by Harper North
The tunnel slopes downward three times before leveling off. I shuffle around the others to stand next to Sky.
“I’m sure Lacy can take care of herself,” he whispers.
“She’s impulsive.”
“Watching out for people isn’t easy.”
Lacy stops. Talen does the same, as does the other Aura.
“What’s wrong?” Elias asks.
Talen turns and faces us. “I feel something.”
“What is ‘something?’” I ask.
Talen looks around the tunnel as if searching for the source. “Whatever it is, feels—”
“Deep,” the other Aura says beside me. She speaks without emotion.
“That makes a ton of sense,” I mutter. “You think it’s another booby trap?”
“This is different,” Talen insists. “I get a hot tingle that seems to come from deep in the ground. I’m assuming it’s part of the power the EHC—and now the SNA—is tapping.”
Elias nods. “Could be. Party’s over. Move along.”
“This info might be important,” Sky says.
“The EHC could’ve tapped the magnetic field for all we know,” Elias replies.
“Sounds like them,” I agree.
We continue to move down the tunnel with the two surviving agents walking backwards to make sure no SNA creeps come up behind us. With all of us being Noble or Century class, we cover a mile in minutes. The floor turns into a grate and our feet tap loudly with each step. We’re ringing a dinner bell. But underneath, humming pipes twist around each other. Orange lights from far below cast an eerie glow on the metal network.
Talen groans and slaps his hand to his forehead.
“You okay?” I ask.
“Something may be interfering with my nanos,” he says. His grimace softens, and he lowers his hand. “It’s gone now, but a lot of energy is pumping through the complex. That may make it hard to detect any guards inside it.”
Lacy holds me in a hard stare. “It feels magnetic.”
“It’s true, then,” Elias says. “It’s no wonder the SNA rats are gathering here. Cowards don’t want Aura ops finding them.”
Talen, Lacy, and the Aura push ahead. The energy from the complex and the pipes below either doesn’t hit them again, or they’ve gotten used to it. In five more minutes, the tunnel curves and we find a closed set of double doors waiting for us. A number pad like the one outside sits on the wall beside it. Two SNA flags hang vertically, one on each door. The sword pointing at the crescent moon forms two vicious eyes, as if the SNA wants its people to believe they’re being watched twenty-four seven.
“Feel any guards?” I ask the Auras.
“A little,” Lacy says. “Two stand on either side of the door. Beyond that I can’t feel anything.”
Talen looks at the floor. “Everything past these doors is noise.”
“I have the advantage,” Lacy says. She puts her hand on the door and closes her eyes. Backing away, I picture what’s happening to the guards on the other side.
“Took care of them,” Lacy announces.
“Wait,” Elias orders. “No one gets blown up.”
We take his advice and listen. The doors don’t open, and no explosion rocks the walls. A minute lengthens into two, and then three. I try to calculate what might happen on the other side of the doors, but without seeing the complex or knowing what’s inside, that’s impossible, and with the Auras almost blind, the backstabbers have an advantage.
“Open the doors,” Elias orders. “We run past the bodies on either side. Chances are they’re set to explode when enemies get near.”
“What if the doors have explosives on them?” I ask. “And the keypad triggers them to blow?” I step forward, raising my foot, readying myself to kick the doors. With my strength, they might bust open.
“I’ve got it.” Lacy slips the keycard into the lock and the doors open to the power distribution facility.
I glimpse a pair of black boots lying near the door, soles facing us. “No whine,” I say. “These bodies don’t have bombs on them. Must not want to blow up their new power source.”
“Go,” Elias whispers.
We step onto a grated balcony. A plain ceiling spreads over us, rectangular and big enough to cover a small settlement. Stepping up to the railing, I look over. The balcony circles a huge, round pit in the center of the concrete floor. Heat belches from the pit and the air ripples. A network of thick pipes rises from the pit, which plunges into the earth. The bottom’s hidden, but an orange glow emanates from the depths. Machines hum and clank.
