Virtue of War

by L O Addison

“The Wardens still have guards pass through these tunnels, so they’ve rigged a lot of the traps like this,” Adrien explained. “A single person can pass through unharmed, but if a regiment of troops tries to go through…” He snapped his fingers, and the sound echoed ominously through the tunnel. “They all get fried.”

  Beck frowned at the boy. “You said you could get us through the tunnels. All of us.”

  “I can,” Adrien insisted. “We can all get through this way, as long as we take our time. The sensors on the trap reset every thirty seconds. All we need to do is enter one at a time, thirty seconds apart, and it’s perfectly safe.”

  Kaylin let out a relieved breath. “Okay. That’s easy enough.”

  Adrien shrugged as he started toward the side tunnel. “Most of the outer tunnels are simple enough to get through, as long as you have a map and know what you’re dealing with.”

  Adrien led them over to the hole in the wall and strode through the entrance. A blue light flashed, and Kaylin’s heart leaped into her throat. She watched Adrien, waiting for him to be disintegrated by the force field. But the light immediately faded, and Kaylin realized it had been nothing but a sensor blinking.

  Adrien walked forward a few steps and then turned around, his hand held out in a staying gesture. “Count to thirty,” he said. “Then one of you can come through.”

  Kaylin counted under her breath, and as soon as she reached thirty, Beck stepped forward. He took a deep breath, rolled his shoulders, and then stepped through the entrance. The forcefield blinked again, and they all flinched. But Beck remained unharmed as he stepped over to join Adrien.

  Adrien nodded in approval and then turned to the others. “Same goes for all of you. Wait thirty seconds, then go through.”

  Each of them repeated the process, with Kaylin going last. Anxiety slowly built inside her as she waited for the others to get through. The clicking noise was growing louder, making her suspect this part of the subway tunnel might be due for another ceiling collapse. It made her slightly glad to be moving away from the crumbling main tunnel and heading into the catacombs, even if it meant walking through a tomb.

  As soon as they had all made it inside the side tunnel—Red narrowly fitting, Adrien pointed to the ground, which was just hard-packed dirt. “There are mines buried in here, but they’ve all been marked with flags. Just stay at least a foot away from them, and you’ll be fine.”

  Kaylin nodded and peered down the narrow corridor. She quickly spotted two of the flags, which were just sticks with a scrap of red fabric tied to the top.

  “You’re sure they’re all marked?” she asked hesitantly.

  Adrien nodded. “The Wardens send guards through this tunnel all the time. If there were unmarked mines, they would’ve found out a long time ago.”

  He didn’t wait for a response before pressing forward, leading them down the corridor. Kaylin followed, although with every step she took, anxiety squeezed her chest tighter. This tunnel was far smaller than the main subway tunnel, and with the seven of them crowded into it, Kaylin felt the beginnings of claustrophobia tugging at her nerves.

  Red definitely wasn’t helping. A low, constant growl rumbled in his throat, and he kept glancing behind them, as if watching something. But whenever Kaylin tried to follow his gaze, she saw nothing but empty shadows.

  Adrien guided them quickly through the tunnel, silently pointing out the flags as they moved. After a few minutes of walking, she spotted an end to the corridor. It intersected with another tunnel that was just as small, but it had smooth stones lining the walls and ceiling.

  Adrien pointed ahead. “That’s one of the main catacomb tunnels,” he said. “There’s no trap on this entrance—it got deactivated by a mine blast. But there’s one at the far end of this tunnel.”

  They continued on in silence, striding into the new tunnel. Kaylin turned in a tight circle, and the hair on her neck stood on end as she took in her surroundings. Stone shelves lined the walls, each of them stacked with bones—skulls and tibias and ribs and every single part of a skeleton Kaylin knew. The skulls grinned down at her with blank gazes, and she stared back, chills crawling down her spine.

  “Did the Syndicate do this?” Lio asked, his voice aghast.

  Matteo shook his head. “No. These have been here for far longer than that.”

  Kaylin took a hesitant step toward one of the shelves, examining a skull more closely. It was smaller than most of the others, and she guessed that centuries ago, it had belonged to a child. She waited for horror to strike her, but she couldn’t feel it. There was just a somber feeling of calmness.

