by Wendy Knight
As they neared their destination, she spun her chair toward her team, trying to ignore the almost overwhelming foreboding. “We’re heading to a suspected Chaos lair. We’re ordered not to engage, only to gather intel and report back to headquarters. If we are attacked, Flint Galloway’s forces are in the area.” She checked to see if Galvan was surprised by this, but if he was, he didn’t show it. “I’ll take lead. Gavin, on my right, Akash on my left. Araceli and Ciel, you take flank and Raine, back me up.” She raised her eyes to see if there were any objections but was met with only nods. Galvan watched her with the corner of his mouth tipped up, although she wasn’t sure if it was pride or amusement in his eyes.
Maybe annoyance. That would be more typical.
“Once we have the information, we will meet back at the pod and get out of there. If you’re separated from the team, meet back at the pod. Do not attempt to gather intel on your own.” This time, she waited until every single member nodded their agreement before she continued. “We work as silently as possible. Keep lights low—”
The pod jerked to the side and Aquis’s whole body lurched against her seatbelt. She felt the harsh nylon tearing against her skin but that was the least of her worries.
The pod was careening out of control, straight toward the ground.
“We’ve been hit—” the pilot gasped, hands moving like lighting as he fought to get the engines back online. It was no use. Whatever hit them had taken both engines out.
“We’re going down, Hillcrest,” the pilot said. “I can try to hit that river but it’s not big enough to take the force—”
“Maybe we can bring it up?” Raine yelled to be heard over the screaming of the engines. “Have it catch us—”
“It’s not big enough.” Aquis searched wildly for a solution. Any solution. Parachutes would work but they’d lose any element of surprise they might have and it made them very visible targets. “Akash, can you carry us down?”
“What?” Akash yelped. “All eight of us?”
She nodded, her heart pounding so hard and the blood roaring in her ears so loudly she could barely hear her own thoughts. “Down to the ground. Wrap us in a cone of air and coast it on air currents. Is it possible? Are you strong enough?”
The pod spun again as the wind tugged strips of metal from its side. “I guess I don’t have a choice.” Akash nodded, unbuckling his belt. They were near enough that Aquis could see the ground. Too close for parachutes now anyway.
Galvan pushed the door open, backing out of the way for Akash. Hesitating only briefly, the Ceali dove from the plane. Aquis followed, Galvan next, and the others in a tight group behind him.
They fell.
They fell too fast. The ground rose up to meet them and Aquis tried to mentally prepare herself for the landing. It would hurt.
She would die.
How was she supposed to prepare for that?
She tried to pull the river over to catch them, but it was barely more than a stream. Not enough to do any good.
Just as she could see the blades of grass, could smell the dirt and couldn’t even draw a breath to scream, Akash caught her.
He caught them all in a cone, his hands working like a magician’s, twisting and turning the air to hold them within the bubble. And then he coasted them on the air currents until their feet could reach the ground.
Seconds later, the crash of the pod several hundred meters away shook the trees and lit up the night sky.
She stared in horror at Galvan while the rest of them tried to collect themselves. Free falling and almost dying were not how she’d hoped to start her mission.
“Okay,” she pulled in a breath, hoping her voice didn’t shake.
It did.
The ground beneath their feet was muddy due to her attempt to pull the river toward them, and each step she took sloshed and sucked in the silence.
“Where are we?”
Galvan checked his coordinates the same time she did. “We’re two miles from the target.”
“Right where I was supposed to land,” the pilot murmured. He was pale and still trembling. Mostly, pilots didn’t leave their seats and definitely weren’t in the habit of jumping without a parachute. But he was handling it as well as the rest of them.
Which was—not well at all.
“We’ve got a walk ahead of us, then,” Aquis adjusted her bag on her back. “Ready?”
No one looked convinced, but they followed when she moved away, falling into place as she’d instructed them on the pod before the world had careened sideways and tried to kill them all.
“Fabulous start,” she muttered under her breath.
“Yeah,” Galvan smirked next to her. “You’re doing great.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
GALVAN kept an eye on Aquis as they moved through the jungle. She was taking the horrible start hard, even though it wasn’t her fault. If anything, her ingenious thinking saved them.
Still, she stayed focused like it wasn’t her first time as mission leader. She monitored their coordinates and watched for Chaos. She communicated with their team through hand signals and barely audible phrases.
He still wondered what had happened to the pod. There was no reason the engines should have blown like they did. It was almost like they’d been attacked.
Like Chaos had known they were coming.
But that was impossible. The pods were shielded from beneath, so unless the enemy somehow had their radio frequency, there was no way to track them.
Aquis froze, holding up a hand. The others stopped instantly as she pointed in front of them. Galvan had been so busy watching her, worrying that she wasn’t okay, that he’d missed the building they were supposed to find.
It was huge. Square, low to the ground, but it ran back through the jungle as far as Galvan could see. No windows visible. From the angle they’d approached, he also couldn’t see any way in.
If he’d been superstitious, he’d swear the place was haunted. The overwhelming foreboding in the pit of his stomach hinted at death and destruction and ghosts and blood.
Which was ridiculous. Good thing he wasn’t superstitious.
