by S. C. Stokes
“Kasey is right,” Sanders replied as he checked behind the pallets for anyone else who might be lying in wait. “As much as I can’t believe I’m saying this, Akihiro is the lesser evil here. That weapon is going to wipe out everyone in the city. Nothing else matters until we disable it.”
“Exactly, that’s why we need you to hold down the fort here, Hades.” Kasey said, rising to her feet. “Sanders and I are taking our units and going after the weapon. When Akihiro realizes what we are doing, him and whatever forces he has with him are likely to try and stop us. We need you to prevent any reinforcements from reaching us. Can you stick to the plan?”
Hades holstered the pistol in his right hand. “Fine. We’ll hold down the fort, but if Akihiro shows his face, I’m not making any promises. We’ll start the party with or without you.”
“Fair enough,” Kasey said, scratching at the nape of her neck. “As long as he doesn’t make it out of the building, I don’t care who gets to kill him.”
“Very well then. We have an understanding,” Hades said. “We’ll hold down the fort here while you deal with the weapon. Don’t drag your feet.”
“Agreed. It’s time to move out. Sanders, Morales, Henley, let’s move,” Kasey answered.
“Ready when you are, Chase,” Morales replied, striding over from the bank of elevators. “Where do we start?”
Henley fell in behind them, still wearing the black tactical pack he’d dragged out of the crashed bearcat.
“The stairs,” Kasey replied. “The weapon is somewhere beneath us, in the foundations, so down we go.”
As the strike force fell into step behind her, Kasey led the charge for the stairs. Reaching the landing, she let out a sigh.
More stairs. Gee, I hate the stairs.
It had been a hell of a day, from waking up in the Administorum, to the Night Crew assault on the precinct, and now taking on Akihiro. She could feel the fatigue building in her limbs but forced herself to ignore it. She plunged down the stairs, taking them two at a time as she focused her mind on the task at hand. Somewhere beneath her was a weapon that could level the city but knowing that it existed and knowing how to find it were two wildly different matters.
According to Vida’s estimation, the foundations themselves, while deep, would not be nearly enough to detonate the weapon and trigger the seismic activity Kasey had witnessed in her visions. A single blast wouldn’t be enough to wipe out the city. Not unless that singular blast was targeted with pinpoint precision.
Vida had used the city’s geological records to identify the most likely target of opportunity for the weapon. The bedrock beneath New York City was made up of a wide array of rock formations, among them serpentinite. Large deposits of the green-tinged stone were found all throughout the ground beneath the city. The stone itself was less dense than granite and, according to Vida, a large deposit of serpentinite rested against Manhattan’s own fault line. Vida surmised that it was the position of the serpentinite deposit on the fault line that made it the most likely target for the Shinigami weapon. Upon detonation, the weapon would vaporize the serpentinite deposit, agitate the fault line, and set off a chain reaction of seismic destruction that would destroy the city.
The fault line ran through Manhattan and the deposit in question was almost a mile from Park Avenue, meaning that the Shinigami would have needed to begin boring a tunnel months ago. If the weapon was to be detonated today, most of the tunnel had already been dug. The thought of needing to run a literal mile in her current state was a less than appealing prospect. Right now, more than anything else, she needed to find the entrance to that tunnel, or everything she had done, every struggle she’d endured, would be in vain.
Down and down the stairs wound, as they plunged deeper and deeper into the earth. The air seemed to grow thicker and thicker as they descended beneath the earth. Kasey swallowed in an attempt to ease the pressure on her ear drums. She lost count of just how many flights of stairs she had descended when abruptly they came to an end, opening onto a landing that led into a vast chamber. Enormous pillars ran from floor to ceiling, each of them as wide as Kasey was tall. The ceiling was almost twenty feet above their head with rows of LEDs illuminating the hall. On closer inspection, Kasey realized the pillars actually ran through the ceiling.
They’re the building’s foundations.
Sanders caught up with her. “Careful, Kasey, it could be another trap.”
Kasey nodded but proceeded into the chamber anyway. Raising her hands, she summoned her power, ready to unleash it on a moment’s notice.
She searched the chamber as she made her way down the vast aisle that ran between the pillars. Scrap materials and discarded tools littered the floor. The room was quiet, but for the strike force behind her. She could hear Sanders and the agents fanning out to search the cavernous room.
She walked the length of the chamber, but when she reached the other end, she'd found nothing of note. There wasn't a single Shinigami acolyte to be seen anywhere. Moreover, there wasn't a door, access ladder, or passageway. The entire subbasement of Park Avenue appeared to have been sealed tight.
“Sanders, have you found anything?” Kasey called out.
“Nothing yet. I don't know what I was expecting,” Sanders replied, “but I was certainly expecting something.”
“Me too,” Kasey said, doubling back. “You think it's possible that perhaps it was once open, but now that it has served its purpose, they have gone ahead and sealed whatever passage they used to keep the device concealed?”
Sanders shook his head, “The tunneling is a slow process. They would have been at it for months now. If they had tried to do it too quickly, the city would have detected the seismic disturbance. No, there is far too great a margin for error. Drills burn out, machines need maintenance. There is no way that Akihiro would have sealed the tunnel until he was certain that the device would function as intended. There has to be some way to reach it, just in case. There must be something we are missing.”
