No Shelter Here

Chapter 2-1

2

On the other side of the door, a long white-walled hallway stretched on for maybe a hundred paces before ending at an intersection with a crossing corridor. There was no one in sight, no guards, no personnel.

Closing her eyes, Anna nodded once. “All right,” she said. “We do this quick and clean. Corovin, go to work.”

The assassin stepped forward, thrusting his hand through the opening, directing his multi-tool to scan the area. Red lines appeared on the walls, holograms to indicate the positions of power conduits. Corovin took a small, triangular object from his belt and pressed a button on its surface.

He threw it into the hallway, and the triangle immediately clamped onto the wall, drilling down through it. “Stand clear,” Corovin said gruffly. The others did as they were ordered, taking up positions on either side of the door.

A moment later, Anna heard the roar of an explosion and smelled the acrid stench of burnt circuitry. Well, that should take care of some of the base’s security systems.

Anna wrinkled her nose at the foul smell. “Our primary objective is the prisoners,” she said. “Jack, you’re with me. The rest of you spread out, make trouble.”

“Recommend against that,” Corovin said.

Anna raised an eyebrow.

The man stood in the ruddy light that spilled out through the opening, studying her for a long moment. “There are only two things of value on this base,” Corovin said. “The ziarogati and the equipment to make them. Both will be in the same place.”

He shook his head slowly, and Anna had the distinct impression that he was scowling. “Our enemies aren’t stupid,” Corovin went on. “They won’t chase us aimlessly through the facility. They’ll concentrate their troops on the one and only thing that they have to defend. You and Jack will find yourselves outnumbered thirty to one.”

Keli snorted and cast a disdainful glare toward the armoured man. “They seemed perfectly willing to chase the phantoms that I created.” One look at her, and you could tell that she didn’t entirely trust Corovin. But then Keli rarely trusted anyone.

“Yes,” Corovin replied. “And now that you’ve convinced them that there are multiple teams attacking from multiple vectors, they’ll realize that they should concentrate their efforts on the ziarogati.”

“What’s your recommendation?” Anna asked.

“You’ve already heard it,” Corovin said. “Get in as quickly as possible, destroy the lab and leave. The prisoners you so ache to liberate are a secondary objective at best.”

Anna stood by the wall with her arms crossed, hissing air through her teeth. “Of course,” she muttered. “Why should I have expected anything else?”

“Leyrians…”

After fifteen minutes in the freezing cold, the temperature change when they went inside almost felt like walking into a furnace. Red emergency lights kept the darkness at bay, but other than that, there was no power in this section of the building.

Anna strode forward with her pistol clutched in both hands, its barrel pointed down at the floor. “Eyes sharp,” she told the others. “Watch the periph.”

Melissa was right beside her, moving cautiously through the hellish light. The girl was breathing hard. “If we do free the prisoners…” she began. “How are we going to escort several dozen unarmed people back to the SlipGate?”

“Trying would be foolish,” Corovin said.

“Cut the chatter,” Anna snapped. “Both of you.”

When they reached the intersection, they found a new hallway that ran both left and right with doors at even intervals. It was still dark, but Anna didn’t need her eyes to know that there was no one else nearby.

Corovin touched a gloved finger to the side of his helmet. “Performing an acoustic scan,” he declared. “Nothing.”

“Which way?” Anna muttered.

“Right.”

They encountered no resistance on their trek through the second corridor. It seemed to go on for quite some time with only those ghastly, red bulbs for light. After a few minutes, they came to another junction where another hallway branched off to their left. But it was the big, metal door that caught Anna’s attention. If the plans she had studied were correct, it would lead to a stairwell that would take them to the basement.

Shouldering her out of the way, Corovin approached the door and scanned it with his visor. “There are active circuits here,” he informed them. “You try to open it, and it will trigger the security systems.”

Anna felt her mouth tighten, then shut her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “Keli,” she said. “Are there any hostiles nearby?”

The telepath wore a vacant expression as if she were lost in thought. Anna had to suppress the urge to laugh. A telepath lost in thought: there was a great pun in there somewhere. “There are several dozen people still in this building,” Keli said. “Most of them are beneath us, but I can’t get an exact location.”

“As I told you,” Corovin said. “They will be focused on defending the lab where the ziarogati are made.”

“All right,” Anna hissed. “Let’s-”

Corovin cut her off by thrusting an arm out in front of her, urging her to back up. His head was c****d as if he were listening to something. “I’m afraid we’re about to have company.”

“I don’t hear-”

A strange buzzing sound filled the air.

Anna threw herself sideways, slamming her shoulder into the wall and backing up. She raised her pistol in both hands.

Leaning against the opposite wall, Corovin had his rifle hoisted up. No doubt he was coordinating his visor feed with the gun’s scope.

Two small, disk-shaped devices flew into sight, each with a circular aperture on its rim. In less than half a second, they acquired targets and began spitting ammunition.

“EMP!” Anna shouted.

The LEDs on her gun lit up. She fired three times, releasing a volley of glowing bullets that struck one of the disks with a flash of sparks. The drone fell to the floor, smoke rising from its ruined frame.

Spatial awareness let her watch Corovin as he pelted the other one with several rounds from his rifle. That one went down as well.

“Is everyone all right?” Anna asked.

