Liane moved to the entrance, holding her breath against the smell as she began to descend. Owen had lit a torch, and the
wavering blue light allowed her to see they were headed down far deeper than the sewer. Down and down they climbed, until the air was no longer foul but stale and moldy. Owen leaped off the ladder onto the ground, and Liane did the same, looking around her with interest. They were in a circular cement tunnel, steel beams on either side of the floor and miles of cable covering the rounded walls.
As the rest of the mods leaped down behind them, Owen led them forward. As he walked, he said softly to Liane, “These were used for underground trains, long before the war. Now the Agency is the only thing to make use of them.”
“That means this place is crawling with cameras,” Liane said.
“That’s why the twins are hard at work as we speak,” he
returned. As they passed into a connecting tunnel, he gestured high on the wall. Liane looked up to see a camera; there was no indicator light, meaning it was off. She almost retorted aloud that the real danger was in the cameras you couldn’t see but thought better of it.
Owen put a com in his ear, saying softly, “Approaching the first door. I’ll need cameras down and a security code override.”
The crowd of mods hung back around a corner, everyone silent as a tech-savvy leopard mod ran scans around a corner. Only after both the twins and the mod gave the ‘all clear’ did Owen proceed, the muscles in his arms taut as he gripped his gun. Liane rounded the corner after him, seeing a heavy blast door ahead of them. A control panel stood to the wall on one side, the lights blinking green. It slid to the side, disappearing into the wall as they approached. Gooseflesh arose on Liane’s arms as they passed through the doorway; she hadn’t intended to go anywhere near the headquarters of her former life ever again. Yet here she was, walking back inside. She ground her teeth together, thought of Seth, and kept moving.
Owen glanced at her, saying, “Now it’s your turn, Agent. Our schematics of the tunnels are incomplete. You’ll guide us from here on in.”
Liane considered lying, protesting that she didn’t know the way. But the look in Owen’s eyes made her think twice, and after a moment’s pause, she took the lead, murmuring, “This way…”
The tunnels beyond the first door were wider, cleaner, than
before. The cameras were more frequent, though each one they passed was still and dormant. As they walked down a shadowy stretch of tunnel, Liane said softly, “We’re nearing the second
security door. There will be sentries.”
Owen nodded, bringing his gun up.
The door was indeed guarded, two Agents standing on
either side in body armor with automatic assault rifles in their hands. They waited for a moment while the twins worked on the second door and cameras. Afterward, Owen whirled around the corner, firing twice and killing both guards. The group moved on, stepping over the bodies and heading into the corridor beyond. The walls were now square and brightly lit, and bare cement gave way to painted steel. Owen picked up their pace, forcing Liane to jog after him in as she offered directions. She gestured to slow, though, when they neared a crossroads of hallways.
“This part is always crowded,” she muttered, accepting a snake-scope from a mod. Inching the small camera around the corner, she saw in the handheld screen that there were four guards chatting down an adjoining hall. Turning back to lean against the wall, she gestured to Neil and said, “Stun-wand.”
He gave it to her, and she ripped open the controls and
amplified the power to increase the radius of the electric charge. Turning the weapon on made it hum and spark; before the Agents had time to react to the sound, she tossed it around the corner to the floor. The prongs let out a loud zap as they connected with the metal floor, and the Agents dropped, muscles convulsing.
They gave it a moment for the stun-wand to burn itself out, and then Owen led them around the corner. A wave of dizziness went through Liane, and she closed her eyes and tried to fight it off.
Gunfire exploded in the corridor, and she flinched in surprise, her eyes snapping open just in time to see Owen shooting the last stunned Agent in the head. He looked up at her, unflinching, and said, “The only good Agent is a dead one.”
Liane felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle; it took her a moment to figure out it wasn’t due to what he had said, but because of the quiet. She turned, looking around them as she murmured, “It’s quiet. Why is it so quiet?”
“It’s early yet,” Owen shrugged.
Liane shook her head. “It’s not normal, even this far down.”
“Then let’s move faster,” he said, ordering, “Get us to the
foundation.”
Liane turned down a different hall, saying, “This way.”
The true foundation of the building was up a level, an enormous, cavernous room reserved for the building generator and power grid. Thick, concrete support columns divided the space, creating a room that seemed at once capacious and closed-in. Though the door was always alarmed, Liane had snuck in dozens of times over the years, sometimes to protect herself against the infighting of the Program trainees and at other times to have a quiet place to read. It had been her sanctuary, a place of peace when the rest of her life was in chaos.
As she approached the blast doors protecting the room, she couldn’t help but appreciate the irony that Owen had chosen to destroy the Agency from this room.
The twins had already been at work, and both the cameras and keypad were dark. Owen stepped forward, pulling open the heavy door to reveal the expanse of the room. Several of the mods let out soft gasps as they entered; the generator was glowing a soft blue, bathing the otherwise darkened room in its light. It was beautiful, and Liane stood for a moment looking at it, breathing in the familiar scent of warm machinery with her pale face and hair awash in blue, until Paz poked her forward with the barrel of her rifle.
Owen wasted no time, quickly pointing to several mods and
instructing, “Get the charges around the pillars, and hurry.”
