by L O Addison
Kaylin’s heart pounded as she adjusted her grip on the sniper rifle. She’d balked when Beck had first tried to hand it to her, but when he’d assured her she could use tranq shots, she’d hesitantly taken it. The truth was, she’d missed sniping. It was a challenge like no other, a unique mix of pounding adrenaline and precise calculations.
The movements came back to her more easily than she’d expected. Stealthily clambering to the second floor of a ruined building, finding a perch that faced the entrance, adjusting her scope, finding her targets. It was all muscle memory, and using the skills felt like taking a nice stretch after sitting at a cramped desk for far too long.
She flicked on the comm unit on her wrist and whispered, “Targets acquired.”
“Roger,” Beck replied. “Take the man with the beard. I’ll take the other two.”
“Got it,” Kaylin said.
In the building across the street from her perch, Kaylin caught the faintest flash of movement on a third-story balcony. Beck was dressed in the same kind of clothes she wore, a mottled grey uniform that blended in perfectly with the ash and concrete that surrounded them. She felt a familiar spark of competitiveness ignite in her chest as she spotted the rifle gripped in his hands.
“On my go,” Beck said quietly.
She adjusted her sight one last time, focusing on the middle-aged guard with a thick black beard and deep scowl. As she settled her crosshairs over him, her scope scanned for vital targets, and small red dots appeared over his heart and head. Kaylin ignored the dots and focused her crosshairs on the base of his throat. Then she moved her aim slightly upward, knowing the tranquilizer dart would drift downward more than a bullet.
“Go,” Beck said.
She pulled the trigger, just like Beck had taught her. Slowly, softly, almost a caress. Her rifle gave the slightest kick, and a moment later, a small silver dart struck the side of the man’s neck.
Kaylin held her breath as she watched the man reach for the pistol at his waist. But right as his hand clasped over the weapon, he swayed to the side. He tried to take a step forward to steady himself, but his knees buckled out from under him, and he crumpled to the ground in an unconscious heap.
Kaylin scanned her scope over the other two guards and found them both crumpled to the ground with identical darts sticking out of their necks.
“Hold position,” Beck said through her comm.
They waited an entire minute, checking to make sure no other guards emerged from the entrance. But the street remained quiet, with only the unconscious guards in sight.
Beck’s voice came through the comm unit again. “Guards neutralized. Everyone convene at the entrance. Approach with caution.”
Kaylin folded in the stock of her rifle and slung its strap over her shoulder. She backed away from the open window and climbed back through the ruined building, making her way down to the main street.
As she stepped outside, Red sprinted over to her, letting out a stream of quiet, annoyed chirps. She’d ordered him to stay at the entrance of the ruined building, not trusting him to keep quiet as she climbed to the second floor. He clearly didn’t approve of being left behind, and he snorted in disdain as he careened to a stop just a foot away from her.
She reached down and scratched his head, murmuring an apology as she strode toward the tunnel entrance. Red trotted after her, still letting out quiet grumbles. He seemed to have picked up on the tense nature of their mission because he slinked close to the ground, his scales camouflaged a mottled grey color to match the cracked pavement.
Adrien, Lio, Marin, and Matteo met her in the shadow of the ruined building, and Beck jogged over to join them. They turned to Adrien, waiting for the boy’s advice on how to safely continue.
Adrien drew the gun Beck had given him, a medium-velocity laser pistol with low recoil and a quick recharge. The boy seemed perfectly at ease handling the weapon as he strode toward the entrance of the subway. After a shower and a change of clothes, it was almost impossible to tell that he’d lived through a deadly firefight just hours before. Although as Kaylin watched him from behind, she spotted a few smears of blood still tangled in his blond hair.
“Let’s move,” he said, waving for the others to follow him toward the entrance.
Beck strode at Kaylin’s side, his long legs taking one step for every two of hers. He gripped his rifle firmly in his hands, and his lips pursed in a scowl of concentration as he carefully scanned the area. Matteo strode behind them, his hand resting uneasily on the holster of his pistol.
