“Yeah,” Kiloq replied through the commlink. “Initiating attack in three…two…one…”
Blaster fire crackled across thecomms.
“All right. Security team’s taking the bait, already shifting guards to the main entrance,” Arcanthus said.
“Good. Get this door open,” Drakkal grumbled. Shay and Leah were somewhere beyond this entrance, within a few hundred meters of him, but he couldn’t smell them out here. It was maddening to know they were so close and yet so completely separated from him.
“Two on the other side,” said Arc. “When you breach, they’ll be ahead and to your right.”
Drakkal’s holocom flashed on, projecting a small screen that showed a high-angle view of the garage’s interior, presumably from above the bay door. A pair of guards flanked the wide interior doorway at the far side of the garage. One of them had his head bowed slightly and a finger up to his ear—he was likely listening to something over his commlink.
Thargen’s grin widened. “Haven’t had this kind of fun in a while.”
“Focus,” said Urgand, who was standing behind Thargen.
Drakkal rolled his shoulder and settled the butt of his auto-blaster against it. “We’re all focused.”
“Those fuckers took my friend and my niece,” Thargen said, fire sparking in his eyes. “They get to meet the real me today.”
Perhaps at most other times in most other situations, Drakkal would’ve been hesitant to releaserealThargenon anyone. But he had no qualms about it here and now. Fuck this place, fuck Murgen Foltham, and fuck the people who willingly worked for him.
“Kraasz ka’val, Arcanthus, if you don’t open this doornow…”
The keypad on the doorframe flashed, and the blast door slid upward with a faint whirring of unseen machinery.Drakkal lifted his auto-blaster and hurried through, turning the weapon immediately toward the far doorway. Thargen and Urgand’s boots sounded on the floor behind him.
One of the security guards had time enough to look toward the open blast door, eyes wide, before Drakkal fired. The auto-blaster sprayed hot plasma bolts at the guards, joined an instant later by bursts from the two vorgals accompanying him.
Both guards went down within a second, each with at least half a dozen smoking holes in his body.
“Getting a map onto your holocoms,” Arcanthus said. “I’ll do my best to keep enemy positions updated on it, but I’m working with an uncooperative system here.”
Though Arcanthus was the most skilled fighter in their bunch—and very likely the strongest, thanks to his cybernetic limbs and reinforced body—this was one of those situations during which he was best used outside of combat. Drakkal trusted Arc with his life, but Arcanthus’s skills as a hacker were far more valuable now. Only Arc could compromise the manor’s entire security system, turn it against the occupants, and ensure that no communications left the premises. Arcanthus had complained, but he’d ultimately agreed to stay in the armored vehicle they’d parked in the tunnels outside—especially because it meant keeping Samantha, who’d refused to be left behind at home, close. She could watch Arc’s back while he worked, and he’d watch out for everyone going inside.
Drakkal’s holocom screen, which had automatically rotated around his wrist to remain visible when he’d raised his weapon, changed again to display a two-dimensional map of Murgen Foltham’s zoo.
“Just get me to Shay and Leah,” Drakkal said.
Two flashing dots appeared along the edges of the map.
“Leah’s in some sort of examination room. Shay’s beingmoved on a transport cart. I think they’re both unconscious,” Arc said.
Drakkal’s heart sped as he advanced across the garage—the same garage Vanya had taken him from less than two hours ago. The soft clicking of claws on the floor behind him meant Sekk’thi had moved up to join them.
“Who’s closest?” Drakkal asked when he reached the entry at which the now-dead guards had been posted.
“Shay. She’s being moved toward you,” Arcanthus replied.
It wasn’t a choice Drakkal had wanted to make, and the weight of the decision was almost crushing. What if he picked wrong? He knew Murgen wouldn’t kill the terrans, but what if Drakkal made a mistake, and his choice placed one of his terrans in more danger? If he took too long going for Leah and Shay was harmed because of it…
Shay would want me to go for Leah first…but if Shay is closest…
No. Can’t do that now, Drakkal. No time to go back and forth on this decision.
“Only one way forward for now, anyway,” Arcanthus said, “and it’s going to take you right past a whole mess of guards.”
“Hope they’re better than these two,” Thargen muttered, kicking one of the bodies.
Drakkal pressed onward through the entryway, flanked by his companions.