by Chele Cooke
She wasn’t sure how much she liked the plan either way, but she nodded to Dhiren once they reached ten, and they both slipped inside.
Dhiren closed the door behind them and the two descended side by side, creeping down the first set of stairs. They gradually increased pace, dropping faster and faster until they were leaping down two steps at a time, hurtling around corners. Georgianna’s pulse thrummed, surging with every step. Whether Dhiren was hanging back for her sake, or he didn’t dare go faster, he stayed in stride as they passed the first set of doors.
One floor. Two…
She raced past doorways without giving them a second glance. Alec and Halden had taken her out hunting once, even though her brother was almost as terrible at it as she was. She remembered Alec’s advice: don’t get distracted, always look at where you want to shoot. Georgianna kept her gaze fixed ahead. She would be able to hear a door opening off her to side, but nothing other than looking would stop her foot missing a step and sending her tumbling down the stairs.
Three floors down and Dhiren had to leap over an Adveni out cold on the floor. Who had taken him out? Alec? Keiran? Georgianna’s chest clenched and ached, a scream fighting to break free. She grabbed the railing and hurled herself forwards, eager to get as far away as possible.
Four floors. Five…
They were almost there. She could hear the echoes of the others’ footsteps leading them along. Her heart pounded harder.
A door opened to their right. Georgianna leapt down the last three steps and spun around. The gun was already in her hand. It felt natural as she raised it, finding her target. The Adveni launched himself sideways into the wall, stumbling up the steps. The bullet tore off a chunk of concrete and the sound ricocheted along the stairwell.
Dhiren shoved her sideways.
“GO!”
He ran back up the stairs at the Adveni. The man scrambled to get away but Dhiren was too quick, slashing with his knife. Blood sprayed the concrete. A strangled, echoing cry—cut short as the blade jammed through the back of his neck. The Adveni slid from the knife. His fingers brushed the door handle as he fell to the floor.
Georgianna was rooted to the spot.
“I said, go!” Dhiren shouted as he leapt back down the steps. He flicked the knife and blood splattered across Georgianna’s boots.
He grabbed her by the arm and hauled her along, the way Keiran had done. Her legs felt heavy, too heavy to run at the speed Dhiren wanted from her. She tripped down the last two steps of the next flight and crashed into the wall, pain blooming through her shoulder.
Wiping the back of her hand across her mouth, Georgianna tried to focus on her breathing and the rhythm of her steps, shutting out the look of horror on the Adveni’s face. The man Dhiren had killed had been a civilian. He was just a normal guy, with no weapon and no armour. He probably worked doing reports, and hadn’t expected to be shot at in the stairwell.
Still, she had missed. She had once again proved that she didn’t belong here. Even though she had a gun instead of a knife, she still couldn’t get the kill.
“George, come on!”
Georgianna met Dhiren’s eye and fell into step beside him. This was a mistake, she knew it, but she could at least try to keep up and not put them in even more danger. She just had to focus on keeping up.
Dhiren kept a tight hold on her elbow all the way down, even swinging her around the corners. She kept pace now, racing past the sixth floor and down into the basement.
They were met by knives that were only lowered for a fraction of a second as they raced past. Finally letting go of her arm, Dhiren turned off to the left, Georgianna to the right, guarding the corridors as Wrench and Tohma went to work on the door.
Glancing over her shoulder, Georgianna saw Wrench slapping the Volsonnar’s detached hand down on the reader. It buzzed in a long low drone.
“Vtensu!” Wrench snapped. “It’s no good.”
“They made fast work of protecting it,” Dhiren said over his shoulder. “You’re up, Tech!”
Tohma shoved Wrench out of the way and dropped to his knees. The device he’d used on the roof was back in his hand. He laid a sheeting over the reader and connected it to the thin rod before inserting it into the lock.
“We’ve got to hope they haven’t had time to reconfigure the Mykahnol, or this has been for nothing,” Alec said over his shoulder.
