by P. T. Hylton
For a moment, the Colosseum was silent. The team waited, no one even daring to breathe.
Then a howl came from the lobby, splitting the air with its piercing cry.
Immediately, the nerves Alex had been wrestling with since they’d entered the tower were gone. The thing she’d most feared had happened. There was no longer any reason for dread. It was time to act.
She shouted down to the team on the stage below. “Eyes on the exits. Form up and watch your lines.”
A door on the north side of the Colosseum burst open, and a vampire charged down the aisle toward the team.
Patrick immediately fired, dropping the charging vampire with his shotgun.
The vampire fell, but no one celebrated. Their headlamps were all pointed toward the now open door, and their lights reflected off dozens of sets of eyes in the darkness beyond.
17
Alex tore her gaze away from the eyes shining from behind the door and looked up at the ceiling above them.
“Owl! How high up is that?” she asked.
Owl shot her a confused looked.
“How high’s the ceiling? Your best guess.”
The pilot shifted her gaze upward. “Over one hundred feet. Maybe one twenty.”
Alex nodded. That was about what she’d figured too. She’d just wanted someone to give her a sanity check before she risked all their lives. She hurried across the catwalk to Wesley, addressing the team as she went.
“Make sure nothing gets through those doors. We have them bottlenecked now, but that won’t last. Hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” came the chorus of replies.
By that point she’d found what she’d needed in Wesley’s pack. “Good. Then light ‘em up.”
She took one last look at the domed ceiling, trying to decide whether what she was about to do was crazy. The answer wasn’t hard to come by; of course it was crazy. But there was no way they were getting out of this room the way they’d come in. This was their only shot.
She activated her jetpack and rocketed upward.
As she flew, she kept one eye on the team working below. Owl, Wesley, and Ed had taken sniper positions at various spots in the rafters and were methodically picking off the vampires that squeezed through the doors. Patrick and Chuck were making their way closer to the doors, giving themselves a better position from which to attack. Firefly had his people in tight formation around him on the west side of the stage, waiting to take out any vampires that came from that direction.
Another set of doors burst open, and two dozen vampires piled into the doorway, all fighting to get through to their prey.
Patrick and Chuck opened fire, sending a barrage of ammunition tearing through the vampires squeezing past their brethren and into the Colosseum.
Yet another set of doors burst open, these ones on Firefly’s side of the auditorium. Two vampires immediately fell, victims of precise headshots by Ed and Wesley. Firefly’s recruits went to work on the rest.
Despite everything that was happening, Alex flushed as a rush of pride hit her. This was her team taking care of business. This wasn’t just some collection of fresh recruits with potential—not anymore. This was the GMT. They were staring overwhelming odds in the face and never flinching.
Still, a few vampires were breaking through. Only one or two at a time now, but that wouldn’t last long. Which was why Alex needed to finish her work as quickly as possible.
“Alex, we need you down here,” Owl called up to her. “There are too many of them."
“Just finishing up,” Alex said. Another moment, and she was ready to join in the fray. And none too soon.
She dropped down from the ceiling, using a small burst from the jetpack to control her fall. She held her pistol in one hand and a detonator in the other.
“Wesley, Ed, Chuck!” she shouted. “Get on the ground.”
They obeyed her order without hesitation, immediately leaping off the rafters and gliding to the floor.
Alex touched down just as three vampires rushed at Firefly’s right flank. He didn’t see them, but that was all right. She did.
She sprinted toward them, weapon raised. Three shots and three kills. In the chaos, Firefly didn’t even know she’d saved his life.
With those three taken care of, she spun back toward the door, and what she saw made her heart sink. Vampires were pouring in by the dozens now through six different sets of doors. There was no fighting them off. It was time.
She looked at her team, and time seemed to stop. She couldn’t have been prouder of them. And now she was either going to end their lives or save them. She took a deep breath, held it for just a moment, then pressed the detonator.
The force of the blast hit her like a punch to the chest even though the explosion was a hundred feet over her head. She was knocked back and landed on her ass. As she pulled herself to her feet, she looked up and saw her plan had worked.
She’d blown a thirty-foot hole in the ceiling of the Colosseum.
The edges of the hole bent under the pressure as sand poured into the room. Hitting the center of the stage in an unceasing cascade, it began to pile up, filling the air with dust.
Alex cursed herself for not anticipating that. She’d made sure her team was far enough from the stage to avoid being buried, but she hadn’t considered what the influx of sand would do to the air.
She touched her radio and shouted into her headset. “Gas masks! Now!”
She pulled on her own mask, then scanned the room for her teammates. It was difficult to see through the dusty air, but she spotted a few of them straight away. She also spotted the vampires.
To her amazement, they appeared to be gathering together near the doors. It was like they were regrouping, considering how to continue their assault.
The GMT didn’t give them time. As one, the team resumed their attack, firing on the gathered vampires, taking them down and whittling away at the horde even as more vampires poured through the doors to join it.
