God forsaken mess. Her survival was all that mattered.
* * *
Embry launched another fireball at the narrow entrance to the generator room. Someone screamed. They returned fire, and she sank back down behind what remained of one of the big turbines. No human could tolerate the residual heat from the explosion, and even Embry was sweating. Her body shook with fatigue. In this real world test of just how far her powers could go, she felt like she was losing. She’d expended too much on the generators themselves. Instead of being able to simply seal off the entrance to the room with a wall of flame, she was reduced to answering their volleys of bullets with fireballs.
She’d killed men. Burned them. But more kept coming, and the siege went on. And on.
She fired off another round, knocking a soldier who’d dared to cross the threshold back into his comrades.
Surely by now she’d drawn the attention and fire of every unit in the base.
Something moved behind her to the left. She led with flames as she whirled to face the threat.
He caught them, tossing the ball of fire from hand to hand like a football, as he gave a familiar, if bloody, lop-sided grin. “Got a light?”
“Dad!” Relief surg
ed through her, and with it came a welcome surge of hope. She threw herself at him.
He fired off the round and caught her, grunting a little as she squeezed. “Good to see you, Spitfire.”
Embry pulled back, conjuring enough light to survey his injuries. He was covered in soot, sweat, and blood. Scrapes and scratches ran the length of his limbs. One eye was purpled and swollen mostly shut. The rest of his face was mottled with bruising, new and old. He was shirtless, and Embry noted additional splotches of livid purple over his ribs.
“You look like shit.”
“Well, Gage had to make it look convincing.”
“Gage? He fought you?” Before he could respond, her brain kicked into gear. “You. You were his opponent for the exhibition match.”
A spray of bullets whizzed above her head. She and her father answered with a volley that drove the front line back a good ten feet into the hall to escape the heat.
“Where is he?” she asked.
“Somewhere back there. I tried to Walk us both through, but the shadows couldn’t hold him. I dropped him in the middle of the fighting in the hall and came straight to check on you.”
Embry felt her blood run cold as she imagined him, defenseless by Mirus standards, fighting amid the dozens of soldiers with guns and knives and who knew what. Steeling herself, she resumed a defensive stance. “My position is stable. I’m not going anywhere, but they can’t come in either. He needs your help. He doesn’t have any of his abilities.”
“We need backup,” said Adan.
“So tell me something I don’t know. Unless you’ve got a small army hiding out here… Wait. The other prisoners. Would they fight?”
“Most of them probably would,” he said.
“Can you get down to the detention level to release them? I don’t know if anybody got out when I took out the power.”