The crowd of mods all splintered off, pairs of them going to
different key columns throughout the room. Liane watched as the pair nearest her shrugged off their packs, unzipping them to
reveal black cases lined with dozens of compartments filled with explosives. They pulled out the first of the charges, spraying the pillar with adhesive and sticking the bomb against it. Neil moved forward to help, leaving only Paz, Owen, and Liane standing back to watch.
Owen looked to Liane, saying, “Once all the charges are in place, we’ll make our retreat. In a few hours, we’ll detonate them remotely. When that happens, when the mission is done, I’ll
release you and your friend.”
Liane cast a disparaging look at him, saying, “I thought you said lies were a waste of time, Owen.”
A grudging sense of respect crossed his face, and he brought his gun forward. He lowered his voice as he said, “It’s nothing
personal. I can’t risk our secrets falling into the wrong hands. If I’d known then how much you’d resist standing against the Agency, I would have just told my mods to shoot you in that alley when they first found you.”
Liane looked back to the mods laying the charges, saying in an equally low voice, “After I’m gone, Seth won’t pose any kind of threat to you. Let him go and tell him to follow his family abroad. He’ll do it if I’m removed from the equation.”
Owen looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. It made Liane feel better, more at peace, as she clasped her hands behind her back and got to her knees. She could hear him tightening his grip on the gun behind her, and she closed her eyes and murmured, “Make it quick.”
Owen raised his weapon, aiming at the back of her head and tightening his finger on the trigger.
A blaze of white light filled the cavernous room, and every one of the mods froze as an amplified voice thundered, “Stay where you
are! Anyone who moves will be shot!”
Liane looked up, so dazzled by the light that it took her a
moment to see the armored, armed Agents pouring into the room from several auxiliary entrances. Their weapons were up, aiming at the mods as they moved forward. The mods seemed too stunned to react, frozen in the act of securing the charges.
But Owen was the most shocked by far, his blue eyes wide as he watched the Agents close in on him. Then he raised his gun, pointing it at them and shouting in a crazed voice, “For Black Sun—”
The last word was clipped as one of the Agents opened fire,
hitting Owen in the chest. He fell backward, and Liane turned to see him lying flat on his back, his chest a ruined, gaping hole. He was gasping, fear shining in his eyes, and she caught his
whispered last words, “Ragnarok...is...coming…”
His breath rattled in his throat, and then he was gone.
The mods reacted instantaneously, screaming out curses as they opened fire or leaped at the Agents. The Agents all began shooting back, with far deadlier accuracy, and the room
descended into utter chaos.
Liane crouched flat to the floor, head darting as she scanned the room for cover. She had just pushed herself up to begin crawling towards the nearest pillar when a bullet struck her in the shoulder. She threw herself sideways, scrambling on her stomach until she was safely behind the pillar. Gunfire rained overhead, bullets hitting mods, Agents, and walls with abandon. Her shoulder was stinging, and Liane gritted her teeth when she looked down to find the sleeve of her shirt growing hot and damp with blood.
The body of a mod lay near her, and she reached out enough to grasp the booted foot and drag the body closer. When the corpse’s torso was within reach, she seized the man’s gun and knives as well as his belt. After tucking the weapons into her pants, she took the belt and wrapped it around one side of her neck and then under her opposite arm. She pulled it tight, putting pressure on the artery under her arm, a small attempt to staunch the bleeding. Then she loaded her gun, moving out from behind the pillar and taking aim at the Agents. Her shots weren’t precise, but she was able to help drive them back from a group of cornered mods.
As she reloaded, fighting to orient her foggy thoughts, she
spotted a wounded mod by one of the pillars with explosives. He was reaching for the detonator, straining with bloodied fingers. Her eyes widened in understanding, and she darted towards the door with a wild shout of, “Go! Get out of here!”
Several of the mods heard her and listened, racing to the door just as the wounded mod activated the charge.
The room exploded, rubble and noise and dust showering across the length of the room. Liane was thrown forward to the ground, hitting her wounded shoulder so hard that she cried out in pain. Chunks of cement rained down on her, but nothing large enough to cause real harm. She fought to her feet, her shoulder bleeding even harder than ever and her ears ringing. She spotted Neil getting to his feet nearby and ran over to haul him to his feet. The surviving mods and Agents had already recovered, firing at one another.
Over the noise of gunfire, she shouted to Neil, “We have to get everyone out! Help me!”
Neil nodded, wiping at a nasty gash on his forehead as he ran after her.
Paz was standing near the door that led to the corridors, firing at the Agents with tears running down her face. Owen lay near her feet, and it was clear that she was trying to fight them off long enough to carry the body away with her. Liane grabbed the mod’s arm, pulling her towards the corridor. Paz fought her with every step, screaming, “Get off me! I’m not leaving him behind!”
Liane managed to drag her back through the door, slamming her into the wall next to it and saying in a low voice, “Listen; those Agents you tried to kill? They’re coming after us. They will follow our trail and hunt down every member of Black Sun to pay us back for this.”
Paz stared at her, crying without a sound though she didn’t
argue the point.