Kasey studied the walls. They were made of double-stacked bricks from floor to ceiling. They had not been painted over or sealed. She examined the grout between the rows of bricks, but the patterns seemed to be in order. No obvious gateway or passage that she could see.
Searching the entire chamber, brick by brick, for a hidden passage or trapdoor could take hours. Time she didn't have.
“Kasey. What do you think the chances are that there is an access way inside one of these pillars?” Sanders asked. “Originally, I figured that they were all support pillars, the foundations for the building above us. But there is always a chance that one of them hides a ladder or something that will take us farther beneath the surface.”
“Well, I have nothing, so let’s get looking,” Kasey replied. “There are dozens of them, so we’ll need to fan out and check.”
Kasey and the agents spread out, forming a line across the subbasement.
Kasey approached the first pillar. It was an immense cylindrical steel framework into which concrete had been poured during the construction. Kasey felt her way around the edges of the support, looking for any sign that might indicate a trapdoor or passageway.
Sanders was right: it would be simple to hide a ladder inside one of them. If the shafts and supports ran vertically through the floor, who would suspect that one of them was empty? Kasey made her way around the column.
Nothing.
She pounded on the steel, just in case. It was solid.
“What are you doing?” Henley called.
“If there is a ladder inside, it would have to be hollow. Just testing to be sure,” she said.
Not to be discouraged, she hurried to the next and repeated her examination. Feeling around the structural support, she searched for a seam or hinge, anything that might reveal a hidden door.
Again, nothing.
She gave an exasperated sigh and moved on to the next pillar. As she made her way through the chamber, she found nothing out of the ordinary.
Each pillar was just like the last, nothing more or less than the foundations to the building itself.
“Find anything, Sanders?” Kasey asked. “Coming up empty here.”
“Me too,” Sanders replied. “Nothing at all.”
Kasey approached the last support. It was right beside the stairs that led back up to the ground floor. Its exterior matched the others but as Kasey made her way around the column, she spotted a second seam in the steel. It was faint, and it ran parallel to the first. As Kasey followed the line, she realized that above her head, a third line joined the two seems together. Together, they could form a doorway.
She struck the steel. The noise reverberated through the column.
It’s hollow.
“Sanders, get over here,” she yelled, pushing at the door. “I think I found something.”
The strike force raced over to the pillar, Sanders at their head.
He stepped up beside her. “What have you got?”
She pointed at the pillar. “These seams. The other pillars only have a single seam. So, I thought it might be a hidden door. I just can’t seem to shift it though.”
Sanders tried to use his hands to prize open the door, but it wouldn't budge.
Kasey turned and roamed through the room, searching the scraps littering the floor. Finding a piece of broken steel, she snatched it up and then ran back to the pillar. She stuck the end of the steel into the seam and attempted to use it as a crowbar to open the column, but she couldn't budge it.
“Maybe it's an arcane passage,” Sanders suggested. “Perhaps we need to use magic to open it.”
Kasey paused, steel beam in hand. “That makes sense. Akihiro wouldn't want anyone finding it by accident. An arcane enchantment would certainly keep it safe from unwanted visitors.”
Sanders raised his hands and chanted, “Feldlaes.”
Nothing happened.
“I've had about enough of this,” Sanders said with a scowl.
They were nearly out of time. Kasey resisted checking the clock on her phone. She didn’t want to know how closely they were cutting it.
“Maybe it's nothing,” she replied, dropping the steel. “I felt certain it was something. But maybe I was just wrong.”
“There is only one way to find out,” Sanders said. He closed his eyes and chanted, “Windgerest.”
He clenched his fists as if he were trying to squish something.
There was a howling shriek as the steel buckled. The edges of the panel started to twist and contort.
“Sanders, it’s working. Keep it up,” she shouted, slapping him on the back.
A bead of sweat ran down Sanders’ brow as he continued to channel his energy into the panel. Kasey could feel the arcane exertion as Sanders bent the elements to his will.
The panel buckled. The sheet steel gave off a tortured shriek as it rolled back like a can being opened. As the panel contorted, it revealed an enormous cavity in the pillar.
Inside, instead of a ladder, was a stack of C4 explosives.
“Stop!” Kasey shouted.
Sanders released his incantation as the steel panel broke free and dropped to the floor, a twisted wreck.
He turned to Kasey. “What?”
“Look!” Kasey replied, pointing at the cavern inside the support column.
The C4 was stacked from the floor to Kasey's eye level, their priming caps wired together and linked to a central control panel. A flashing red light was all the warning Kasey needed to know that was active.
“That's what I was worried about,” Kasey replied. “If you set that off, we’re all dead.”
Sanders shook his head as he studied the mountain of explosives. “Why are they in here, though? I thought you said the explosion had to be much deeper beneath the surface. Surely triggering this device would only serve to destroy this building.”
Kasey bit her lip. “Yeah, you’re right. This would bring down Park Avenue, maybe a few of the surrounding buildings, but it won’t level the city. I don’t think this is the weapon that Akihiro is trying to guard.