  Something about the bones down here just felt… natural. Nothing like the mutilated skeletons she’d seen littered in the subway tunnel. The catacombs were a house of eternal rest, not a junkyard of broken corpses.

  “What is this place?” Marin whispered, turning in a circle as she took in the bones surrounding her.

  “The catacombs were built centuries ago,” Matteo said. “Paris had a population boom and started running out of graveyards, so the city carved out a bunch of tunnels to house the dead.” He made a broad gesture to the shelves lining the tunnel. “And these bones have been sitting here ever since.”

  Kaylin shot Matteo a surprised glance. It was the most she’d ever heard Matteo speak without being pressured into talking. She made a mental note to ask him more about the history of the catacombs once they finished up this mission. She wanted to hear more of this side of Matteo, this softer, intellectual side that was so different from the paranoid soldier he’d been forced to become.

  Beck examined the skull closest to his shoulder and reached up to touch it.

  “Don’t!” Matteo said sharply.

  Beck jerked his hand back, and his expression turned to one of suspicion as he eyed the bones. “Are the shelves rigged, too?”

  Matteo shook his head, but his voice was hushed as he said, “They’ve had peace for centuries. Don’t disturb them.”

  Adrien nodded, giving Beck a harsh glance. “We never touch the bones.”

  “Ah.” Beck took a step back, his expression sheepish. “Right.”

  A dull click echoed through the tunnel. They all froze. The click came again, and this time, Red’s spines stood straight on end. He turned back toward the tunnel they’d just exited, letting loose another deep growl.

  Kaylin peered up, her heart pounding. There was no cracked concrete above them, only centuries-old stones that held the ceiling firmly in place. And the ground beneath her feet was dirt, so even if chunks of the ceiling were falling, it shouldn’t click.

  Which meant they’d been wrong. The clicking they’d heard in the subway tunnel hadn’t been the roof crumbling.

  Beck seemed to come to the realization at the same time she did, because his eyes grew wide. “What was that?” he asked quietly.

  A bewildered look crossed Adrien’s expression. “I’m not sure.”

  “Have you ever heard that kind of sound before?” Lio asked.

  Adrien shook his head. “Not in the catacombs.”

  Another click broke the tense silence, and this time, it was followed by an echoing chorus of similar clicks. A fresh wave of unease swept over Kaylin. The sound reminded her eerily of some type of Morse code, as if something in the depths of the tunnels was trying to communicate.

  Red continued growling, backing deeper into the tunnel. Adrien hesitated for a moment and then waved at the others, gesturing for them to follow.

  “We need to move,” he snapped. “Now.”

  Adrien broke into a jog, and they followed at his heels, heading deeper into the catacombs. Kaylin’s heart thundered in her chest as she struggled to keep an eye on the mine markers as she ran. She glanced behind her, checking to make sure the others were keeping up, but her foot caught on a crack and sent her sprawling forward. Beck grabbed her arm, yanking her upright.

  “Be careful,” Beck snapped, already leaping back into a jog.

  “No shit,” s
he growled, shaking off his hand.

  He opened his mouth to retort, but all that came out was a yelp as he spotted a marker stick right in front of him. He leaped through the air, hurdling over the mine and landing with a loud grunt.

  “Be careful,” Kaylin called over tauntingly.

  “Screw you,” Beck gasped.

  Kaylin barked a harsh laugh. Maybe it was just the adrenaline getting her high, but she suddenly realized that she didn’t entirely mind this situation. On the run, racing toward a mission, bickering with Beck, and ready to dive into danger and save lives.

  She’d missed this. As much as she’d sworn up and down that she was done with the Resistance, she couldn’t pretend to have lost her love for this sort of adrenaline rush.

  The clicking grew louder as they raced through the tunnel. Then a shriek rang out. It was just like the one they’d heard in the main subway, high and rasping. Except this time, the shriek came from right behind them.

  “What the hell is that?” Beck demanded.

  Another shriek pierced the air, and then another, each from a different position behind them.