As another wave of dizziness went through her, Liane said, “Give the signal to retreat. Tell everyone to get out of here, and when you get back to the bunker give the evacuation signal.”
Neil fired through the doorway at several Agents, allowing more mods to draw back into the corridors. Still gripping Paz, Liane added, “The mission is over; the only question is how many more lives you want to lose tonight.”
Paz glared at her, pain and sorrow etched on her face. But she raised a hand to her com, shouting over the sound of gunfire, “Everyone retreat! Get out through the tunnels!”
Mods poured out of the chamber, shooting over their shoulders and several taking shots to the back as they tried to run. Ripping free from Liane, Paz ran down the corridor along with them.
“Let’s go!” shouted Neil, eyes widening at the sight of Agents approaching the doorway. Liane needed no further encouragement, joining the mods in their retreat.
The tunnels were pitch black after the brightness of the
generator room, filled with the sounds of gunfire, screams, and the pounding of feet on the metal floor. Liane ran as fast as she could, which was slower than most of the mods. Her mouth was dry with fear, for she knew that the retreat was a sloppy one; the Agency would follow them back to the bunker, and they would do it quickly. If she’d been anywhere else, she would have never risked going back. She would have simply put as much distance between her and the enemy as possible. But because Seth was locked in the bunker, helpless and unknowing of the danger bearing down on them, she ran on.
She only prayed that she’d be able to reach the bunker before the Agents did.
Faster than she’d thought possible, they reached the ladder that led up through the sewer to the streets near the cathedral. Mods were throwing themselves onto it, the stronger ones leaping up over those who were too slow. Several times Liane was nearly knocked off as she climbed, but she managed to hold onto the ladder.
As she emerged from the sewer grate to the street, she saw that the vans were still there, idling as mods poured into them and shouted for the drivers to go. One screeched away from the curb with mods still in the process of leaping inside. Liane helped other mods into the remaining three, her eyes darting to the sky for signs of copters swooping in to shoot them. Finally, Neil ran to the van from his post by the sewer grate, shouting, “That’s all—let’s go!”
Liane leaped inside, pulling the door of the van down as it lurched forward. The van plunged into darkness for a moment
before the red emergency lights turned on. The van was only half full, but the mods inside were moaning and crying out, nursing horrific wounds. Liane collapsed against the wall of the van; her shoulder was stinging, and the wound hadn’t coagulated at all. She felt nauseous and woozy and retched several times as the van sped over uneven pavement and took turns at alarming speeds. She could feel the strength leaving her, her muscles twitching with involuntary tremors.
Just a little bit further, she thought, remembering what she had said to Seth during their last battle with the Agents. Just a little bit further…
The journey back to the bunker seemed to take no time, and soon the van jerked to a stop. The mods with the least serious
injuries were already up and rushing to the door, trampling the wounded as they fought to get out. Liane stayed against the side of the van, letting them pour past her. Neil did the same, and when they had cleared out, he helped her down. She nearly fell, her legs rubbery and unsteady, and had to lean on him as they stumbled down the sloping road to the bunker entrance. Mods were running through it, trying to reach safety. Neil and Liane fought their way down the steps, pushed and shoved by the crush of people. It took all her strength to remain upright during their descent, and as soon as they reached the wider landing at the bottom of the staircase, Liane’s legs gave way and she crashed to the floor.
Neil crouched next to her, breathing hard and pleading, “Come on; we’re nearly there.”
; Liane shook her head, gasping out, “Go get Seth. Get him out. I’ll wait here for you.”
He looked as if he wanted to argue, but he stood, running
onwards into the bunker.
Liane remained conscious long enough to watch him vanish through the nearby doorway. Once he did, however, she collapsed on the landing at last.
CHAPTER 29
Damian woke early, as he always did, his mind full of the tasks for the day ahead. After a morning run through the silent city, he returned to his flat, showering and dressing in one of his custom-made suits. He chose grey that day, with a somber black tie that seemed befitting of his new role. He wanted to look every inch the Director during the ceremony and was just heading for the door when his phone rang. He answered, and a frantic voice on the other end said, “Sir, we need you in right away! There’s been an attack on the Agency headquarters.”
He was in the car within minutes, ordering his driver to get him there as fast as possible. Damian looked out of the car window as they pulled up in front of the building; it was still intact, and the street seemed undisturbed apart from the undercover Agents patrolling incognito. Maddox and the new chief Handler were waiting for Damian when he got out. They both fell in step beside him as the Handler explained in a low voice, “The mod group known as Black Sun infiltrated our lower levels approximately an hour ago. They were setting charges around the building supports, and we believe that their intention was to implode the entire skyscraper.”
“Yet they were obviously stopped,” Damian said as they
entered the lobby.
Maddox nodded, “Our heat sensors gave them away.”
“We stopped them before they could detonate more than one,” the Handler clarified. “There were maybe a hundred mods in total; fifty are dead, the rest escaped through the tunnels the way they entered. The leader of the mission was killed, a former Agent, we believe...”
He trailed off as Damian stopped and turned towards him, his eyes icy as he warned, “For your sake, that former Agent had
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