Heading back out the front doors, he was just in time to see an Armada skiff flying past. Time was running out. Sooner or later the military was going to figure out that the Tower had been attacked, and they would be swooping in. The Red Zone would be in for a shock. The rest of the street was deathly quiet. Many of the neighbors were probably hunkered down in their homes, hoping that the chaos in the zone didn’t spill outward. Some oblivious souls might even still be sleeping soundly, unaware of the street battle just a couple of blocks away.
Jimmy slipped around the front and into an alley that ran down the length of the building, looking for the invisible bolt-hole doors. There were no street lights, and the sound of scurrying feet and the squelching beneath his bare feet clued Jimmy to the fact that Lev Quintan didn’t care to make sure his alleyways were kept clean. Jimmy was glad it was dark; sometimes being ignorant of the little furry rodents darting past you was a comfort. Were they rats? He hated rats, but presumably rats hadn’t been introduced on Zenith. At least not intentionally.
Something ratlike was here. He shuddered and pushed the thought aside. He had no time to worry about sneaky little creatures nipping at his ankles. Hefting the laser to his shoulder, he flicked the power button and pressed the scope to his eye. Immediately he could see the nearly clear rat forms racing away. Hell. Well, at least they weren’t racing toward him. Sweeping the alley ahead of him, he couldn’t see any other living beings. But to his dismay, he couldn’t see the outline of the bolt-holes either. They must have been too well sealed to let any building heat escape through the cracks of the doors.
He continued to slowly jog forward, making no effort to be quiet. His pounding footsteps scattered rodents away from piles of refuse and down the alley. They seemed to be more scared of him than he was of them. More timid than Terran rats, he surmised.
Suddenly a section of wall flung open before him, red emergency light spilling into the alleyway. A man stumbled through the bolt hole. “Wait!” Jimmy shouted. The man froze, the door coming back to rest against his leg. “I just need to get in,” he explained, lowering his gun. He didn’t want to seem threatening to the poor guy, who was already breathing like he had just dashed down all twenty-two flights of stairs.
“You’re on the wrong side,” the man wheezed at him, inexplicably. “Your team was supposed to come in from the west.” Jimmy stared at him, completely taken aback. He looked closer and realized that the man was wearing a Quintan Tower maintenance jumpsuit. One of the janitors?
“I propped the stairwell open,” the man added, looking at Jimmy like he expected thanks. Jimmy nodded and pushed past him into the building. Clearly, the man thought he was someone else, but he didn’t have time to stop and dig. It was enough that the man was letting him into the building.
Leaving behind the janitor who seemed on the verge of a heart attack, Jimmy raced through the bolt-hole and found himself running down a very narrow pitch-black hallway. There were more red emergency globes overhead, and he had to strain his eyes to see where he was going. At the end of the corridor, he found a closed emergency door with a handle. He raised his gun and carefully cracked the door open, peering through the gloom and trying to get a view of the room beyond. Where was he in the building? What else was going on in here? He couldn’t hear any noise at all. Nor could he see any movement. Where was the attack going on? Who were the people the janitor was expecting? Security officers, perhaps? Jimmy frowned. He could hardly be mistaken for a security officer, wearing nothing but black lounge pants.
After several seconds of scanning the room beyond, Jimmy realized where he was. He was less than six feet away from the door to the stairwell. Darting out from the bolt-hole door, he dashed for the stairwell and pressed his thumb to the lock. It flashed green, and he pulled the door open, hurrying inside the room. The barren concrete stairs didn’t look inviting, but Jimmy took a deep breath and started up at a jog. Jax’s lab was on the twenty-first floor. Hopefully he didn’t puke or pass out before he made it there. Last time the power had gone out, he’d only had to head up from his own apartment on the eighteenth floor.
Yeah, when Jimmy got up there, he was going to kill Zane.
By the time he reached the second floor, he realized that he could hear echoes of someone (or maybe more than one person) pounding down the stairs. He checked his gun nervously, wondering if he should stop and wait for them to come into view, but instead made the split second decision to keep jogging up the stairs. Most likely it was just a resident trying to escape. Of course, it was the middle of the night, and it was deathly quiet in here. Did the residents even know the building was under attack? Most people in the building were probably asleep. He kept going anyway. He had to find Jenna.