  “Wrong question,” Kaylin gasped. “What the hell are those?”

  “No idea!” Adrien called back. “Just run!”

  Red bounded alongside Kaylin, his hide changing color with every step as he struggled to camouflage himself to the ground he was galloping over. Kaylin opened her mouth to order him to follow behind her, but then Red expertly dodged around a mine marker. A moment later, he skidded around another marker, and Kaylin realized it was entirely on purpose. Somehow, he knew to avoid the areas with the small flags.

  It didn’t make sense. He shouldn’t have known to avoid the markers. But she didn’t have time to riddle out how the hell he’d figured it out. She was just grateful he’d learned before he ended up accidentally triggering one.

  The clicking sounds behind them grew louder and thicker. Kaylin struggled to decipher them, trying to figure out what the hell was making the noise and how many creatures there were.

  It was impossible to tell. Their pounding feet and panting breaths nearly drowned out the noise of the clicking, and every time she thought she knew how many there were, another joined in.

  It could have been five or it could have been five hundred. All she knew was that the shrieks were coming louder and more often. And if the bloodthirsty screams were anything to judge by, they weren’t just being chased. They were being hunted.

  They burst into a wide chamber lined with even more shelves of bones. These were filled almost entirely with skulls, and they extended in a long line around the circumference of the room, thousands of empty eyes staring down at them with mad grins.

  Flag markers littered the floor, but there was a clear path leading to a door at the far end of the room. They all started toward it, but Adrien skidded to a stop and whirled around, throwing his hands out.

  “Stop!” he screamed.

  And then Kaylin remembered. The exit. It had a Scatherian forcefield, just like the entrance. They’d have to exit one by one to avoid setting off the trap.

  Adrien glanced at the exit, and then back to the tunnel, where the screams and clicks were growing louder. Panic overtook his expression, and he froze.

  Beck grabbed Adrien roughly by the shoulder and pointed him toward the exit. “Get the hell through! Now!”

  Suddenly, Kaylin remembered why Beck had risen through the ranks of the Resistance so quickly. His stoic presence was usually calming, but when he exploded into action, you’d have to be out of your damn mind to ignore the man.

  Adrien suddenly looked like a kid again, his eyes widening in terror as he nodded frantically. He whirled around and dove through the forcefield, and the sensor light flashed as it registered his presence.

  “Count to thirty,” Beck called to Adrien. “Out loud. Now.”

  Adrien began calling out the numbers, speaking in French as he nervously reverted to his first language.

  “English!” Beck hollered.

  “Five, six!” Adrien called back, his voice flustered with fear.

  Marin and Lio leaped into the chamber, the last of them to make it inside. Marin immediately swiveled around, raising her pistol toward the tunnel that led into the chamber.

  Beck joined her, and soon all of them were huddled in a semicircle, their pistols raised toward the mouth of the tunnel. Another sound joined the clicking, some sort scrabbling noise. It took Kaylin a moment to process what she was hearing. Legs. Legs scrabbling against stone.

  “Whatever comes, shoot it,” Beck said.

  Lio glanced toward him uncertainly. “Shouldn’t we make sure it’s an enemy before we—”

  A shriek cut off his words, this one louder and longer than any of the others. Lio swallowed hard and went silent, gritting his jaw tightly as he faced the entrance with his laser pistol raised.

  Beck nodded toward the ambassador. “Lio, you’re up next. As soon as Adrien counts to thirty, you go through that door. Got it?”

  Lio nodded tightly, and Beck turned to Marin. “Marin, you’ll follow after Lio.”

  “Understood,” Marin said.

  “And, Matteo, you’ll go after her,” Beck continued.

  “No,” Matteo said, shaking his head. “I can figh—”

  “Don’t argue with me!” Beck snapped. “You’re going out that exit after Marin. Got it?”

  Matteo winced, but he nodded. “Got it.”

  “Twenty,” Adrien called out, fear tightening his voice. “Twenty-one.”

  Beck gestured to Kaylin. “You after Matteo. Then me.”

  “Then Red,” Kaylin added. “We’re not leaving him.”

