by Moira Rogers
His fingers curled toward his palms, and he itched to lash out, this time at the man who’d sired him. “Did you know this would happen?”
“We’ve never made it past the guardian.” Aton’s brow creased in a worried frown.
Zel didn’t know if he believed him, and he didn’t care. “Trip, I assume you’re working on getting back inside?”
“Trying like hell, but I don’t know if I can.”
“Keep trying.” It was all anyone could do at this point, and Zel decided sheer helplessness might actually be worse than death.
Devi swiped her arm over her forehead and grimaced when it came away streaked with blood. “That isn’t mine, is it?”
Dakota straightened and squinted at her, eyes dark in his weathered face. “Don’t think so.” He glanced down at the demon sprawled at their feet. “That looks like an old-fashioned shotgun he’s got. You know how to use one?”
Juliet would have kicked her ass if she hadn’t learned. “A friend of mine is fond of older weaponry. I can use it.” Devi knelt, and a quick search of the demon turned up a knife and extra shells. “You should take it, though.” She was faster and would hopefully be better suited to the close combat of the knife.
He took the shotgun, then looked back at the room where Cache, Kate and the two kids remained. “If we can clear out this floor, we’ll pick up a few more weapons. Chuck should be able to manage a gun. Molly too. Don’t think Kate’s got it in her, though.”
She was a schoolteacher, for Christ’s sake, a soft, sweet woman who shouldn’t have to fight. “That’s all right. Cache is good in the network. You and I can lead, and she and the kids can keep an eye on our backs.”
“Fair enough.” He checked to make sure the gun was loaded and snapped it shut again. He might be older but, blood-smeared and determined, he looked plenty ready for battle. “One hallway at a time, then?”
Devi nodded, knife in hand. “We work the grid. This one wasn’t expecting us, just office workers. Chances are, the rest of the demons will be thinking the same thing. Once we’ve cleared the floor, we’ll get the others and head downstairs.”
The next foe was no problem, but the loud report of the double-barreled shotgun brought two more demons running. Dakota fought with the instinct of a soldier, his back to the wall and his hands always ready.
Before he went down, the last demon caught Devi with a kick hard enough to knock the breath out of her. She stumbled against the wall, but shook her head when Dakota reached for her. “I’m all right.”
He frowned as he watched her recover. “It’s usually easier to shake something off in the network. Even the training arenas and the challenge circle can only enforce exhaustion and pain long enough for a bout or a challenge.” He transferred the shotgun to his right hand and dragged up his sleeve, revealing a muscular forearm with a faded tattoo curling around it. Near his wrist, angry red marks stood livid against the skin. “These should be fading, not turning into bruises. This isn’t a normal server, is it?”
She didn’t have the breath to argue, and it would do no good to lie. “It’s some sort of security system. A test in lieu of a password. If we pass, we get access. If we don’t, we die. Supposedly.”
Dakota didn’t appear to have Cache’s difficulty accepting the possibility. “Then I guess we make sure we don’t die.” He scooped an automatic weapon off the last demon and looped the strap over his shoulder. “Let’s see if your friend’s managed to get that old-ass tablet Molly found hooked into the security system.”
Chuck saw them coming, and he and Molly pushed the desk aside before Devi and Dakota reached the door. “Ready, Cache?”
“Think I got it.” Cache tucked her hair behind her ears and picked up the flat screen. “I can’t hack the parameters of the test, but I can hack the virtual computer system. We’ve got cameras on every level. I’ve mapped out a route that should get us to the basement—that’s where the underground is. There’s an unmanned transport system there that can take us straight to Nicollet and the Crystal Court. That’s where the humans holed up, right?”
Dakota answered, his voice laced with bitterness. “Yeah. Except they didn’t let those of us who’d been injured by demons in.”
Devi laid out the handguns they’d gathered and reloaded her own rifle. “I think we all know how that feels now.”
“Not important,” Cache snapped. “There are about two dozen demons between us and the underground. We can avoid some, but plenty of them we’ll have to fight.”