Georgianna turned away, steadying the gun in her hand as she aimed down the corridor.
“Come on, come on, come on,” she said under her breath.
Tohma muttered to himself rapidly in his own tongue. He jerked the rod this way and that, according to the commands on his cuff. He readjusted the sheeting over the reader twice and even fitted what looked like half a cloth ball over the handle. The door continued to buzz in that low, monotonous tone.
“Come on, Tohma!” Keiran said. He crept up three steps and looked up the next flight before jumping back down. “How long?”
“Just quiet, alright?” Tohma muttered.
Hopping from foot to foot, Georgianna kept her gaze down the corridor. She longed to look over her shoulder, but stayed facing forwards.
Tohma slapped his hand down on the sheeting that covered the reader, turned the rod, and the door beeped, high and shrill. It swung open and Wrench let out a hoot before covering his mouth with both hands.
Alec waved them in before him. Georgianna walked backwards through the open door before she dared turn around.
“Suns,” Keiran whispered.
“Wow,” Alec said.
Georgianna couldn’t find the words.
The room spanned two storeys and the device in the centre stood all the way to the ceiling. Four metal pillars surrounded it, mirrors of the pillars that stood sentinel around the city. The core swirled and flickered, white flames of energy coiling around each other in a sea of blue and peach. From ceiling to floor, it burned so bright that it hurt to look at it.
She’d never known what it looked like; the weapon that killed thousands in one go, the weapon that had kept the Veniche under the control of the Adveni for so long, the weapon that might have killed her family. But there it was.
“There are two other doors,” Wrench said, pointing. “Dhiren, George, get them.”
Bright white spots blossomed in front of Georgianna’s eyes the moment she turned away from the Mykahnol. Blinking rapidly, she looked around. It was a large circular room with tall black boxes around every wall, each one whirring and beeping. The heat from the Mykahnol was so intense, it felt as if she were standing in the mid-Heat sun. She took the door on her left, between two tall black cabinets.
She pressed down on the handle; it was locked. A small display was fitted into the wall next to the door, but, unlike at the entrance, there was no palm-print reader. The door Alec and Keiran were guarding had a similar black panel beside it, gleaming amongst the bricks in the wall. It seemed that the Adveni didn’t care about people getting out of the room; they only cared who could get into it.
Dhiren took up a position opposite her, testing the door. He watched Tohma with interest as the Cahlven technician came to stand in front of one of the pillars and began furiously typing into a screen not much bigger than a tsentyl.
“Jesh,” Tohma said, and paused. A murmur replied through his headset and he began speaking rapidly in his own tongue.
He drew the screen towards him and checked something on the cuff around his wrist, relaying the information to Jeshrom up in the ship. Georgianna could hear the replies through the device in his ear, but it was too quiet to hear what was being said. Even if she could have heard, she assumed they were speaking the Cahlven language and she wouldn’t have understood it, anyway.
Tohma glanced around, spotting Wrench and waving him over.
“We need the permission.”
Wrench grimaced as he once again drew the Volsonnar’s grey dead hand from the cloth bag. He lay it against the reader, leaving a smear of blood along the edge. Th
e screen blazed blue and faded. On the far side, a second screen lit up and whirred in time with the boxes along the walls. It extended from the pillar, tipping up to face the ceiling. Tohma jumped to the side, peered around the core, and nodded.
“Did it work?” Alec asked.
“Yes,” Tohma said.
Wrench dropped the hand back into the bag, which he hooked through his belt. Moving around the Mykahnol, he drew the screen further from the opposite pillar and tugged it out as far out as he could, before crouching to get a look underneath.
“Putting in the transmitter,” Wrench said. Tohma relayed the information to Jeshrom.
Wrench pulled out a box the size of his palm and slid it underneath the screen. He turned and sat with his back against the pillar, his hands disappearing up and inside. Sweat was already creeping down his face and neck. Grunting, he looked over to Georgianna.
“George, come here.”
Georgianna holstered her gun and went to join him.
