"We have to go back for Paco and Huck," Leela said.
Alex hesitated, as if he was considering exactly that, but then he shook his head. "No. We finish the mission, or they die anyhow. Eyes sharp, people." He slipped through the doorway first, his weapon ready for firing. Clyde followed right behind him.
Kargin followed with Elizabeth, Helena, and Leela. Swamp Thing came last, still scanning their rear. Alex shone his light over the massive cavern before them that housed the Gateway Machine and the Jump Tube—the heart of Operation Rubicon. The natural cavern extended far beyond the range of his light, but it did illuminate row upon row of terminals, computer monitors, and banks of equipment. Long black power cables and conduits ran along the floor of the cavern. In the center of the cavern, surrounded by banks of workstations, was the Jump Tube—a fifteen-meter-long matte-black glass cylinder roughly the size of an aircraft's fuselage. When activated, the task force soldiers ran down its interior and jumped out the other side through a gateway to Rubicon … or rather, Elizabeth corrected herself, Faerum.
Now it was dark and silent, covered in dust that sparkled under the beams of their lights. Without the ever-present hum of electricity and the whir of equipment, the cavern seemed ominously silent, like a tomb.
Or … an old amusement park ride, long dormant and ready for the scrapyard.
"Holy shit," said Leela with wonder. "What were you doing here?" She spun in place, staring about herself. "This is some serious Area-51 bullshit."
"You have no idea how right you are," Swamp Thing said.
"And all a waste now," said Helena. "Humanity's greatest scientific accomplishment, and it was all going to be shut down due to bureaucratic paranoia and short-sightedness."
"People are dead," snapped Elizabeth. "Hundreds, maybe thousands. If we don't destroy Kargin's Culling Machine, it'll be billions. Maybe we should have shut Operation Rubicon down a lot sooner."
"Leave it," said Alex. "Not the time. Helena, the secure storage chamber you spoke of?"
"This way," she said, moving forward past the rows of workstations to the far side of the cavern.
Elizabeth and the others followed. Leela remained wide-eyed in disbelief as they slipped by the Jump Tube. "You really used that thing to go to another planet?"
"Only once," said Elizabeth softly. "And I almost died."
Helena led them to a metal wall built into the rock of the cavern. A blast door stood in the center of the wall, with a dark keypad and optical scanner, the kind you had to place your eye against for a retinal scan. As they came closer, Elizabeth saw the door was charred by flames and scored by what looked like ax marks. "Well, somebody wanted in," she said softly.
Alex ran his fingers over the charred surface of the blast door and rubbed the residue between his thumb and forefinger. "They may have tried, but it doesn't look like they got anywhere."
"If we don't get the backup power back on, we're not getting in either," Helena said. "This secure lockup is essentially a giant bank vault constructed from an amorphous metal alloy, like the liquid metal they put on the cover of cell phones and watches—only much stronger and shielded like mu-metal. "
Swamp Thing stared at her. "Mu-what?"
"It's really strong," she said. "I don't think your bomb would even dent it."
"I really like this world," said Kargin, reverently running his palms over the door and wall.
"Okay," said Alex, looking about. "Where's the backup generator room?"
"Over here," Helena said, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him with her.
"Wait," Alex said, pausing. "Swamp Thing, give me an all-around defensive here."
"You got it, Cap."
"I'll come," offered Elizabeth. "You might need magical backup."
Alex considered for a moment then nodded. "Let's go, Helena."
She led them down the side of the cavern for several hundred meters, until they came to another maintenance corridor. "This way."
Alex went first, his SCAR tight against his shoulder as he swept his beam down the narrow corridor. Helena followed, with Elizabeth in the rear, holding her SCAR by its pistol grip in one hand and ready to channel mana through the Brace with the other.
"There, that door on the right," said Helena.
Alex carefully turned the handle on a door marked Backup Power. He pushed the door open with his barrel then slipped inside. The two women followed. Elizabeth cast one last glance behind them, expecting to see a manticore about to pounce on her.
Is Ulfir still here?