When he reached the seventh floor landing, he realized that at least one person was heading down right above him. He could even hear him panting. He stopped at the foot of the next flight of stairs and raised the gun, though he kept his finger off the trigger. A girl wearing a silver QE slimsuit dashed into view. Jimmy lowered his gun. There was no mistaking that mass of dark braids.
“Lilah!” he called. She jerked to a stop, her eyes wide and fearful. Obviously, she had either been staring intently at the steps or had been deep in thought.
“Jimmy,” she gasped. She started down the stairs again, reaching a couple of steps above him before stopping. He was still looking up at her. Her chest was heaving. She must have been rushing all the way down from her apartment.
“Where were you?” she demanded, her voice still breathless. “I just spent five minutes ringing your door until the power went out. I just saw Jenna with Zane, and it didn’t look like she wanted to be with him.”
“You saw Jenna?” Jimmy exclaimed anxiously. “Where were they? Was she OK?”
“She looked all right, I guess. Other than that she was clearly dressed for bed, not for heading over to the QE,” Lilah said, her tone concerned.
“Heading to the QE?” Jimmy repeated, his brow furrowing as he considered. Was Zane taking her to security? He started back down the stairs, Lilah beside him. Going down was easier. He picked up speed while Lilah explained what she had seen.
“I was in the middle of a shift when I got a comm from my brother. He’d gotten himself into a mess, and he needed a place to sleep. So I took my meal break early and came back over to the Tower.”
“Did you see anything unusual?” Jimmy interrupted.
“Unusual?” Lilah frowned. “No. The tube was completely empty, but that was no surprise. It was the middle of a night shift.”
“The QE’s under attack,” Jimmy explained. “The shield’s up, and someone’s attacked the Tower too. I found the front desk guy murdered and the blast doors shut.”
“What?” Lilah gasped. “But I just saw Hank, he was at the desk when I got my brother cleared to come in, everything was fine!”
“Yeah, I think I came in right after.” Jimmy swallowed. Hank’s body had still been warm. Jimmy was lucky he hadn’t walked right into the middle of it. “So you met your brother in the lobby and then took him up?”
“Yes,” Lilah said, her tone steely. “I got him settled, then headed back down the lifts to the tube station. When I came out of the lift, I saw Zane with Jenna walking into the station. They had their backs to me, so I don’t think they noticed me at all, but Zane had Jenna’s arm, and he was pulling her along. She didn’t even have any shoes on.” Lilah’s eyes darted from Jimmy’s bare chest down to his bare feet. “I see it’s the common fashion tonight. What in the whole black universe is going on, Jimmy?”
They had reached the third floor. Jimmy rounded the landing before speaking. “The entire zone’s gone crazy,” he finally said. “Zane walked into my bedroom while we were sleeping, scared the living breath out of both of us.” Then he hesitated. Lilah still didn’t know about Jax. It was probably pointless to keep him a secret now; obviously enemies on all sides knew ab
out him. But it was too much to explain at the moment. “He took us both out at gunpoint. He sent me off with a bodyguard as a gift to some supplier of his nanospeed, and I ended up in the middle of a three-way zone clash. I just barely escaped and made it back here. But I have no idea what he was planning to do with Jenna. Zane has clearly lost his mind!”
Lilah pondered that for a moment. Only their panting broke the silence. “This sounds like an all-out zone war,” she mused. “Except that if Zane learned about your relationship with Jenna, he’s probably in some kind of jealous fury. But why take her to the QE? Especially if it’s under attack?”
Jimmy suddenly knew the answer to that. Zane wasn’t headed to the QE. He was headed to the gate. He didn’t know why Zane would take Jenna there, but he was positive that was where he had gone. But if there were enemies within the Tower, that’s exactly where they would have gone too.
“Aw, hell,” he breathed. “Are you armed?” he asked Lilah, louder.