“I just need your hands, alright?” he said. “Get down here.”
He spread his legs as wide as he could and patted the ground between them. Georgianna knelt down. He took her hand in his and guided it up underneath the screen. Her fingers brushed hot metal.
“That’s it, just hold that as still as you can.”
He guided her other hand into position. The box was already warming with the heat of the Mykahnol. Her fingers twitched. This was no different from holding someone still while Jaid drew out an object from a wound. It was just another injury.
Wrench went to work. She couldn’t see what he was doing. The screen shone in her face until, after a snap of a wire, it flickered and changed.
The metal burned against her skin. She tipped her head back and breathed hard through her nose.
“Just one more…”
His fingers brushed against hers as he worked, and a searing pain shot through her little finger.
“Shit!” Wrench hissed. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. Keep going.”
He fitted the last connection in place and tapped her elbow. She pulled back to find blood dribbling down the side of her hand. A thin slice ran from nail to the pad of her finger. She wiped it on the side of her trousers and rose to her feet, helping Wrench up.
“Transmitter is in,” he said as he pushed the screen back into place.
“I am almost past the countdown,” Tohma said. “Jesh, start the connection.”
Pressing her finger against her thigh, Georgianna returned to the door. Across from her, Dhiren was smiling.
Wrench and Tohma continued to work. The Cahlven typed with a speed Georgianna had never seen before. His gaze never wavered from the screen as Wrench moved around the pillars and the devices along the walls, prying things open here, tweaking them there.
“Sixteen-minute countdown,” Tohma said. “Are you ready, Jesh?”
“Wait,” Wrench cut in, wrestling with a sheet of panelling. “I still need to reroute the warnings.”
Alec sprang away from the door and came to Wrench’s side, pulling at the panel.
Dhiren stepped away from the door. Tohma said something in his own tongue into the headset and waited.
Keiran peered at the panel.
“Come on, guys.”
“It’s stiff,” Alec said. “Just a little more…”
“I can get my hand in,” Wrench said. “Hold the panel.”
“We’ve got to get out of here.”
Dhiren moved out of his spot by the door, already halfway across the room when they heard it.
They all froze as a gun was cocked. The machines continued to whir. The screens bleeped in perfect time, but it was like every living person was rooted to the spot. Georgianna peeked out from her space next to the door.
Ehnisque stood behind Keiran in the doorway. Her grin was broad as she took the knife from Keiran’s hand and tossed it behind her. He didn’t fight. He raised his hands to either side of his head as she drew the weapon from his hip, throwing that aside as well.
“Actually, since my brother isn’t here to create another diversion,” she said, nudging the barrel against the back of Keiran’s head, “this time, you’re not going anywhere.”
“You really thought we would be so stupid that we wouldn’t protect this, after you told the commander that you were targeting it?” Ehnisque said, pushing Keiran forwards with the muzzle of the gun.
“Well, you did miss your brother’s treason for three years,” Dhiren said. “It was possible you were that stupid.”
Keiran glared at Dhiren, who simply shrugged, turning the knife in his hand.
Ehnisque lifted a tsentyl to her side. It was still closed into a cube and yet blue lines snaked across it as she spoke.
“Confirmed sighting. All available Tsevstakre to the basement of—”
“Wrench, keep working!” Keiran said quickly. Ehnisque pointed at them with the tsentyl.
“Stop right now or I blow his brains all over that core!”
Georgianna braced herself against the door, between the two cabinets. She covered her mouth with her hand, trying to keep her breathing quiet. She couldn’t be sure whether Ehnisque had seen her or not, but it was fear that was keeping her in place. She already had her gun out. She could fire the shot.
But she couldn’t move.
“Get to the Mykahnol,” Ehnisque said into the tsentyl. “All available Tsevstakre. Breach in progress.”
“They won’t get here in time. Or they won’t get out,” Keiran said.
Ehnisque’s cruel, mocking laugh reminded Georgianna of Maarqyn. It sounded nothing like Edtroka’s laugh. Ehnisque Grystch was nothing like her brother.