Marin and Lio walked at the very back, side by side. Kaylin kept glancing back at them, hardly believing what she was seeing. In the span of two hours, both of the prim and proper Rhuramenti had turned to grim soldiers. They easily kept up with the rest of them, their gait steady and stealthy, and their expressions darkened with fierce concentration. Lio still seemed uneasy about the pistol now holstered at his waist, and his hand kept drifting down to touch it, as if he wasn’t quite sure what it was doing there. But the stark determination on his face made Kaylin believe he’d at least attempt to use it, if he needed to.
Adrien motioned for them to stay where they were, and before anyone could stop him, he jogged down the concrete steps. Kaylin held her breath, rubbing her thumb anxiously against the stock of the pistol holstered at her waist. Ten silent seconds ticked by. Then Adrien quietly called out, “All clear. Come on down.”
The others immediately followed, but Kaylin took a deep breath and turned to face Red. This was the point when she had to say goodbye. There was no way she was dragging Red into those tunnels, not when there was such a high chance of him never coming out. It was far safer for him to stay right here. The entrance they were using was still four miles from the actual Warden base, so even if their mission failed and bombs were dropped, Red would be out of the blast zone.
Red looked up at her and chirped as he took in her worried expression, clearly wondering what was wrong.
Kaylin pointed at him. “Sit,” she said, doing her best to keep her tone stern. She knew if she started to choke up, Red would panic and quit listening to her.
Red thumped his tail in annoyance, but he sat on his haunches and stared up at her.
“Good boy.” She held out a hand to him palm-first and began slowly backing up. “Now stay,” she said, using her firmest voice. “You stay right there. I’ll come back for you as soon as I can, okay?”
Red blinked once and cocked his head. Then he calmly got to his feet and trotted toward the stairs.
“No,” Kaylin snapped, stepping in front of him. “Stay.”
Red ignored her command, trying to dodge around her. Kaylin grabbed the base of his wing, tugging him to a stop.
Red whirled around and lunged. In the blink of an eye, his jaws enveloped her hand, and needle-sharp teeth pressed against her skin, threatening to tear into her flesh. The deep vibrations of Red’s growl ran through her bones.
Kaylin didn’t even have time to cry out in surprise. She gaped down at him, hardly believing what was happening.
He’d never bitten at her before. Not once.
Red narrowed his eyes, and his low growl kept rumbling in the back of his throat as he stared straight at her. Then he carefully released her hand, and his long tongue lashed out to lick the faint indents his teeth had left on her skin. Kaylin jerked her hand back and stared down at it, searching for any sign of injury. He hadn’t spilled a single drop of blood, but that didn’t stop Kaylin’s heart from pounding in shock.
Before Kaylin even realized what was happening, Red turned and bounded down the stairs, spreading his wings and gliding to the bottom of the staircase. He landed with a heavy thump next to Adrien. The boy recoiled, his hand moving toward his pistol, but Red just calmly turned around and sat at the bottom of the stairs. He stared up at her, his head cocked like an impatient dog waiting for his master to come through the door.
Beck sputtered a shocked laugh from where he stood at the top of the staircase
. “Well, I guess that settles that,” he said, shaking his head. “The lizard is coming with us.”
Kaylin spat a curse, although her voice trembled slightly. The thought of invading the tunnels and dying was nerve-wracking. But the thought of Red dying alongside her was downright horrifying. Red ignored her curse and tilted his head the other way, letting out a small chirp, as if to ask what was taking her so long.
“Don’t give me that look, you scaly bastard,” she muttered. But she couldn’t bring herself to actually sound mad, and Red trilled happily as she started down the stairs toward him.
Beck nudged her gently in the side. “Don’t be too upset. He might actually be helpful.”
Kaylin took a shuddering breath and nodded. She knew Beck was right, but that didn’t actually make her feel any better.
“I’ll keep you safe,” she whispered to Red. “I promise.”