Molly moved first, reaching for two of the handguns. “These are pretty much the ones they use in that zombie game Trip loaded onto the local network for us. Demons can’t be so different from zombies, right?”
Devi dodged out of the way and lowered the girl’s arm with a gentle hand on her wrist. “These aren’t like the ones Trip set up, honey. There are no safety protocols here. Don’t point them at anything you’re not trying to kill.”
That was when the truth hit Molly. Devi saw the fear gather in her eyes, quick and brutal, but it lasted only a heartbeat before something else took its place—sheer stubborn determination. “Then it’s like the practice range. The first thing the weapons master makes you do if you want training is shoot yourself in the foot.”
“Keeps people from pointing their guns anywhere they shouldn’t, doesn’t it?” Dakota took one of the handguns from her, checked it, and handed it to Chuck. “No safety. You two keep these pointed away from anything that doesn’t look like a demon. Kate, we have one more—”
“I can’t.” Unlike Molly and Chuck, who seemed to be rallying with surprising resilience, Kate’s face paled. “I’ve never held a gun. Not even in the network.”
Dakota glanced at Devi, questioning, and she shook her head. “Take this, Kate.” She held out one of the knives, hilt first. “If someone comes after you or the kids, you’ll use it, and you’ll be okay.”
The brunette stared at the knife for a moment before taking it with a determined nod. “Right.”
They’d consolidated the extra ammunition into one pack, and Devi looped it around her neck. “We’ll move down the stairwell, slow and steady, and avoid the demons if we can. If we meet a large group, we’ll duck into the nearest hall until they pass. Cache, what floor are we on?”
“Thirty-four. This is gonna be a long trip down, boss.”
“That’s good for us. Means the demons’ll either be spread thin or sticking to a couple of larger, easily avoided groups. Piece of cake.”
Devi had known Cache long enough to recognize disagreement, but Cache seemed unwilling to voice doubts with Kate and the kids around. “For the first two floors, we should be able to take the backstairs down uninterrupted. Then we’ll probably have to fight our way to thirty-one.”
Dakota finished strapping on the sheath he’d stripped from one of the demons and shoved the arm-length knife into it. “Like the lady said. Piece of cake.”
The door handle was cold under Devi’s hand, and she hesitated. What if the test was to find another way, one that didn’t involve a suicide charge toward the transport?
Forty-two minutes. No time to second-guess herself. This was what she was good at, and she was going to do it.
She opened the door. “Stick close. Let’s go.”
Zel hadn’t imagined there could be anything worse than waiting, not until Trip’s voice rose from the tablet, laced with panic. “They just activated the alarm at Rochester. It’s a fucking attack.”
For one second, betrayal thrummed inside him as he looked at Aton. “What in fuck did you do?”
The demon’s jaw clenched. “I did nothing.”
Zel lunged for the handheld and used the network connection to call Lorenzo. “What in hell is going on?”
The sound of a blaring alarm almost drowned out the answer. “Soldiers from Nicollet. We’ll try to hold them off, but shit. It looks like more than a company, Zel. Looks like it might be their whole force.”
Shit. “Give Dr
ake control of the warriors. You take the soldiers. I’m going to have Trip send me as much info as he can.”
“Already done.”
Zel slammed the tablet back to the table and spun to face Aton. “My people are risking their lives in that damn box for you right now. If you really aren’t here to destroy us, this is your chance to prove it. My city is under attack. How about you risk your lives for my people?”
Aton glanced at the server, then nodded. “Very well. I can mobilize my soldiers in three minutes. We can make it to Rochester in less than ten.”
“I want their truck back. I can ride in the back with Devi and the server. The summoner and my warrior can drive.”
Aton lifted a hand. “Keys.” One of the men across the room tossed a ring to him, and he handed them over to Zel. “I’ll accompany you.”
It all seemed too easy. Too pat. Demons agreeing to fight for their halfbreed offspring, and the Aton who hovered over him, almost desperate to please, was not the man who had blackmailed him out of his city by threatening everything he held dear.