“We’ll have to go around,” Aquis whispered, her lips barely moving. If not for the comms in their helmets, he wouldn’t have heard her. She edged back through the group to the pilot. “You need to call for another pod. Stay away from the lair, in the trees where they can’t spot you.”
The pilot nodded and Galvan wondered if he’d ever seen any field action outside of flying into and out of it. His visor hid the terror in his eyes but not the tight set of his lips or the muscle ticking in his jaw.
Nodding toward the building, Aquis moved in front of them again. They slid silently through the thick trees along the length of the building. If there were security cameras, hopefully their black gear hid them in the shadows. Galvan watched, but didn’t see any.
Still, he didn’t feel safe.
Aquis stopped again at the corner, glancing over her shoulder at the pilot. He was several hundred feet away now, barely visible in the dark. She turned away, edging around the corner.
The entryway loomed in front of them, a single metal door set into the concrete wall.
And it was open.
Ciel pointed in the direction the pod still burned, surrounded by people.
No, not people.
Chaos.
Galvan could tell because they were huge, all of them over six feet tall, and their hair—visible in the firelight—was multicolored depending on their mix of elements. Brown and blond, white and brown.
They’d abandoned their post to chase down the pod.
Probably because they’d been the ones to shoot it out of the sky.
“We could go in,” Araceli hissed. “It’s wide open.”
Aquis shook her head. “We’re not to engage. Only gather intel.”
“I agree,” Akash said. “We can gather intel better from the inside.”
Aquis turned on them, fl
ipping her visor up. “Inside could be crawling with Chaos. We have no idea what to expect. We’re not going in.”
“Maybe you should call for backup,” Galvan suggested quietly. “Flint’s team can fight their way inside.”
She blew out a breath and nodded, punching information into the screen on her wrist.
“We’re going to lose our opportunity if we wait,” Raine said. “I vote we go in. Just to look around. We’ll sneak back out before they can get back to their post.”
Galvan glanced at the burning pod. It was still several hundred meters away, but close enough that if any of the Chaos agents turned, they’d see Aquis’s team and could be back within thirty seconds. It didn’t seem wise.
Aquis shook her head. “Control hasn’t responded yet. We wait.”
“If we wait, we lose our chance. I’m going.” Akash pushed past her, running low along the wall. Aquis held out a hand to stop him but was too late. The others followed, leaving Galvan and Aquis standing alone.
She looked at him, looked at the pilot, and then at her retreating team. If she filed this in her report, they would all be disciplined. It was one of the primary rules on missions.
Follow the lead.
“I have to go. They might need—I don’t know what will happen.” She ripped off her helmet, raked a hand through her hair, and slammed the helmet back on her head. “You can stay—”
“I’ll stay with you,” Galvan said quietly. “Where you go, I go.”
The stress and fear lining her delicate features eased momentarily as she smiled up at him. “Thank you.”
He tried to pretend like the sun and moon didn’t rise on that smile.
They hurried after the others, making it to the door just as Akash slipped inside.
They met no resistance.
Aquis typed more messages into the screen on her arm, shaking her head. “They’re not responding.”
“There’s no one here, Aquis. Let’s explore what we can and get out. Thirty seconds, tops.” Raine squeezed Aquis’s hand before she moved after Akash.
Like her kindness made the insubordination better.
Aquis blew out a breath and went after them, tapping on her comm. “Officer Hillcrest requesting immediate backup. Our pod was shot down and we are now inside the lair.”
“Look out!” Galvan knocked her out of the way as a blast of water darts shot toward them. The Pyra burn was instantaneous, nearly driving him to his knees, but he stayed pressed against her until the threat had passed.
She gritted her teeth against the pain as he moved away, and everything within him was on fire, even as the feel of her was molded against his body.
But she was already moving, diving in front of her team, pulling the water from the vial at her hip. Raine added hers, but her attack was weak next to Aquis’s fury. The Chaos agents poured down the hall, at least three that Galvan could see.
Upper tier. Powerful.
One attempted to pull the air away from them, but Akash pulled it back, engaging in an invisible, deadly game of tug-of-war. Akash seemed to have the upper hand.
Until another Chaos agent joined the first.
Galvan felt the air thin and struggled to breath, trying to pull as much oxygen into his lungs as possible.
“Distract them!” Aquis yelled, pushing a wave at the Chaos agents. It hit them hard, knocked them backward, and she pulled it back for another one. The Terras were useless—there was no earth they could control, but Galvan had his fire.
He wasn’t Flint, but he could still do some damage.
He pulled the flame thrower out, stealing the flame from its mouth, and pushed it toward the Chaos, molding it into a gaping jaw and sharp, sharp teeth. They had no Pyra agents, and the Amazi/Ceali was fighting Aquis.
His flame devoured one, and the man’s screams echoed up and down the concrete hallways. Galvan moved on to the next one, trying to bury them in the living inferno in front of him.
Aquis drowned the Amazi/Ceali agent, and Akash jerked the oxygen back to them. Galvan pulled in a breath, easing the fire in his lungs, and attacked again, driving the Chaos agents back and out the door.