The promise gave her a fresh burst of determination as she stepped into the tunnel. Red was the closest thing she had to family, and she wasn’t willing to lose the only thing in the world she loved. Not again.
One way or another, she was going to get them through this.
27
Kaylin
Kaylin drew her pistol as she reached the bottom of the staircase. Beck strode behind her, fragments of rubble crunching under his boots and echoing through the emptiness of the underground tunnel. The others followed after them, squeezing through the small gap in the rubble.
Kaylin peered around, but she quickly realized she couldn’t see further than fifteen feet in any direction.
“Put the glasses on,” Beck said, drawing a pair from his own pocket.
Kaylin nodded and drew out her pair of night vision glasses. Duval had provided them, promising that they were the highest quality the Resistance had available. She placed them over her eyes, and the cold plastic on the side of the glasses grew warm as it automatically melded against her skin, forming a tight bond. Kaylin shook her head to test it out, but the glasses didn’t budge. It was like having sticky putty pressed to her skin—not exactly uncomfortable, but definitely strange.
She tapped a button on the side of the night vision glasses, and the darkness surrounding her vanished in a flash. She flinched in surprise, but her nerves instantly settled as she got a better look at her surroundings. It looked just like a typical subway station, except there was no train in sight, and parts of the walls and the ceiling had been knocked loose. A dull red haze clung to her surroundings, but aside from that, the glasses made the underground tunnel seem like it was perfectly illuminated by sunlight.
Adrien made a small noise of shock as he put on his pair of glasses. “Well that makes things a hell of a lot easier,” he muttered, turning in a circle to get a better look at his surroundings. He flicked off the flashlight he’d had in his hand and stuffed it back in his pack.
Adrien waited for everyone to descend the stairs and put on the night vision glasses, and then he waved them forward. “Come on. Let’s move.”
He spoke quietly, but in the eerie stillness of the tunnels, it filled the space with noise. Kaylin couldn’t help shuddering. The dark, echoing emptiness reminded her of a tomb.
And that’s exactly what this place was. She tried to shove that thought out of her mind, but it just kept creeping back. It was estimated that over twenty thousand people had died in the Paris underground, trying to defend the tunnel system from the Syndicate invasion. None of their bodies had ever been excavated, which meant they were just... down there. They lay out in the open, slowly rotting to dust alongside the corpses of Syndicate aliens and the bones of the ancient Parisians buried in the catacombs.
As they walked along the subway platform, Adrien pointed firmly toward the murky depths of the tunnel. “Once we leave the platform, follow exactly where I go. Exactly. This whole tunnel is rigged, and a single wrong step will set it off.”
“Rigged with what?” Beck asked.
Adrien made a broad gesture with his hand. “Everything.”
“That’s not very comforting,” Kaylin said under her breath.
“Nothing inside these tunnels is comforting,” Matteo replied, his expression locked in a grim frown.
“Except for me,” Adrien said, his tone confident. He drew a small digital tablet out of his pocket and unfolded it, revealing its cracked screen. The tablet was beyond banged up, but Adrien had refused to take the newer model they’d offered him.
Adrien tapped at the map he had displayed on the screen. It was crude, and portions of it looked hand-drawn, with all sorts of bizarre scribbles and symbols covering it.
“I scavenge these tunnels all the time, and this map always keeps me safe,” he said. He turned around to face them, and as he surveyed them with hard eyes, he looked more like an experienced commander than a fifteen-year-old. “Listen to what I tell you. All right? No matter how strange it might sound, just listen, and you’ll get through.”
Kaylin nodded, although she didn’t feel nearly as confident as Adrien seemed. The others murmured assent, and Adrien turned to look at Red with a suspicious stare.
“Can you get him to follow right behind you?” he asked Kaylin.
Kaylin nodded and patted her hip. Red chirped and trotted over to her, falling into step right behind her.
“He won’t wander off,” Kaylin said.