Whatever information Devi and Cache were chasing down in the blasted network meant more to Aton than his own life.
Zel pocketed the keys and knelt, ready to gather Devi into his arms. “Our people?”
“They will be delivered to the truck.” Aton backed toward the door. “Follow me.”
One of Aton’s men hefted the server, handling it with the reverence owed a holy relic. Zel lifted Devi, cradling her body against his chest. Her slow, steady breaths hadn’t abated, but this close he could hear her heart, beating too fast to be a comfort. Trip’s words drifted up, taunting words from what seemed like twenty years ago. Telemetry doesn’t lie.
Telemetry doesn’t lie.
He didn’t have a free hand to operate the tablet tucked halfway into his back pocket, but maybe he didn’t need one. “Trip? Can you hear me?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“You’ve got access to the telemetry for everyone registered to the Rochester network, right?”
“I blocked it for a few people who were creeped out by the idea, but yeah. Mostly.”
“Kate and Dakota? The kids?”
After a mere second, Trip hummed. “Got them.”
Zel held Devi closer and picked his way across the damaged foyer, following Aton toward the house’s exit. “Anything bad?”
“The kids and Kate are freaking, but I’d expect that.” He sounded confident. “Dakota’s vitals are steady. I think Devi’s getting it done, Zel.”
“Monitor them. And…” Hell, he didn’t know if it was even possible, but Trip seemed to be blurring the line a lot lately. “Do you have some way to track Devi’s and Cache’s chips? Can you access their telemetry, even if you can’t get into the server?”
“I’ve got Cache’s, of course. Can’t you just stick your finger on Devi’s pulse?”
Smartass. “I’ve got my damn hands full. Just—monitor them, Trip. And the town. I’m on my way.” He could only hope it would be soon enough.
He used to be a man—the name Bryan had been stitched on his uniform. Devi closed her hand around the patch as she gripped his shirt and pulled him away from Kate.
He lashed out, hissing angrily. The blow snapped Devi’s head back, and she heard Dakota’s shouted protest only through the ringing in her ears.
She reacted, slamming the demon against the wall, right beside the sign declaring them to be on the twenty-third floor. He left a trail of blood on the painted cement blocks as he slid down to crumple at her feet.
A shot sounded in the narrow confines of the hallway, then another. Chuck whooped in triumph as a demon hit the floor, two bullets from Molly’s handgun lodged in his brain.
Dakota moved to make sure of the fallen foe, but Cache caught Devi’s arm before she could follow and dragged her back around the corner. Tension etched lines in her face as she lowered her voice. “This isn’t the test, Dev, but I think I found it.”
Terror gripped her. “Shit, did I fuck it up?”
“No. Getting downstairs, that’s part of it. Getting the people to the transports…” Cache did something to the tablet, and the picture changed to an outside view. Hundreds of demons—maybe over a thousand—milled at the base of a glass tower, the front line beating at a solid steel wall with whatever tools they’d been able to put hands on.
Cache met her gaze. “It’s the entrance to the tunnel we’re trying to get to. When the barrier fell, they restricted access to the underground to authorized personnel only. Retinal scan and pass code. The demons can’t get into the underground without a human willing to let them in, or one able to hack it. Unless they get through that wall…which I’m guessing will be in about an hour, tops.”
Devi stared at the screen as the truth surged through her in a chilling wave. “The demons didn’t blow this place up. We did, to keep them out of Nicollet.”
“Humans brought it down,” Cache agreed. “And since no demons showed up in Nicollet, this is either a fictionalized scenario or there are bombs in this building.”
If they’d wanted to fictionalize anything, they wouldn’t have had to go to the trouble of recreating a historical event. They could have programmed anything. “We need to get the hell out of here. Fast.”
Kate rounded the corner, holding a large ring of keys. “The man in the uniform had these.”
“Thanks.” Devi touched her arm. “He wasn’t a man anymore. When someone gets popped like that—unless you have a summoner right there who can banish the demon—”
“I know.” Kate swallowed hard and pressed the keys into Devi’s hand. “Dakota says the south stairwell seems quieter.”