“You’ll never get that far,” she said. “You know that the commander has taken over from the Volsonnar, don’t you?” Ehnisque asked. “Your little leader did us a favour. The new Volsonnar won’t hesitate in ridding us of the little rat problem we’ve suffered for so long.”
“She can’t stop you alone, Wrench. Keep going!” Keiran said.
“I told you to stop!” Ehnisque squealed. Her voice cracked and Dhiren stepped towards her.
“You won’t be here to see him try, deesa,” he said, sneering. “You cared about your father as little as you cared about E’Troke, didn’t you?”
Ehnisque scoffed and shoved the gun against Keiran’s head with a thump.
“E’Troke was weak and stupid,” she said. “My father was a great man and his legacy will live on. The commander will reward me when I return his toys to him. Come to think of it, maybe I’ll keep you for myself. My brother seemed to enjoy you well enough.”
Dhiren’s grip tightened on the knife. His eyes narrowed to slits and he leaned back on his heel, ready to pounce. Steadying her grasp of the gun, Georgianna edged forwards. Dhiren shook his head and she froze.
“Oh, what? You think I didn’t know my brother’s tastes?” Ehnisque asked. “Men, women; it didn’t matter to him as long as they amused him. I always knew.”
Dhiren shook his head again. Georgianna couldn’t be sure whether he was telling her to stay put, or simply denying Ehnisque’s mockery. She didn’t know if there was anything she could do, anyway. Even if she sprung out from the cabinets, she would never be able to aim faster than Ehnisque, who had trained since she was a child. She would get herself shot; or, worse, one of the others.
Pressing herself back against the door, Georgianna’s elbow knocked against the handle.
“STOP!” Ehnisque screamed.
Georgianna pushed her hand against the panel and pulled down on the handle. The door swung outwards. Tohma glanced at her and quickly turned away.
“Start the countdown, Jesh,” he ordered, repeating the command in his own tongue as Ehnisque growled. A shot ricocheted off the pillar above Tohma’s head. Georgianna jumped back into the corridor. Tohma dropped to the ground but there was no blood. Ehnisque had missed.
Georgianna forced herself back against the corridor wall and took a
deep breath. Her hands were shaking so hard that she could barely holster the gun. She drew the knife from her left hip and moved it to her right hand.
She took one last look at Tohma and crept along the inside of the curved corridor.
“Where are my Tsev?” Ehnisque demanded.
Georgianna turned, stomach against the wall. She leaned back as far as she dared without risking Ehnisque’s seeing her. She had to get close. Dhiren had always told her that she couldn’t be scared to get close.
Around the bend in the corridor, she could see Ehnisque’s back. Her long hair was tied in a ponytail that hung down her back. She was standing half in the doorway.
Each step took an age, each breath so loud in her head that she clamped her mouth shut and didn’t dare draw another. The handle of the knife was slick with sweat. She stood, fixed against the wall.
She told herself again and again that she could do it.
This was their war: hers and Dhiren’s. He had said that he would be out of the battle when he knew Ehnisque and her father were dead. The Volsonnar was gone; Beck had taken care of that for them. Now it was her turn. Only Maarqyn would remain. She could end it if she could just get close enough.
She could do this.
She had to do this.
Georgianna pushed away from the wall, sprinting the last few steps around the corner. She grabbed Ehnisque by the hair. The Adveni shrieked in surprise and anger.
Georgianna tugged back Ehnisque’s head and lifted the blade. She sliced deep into her throat, tearing her surprise from her. The scream was replaced by the crack of her gun. She jerked and fell to the ground.
Ehnisque’s blood poured across the stones, the way Edtroka’s had done. She lay sprawled face-down, her eyes wide; the exact shade of brown as Edtroka’s. Georgianna found her breath with a burst of nervous laughter.
She looked up. The laughter died with Ehnisque. Dhiren looked on in horror, Keiran’s blood splattered over his face.