“Aren’t I always?” she responded tartly.
“I forget sometimes that you’re a world-class assassin,” he said, as they headed down the last flight of stairs. “Well, you’ve got a chance to show off your stuff, Lilah. I have a feeling we are headed right into disaster.” He put a finger up to his lips as they reached the bottom floor. Giving Lilah a second to rest and get her breathing under control, he carefully cracked the bottom door. Everything was still dark, illuminated only by the eerie red globes. There was no sign of life, not even Tower security. When Lilah had withdrawn her gun and given him a nod, he eased through the door and into the hall. He kept his gun raised and ready, slowly moving toward the opposite side of the building. He would have to pass the large open staircase that led up to the pool deck to get to the only staircase that would lead down to level B2, where both the gate room and the tube station were. With the power out, anyone attacking the gate would have to head down those same stairs, which made Jimmy clench his gun more tightly. He’d much rather avoid running into anyone at all.
Taking a deep breath, he passed into the open foyer below the pool deck staircase. No shots fired down on him, so he moved a little more quickly, reaching the emergency stair to the lower levels in just a few seconds. Lilah was right behind him. He went to press his thumb to the scanner and then realized that the door was cracked open. A rubber doorstop had been wedged in the bottom, keeping the heavy emergency door from closing and locking. Jimmy nodded to himself unconsciously. This was what that janitor had been talking about when he’d told Jimmy he’d left the door propped. Even with the building power out, the thumblocks would still work, since they were battery powered. Now he knew who had let the attackers into the building. He also knew that in the group of attackers headed to the lower levels, there were no building residents who could open a thumblock. He wondered how they were planning to get into the gate room. He slowly pushed the door open, listening carefully for any sound of movement in the stairwell.
BOOM!
The explosion echoed up the stairwell, loud enough to make Jimmy’s ears ring.
“Mother of dark matter!” breathed Lilah. Jimmy shook his head. Well, that answered how they were planning to get into the gate room.
Just please, he thought, stars above, let Jenna be all right. He crept down the stairs, his scope up and gun ready.
They didn’t see or hear anyone all the way down. When they reached the B2 level, Jimmy took his time, sweeping every direction for signs of intruders. Eventually he reached a pillar that marked the end of the Tower basement and the start of the tube station. Once past this point, he was technically no longer in Omphalos; he was back in the Red Zone. The schematics for this part of the level were never publicly filed. Probably the sellout janitor had observed Zane or Jimmy going into the nondescript maintenance door and figured out that this was the way to the secret gate room. Though how he had known there was a gate being built here in the first place was anyone’s guess.
From his vantage point behind the pillar, Jimmy studied the tube station. Lilah had taken up position behind the pillar opposite. The lights were on here; power to the tube station—as well as the gate room—came from the QE power station. The “maintenance door” that really led to the gate room was nothing more than a gaping hole in the wall—smoke still curled from the scorched, jagged edges of the remaining wall. Jimmy could see at least two bodies slumped in the room, dark pools of blood spreading around them. One was dressed in the uniform of a Quintan Security officer. The other was dressed in complete black. Neither was Jenna, and Jimmy let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he was holding. There was no shouting or any noise at all coming from the gate room tunnel. Had Zane shut the blast doors? Normally there were several security officers on duty inside the gate room tunnel. Where were the others? Something wasn’t right.
Lilah suddenly moved out from behind the pillar. “Lilah, wait!” Jimmy urged in a whisper, but she glided forward toward the exploded door, her gun raised and ready. The sound of pounding footfalls startled Jimmy, and he dropped to one knee, taking aim at the door just as a group of four men dashed from the gate room tunnel. Before Jimmy even had time to register that these were clearly unfriendlies, Lilah had fired, dropping the first man. Jimmy fired a series of shots at the second man just as the intruder fired at Lilah. Lilah grunted and staggered back, though she didn’t drop her gun. Jimmy aimed at the third and unleashed several rounds, hitting him in the head. He swept his gun around, realizing that all four men were on the ground. Lilah must have hit the fourth man. He turned in her direction just as she slipped to her knees. Jimmy raced to her side.