Alex felt something touch her ankle as she downed another vampire, and she spun toward it, expecting to see a hostile clawing at her leg. But it wasn’t a vampire; it was the sand. She gazed at the stage in awe, shocked at how massive the pile of sand had become and how far it had spread.
Then it happened, the thing she’d been hoping for since she’d thought of blowing a hole in the ceiling—the sun broke through the dust and sand, bathing the Colosseum in daylight.
The vampires began to shriek and jump back toward the doors. The sand coming through the hole had slowed to a dribble from just the right side now.
“Team, form up!” Alex shouted.
They gathered below the edge of the stage, well within the safety of the light.
“Holy shit, Captain,” Patrick said, his voice gleeful. “That was awesome.”
Alex scanned the group. Her entire team was accounted for and uninjured. Most of them were laughing as the combination of adrenaline and the euphoria of having survived such a close brush with death overtook them. Even Firefly was smiling. As were Henry and Mario.
Then it hit her. “Firefly! Where’s Shirley?”
Firefly blinked hard. “I… I don’t know.”
The team stood in shocked silence for a long moment.
Then Henry pointed to a large pile of sand on the west side of the auditorium near the stage. “She was standing over there.”
“Come on.” Alex marched toward the spot and immediately started digging. The rest of the team quickly joined her.
Firefly was the only one who held back. “Alex, you don’t know what that exposition might have done to the structural integrity of this place. We can’t stay here long. If Shirley got covered in the rush of sand, there’s no way—”
She whirled toward him, her teeth bared. “Shut up and dig.”
He stared at her in disbelief, and for a moment she thought he was going to argue. But then he nodded and got to work.
“Here!” Ed shouted. “I’ve got someth
ing!”
Alex rushed over, and sure enough, he’d uncovered a hand, the fingers opening and closing frantically, grasping at the sand as she futilely tried to pull herself out.
The team converged on that spot, quickly uncovered her arm, then her torso before finally pulling her free.
Shirley’s eyes were filled with confusion and wide with terror. She immediately stood up, then stumbled forward and fell on her face in the sand.
Alex dropped to her knees and put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re safe now. Lay here a moment and just breathe.”
Firefly kneeled next to her. “Alex, thank you. If you hadn’t—”
“Don’t talk to me right now, Captain,” she said, spitting out his title like a curse.
As angry as she was with him, she had to admit he hadn’t been wrong. There was no telling whether this room was safe, and they shouldn’t dawdle.
But they had the lights. They had jetpacks and there was a hole in the ceiling. Most importantly, they were all alive.
It was time to go home.
“You boys have a good sleep?” Toby asked Aaron and Mark.
Aaron nodded. “That we did. You?”
“No worse than last night and no better than the night before that.”
Aaron suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. Toby was full of dumb sayings like that, things that were needlessly confusing and barely made sense once you’d untangled them. It reminded him of the way his grandfather had talked. He supposed that made sense, though Toby had been born a couple hundred years earlier than Aaron’s grandfather.
For a while, the way Toby talked had nearly driven Aaron crazy, but now he’d come to terms with it. In fact, everything seemed a little easier to deal with now that they had their keycards.
Jaden had presented them to Mark and Aaron himself three days ago, two little squares of plastic that meant the difference between captivity and freedom in Agartha.
They hadn’t used them yet except when they were required for their job duties—that would have been foolish. Aaron had instructed Mark to do his best to forget he even had it. They would only use the keycards without authorization one time: when they made their move. And they were still waiting for that opportunity.
“I hope you don’t mind a little variety,” Toby said. “You’re going to have to run the storeroom without me tonight.”
Aaron could practically feel Mark looking at him, but he willed himself to keep his eyes focused on Toby. In as casual a voice as he could manage, he said, “That so?”
Toby nodded. “Jaden’s taking a scavenging crew out tonight. That means the rest of us get temporarily bumped up one slot. Robert is in charge. My boss is handling Robert’s usual duties. That means I have to handle his.”
“And we have to handle yours,” Mark said. “I think we can manage.”
“Good.” Toby pulled the radio off his belt and held it up. “You know how to reach me if you need me.” With that, he walked out the door, and they were alone.
Aaron tried to calm his spinning mind. He knew the patrols normally consisted of ten to twelve vampires. That left around ninety in Agartha. Still a lot to contend with, but slightly better odds than one hundred to two.
They waited three hours, both knowing this was their opportunity to take Agartha but neither even daring to speak it aloud to each other.
At the three-and-a-half-hour mark, Aaron turned to Mark. “It’s time.”
They left the storeroom without another word. Aaron was aware that whatever happened tonight, they would never work in that storeroom again.
They walked hurriedly down the hallway, working their way toward the security control room.
Aaron spoke in a low voice. “Once we have the control room, everything else will fall into place. We turn the security people first. Then we have them send out the emergency signal that Ferals are overrunning the defenses and all vampires are needed at the blast doors. When that happens, we can start turning more humans.”
“We open the outer blast doors, right?” Mark asked.