“Perhaps he plans to use this to demolish the building after the attack on the city. Detonating that much explosive here in its foundations would sever its supports and surely bring it down. Perhaps it's a ploy to cover his tracks. Whatever his intentions are, we can't leave it here. If he sets that off, it’ll kill all of us.”
Together, Kasey and Sanders stood shoulder to shoulder, silently staring at the flashing mountain of explosives before them.
As Kasey pondered her next move, she ground her teeth together. All her visions of the attack had led them here. Vida’s research had brought them to this chamber. Everything they knew about the attack had brought them here to this place now.
They had only found a pile of explosives that would level one building, though.
Is it possible we are in the wrong place?
Kasey shook off the thought. The attack on the helicopters proved that Akihiro was inside Park Avenue. If he was here, the weapon would be too. Akihiro would want to be at the epicenter of the chaos to harness the life force of the city’s inhabitants as they expired.
It can't be a coincidence. It must be here somewhere. Somewhere beneath this building, there has to be a tunnel.
“Is it possible that the access point is underneath the explosives and Akihiro is simply trying to make it difficult for us to follow?” Sanders asked.
Kasey nodded. “It's definitely possible. There could be some kind of access way beneath this device.”
Motioning to the Ninth Precinct bomb squad technicians, Kasey pointed at the device. “Can you defuse that?”
The technician approached the pillar and studied the cavity and its contents.
“I should be able to. If we remove the detonators, the explosives themselves are harmless enough. I don't think he ever meant for this device to be found. There are no tamper switches or safeguards in place. Give me a few minutes, and I can render the device safe.”
“Okay. Get to work. I don’t want to put too fine a point on this, but we are running out of time,” Kasey replied.
The technician looked Kasey in the eyes. “With the greatest respect, Chase, one mistake here and we’ll all be out of time. The biggest worry is what happens if he decides to trigger it before we can defuse the device. One radio signal and we’re all toast.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Henley said from behind them. “That’s why West had me bring this.”
Kasey turned as he patted the tactical pack he’d been carrying since the strike force set out.
“It’s a frequency jammer,” he said. “It should stop any signal that might detonate the device. The Chief thought it might come in handy.”
“Should?” Kasey asked as her heart began beating a little quicker.
Henley nodded, but Kasey took little comfort from the response.
Turning to the technician, she continued, “If you could disarm the device before we have to test that theory, it would be marvelous.”
Stepping away from the pillar, she tried to get her emotions under control.
The technician crouched down and began to examine the space more closely. He traced his fingers along the wires as he tracked the labyrinthine connections between them. Identifying all of the blasting caps, he traced them back to a central receiver. Then he pulled out a pair of wire cutters from his belt and, with a deep breath, cut the wire.
The building heaved so violently that Kasey was thrown into Sanders. They tumbled to the floor as the building shook in protest. All around her, the strike force was falling over themselves as a deafening rumble rolled through the chamber. With each shake, the building’s structural supports heaved and groaned.
Oh, no. This is it. Kasey struggled to her knees. We were too late. It has already begun.
Chapter Eleven
The earth shook beneath them, and then as suddenly as it had begun, the tremors ceased.
The chamber grew still.
A
fter a moment, Kasey got to her feet.
“What was that? What’s going on down there?” Bishop’s voice crackled through the earpiece.
“We’re okay,” Kasey replied, staring down the chamber. “I thought the weapon had detonated, but it seems I was mistaken.”
“Whatever that earthquake was, it shook the whole block,” Bishop said.
Kasey exhaled as she tried to calm her racing heart. “That’s exactly what it was, Bishop. An earthquake. They’re drilling toward the fault line. They must have triggered some tremors.”
“You sound relieved,” Sanders interjected.
“Well, first off, it wasn’t the weapon, so it means we still have time. Second, did you hear that racket? It rolled through the basement like thunder, but it didn’t come from beneath us, it came from over there.” Kasey pointed through the cavernous chamber. “Don’t you think it’s odd that the building’s foundations pass through this room, and yet there is this large aisle running between the pillars? It leads directly to that wall. Why leave a space that large unless it was needed for something? I think they built the machine right here. This is where the tunnel started.”
Sanders nodded as he studied the space. “If that’s the case, where is the tunnel now?”
Kasey pointed at the wall. “It’s right there, hiding in plain sight. Just like Akihiro was.” She raised her hand in front of her and chanted, “Pêl Tân.”
A wisp of flames flickered into being above her outstretched hand. With practiced art, she poured energy into the enchantment. The wisp grew, and soon a broiling ball of flames hovered in the air before her. Channeling her will, she hurled the ball of fire at the far wall. The flames hurtled through the room before striking the brick wall.
When they hit it, the spell’s structure collapsed, and the flames washed over the exterior of the brick. As the spell licked at the surface, the wall shimmered and went translucent. The fire played across the clear facing, illuminating the chamber that lay beyond. The flames flickered and died, leaving the shimmering barrier intact. As the last vestiges of Kasey’s spell faded, the wall flickered and the brick pattern emerged once more, leaving the illusion of a wall where the barrier divided the subbasement from the tunnel beyond.