Instantly, Araceli and Ciel pounced, dragging the earth up and over the Chaos, burying them in a mountain of dirt and vines and roots and rock.
“This is Officer Hillcrest requesting backup immediately. We’re under attack—”
“Officer Hillcrest, you deliberately disobeyed orders. No backup will be forthcoming. Fall back and come home.” It was Rene’s voice. Why she was monitoring the comms was a mystery Galvan didn’t have time to figure out.
The Chaos agents who had been investigating the pod were returning, coming at a sprint through the trees.
“We can’t fall back. We’re trapped inside the building. Requesting backup—”
Raine dove forward, jerking Araceli and Ciel inside and slamming the door shut. She and Akash pulled the heavy bolt into place just as the Chaos reached it, slamming fists and elements against the metal. It whined and groaned, denting under the onslaught.
“That’s not going to hold them for long. We have to find another way out.” Aquis dropped her comm and turned back the way the Chaos agents had attacked from. Concrete hallways and metal doors spread out in every direction, spider-web like. And they were the fly trapped inside. “This place is like a labyrinth.”
This time, no one rushed to shove her out of the way and take control. They huddled behind her, waiting for her orders. “This way.”
Their footsteps echoed hauntingly against the concrete. The entire lair was silent, not even the hum of electricity. No voices, no attacks, nothing.
“We need to get back to base,” Aquis said. “Regroup. Wait for Flint’s team—”
“We’re already in here,” Akash said, his voice rough against the concrete walls. “And it’s deserted. Let’s look around.”
Galvan met Aquis’s eyes. They were tight with worry and conflict behind the black rimmed glasses. “No help is coming. If we go on, we’re on our own.”
Araceli pushed her dark brown hair out of her face and moved tentatively around Aquis, her steps bolder with every second. “There’s no one inside and you said yourself we need to find another way out. We can’t find it huddled here.”
She had a point.
Aquis nodded, biting her lip. “Okay. We’ll continue on.”
They wandered through the silent lair. Galvan felt distinctly like he was moving more toward the center of a spider’s web, innocent prey while the spider watched and waited.
But that could have been paranoia.
He hoped it was paranoia.
It was dark with no windows and no doors. They had to turn their headlamps on so Galvan could conserve his Pyra flame. The further they got with no incident, the easier it was to relax. The lair seemed to be truly deserted.
“The door—” Aquis said, stopping as she came out of the darkness and into an alcove. “That’s the door, right?”
“Another door. A way out.” Raine breathed a sigh of relief and hurried forward.
“Wait.”
They all turned to Akash, who had stopped behind them. “Do we really want to go back? The more information we gather, the less likely we are to be reprimanded. Aquis, if we return now, you’ll probably be stripped of your officer stripes for disobeying orders. But if we found any helpful information...”
He’d hit her where she was weakest, and they all knew it.
Galvan waited, watching the war play out across her face. He knew the instant she made a decision. “Do you all want to continue on?”
Araceli and Celi nodded, moving to stand with Akash further down the hall.
Raine shook her head.
“No. We’ve been told to go back. The backup pod is probably there already and if the agents haven’t gotten through the other door, they’ll come to this one next. I don’t want to be trapped in here.”
Aquis nodded. “Understood. Let’s go.” She moved toward the door, b
ut Akash and the Terras stayed where they were. She looked from them to Raine and back again. “Come on.”
“We have to find information. Otherwise, we’ll all go down.” Akash crossed his arms over his chest, but he at least had the decency to look apologetic. “I’m sorry, Aquis.”
She rubbed a hand over her face. “Okay. Raine, if you want to go back, you’re free to go. We’ll see what we can find and join you.”
Raine bit her lip. “Galvan?”
“I stay with Aquis.”
“Okay. It’s probably better to stay together anyway. But let’s make it fast.” Raine started down another hall, deliberately choosing the one Akash wasn’t in. Ironic, given that she’d just said they should stay together.
Aquis looked at Galvan in exasperation. “This is why I’m never having children.”
He would have laughed, if at that moment the comms hadn’t crackled in their helmets. “Officer Hillcrest, pull your team out of there immediately. Assistance is not coming. I repeat, pull out immediately.”
Rene again.
She should not have been at the comms. They had people for that.
Aquis hesitated, her hand trembling just enough to rattle against her helmet, and then she switched off the Control comm. “If I’m going to do it...” She shrugged.
“You never were good at following orders,” Galvan murmured with a smirk.
She started to object, but there was no point and they both knew it. Sighing, she started down the hall Raine had taken. Galvan followed.
I stay with Aquis.
Had it been any other mission leader, he wasn’t sure he would have. But she’d been overrun, her team wasn’t listening to her, and he couldn’t abandon her now.
He could hear the quiet murmur of Akash and Araceli and Ciel in the next hallway over, even the low rumble of laughter, like they didn’t realize that Chaos were trying to break down the door and had probably started toward the only other exit. He’d never met them before, but he didn’t like them now.
Not even a little bit.
From somewhere in the bowels of the building, there was another sound.
Voices.
Many voices.
“We’re not alone,” Aquis said into the comms. “Fall back. Now.”