“This is only a distribution center,” Talen says. “The main one must be powerful indeed.”
“No wonder we’re feeling a huge amount of noise,” Lacy adds.
“Agreed,” I say. “Now we stomp any SNA cockroaches we find.”
Lacy smiles.
“We’re undetected,” Sky whispers, joining me at the railing.
I follow his gaze to the concrete floor. SNA goons in green uniforms patrol around the pit in pairs, guns held to their chests. As they march, the men lift their legs without bending their knees in an obvious display of power. A dozen soldiers form a human gear surrounding the hole, moving in perfect sync. More SNA flags hang from the balconies.
I back away from the railing and search the balcony instead. Other doors, many of them single, lead to different parts of the building. “We can get under their noses,” I say, eyeing the bodies on either side of the door.
“Exactly,” Elias whispers.
“I’ll take down the guys below,” Lacy says.
“No,” I say, grabbing Lacy’s arm.
Talen does the same. “Someone will spot the dead quickly down on the main level.”
“Fine,” Lacy mutters.
As if waiting for the right timing, a door clicks open far below. “Ambassador Morris!” a man shouts, announcing an arrival.
Sky and I exchange a wide-eyed stare. The betrayer. The scum. He promised us help over the radio only to bomb the city of Ethos. It’s because of him we lost Drape.
Elias motions for us to hit the deck. Pistol in hand, I lie on my stomach, eyeing a network of pipes that run underneath the balcony. They block the view of the balcony from below, saving us from detection.
I inch over to the edge, which gives me clear sight to what’s happening below. Double doors stand open on the ground floor, and the soldiers rush to stand in two lines, forming a walkway for the ambassador. An SNA op decorated in silver medals steps through the doors, followed by a small, wiry man in a green, button-up uniform with the SNA symbol on both arms. Though short, the man adopts the same crushing march as the soldiers, and he and the general-type man walk side by side into the depths of the facility. He keeps his hard gaze straight ahead as a shudder steals over me. Ambassador Morris keeps his mouth in the same smug line as Reinhart, and his beady eyes would make him fit in with a flock of vultures.
The two cross the room and disappear through another set of doors. The ops break apart and resume their clockwork march around the pit.
“I’ll kill him,” I hiss through gritted teeth.
Someone grabs my leg and I look to see it’s Sky. “Careful,” he says.
“He murdered Drape.” I stand, quaking. “He dies.”
“I know.” Sky holds my free arm. “But we have to make sure no more of us die.”
The others rise from the grating. “Disruption,” Elias reminds us, looking away and waving us down the walkway. “We came here to stop the SNA from leeching off Ethos.”
“Leeching off the leeches,” I quip.
One of the EHC ops glares at me, but I don’t care. In a line and hugging the wall, we creep to the first door, open it with the keycard, and find a storage room full of crates and tools. The second door leads to an office with looted drawers and a lack of data terminals, but the third hides a metal stairway leading down to the ground floor of the facility.
“Me first,” Lacy says.
As she’s the one with the most up-to-date nano technology, her plan makes sense, but Talen joins her and the two descend together. We follow, taking two steps at a time. At least with our mods, we don’t get out of breath fast.
The room below, separate from the one with the pit, contains columns of pipes and huge braids of wires inside glass tubing. Machinery and electricity hum. My hair stands on end as I grip the railing, scanning for movement. The electromagnetic fields here must be insane.
Lacy winces as she reaches the concrete floor and Talen brings his hand to his head again. Tessie pauses behind them for a second.
“Too much noise,” Talen repeats. “There’s more here than just the electricity.”
Elias shushes him. Our group reaches the ground floor. The room’s almost as big as the other. We duck behind a huge glass tube, huddling out of sight. Elias peeks around it, but quickly retracts as another set of doors click open.
“The perimeter breach is still only five hundred meters wide,” a man says as footsteps echo through the room. “We have been unable to hack the EHC’s security measures. We can only bring in and fuel a few hovers at a time.”
