The elevator wasn’t there.
Elizabeth moved to the lip of the Bore Hole and shined the flashlight on her SCAR over the railing into the darkness below. The tunnel was hundreds of feet deep and at least thirty wide—too deep for her beam to reach the bottom. "Could the elevator have gotten stuck at the bottom when the power went out?"
Alex shrugged then approached the wire-net cage that contained the machinery for the elevator. He opened the wire-frame door and slipped inside then placed his hand against a power box. "Cold."
"There's a backup elevator generator," Helena said. "Over there, on the other side of the Bore Hole." A walkway circled the Bore Hole, and a tunnel entrance was visible on the other side. "I should be able to get it going."
Alex motioned to Swamp Thing and Huck. "Go with her."
The three of them moved away, circling the walkway, their rifle-mounted flashlights lighting the way before them.
Alex joined Elizabeth. "Once we find this Shatkur Orb, we're going to have to move fast. You sure you can make a gateway?"
"I don't know. Maybe. If I link with Kargin and he shows me, I should be able to do what Tlathia did, but I've never done anything like that before."
"You can do it," said Kargin.
"I appreciate the vote of confidence, but you're not a mage."
He snorted. "Doesn't matter. My father wasn't a mage, either—and he created the orbs. You can use them. Besides, Tlathia believed in you, and I believed in her."
"But … what if she was wrong about me? We barely knew one another."
"Lizbeth-Chambers, monster-slayer, you do yourself discredit. Not only did Tlathia have faith in you, she offered to mentor you. Tlathia de Talinor was a gifted mage-master, perhaps the greatest on Faerum, at least the equal of her mother. And in all the years I served her, she never once accepted an apprentice. She did you great honor. I know you won't let her down."
They heard a distant engine rumble. A moment later, the power box and elevator machinery thrummed with electrical current, the lights flaring.
"Ha!" barked Kargin. "I think I like this world."
"Here goes nothing." Alex pushed the button to activate the lift.
Instantly, the machinery engaged, the cogs and gears rumbled, and the chains clattered and began to spool. The elevator was coming back up, slowly running on its rails along the interior of the Bore Hole. Helena, Swamp Thing, and Huck returned. "Maybe this is why we didn't see the night-shift technicians the night of the dragon attack," Helena said. "They must have been trapped on the bottom when the power went. They'll be happy to see us."
"Backup power should have been on for at least a few hours," said Swamp Thing.
"Maybe the backup power doesn't run the elevator," said Elizabeth, feeling queasy as she leaned over the railing of the Bore Hole, once again using her SCAR flashlight to scan the side of the hole. Her flashlight beam swept over the open-air cargo lift as it slowly rotated along the interior of the tube, rising to meet them. "Here it is," she told the others happily.
It took a few minutes for the lift to reach them, but when it finally shuddered to a halt, they piled inside. Clyde whined.
"What marvelous machines you humans make," said Kargin as Alex began the elevator's descent down the Bore Hole.
The elevator rotated slowly, descending into the darkness. The air grew warmer now, and sweat ran down Elizabeth's face and neck, soaking her T-shirt beneath the body armor and load-bearing vest. Then she saw something odd—a half dozen thin black ropes dangled along the side of the Bore Hole. As the elevator swept closer to them, she called out over her shoulder, "Alex, there's something wrong here."
He joined her just as the elevator reached the first of the ropes. "Watch out!" he cried, pulling her down and covering her with his body as the edge of the elevator snapped the ropes free. The ends whipped past, and frayed pieces of rope fell among them. "What the hell," said Alex, helping Elizabeth back up as the elevator moved away.
"Maybe the night shift didn't want to wait for us?" said Swamp Thing, the doubt clear in his deep voice.
"Bullshit," said Alex. "Someone climbed down, not up."
Kargin held a piece of broken rope that had fallen into the lift up to his eye. He spat and threw it away from him. "Fae Seelie."
"Weapons free, everyone!" Alex called out.
They spread out around the elevator, their weapons tight into their shoulders, scanning the darkness as they descended.
Paco leaned over the railing, shining his beam straight down. Elizabeth joined him and saw that they were approaching the dark base of the Bore Hole. Something lay scattered about on the bottom. "Alex," said Paco in alarm, "there are bodies down there."