“See? We’re making good time.” But a quick glance at her watch told her what she’d already suspected. They were running out of time.
Twenty-nine minutes.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“It’s locked.” Chuck pounded at the door. “It’s fucking locked.”
Molly grabbed his arm and dragged him to the side, rising panic in her eyes. “Devi has the keys from that janitor. Let her try.”
“And if those don’t work, I’ll spring the lock somehow,” Cache said, voice firm even though Devi could hear the panic fraying the edges.
There was a scanner on the wall, the size and height marking it as a retinal recognition system, but the glass had been smashed. Only the deadbolt remained, with both a keyhole and push-button pad.
The problem was that there had to be at least thirty keys on the janitor’s ring, and no labeling system Devi could discern. “It’d take all day to figure out which key is the one,” she muttered. “Short out the keypad, Cache, whatever you have to do.”
“Don’t bother.” Dakota wiped his knife on his pants, leaving a smear of blood from his last kill behind on the fabric. He pried the cover off the keypad with quick, efficient movements, then sheathed the knife and dragged the mess of wires out of the compartment. “Someone with young fingers should get over here. Mine don’t bend like they used to, not even in here.”
“Got it.” Devi stepped close. There had to be dozens of wires, but they were all color-coded, unlike some of the demolitions switches Tanner had made her wire over the years. A quick glance revealed a system of numbers stamped onto the colorful sheaths, as well. “What do I do?”
It didn’t take long. Dakota’s voice kept its calm, rumbling tenor as he walked her through stripping the wires. “Trial and error,” he murmured after they worked through a third combination. “It ain’t a bomb. Wrong wires’ll set off an alarm, but that’s the least of our concerns right now. Chuck, keep pulling on the door, it’ll click when—”
The wires between Devi’s fingers sparked, and the door clicked. Chuck’s next frantic tug dragged it open so fast it almost slammed into his face.
Dakota frowned. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Bug in the code,” Cache offered quickly, though the look she slanted at Devi said something else entirel
y. “Who the hell cares? Through the door.”
Later, she could question Cache. For now… She snatched the handheld and peered at the screen. “Move. All the way down to the end of the—”
An explosion rocked the hall, shooting smoke and debris out of a doorway farther down the corridor. For several horrible seconds, Devi thought she was too late, that they were all going to be buried under a mass of twisted steel and glass.
The handheld beeped its proximity to their destination, and she checked the schematic. Loading area on the left, control room on the right. “No, damn it.”
Cache caught her arm. “Devi?”
She kept her voice low, a rough whisper. “I think they blew the transport controls.”
Dakota stopped short, a frown forming between his brows, and Devi waved him on. “On the left. Check the loading area and make sure the next transport is ready for launch.” Instead of shaking off Cache’s hand, she pulled her toward the control room.
Sparks cascaded from the mangled console. It looked like a small charge had been detonated, just enough to disable the system’s automation. “Can you hack a bypass, Cache? Anything?”
Cache’s eyes narrowed as she surveyed the damage, her tablet held loosely by her side. “The rules aren’t quite right in here, just like the door. I don’t think that was part of the test, so it popped open when it shouldn’t have. A lot of the stuff I’ve been hacking is like that. Too easy, too…rigged. It’s a dummy system set up to herd us down here.”
“Is that the case with the transports?”
Cache shook her head. “Even upstairs, I couldn’t get at the transport system. It’s like it doesn’t exist.”
“Maybe it doesn’t matter.” Renewed hope calmed some of Devi’s trembling. “Maybe the transports are self-contained, and this system is only here for oversight and scheduled launches.”
“Maybe.” Cache tossed the tablet down and clambered over a tangle of fallen chairs to get to the main panel, where one or two systems gave off halfhearted, sputtering sparks. “Check with Dakota. He’ll probably know how these things used to work. I can’t remember when they phased out drivers and internal controls. It might not be as long ago as I think.”