“You must work faster.” I recognize the voice. Ambassador Morris’s taunting will never leave my memory. “Only then will we have full access to the main power source of the EHC. Our Supreme Savior views incompetence as an impurity, General Cho.”
“Yes, sir,” Cho says. I detect a wobble in his voice. He’s terrified. “Sources tell me we can tap into the EHC’s main power source and short out the perimeter technology itself. We’re working on it now. I’ve sent plenty of men there for guard duty. Starsen says this source has enough energy to power the entire EHC, perhaps even the planet.”
“Excellent news,” Ambassador Morris says. “Do you know what type of geothermal source this is?”
“The data we’ve seen indicates a possible hotspot,” the general replies. “Much of the data is still hidden in Bellaton’s private servers, but the EHC may have tapped a magma plume and are drawing the heat from the Earth itself. If...if we take control, we can save and purify the world.”
“Show me the data.”
The footsteps fade as the two cross the room. Lacy closes her eyes, but I grab her arm and shake my head. Elias shakes his, too. If she kills the two SNA officials now, we might lose valuable intel, but it’s hard to hold back. I tighten my grip on the pistol and curl my finger around the trigger. The general and the ambassador have no guards. Stepping out and firing a few rounds will end these roaches.
The voices fade. Scooting around the enormous tube, I spot them standing at a huge data terminal across the room, complete with chairs, control panels, levers, and computer displays. Data streams in ones and zeros across some screens while others show wire networks and mazes of pipes. Three SNA personnel sit in the seats. None dare look at the ambassador or the general as they stand behind their shoulders.
“Closer,” Elias whispers. “See what the rats have to say.”
Together, we tiptoe to the next glass tube and the next. Words float and blend together with the humming around us.
“... dangerous...”
“Password?”
“Morris, we are unsure about... need more studies...”
“Give me the password, or I will report you to the Savior himself. You will be purified, in one way or another. I’m assuming you managed to get the password?”
“I’m already purified, I promise,” the general insists. “My full allegiance is to the SNA.”
“I want the data,” Morris says. “Then I must be on my way to speak with the Savior.”
His threat hangs.
“Type it,” the general orders one of the workers.
My breath catches. Opportunity. My hands itch as I raise the pistol. Beside me, Lacy squints, ready to unleash her worst. Sky raises his weapon and Elias does the same. My pulse races in my ears, wanting blood. I want to see Morris suffering and bleeding.
Typing follows. “We’re in,” the general says.
Elias nods.
Raising my pistol, I step out from behind the tube and take aim at Ambassador Morris’s head.
CHAPTER 4
AMBASSADOR MORRIS FACES me, jaw dropping. The look of shock on his face makes me pause, finger around the trigger, but the image of Drape lying in rubble and taking his last breaths roars into my head.
I pull the trigger.
Ambassador Morris flies back, body jerking, and hits the control panel. Smoke rises from a hole in his uniform. His arms open and his fist hits a screen.
“Open fire!” General Cho shouts, pulling a pistol from his belt.
The SNA ops rise, drawing guns and aiming at me.
“Back!” Sky grabs my arm.
I dart behind the glass tube, using my Noble speed to get out of the way before they shoot. Gunshots fill the air. Glass shatters on the other side of the tube, raining over the floor. The thick, ropy wires in the middle stop the bullets from hitting us. The acrid stench of something electrical burning hits me. I stay pinned to the unbroken glass while Sky keeps his sweaty hand on my arm.
“Kill them quick!” Elias yells. “Then we go!”
“Lacy,” I whisper.
“Got it.” She closes her eyes. A smile creeps onto her face.
Three ops start to gag and choke. A thump sounds, and then another, and another. I know what’s happening. The guys are falling, eyes rolling into their heads as they die in horrible pain.
Lacy opens her eyes. “I took care of them.”
I raise my pistol and shake my arm from Sky’s grip. I race around the tube to find the three waiting bodies. Immediately, I lift my hand and point to my ear for them to listen. The others freeze behind me.