“Where are you hit?” he asked urgently.
“My stomach,” she gasped. She moved her arm, and Jimmy saw the blood.
“OK, OK,” he muttered. “Let me think. You’re supposed to raise the injured part, right? Let’s see you get that belly above your head.”
Lilah sniffed. “Seriously, Jimmy!” Her voice was tight with pain.
“Come on, you’re a dancer. I know you can do it!” Jimmy quipped while checking her for any other wounds. She cracked a lopsided grin this time, and he went on. “Well, it’s not bleeding too badly but I guess we should press something against the bleeding. Should I pull my pants off? It’s all I’ve got.”
Lilah groaned.
Suddenly, something slammed into his shoulder, pitching him sideways and away from Lilah. He lay stunned for just a second while another searing pain blossomed in his leg. He swore explosively. Rolling to his side and ignoring the agonizing pain, he was just in time to see Lilah fire her gun again.
“Got him,” she whispered, and then she slumped to her side. Jimmy twisted his neck, spasms flaring through his injured shoulder. One of the intruders lay only a few feet away, his gun still held in both his hands, his eyes open and staring, his neck nearly severed through from Lilah’s final shots. Jimmy swallowed, trying not to gag. His shoulder was on fire. Glancing down at his leg, he realized he was in serious trouble. His leg was bleeding profusely. The shot must have hit his artery.
Groaning, he dragged himself to Lilah’s side. She was still breathing, though unconscious. His blood was soaking through his pants, making the floor slippery and staining Lilah’s pale slimsuit. He was going to need a tourniquet. He sighed and then started to remove Lilah’s belt. If she woke up while he was doing this, she was going to kill him. Glancing around for something like a stick, he almost gave up again. Then he remember that according to Jenna, Lilah always carried a knife too. He started patting down her slimsuit. Lilah would definitely shoot him if she woke up right now, which was unfortunate, because she had really, really good aim. He found her folded knife in a nearly hidden pocket near her waist and pulled it out. Better than nothing.
He tied her belt around his leg and stuck the knife in place and tied a knot. Then gritting his teeth, he twisted the knife until the bleeding stopped. Mission accomplished; he wasn’t going to
bleed to death. Hopefully.
Where was Jenna?
21. Countdown
The same wave of nausea washed over Jenna as the first gate room came back into focus. She clamped her mouth shut, refusing to give in to it. Her eyes swept the room just in time to see a black-clad man standing near the opening to the hall, half turned as if he had been about to dash away. He stared at her in shock, his mouth hanging open. Jenna didn’t hesitate. She aimed the atlatl and fired, sending the man into jerky spasms on the floor. She scanned the room but didn’t see any other people. There was no sign of the tech that had sent her and Zane to Marah. Moving off the platform, her eyes darted around, trying to find the crystal that would shut off power to the gate. Her eyes on the wall, she didn’t notice the large black case at the foot of the platform until she tripped over it.
It was a plain box with no markings, with a glowing screen on the top. It was flashing a time. She squinted and saw “5:10.” Then it flashed “5:09.” A countdown timer.
“Oh no,” she breathed. She frantically scanned the walls. She had to find that crystal now! She staggered back to her feet. Running to the terminal that had powered the trip, she scanned the wall beside it for the crystal switch that Ahna had shown her. There was nothing. Glancing back nervously at the explosives, she trailed along the wall, looking for any sign of the crystal kill switch. She made a full circuit of the room without seeing it.
It had to be here somewhere. Ahna had said so, and she would know. Surely Quintan hadn’t depended solely on blast doors to keep a catastrophe from happening. Where was the cursed kill switch?
After a frantic second search, she spotted it nearly hidden behind the gate itself. She glimpsed the sparkle of light refracting off the crystal. Jenna darted to the switch, turned it, and slid it out of position. With a whoosh like an exhale, the humming of the gate pulsed longer for just a second, and then tapered off. The netting drooped, no longer fanning out in an invisible wind.
The Quintan Edge (Roran Curse Book 2) Page 24