Aaron nodded. “Let the Ferals take out as many of the vampires as they can. Use the railguns to take out some of the stragglers. The humans we turn can wipe out the rest of them.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Mark confirmed. “I can’t wait for Jaden to get back with his team and see we’ve taken over the city. That’ll wipe the smug smile off his stupid face.”
They reached the first set of locked doors they’d need to pass through in order to reach the security control room. Aaron held his keycard up to the reader. Part of him was convinced alarms would immediately start blaring and vampires would drop from the ceiling to arrest them. Instead, the tiny light on the reader turned green and a soft click indicated the door was now unlocked.
They passed through two more sets of locked doors before they reached the security room. With each door, Aaron grew more confident. The feeling that Jaden or Robert was going to jump out at them faded, leaving determination in its place.
They paused just before they reached their destination.
“You ready?” Aaron asked.
Mark hesitated. “We each get to turn half the people in that room, right? I want vampire slaves too.”
“Yes, even split.”
“Then I’m ready.”
Aaron slowly raised his keycard, acutely aware that once they opened that door, there was no turning back.
Mark bent his legs slightly, preparing to leap inside the moment the door opened.
Aaron took a deep breath, used his keycard, and pulled open the door.
Mark’s eyes widened, and he froze, still partially bent down. Aaron followed his gaze into the security room, and he too froze.
Jaden and a dozen other vampires stood in the middle of the room, their expressions hard.
“Good evening, gentlemen,” Jaden said. “We’ve been expecting you.”
Jaden stood stone-still, his arms crossed, as the two young vampires entered the security control room. Mark look dumbstruck; he wore the expression of an animal that knew it had been spotted by a predator. Aaron, on the other hand, had a hungry, desperate look on his face. Jaden could practically see the wheels spinning in his mind.
“Jaden!” Aaron said. He spoke quickly, almost frantically. “What are you doing here? We thought you were out on an expedition tonight.” He gestured toward Mark. “His radio broke, so we were just coming to switch it out with a new one.”
Jaden ignored the obvious lie. “We’ve been watching you two closely, and we were well aware of your plan.”
The look in Aaron’s eyes shifted from one of desperation to one of defiance. “That so? Then how’d we get this far?”
“You didn’t get far at all. Your keycards don’t even work.” He cocked a thumb toward the bank of monitors. “We had Theresa here watching you on the security cameras and manually unlocking the doors when you swiped your cards. You were never actually free to move about the city. I just wanted to see what you’d do. Now I see we need to beef up security around our control room. So thank you for that.”
Aaron’s lip quivered as he fought the instinct to bare his teeth.
A casual smile appeared on Robert’s face. “You know what your problem is? You need to learn patience.
“Patience?” Mark asked. “We waited over a month.”
Jaden chuckled. “That’s what Robert’s saying. A month is nothing. If you wanted to earn our trust, you should have waited a decade or two. Then you might have had a chance of catching us off guard.”
After a moment, Aaron said, “What happens now?”
“That’s up to you,” Jaden said. “I’m a big believer in letting a vampire choose his own fate. So here are your options. We can kill you here and now and it’s over quickly. Or, you can choose banishment. We let you loose outside the city, and you take your chances in the wild.”
Mark let out a wild laugh. “That’s no choice at all. If you think I’m becoming a Feral again, yo
u’re even stupider than you look.”
Aaron whirled toward Mark. “Shut up!” Turning back toward Jaden, he continued. “I want to go out on my own terms. So does Mark, though he’s too stupid to realize it yet.”
“What? We said we’d never—”
“We’ll enjoy the world for a couple more weeks. Then, when our minds start showing signs of slipping, we’ll let the sun end things. Easy as that.”
“So that’s your decision?” Jaden asked. He looked at Mark. “Both of you?”
“Yes,” Aaron said immediately.
After a moment’s hesitation, Mark nodded.
“All right. Come with me.” Jaden didn’t bother restraining them. He knew if they tried anything, he could subdue them in seconds. That wasn’t even taking into account the nineteen vampires who had his back.
He led them to the blast doors. No one spoke; what was there left to say?
As the blast doors opened and the cold wind rushed in, he gave them one final warning. “If we find you anywhere near the city, we’ll kill you.”
Then Mark and Aaron walked out into the night.
18
Alex marched into the Hub, trying to ignore the sore muscles that were trying to slow her steps and the weariness trying to cloud her mind. The two weeks of daily missions to the surface had taken their toll. Fleming had asked to meet with her to discuss logistics for upcoming missions, and she intended to use this opportunity to tell him in no uncertain terms that the team needed a break. It was both cruel and unwise to push them this hard. They needed to be sharp on the surface. Keep this up, and they’d be looking for more replacement GMT members soon.
Besides, all these missions left little time for plotting with CB and Kurtz.
Technically, she probably should have alerted CB to this meeting. He was her superior officer, and she knew he’d want to be present when she met with Fleming. But she knew CB was being run just as ragged, though his overwork came in the form of endless meetings and reports. She didn’t want to bother him with this. Also, Fleming’s invitation had been so unexpected, it had caught her off guard. She hadn’t even seen Fleming in weeks. All his orders had come to her through Firefly or CB.