“No whine,” Sky finally says. “These aren’t booby-trapped bodies.”
“They don’t want to blow up their computers,” Elias adds.
Ambassador Morris lays back on the controls, arms splayed. Blood seeps from the hole in his chest, leaving a dark stain. I’ve missed his heart and shot a lung instead. Good. He’ll take a few more minutes to die, just like Drape.
“He’s alive,” I say, raising the gun.
Ambassador Morris raises his head as he sucks in a breath. A gurgling sound comes from his throat as ones and zeros blink on the screen above his head. His pupils enlarge. “You Impures.”
“Classy,” I say, aiming at his forehead. I kick him in the shin, hearing a bone crack.
“Sky, download all the info you can from this thing,” Elias says. “Then we get out.”
Morris seethes, head falling back against the panel as he catches his breath. “It’s not over. We’ll remove you Impures from the Earth. Only pure humans will see the dawn of the new age.”
I send my foot into his other shin. This one doesn’t crack, but it’s clear Morris doesn’t have Noble or Century class strength. He bites back a scream. His lungs gurgle again. The SNA might not use genetic mods. How do they stay alive on the surface?
“You killed my friend!” I ram my foot into his busted leg again.
Lacy steps forward and puts her arm on my shoulder like she wants to push me out of the way. “I’ll finish him.”
The need for revenge pumps through me, but I know Lacy can cause more pain than I can, so I step to the side and let her take my place.
Morris tries to scream, but his lungs won’t let him, and the wet noise he makes will stay with me forever. I watch as Sky and Elias download data onto a handheld device that looks like a metal key card, only bigger, while the two EHC ops aim guns at a door on the far side of the huge room. Shouts echo from that direction. The other SNA ops are coming.
“Hurry,” Talen urges.
Sky yanks the card out of the panel. “Come on!” he shouts.
I catch movement from the corner of my eye. Whirling, I find General Cho jumping out from the space between the control panel and the wall. I’d forgotten about him.
“Watch out!” Sky yells.
I take aim at Cho’s heart as he fires at Elias. Elias cries out as the bullet strikes flesh. I fire, and Cho leaps back into his shelter, but not before his arm rips to the side and he releases his pistol. Drops of blood fly. Cho hits the wall.
The door opens on the other side of the room. Soldiers shout.
The SNA ops have found us.
I calculate our chances of taking them out. Not good. Eight ops push through the opening. Guns cock and click. Three of them kneel. The EHC guys open fire, hitting two of them in the back. Their bodies jerk and fall.
“Run!” Elias shouts. He grabs his leg as blood pumps out above his knee. If he escapes, his Noble mod will help him heal, but he’ll slow us down and drop our chances of surviving to one or two percent.
Our best chance at escape is a hostage.
Ducking low, I run behind the EHC ops as one of them jolts, taking a bullet. General Cho stays in his corner, holding his bleeding arm. He looks at me, brown eyes wide and ready for death, but I grab his arm and pull him to me. He stands a few inches taller than me, but I can overpower him.
“What are you doing?” Cho snaps.
I wrap one arm around his neck, forcing him to stand in front of me as a shield. With the other, I point my gun at his temple. His breath catches as I push him in front of me.
“Nobody move!” I yell. The SNA loves their leaders. My mind spins. Our chances of getting out have jumped to fifty percent. “Shoot anyone, and I’ll blow his head off.”
Beside me, Sky stands in front of Elias with his gun raised. Lacy faces the soldiers, but at a hundred feet away and with all the magnetic noise around, she can’t kill them. Talen and the other Aura form a wall next to the surviving EHC guy. Elias tightens his jaw, dealing with the pain. The other op lies in a pool of expanding blood.
“Nobody even call for reinforcements!” I yell, pulling Cho to the steps. “Put your guns on the ground. Kick them toward us.”
“Do it!” Elias adds.
The eight green-uniformed ops look at each other. I press the barrel of the gun hard against the side of Cho’s temple. A vein there throbs. Sweat shines and runs down his skin.