The small room was crowded with a fridge-like generator box as tall as Elizabeth and at least four feet wide. The air smelled of chemicals. Cables ran up the wall to disappear into vents in the ceiling and walls. Alex shined his light over a step-by-step instruction board bolted to the metal side of the generator. "You can get this going?"
Helena stared at the instructions, her lips moving as she read. She bobbed her head softly. "I've always been a get-my-hands-dirty kind of scientist. It'll take a few minutes to prime. Can you help me?"
"Watch our six, Elizabeth." Alex moved to help Helena.
"You got it." She stood in the open doorway, trying to watch both directions of the corridor at the same time. Sweat ran into her eyes, stinging her. It was really hot down here now, like a sauna.
"It uses deep-cycle batteries," Helena said. "This way, it doesn't produce noxious gases underground or require fuel storage, but it makes it harder to prime. Okay, here's the transfer switch, the electric motor pumps, power transformer, and—yes, the main breaker."
Leela, Elizabeth flashed through the crown.
Yes?
Anything happening with you?
Nothing. But this place is scary-ass creepy. Hurry up.
We're trying.
"Here goes nothing," Helena said, her hand on the main breaker. She cranked it down, and for a few breathless moments, nothing happened. Then a low hum reverberated through the room. A trickle of steam hissed from an open valve in the far corner, and the overhead fluorescent lights flickered into life, startlingly bright after the darkness.
You did it, said Leela. The overhead lights are coming back on—but not all of them. I guess it's just emergency lighting still. Damn, this place is like something out of a movie.
You should see it when the Jump Tube is active.
"Let's go," said Alex, slipping past Elizabeth. He led them back out to the main cavern, where every fifth or sixth overhead fluorescent light was now on, casting flickering shadows among the long banks of equipment and monitors. The others were waiting for them, their backs to the blast door, watching their surroundings. Helena went straight to the keypad next to the door, which now glowed with power.
"Tell me you remember the code," Alex said.
"That's why you brought me—as well as my ocular signature." She punched a series of digits into the keypad, which beeped steadily in response. Then she placed her face against the ocular scanner, letting the laser map her retina.
And just like that, the door chirped and clicked open, releasing a blast of air from an overpressure system. Helena flashed Alex a beaming smile and pulled the door wide before darting inside. Alex and Elizabeth looked at one another then followed her in, followed by Kargin a moment later. Swamp Thing and Leela watched their rear.
The secure lockup was a sterile lab with white walls and a polished floor. Tables holding lab equipment as well as carts of sophisticated monitors sat neatly against the gleaming white walls. A brightly polished mirrored door stood in the center of the far wall, reminding Elizabeth of a walk-in freezer. Another keypad sat on the wall beside the door. Helena punched in another series of digits then pulled the door open before darting inside the second chamber, a vault within a vault.
She came out again a moment later holding another Shatkur Orb cupped in her hand.
"That was surprisingly easy," said the dwarf.
Elizabeth joined her, and Helena gently placed the orb in her hands.
T
he orb was identical to the one Tlathia had entrusted to her, complete with small flashes of lightning within its glass depths. "Thank you, God." She glanced at the dwarf. "Kargin, how long will it take to link and show me how to open a gateway?"
Kargin's dark eyes shone with excitement. "No more than a few minutes, Lizbeth-Chambers. You and I will be drinking fire-ale together in no time at all. I'll even teach you some drinking songs."
"Don't forget we still have to assault a heavily defended site and destroy a machine we've never even seen," said Alex. "Let's not celebrate just yet."
"We've gotten this far," Helena said, beaming at him. "Confidence, Alex. Confidence."
Despite herself, Elizabeth smiled. Alex motioned for the two women to go first. When Elizabeth came out, she held the orb high above her head for the others to see.
Swamp Thing snorted happily, his teeth flashing. "All this excitement over a Magic 8-Ball. Hardly seems—"
A boom shattered the silence, followed by a bright flash from behind a far bank of equipment. The light shot toward them, impossibly fast, but Elizabeth still recognized it—an anti-tank missile.