Elizabeth and Leela met each other's eyes then channeled, filling themselves with mana. Holding her SCAR by the pistol grip, Elizabeth used her teeth to pull the too-large Brace back up her arm from where it had slipped again.
The elevator ground to a shuddering halt. Alex slid the gate open with one hand, holding his rifle with the other and scanning its flashlight across the dark concrete base. Nothing moved amongst the machinery, but Paco had been right. A half dozen bodies in lab coats—the night crew—lay scattered about, some looking as though a tiger had mauled them. Clyde began barking and snarling.
Fear ran down Elizabeth's spine when she felt someone channeling mana—from both sides and their front. Leela, she flashed through the dwarven crown in an instant, we're under attack!
Fireballs roared as they suddenly flew toward them from three different directions. The party, bunched together on the elevator, was helpless.
51
The three fireballs burst into flames when they struck Leela's shield, sending heat and fire washing away from the lift. Once again, Leela's magic had saved them.
But it had its limits, Elizabeth knew.
Alex, Swamp Thing, and Paco reacted first, rushing out onto the stone surface to open fire with their weapons. Clyde stood beside Paco, snarling. Muzzle flashes and the deafening staccato of automatic fire lit up the base of the Bore Hole like a strobe light. Spent brass casings spun through the air—but their enemy was invisible. Alex and the others are shooting blind.
Corinna bolted from the lift, firing her SCAR from the waist, emptying most of a magazine in a single long burst as she swept its barrel to their left. A moment later, she burst into flames, as if doused in gasoline and set ablaze. Her screams tore at Elizabeth as she spun about like a burning top. Elizabeth channeled air, knowing she had one chance to snuff out the flames. With the assistance of the Brace, her air blew out the flames but also sent Corinna rolling along the ground.
Lightning hit Paco in the chest, sending him hurtling back to smash into the cargo lift. Clyde, howling in anguish, ran to where he lay. Kargin ran forward, his fighting ax red-hot as he screamed a dwarven war cry, seeking a foe. Elizabeth scanned the darkness. If Cassie were with us, we'd know where they were.
If wishes were wings…
"Grenade!" Alex launched a 40mm grenade from his under-barrel launcher.
The grenade detonated to their front, its blast sending Elizabeth reeling into Helena. Both women fell entangled. Elizabeth lifted herself up onto an arm just as a dark elf woman stumbled from the black smoke where Alex's grenade had detonated, holding her hands against her ears. Kargin was on her in a moment, bringing his ax down on her head and splitting it in two.
Another lightning bolt shot out of the darkness, striking Kargin's ax-head. He spun about then fell. From where she lay, Elizabeth channeled a massive fireball, sending it roaring toward the area the last lightning bolt had come from. The fiery Brace-enhanced explosion lit up the entire chamber when it struck, and she saw a person within the flames and heard an all-too-human shriek that was mercifully cut short.
Leela stumbled from the elevator just as another fireball came at her.
Your nine o'clock! Elizabeth flashed.
On it.
Just before the fireball struck, Leela put up her
shield. The fireball rebounded with a roar, sweeping up the interior of the Bore Hole to explode farther up. Elizabeth climbed to her feet and staggered forward. Swamp Thing stood to her left, firing a long burst of automatic fire from his LMG, hosing the area indiscriminately. Alex did the same with his SCAR. Huck darted out to drop beside him, scanning the darkness for a target. Alex ceased firing. "Out!" he yelled, canting his weapon to the left to expose a bolt fully to the rear.
"Covering," Huck replied, now firing her own bursts as Alex dropped his empty magazine and inserted another.
Elizabeth launched another fireball to their left, but she couldn't tell if she hit anything. This isn't going to work, she realized. I can't just channel blind and hope to get lucky again.
She channeled air, sending it rushing before them, throwing up a wave of dirt and dust. The particles swept around several figures, highlighting the invisible dark elves. She channeled chain lightning, sending the bolt arcing from one figure to another. As the dirt settled, three dark-elf mages fell, their bodies still jerking in death spasms.