Adrien tapped his holstered pistol. “If he does, I won’t hesitate to shoot him.”
A cry of dismay rose in Kaylin’s throat. But she took a shuddering breath and forced herself to swallow her anger back. If Red set off a booby trap, it would probably get all of them killed. Adrien wasn’t being savage. Far from it—a bullet to the head would probably be kinder than whatever painful death a boobytrap would cause.
Kaylin patted her hip again and quietly murmured to Red, “You stay right here, okay?”
He chirruped, but it was a quiet and low sound, and Kaylin swore she sensed fear in it. She reached down to gently stroke the top of his head.
“Come on,” Adrien said, moving again toward the edge of the platform. They followed him closely, keeping in a loose formation—Beck and Kaylin at the front, Lio and Marin at the back, and Matteo in between. Matteo kept glancing backward almost as much as he was glancing forward, and Kaylin could tell he was nearly as uncomfortable about the aliens walking behind him as he was about the deadly tunnels in front of them.
Adrien strode to the side of the platform, where a set of maintenance steps led down to the subway tracks. Instead of climbing down the steps, he crouched next to them and grabbed the ledge of the platform, holding tightly to it as he jumped down. His feet thudded against the concrete below, and he gave a low grunt as he landed.
He called back up in a whisper, “Fall directly down. Don’t roll or step too far away. And don’t even think of using the steps.”
Beck nodded and went next, hopping down next to Adrien. He started to back up to give Kaylin room to jump, but Adrien grabbed his arm, stopping him. “Don’t move,” he repeated, his voice sharp. Without waiting for a response, he looked up at Kaylin. “Your turn.”
Kaylin took a deep breath and then crouched, grabbing the ledge like Adrien had. The drop to the ground was at least eight feet, but she managed to keep her balance, landing lightly on her feet.
“Red,” she called up. She pointed right at the ground. “Jump.”
He poked his head over the side and whimpered as he stared down at the fall. He started to spread his wings, but Kaylin gestured sharply toward him, commanding him to freeze. “No gliding. You’ll go too far. Just jump.”
Red cocked his head, clearly not understanding a word of her logic, but he stopped trying to unfurl his wings. Instead, the lizard braced himself against the edge and then leaped down next to her, landing with a loud grunt. Matteo followed after Red, scrambling over the side easily enough, with Lio and Marin close behind.
Adrien nodded in satisfaction and then bent over and picked up two fragments of concrete, turning back t
oward the stairs. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed one of the concrete chips onto the bottom step.
A pale glow enveloped the stairs, and a low whine echoed through the tunnel, followed by a sweeping wave of static. The hair on Kaylin’s arms stood on end, and she resisted the urge to leap backwards.
The whine cut out, and the blue light and static vanished. And so had the concrete chip. In its place was nothing but a scattering of black dust on the edge of the bottom step. Kaylin’s gut twisted as she glanced toward the top of the steps. Each one was coated in a thick layer of the dark dust, which she could only assume were the cremated remains of people who had tried to walk down the stairs.
Adrien calmly turned and flicked the second concrete chip to their right, where the tracks stretched off into the distance. The high-pitched whine pierced the air as a pale glow enveloped a patch of concrete five yards wide, stretching from one side of the tunnel to the other.
As the glow faded, Kaylin blinked away the bright spots in her vision and peered closely at the ground. There was absolutely no sign of any trap. No wires, no electrical device, no markings except for a layer of dark ash.
Marin was the first to speak, although her voice was hoarse and quiet. “Scatherian force field.”
Adrien glanced over at her with raised eyebrows. “Is that what they’re actually called? We’ve always just called them death zappers.”
She nodded tensely. “They’re illegal. Completely banned by the Intergalactic Weapons Council.”
“Well, the Syndicate was never very good at following rules,” Beck muttered.
Adrien nodded. “Those things are planted all along this tunnel. That’s why so few people use this entrance. I have all of their locations mapped, so I can get us through. But whatever you do, don’t step away from the path I take. Got it?”