“We’re fine,” Rajel growled.

Only then did she realize that she had felt a warping sensation that could only have been a Bending. Those first few shots had not been aimed at Anna but at the others who were behind her. Rajel had deflected them.

Corovin was leaning against the wall and panting, each rasping breath amplified by the speaker that projected his voice. “More coming,” he said.

The assassin backed up, extending his left arm to point his fist into the intersection. “Multi-tool active!” he barked. “Program Fourteen!”

The disk on his gauntlet released a swarm of nanobots that latched onto the wall of the neighbouring corridor. Once again, she heard a sharp, electric buzz. I hope he knows what he’s doing.

This time, when two more drones came into view, they immediately turned around and began firing at the wall. At the nanobots.

“Now!” Anna yelled.

A storm of white tracers hit the drones from behind, pounding them until they fell to land atop their battered companions. By the time they were finished, the place stank like the electronics lab in Anna’s old high school. Teenage boys and delicate circuitry were not a good mix.

Scorched plastic cluttered up the floor, requiring them to step carefully over burnt fragments. Kicking one thrown out of his path, Corovin approached the door. He began scanning the lock with his multi-tool. “I can fashion a key,” he said. “But there are other security systems.”

Jack stood in the middle of the hallway with his pistol pointed down at the floor, his eyes fastened hard onto the other man’s back. “Weaponized nanobots,” he said, eyebrows rising. “Haven’t seen those since…”

“Ben,” Anna whispered.

Glancing back over his shoulder, Corovin let out a grunt of approval. “Yes, I studied some of Agent Loranai’s schematics,” he replied. “The man was quite clever. I would have liked to have met him.”

A moment later, Corovin took a step back, and more nanobots emerged from his multi-tool, crawling over his hand, onto the lock and into the keyhole. There was a brief spark, and then he pushed the door open, exposing a well-lit stairwell. “Shall we go?”

Down the stairs, they went, and when they reached the second basement, Corovin had to fiddle with the lock again. They found an intersection that was just like the one they had seen above – one path going straight ahead, the other branching off to the right – except that lights in the ceiling illuminated white walls and pristine floor tiles.

“The prisoners,” Anna said. “Which way?”

Corovin pointed to his right. “The ziarogati lab is that way.”

“And the prisoners?”

“Nearby, I’m sure.”

Anna was about to step out into the open when the sound of footsteps made her hesitate. Not just one set. That much thunder could only mean an entire platoon. She peeked around the corner.

Sure enough, twenty men in gray uniforms were charging through the corridor. Those in front halted when they saw her and raised their rifles.

Anna slipped back into the stairwell.

Bullets whistled past her, striking the wall on her left, kicking up flakes of some material that was almost but not quite duroplastic. Some of those men were shouting. Their blood was hot.

“Keli,” Anna breathed.

The telepath closed her eyes and focused. Seconds later, Anna heard the buzz of gunfire, and several men cried out in shock. When she ventured a glance, she saw that one man in the back had begun shooting his comrades.

Those in front now had their backs to her. They were returning fire, furious at this sudden betrayal.

Setting her pistol for stun-rounds, Anna aimed around the corner. She fired a shot into the leg of one man who was backing up toward her. Electric current went through his body, and he collapsed to the floor.

Anna threw herself forward, somersaulting across the intersection. She came up on the other side and ducked out of sight.

Pressing her body up against the wall, Anna took aim once again. It was pandemonium in the adjoining hallway as Ragnosian men shot each other. She suspected that Keli didn’t even have to keep them fighting. At this point, it didn’t matter who had started it; every man in that group thought the others had gone insane. Anna put down two more with well-placed stun-rounds.

Melissa was the next one out of the stairwell. Like Anna, she stayed low to avoid gunfire and rolled across the tiles. When she was clear, Jack and Rajel emerged, standing side by side and working together to erect a Bending that sent stray bullets up into the ceiling. Keli and Corovin used the opportunity to scoot across.

When they were all safe, Anna took a moment to assess the situation. “We have to get past that lot to free the prisoners,” she said. “Any suggestions?”

Bent forward with a hand on her stomach, Keli had her butt pressed against the wall. Her face was drenched in sweat. “It’s worse than you know,” she panted. “There’s another group coming around the other side. We’ll be trapped between them.”

Shutting her eyes tight, Anna banged the back of her head on the wall. “When it rains, it pours,” she muttered. “Okay, let’s-”

She noticed that the sound of gunfire had stopped.

Two grenades flew out of the adjoining hallway, landing in the intersection.

“Get behind me!”

Anna and Jack stood together, both tapping the portable force-field generators on their vests. Two flickering screens of static appeared just before the grenades went off with a devastating roar. The explosion splashed up against the energy barrier and then dissipated.

When it was over, she saw that the walls and floor were no longer white. Instead, they had been scorched black, and smoke rose from the rubble. At least no one had been hurt.

Sighing, Anna looked down at herself. “Well, this is useless,” she said, tapping her force-field generator. “Until we can recharge it.”

Keli was wincing, fat droplets of sweat rolling over her forehead. She looked as if she had just run a marathon. “Something is changing,” she croaked. “A moment ago, there were soldiers converging on this place, but now they’re all retreating.”

“Makes sense,” Jack said. “They’re probably afraid you’ll turn them against each other again.”