Leela moved beside Elizabeth, enveloping the two of them in her shield as several more lightning bolts came at them. I can't cover everyone all the time, she flashed in panic.
Do your best!
Kargin, back on his feet, sought a new foe. Elizabeth's intuition screamed in warning, and she channeled a wave of dirt around the dwarf, revealing a figure darting in at him from the side. "Kargin!" she screamed.
He didn't answer. Instead, he dropped to a knee and lashed out one-handed with his ax in a low arc. A woman shrieked, and a dark elf suddenly appeared, screaming in agony as she fell over, her left leg severed at the knee. Elizabeth turned away as Kargin finished her.
A lightning bolt shattered against Leela's shield, erupting in a shower of sparks that fell around the two mag-sens.
Did you see where that one came from? she asked Leela.
No, missed it.
Huck let her SCAR hang by its sling as she unslung an M-72 LAW rocket launcher from her back. She grasped both ends of the tube then yanked it open and extended it to its firing position. After placing the tube atop her shoulder, she armed the weapon's firing trigger then aimed through the flip-up sight. "Fire in the hole!" she yelled.
Before she could fire, a lightning bolt struck the ground not three feet from her, its impact sending her flying back to collide into Leela, knocking both women down.
With Leela down, Elizabeth was now exposed. She took a chance, channeling a powerful blast of telekinesis in the direction from which the lightning bolt had come. She was certain she was wasting her time, so no one was more surprised than Elizabeth when a dark-elf mage suddenly appeared, slamming into the far wall twenty paces away with bone-breaking force, her head making a sound like a shattered egg. Her body slid down the wall, leaving a bloody smear.
Silence fell, and smoke drifted over the ambush site.
She didn't feel any more channeling.
"Check fire! Check fire!" Alex yelled.
Dust, smoke, blood, and the sharp ozone smell of lightning assaulted Elizabeth's senses. Panting, trembling from the exertion of channeling so much mana, she scanned her surroundings, vaguely aware that Leela had climbed back to her feet behind her.
I'm not sensing anything else, Leela told her.
"Me neither," Elizabeth answered aloud, her heart hammering against her rib cage. "How's Huck?"
"Breathing," Leela answered a few moments later. "But she's unconscious."
Kargin rejoined them, backing up, his ax still glowing red-hot. He glanced over his shoulder and grinned at Elizabeth. "That was as fine a bit of mage combat as any I've ever seen, Lizbeth-Chambers. Tlathia was right about you."
Her chest heaved with exertion, and her muscles trembled. "It was the Brace, not me."
"Not all of it, dragon-slayer."
She saw at least a dozen dark elf corpses scattered about, some killed by Kargin, some by the storm of blind-fire bullets the soldiers had sprayed around them—there were literally hundreds of empty brass casings littering the floor—but most, Elizabeth realized with a heavy heart, she was responsible for.
There was an ocean of blood on her hands.
"Call it!" Alex yelled, still on one knee, scanning his front. "I'm down to two mags."
"I'm alive," said Swamp Thing. "No wounds. I've got maybe a box and a half of ammo."
"I'm … I'm okay," said Helena.
"How's your ammo count?" Alex asked.
"I … I'm sorry, I didn't … I was…"
"Don't worry about it, Helena," he said softly. "It's better we take your ammo anyhow. Less chance of you shooting us by mistake."
Elizabeth glanced down at her own SCAR, hanging by its sling before her. She had forgotten she even carried it. Compared to the power of the Brace, an assault rifle was like a toy. "I'm not hurt, and I've still got all my ammo, maybe six, seven mags."
"Okay," said Alex, his gaze still focused on his front. "I think … maybe we're good here. How about you, Leela?"
When she didn't answer right away, Elizabeth spun about, looking for her. She saw the young woman kneeling next to her brother near the cargo lift, tears running down her face. She met Elizabeth's eyes. "Please… can you help?"
Clyde lay on his belly next to Paco, staring at her with sorrowful eyes.