Elizabeth reacted by instinct, channeling telekinesis at the oncoming warhead. She had no way of knowing if her telekinesis accomplished anything because a moment later, the rocket struck a nearby bank of machines. There was a blinding flash of light, and Elizabeth flew back through the air to hit one of the others. They both went down hard. Her vision went dim. When it came back, bright lights popped before her eyes, and her ears rang. As she shook her head, trying to clear her vision, she became aware of something else.
Someone was screaming in pain.
53
Alex recognized the rocket as the distinctive boom of an M-72 LAW, remembering at the exact same moment that Huck had readied one of the disposable tubes for firing before she had been knocked unconscious.
He had forgotten it.
M-72s were surprisingly simple to fire—particularly after they were primed, as that weapon had been. All anyone needed to do was depress the only button on the tube. A child could have figured it out.
These thoughts flashed through his mind as he dove for cover.
The weapon detonated, impossibly loud, sending him skidding back a half dozen paces. He lay dazed, his ears ringing, his vision blurry, but he was alive—somehow—although he didn't deserve to be. Idiot, this is your fault.
He rose to his knees, patting himself down. While his limbs were all in place, his SCAR was gone, the sling snapped. Thick black smoke obscured his vision, accompanied by the acrid stench of explosive residue from the 66mm HEAT warhead.
Did it miss us?
Maybe not—one of the others was screaming. He dragged himself to his feet, pulling himself up by one of the workstations, to see Helena, her glasses gone, sitting upright on the cement floor, blood spurting from the stump of her right arm where her forearm should have been. His heart wrenched at the sound of her screams and the panicked look of disbelief on her face.
Swamp Thing was near her, on his hands and knees, staring absentmindedly at nothing. The others also lay about, with Elizabeth and Leela entangled together. Kargin staggered to his feet, blood dripping down the side of his head, his eyes unfocused.
Then Alex heard a high-pitched whine that sent a spasm of terror coursing through him: Swamp Thing's duffel bag lay near the large man, the straps broken, smoke rising from it. The whine was coming from the improvised bomb.
The sound must have registered through Swamp Thing's addled senses because he stared at the bag before looking at Alex, his eyes like saucers.
Before Alex could move, Swamp Thing grasped the bag to his chest, pushed himself up onto his feet, and spun away, dashing past the workstations and banks of monitors, running straight for the Jump Tube about a hundred feet away.
"Throw it!" Alex screamed.
He saw a flash of movement from the corner of his eye and spun just in time to see a creature from a nightmare charging at him. Lionlike in size and appearance, the monster had thick red fur covering it, and its head with its thick black mane looked like a cross between a wolf and a lizard, with jaws filled with sharp teeth—Ulfir's manticore.
Alex froze, knowing he couldn't stop it.
Kargin smashed into the monster's flank, knocking it aside, at the last moment. Dwarf and manticore rolled along the floor, locked together, and Alex couldn't tell which one snarled more aggressively. They separated, with Kargin back on his feet somehow, his glowing ax in his hand. He struck, nearly severing a foreleg. The manticore shrieked in pain but leaped forward, bowling Kargin over. It bit into the dwarf's shoulder and right arm and lifted him into the air before violently flinging him back and forth. Kargin's ax flew away to lodge into a computer monitor only a few paces from Alex. It hissed and melted the plastic then went cold. The manticore flung Kargin away like a doll to crash into a workstation, knocking it over.
Alex's gaze darted about for a weapon, but instead he saw a dark elf male coming at him from the side with a long black spear, its blade almost two feet long and sharpened on both sides—Ulfir Dunwalker. Ulfir thrust the weapon at Alex, but Alex had already begun to spin away, and the spear blade shattered a flat-screen computer monitor. With Alex off-balance, Ulfir came on again. His head was shaven on one side so that his long white hair, tied in a single braid, swung about as he moved. An angry raw burn wound covered the right side of the dark elf's forehead and cheek. Alex bumped into something and couldn't retreat any more. This time, he'll skewer me.
Behind the dark elf, Alex saw Swamp Thing standing on the steps of the Jump Tube, the duffel bag raised to throw into the tube, which the Delta Force operator likely thought might contain its blast.