  Beck nodded. “And everyone needs to watch for the mines. Look where you’re stepping, no matter what happens.”

  Kaylin looked down, doing her best to quickly memorize the locations of the mine-marker flags stuck into the ground of the chamber. There were about ten of them, most of them clustered toward the right side of the room, with a few scattered around the left side of the door.

  The clicking noise grew louder and thicker. It seemed like the clicks were coming from only feet away, but Kaylin couldn’t see anything in front of them. Then something flashed in front of her, a blur seemingly made of shadow. As she struggled to focus on it, other shadows blurred across her vision, streaking down the tunnel toward them.

  “You see these things?” Beck demanded.

  “No,” Kaylin said, shaking her head frantically. “I just see ghosts.”

  “Same,” Beck said grimly.

  The clicking grew louder, until it seemed to be right on top of them. Then Red lunged in front of Kaylin and dropped into a crouch, all his spikes standing on end. He snaked his head forward and released a roar.

  It was unlike anything Kaylin had ever heard from the lizard. It started off as a low rumble, rose to a bellowing cry, and then kept growing higher and higher, louder and louder, until his scream seemed to vibrate the walls.

  The clicking went silent, and the flashes of shadow froze in the entrance of the chamber. For a single moment, Kaylin was able to make out the vague shapes of the creatures. They seemed to be a little over a foot long, and their thin bodies crouched low to the ground.

  Then they leaped. The shadows swarmed toward Red, lunging at his head.

  Kaylin opened fire. She had no freaking idea what she was shooting at, but whatever these demon creatures were, she sure as hell wasn’t going to let them get Red. She did her best to aim at the shadows, firing as close to Red as she could without hurting him. The others joined her, releasing a barrage of bullets and laser bolts at the creatures.

  Kaylin waited for Red to fall back, but instead, he leaped forward. A new set of spikes appeared on his tail, a shorter, denser patch of spines that curled out like cats’ claws. Kaylin gaped at the lizard, wondering where the hell the tail spikes had come from. She’d never seen Red extend them before. But, then again, she’d also never seen him in a life-or-death fight be
fore.

  Red began flailing his tail like a mace, using it to slam into the shadow creatures as he whirled around to bite them. Kaylin could hardly make out the vague outline of the creatures, but Red apparently could see their forms just fine. His jaws closed on something, and Kaylin heard a loud crunch, followed by a piercing shriek of pain. Red shook his head, ripping the creature to pieces as he slammed his tail into another one of the blurred shadows. The creature crashed into a shelf, shattering it and sending a heap of skulls clattering to the ground.

  “Two, one, zero!” Adrien yelled from behind them. “Send the next person out!”

  “Get out the door!” Beck yelled at Lio.

  Lio began to run toward it, but then another shriek pieced the air. This one was deeper than the creatures’ scream and sounded oddly familiar.

  Kaylin’s gut sank. Marin. It was coming from her.

  Kaylin stopped shooting at the creatures swarming Red—he seemed to be handling himself just fine for the moment. Instead, she whirled around to face Marin. The bodyguard was frantically firing toward her feet, but her laser bolts harmlessly struck the ground. Then one stopped short before it hit the ground, and a high-pitched cry of pain came from one of the shadows. It staggered off, but more shadows darted in, swarming Marin’s leg.

  Marin screamed in pain and yelled something that was surely a curse in her own language. She kept firing at the creatures as a dark stain of blood welled on the leg of her pants, forcing her to stumble backward.

  “Lio!” Beck repeated. “Get out. Now!”

  Lio ignored him and charged toward Marin. The rage that twisted his expression seemed to turn the stoic ambassador into an entirely different being. His bright eyes suddenly looked dangerously sharp, and his willowy height no longer seemed delicate—now it reminded Kaylin of a sword, slim but strong enough to hack through bone. His pistol fired rapidly at the creatures as he struggled to reach Marin’s side.

  Marin screamed something at Lio and gestured toward the door. Lio ignored her and calmly aimed toward a shadow darting toward her foot. His round didn’t hit the thing, but it forced the shadow to skitter to the side.

  Beck cursed and then said over his shoulder, “Matteo, get out!”