Elizabeth dashed over. Like Huck, Paco had been hit with a lightning bolt, but where Huck's had been only a glancing blow, Paco had taken the bolt in his chest. His load-bearing vest was melted and still smoldering, as was his body armor beneath it. Elizabeth knelt, beating the cinders out. Helena joined her, and together they pulled away his armor, exposing his badly burned chest. Helena put her ear next to Paco's mouth then met Elizabeth's eyes and shook her head. "He's not breathing. I think the bolt stopped his heart."
"Please, do something," Leela said.
"I'm not that kind of doctor," she said in anguish, "but I'll try." She began chest compressions followed by short breaths into Paco's mouth. Elizabeth sat there, watching, feeling useless. Even with the Brace, she doubted she could help. For some unfathomable reason, God had made her a killer, not a healer. What kind of terrible Christian am I? "I … should I … do you want me to … shock him again?"
Helena didn't answer, merely shook her head as she started in on the chest compressions again, locking her fingers together and pushing down on Paco's chest.
Please, please, God, please.
Then Paco inhaled, a weak, pitiful breath, barely more than a gasp, but it was something. Helena placed her ear near Paco's lips again then sighed in gratitude. "He's breathing on his own. Help me roll him into the recovery position."
"Wait, what about Corinna?" Elizabeth jumped to her feet, but Swamp Thing and Alex were already moving away from the RCMP officer. Alex shook his head. "I'm sorry, Elizabeth. She was very brave."
I put out the fire, and she still died?
Elizabeth looked away, her grief threatening to send her to her knees. How many have to die before this ends? God, why are you doing this to us?
"We have to move," said Alex. "Take ammo from the injured and … Corinna."
"What about Paco and Huck?" Helena asked.
"Take their ammo. We're moving."
"I can't leave my brother," Leela said, horror in her voice.
"If we don't find this orb and use it to attack the Culling Machine, we're dead anyway. And so is most of the planet. We have no choice. We'll come back … after."
Leela, tears in her eyes, nodded and climbed to her feet. Clyde joined her, and she hugged the huge dog, wrapping her arms around his neck. "You can stay with him if you want."
Clyde barked. To Elizabeth, it sounded like a no.
Alex turned to Helena. "Where's the secure storage?"
"That way." She pointed to the stairs and tunnel directly opposite them. There were, Elizabeth saw, three other sets of stairs and corridors leading from the bottom of the Bore Hole. "It's in the secure lockup in the main c
avern with the Gateway Machine and Jump Tube. But we'll need to get backup power on first."
"Let's go, everyone," Alex said. "We've still got a world to save."
Alex led the way. Elizabeth, in the rear, paused one last time, looking back at Paco, Huck, and Clyde. Clyde lay next to Paco, licking his face. The dog cast a glance at Leela as she climbed the stairs ahead of Elizabeth and disappeared from sight, then with a howl of anguish, the German shepherd bolted after the young woman.
52
They entered a large chamber filled with rows of silent machines that Elizabeth recognized as one of the many power nodes for the Gateway Machine. The last time she had been here, the machinery created a constant vibration that had made her fillings ache. Now, it was eerily silent. At the far end of the chamber, a hermetically sealed door had been breached, its aluminum and plastic laminate sliding door shoved inward off the rails. Alex examined the door, running his fingers over the twisted metal frame, then glanced at Elizabeth. "Magic?"
"Maybe, but it looks more like it's been forced in, like with a battering ram."
Clyde whined, sniffing near the doorframe.
Alex bent down where Clyde was sniffing and shined his light on what looked like a tuft of hair stuck against the twisted aluminum frame. "What is that?"
"Paco found something like that near the maintenance access," Elizabeth said softly. "We thought maybe bear, but—"
"It's manticore fur," said Kargin, ripping it loose and sniffing it. "Ulfir Dunwalker is down here. Be wary, Lizbeth-Chambers. You too, Leela. He hunts mages."
"He killed Tlathia," Elizabeth said. "Spells didn't work against him."
"No, they won't. He carries Witch-Bane, forged from star-metal, sadly by my own father. The weapon nullifies magic around the wielder."
"Does it stop bullets?" Swamp Thing asked, keeping his LMG barrel fixed on their rear.
"No, but he is a skilled fighter … for a fae seelie—not that the sneak enjoys a fair fight. If you're not careful, he'll open your gut before you even know he's there."
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