The bag exploded in Swamp Thing's hand, vaporizing both him and the Jump Tube in a hellish blossom of orange fire.
The blast threw Ulfir into Alex.
ULFIR SLAMMED INTO THE MANLING, his breath stolen from him. His ears rang, and moments later, he became aware he now lay on his back, smoke drifting above him, the air reeking of rotten eggs. His plan had almost worked, but somehow he had missed with the manling boom-tube, which seemed impossible, but at the last moment, the fiery star had swerved away from the manlings to explode nearby instead. But the near miss had still knocked the manlings senseless, making them easy targets—or should have. Somehow, that foul dwarf, Kargin Ice-Hand, had intercepted his manticore.
The dwarf would die screaming, as would this manling.
He didn't understand the source of the devastation that had knocked him down, but his fingers grasped at the haft of Witch-Bane, which reenergized him with its familiar weight and balance. He pulled himself upright—just as the manling also rose, facing Ulfir and drawing a fighting knife from his belt.
Ulfir smiled. A warrior? A challenge?
Accepted.
He spun Witch-Bane in a flashing arc. With its much-longer reach, he could slaughter this manling ten times over with ease. "Come, manling," he taunted, not caring if he understood him or not. "I'll give you the warrior's death you seek."
PAIN FLASHED through Kargin's shoulder and arm where the manticore's teeth had savaged him. His right arm hung limp, but he managed to stagger back to his feet through sheer dwarven stubbornness. He should already be dead, he knew, but there had been another explosion that had also knocked down the wounded manticore. The manticore rose now, snarling in rage, and lunged forward, but its injured foreleg gave out, and the beast stumbled, howling in agony. Kargin, with only his hands to defend himself, bared his teeth in his own challenge. The manticore hesitated then lifted its spiked tail over its head, pointing the barbs at him. Wounded as he was, Kargin knew there was no way he'd be able to resist those poisonous barbs, and when he fell unconscious, the manticore would rip him apart.
ALEX TOOK UP A KNIFE-FIGHTING POSTURE. He was at a lethal disadvantage in range, and Ulfir clearly knew that as well because the dark elf slipped back, taunting Alex with the tip of his black spear, speaking to him
in his alien language. Alex stumbled back, only just catching and pushing the spearhead away with his knife blade. Ulfir's golden eyes flashed in amusement. He's playing with me. He can kill me at any time.
Alex darted his gaze about, hoping his SCAR lay within reach—he wasn't too proud to shoot the dark elf; fighting fair had nothing to do with war—but all he saw was Kargin's ax embedded in a nearby monitor. Even if he could get to it before Ulfir killed him, he had no idea how to fight with an ax.
I'm dead either way.
Ulfir saw where he had been looking, and the dark elf's teeth flashed against his dark-purple skin in amusement. He stepped to the side, motioning with one hand for Alex to take the ax. Alex hesitated. It's a trick. He's going to stab me in the back the moment I go for the ax.
Something flew through the air, and a computer monitor smashed into Ulfir, knocking him sideways. The dark elf recovered in a moment, turned, and glared at Leela, now on her feet, blood running down her face as she channeled again, this time levitating and throwing an office chair. Ulfir batted it aside with his spear then rushed her.
Alex went for the ax.
LEELA SCRAMBLED BACK as Ulfir came at her. She channeled a shield to stop him. But it didn't even slow him down. She felt her magic … dissolve.
She remembered Kargin's warning about his spear too late.
Leela spun away, suddenly exposed, but she made it only two steps before he struck. Pain like molten fire coursed through her abdomen. Looking down, she saw a foot of black metal, like a sword blade, jutting from the front of her Kevlar vest, just above her left hip. His spearhead, now dripping with her blood, had gone all the way through the front and back of her Kevlar armor.
When he wrenched the spearhead free, she fell.
AN UNDERCURRENT OF pleasure swept through Ulfir as the manling mage tried to crawl away from him. He stepped on her back, and she screamed louder than a were-pandi caught in a snare. He snorted with amusement as he balanced the point of Witch-Bane over the back of her neck, ready to drive it down for the killing blow. Manling mages die as easily as fae seelie mages.
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