I quickly moved to catch up with Lynch and Dylan, passing by Rose and offering her a pat on the arm as I went by, reassuring her that I was okay. We passed through the room in quick order, and then exited into another hall.
“There’s a door that’s open up ahead,” Lynch announced softly as he turned left down the hall. “We opened it early on to try to evacuate the shell, and have been pulling people through here and there. So far, there hasn’t been any sign of the sentinels. Still, I’ve had a team of Cogs waiting on us before sealing it up, so we should move fast.”
It was like he was reading my mind, and I picked up the pace to a light jog, ignoring my throbbing aches and pains. The sound of our boots on the metal flooring filled the hall as the others joined me, and within a minute we were slowing down to pause at a T-shaped junction, then moving into it. I saw the door a hundred feet away, three Cog workers standing around it. Two were directing flashlights into the darkened hall of the shell, while one was standing by the gear mechanism, ready to seal it shut.
The one by the gears turned to us as we started to walk toward him, and Lynch waved his hand at him and called something to them that I couldn’t quite hear. They nodded, and then, to my surprise, one of them leaned farther into the hall, partially disappearing. I barely had the chance to ask, “What is he doing?” before three sharp clangs sounded down the hall from the door.
“Trying to signal anyone who might be nearby,” Lynch replied, and I frowned. As admirable as that was, making noise to attract attention would do just that—but not just from the beings with whom they were trying to communicate. If they had been doing that for some time, there was a good chance that nearby sentinels might have heard it, and were on their way to investigate.
That put even more zip in my step, and I wound up drawing side by side with Lynch as we got close to the group of Cogs. “That doesn’t seem particularly safe,” I said. “What if—”
As if my words were prophetic, the man leaning out the door suddenly reared back, taking several startled steps away from it. I threw an arm up across Lynch’s chest and froze, my gut telling me that it was the sentinels, but a stream of people suddenly exploded through the hatch, clawing their way through it as if the fires of hell were licking at their boots.
The man at the door tried to wave them away from us, toward a set of stairs farther down the hall, but several of them broke off and began rushing at us, fear making their motions jerky and desperate. I realized that it was going to be impossible to get down the hall, let alone through the door, with people trying to escape the sentinels that were behind them, and quickly decided to use their fear against them, to keep us from getting overwhelmed.
I pushed Lynch back against the wall and said, “Rose!” in a sharp voice. “It’s time for you to be scary!” She needed no other command, and Dylan quickly got out of her way to let her through.
The effect was immediate, and the crowd broke in front of her, whirling away with desperate howls.
I dropped my arm from over Lynch’s chest and took a step down the hall past Rose. “Get back to Lacey and keep her safe,” I told him. “And get every door sealed before it’s too late. We’ll see what we can do to hold them off while the Cogs seal the door!”
Lynch’s eyes grew wide, but he nodded and reached out to place his hands on my shoulders. “Good luck to you, Liana!” he shouted as the noise in the hall grew to a crescendo.
“You as well,” I said, reaching up to cup his hand and hoping the brave man made it through whatever horrors came next.
Then we let go of each other, and I moved to keep up with Rose, Dylan only a step behind me. We raced down the corridor toward the throng of people. I knew there was a sentinel out there, and I prayed that it was only one. Rose would be able to hold off just one. Any more than that, and we were screwed.
But not as screwed as the Tower was going to be if those Cogs closed the door before we were on the other side of it. We were the only ones who had any idea of what to do—the only ones who could do anything to stop it. We had to keep moving, keep fighting, or Sage would figure out a way to make his plan work without Tony.
Hell, for all I knew, all he really needed was Leo.
The line of people thinned to a trickle as we reached the door, but I wasn’t certain whether the crowd outside had caught wind of Rose, or if everyone had managed to get inside. A few seconds later, it didn’t matter.
We crossed the threshold into the shell, the light through the door casting a pool around us that seemed feeble next to the pitch-black darkness, and I came to a sudden halt, every bone in my body telling me that the threat was very, very near. A quiet stillness came over my body as I clicked on the hand light that Tony had wrapped around my forearm, channeling the light into a slim, powerful beam. I took a moment to pull out my gun and click the safety off, and then drew my baton, lighting up a charge.
It might not do much, but it could buy me a second, and I’d often defied death by merely a second or two. Why stop doing it now?
For all my bravado, inside I was quaking. I could feel Alice’s presence out there, like a deep taint that was slowly rotting the Tower from the inside out. She may have been a victim of Sage’s torture, but whatever he had done had unleashed something dark and cruel inside of her.
I lifted my arm up, shining the light around, and then flinched at the sudden sound of grating behind me. I turned and saw the door sliding closed, slowly killing the light. I realized our only escape was disappearing—and I still hadn’t figured out where the sentinel was hiding.
Turning back to the hall in front of me, I resumed my search, my eyes half watching the darkness for any gleams of metal, and half focused on the darkness for any sign of golden eyes. But my light only revealed the hall, empty, stretching out before us for as far as the light carried.
I took a step forward into the darkness and checked the hall to the left and right, the hair on my body standing upright, every inch of me tense and ready for action.
But even after several desperate flashes with the light, there was nothing.
The people just heard the noise and came running, Tony finally said, breaking his silence. You’re being paranoid, and wasting time. Get to the outer shell so you can get outside.
It took me several seconds, but then I realized he was right. “It’s clear,” I said to the others. “Let’s go.”
I started to head down the hall in front of me, and then paused, trying to orient myself. The shell toward the base of the Tower was almost impossible to navigate with the lights on. It was going to be a nightmare in the dark.
Inside my head, Tony laughed, the sensation making me feel like a boat bobbing in a turbulent body of water. You’re so lucky I’m here, he said. Go straight to the end and turn left. I’ll update you as we go. Should only take ten minutes to get to the outer shell.
Ten minutes alone, in the dark, with insane, murderous sentinels running amok, I thought, striding forward down the hall.
Just great.
17
The dark is a terrible and malicious nemesis. Sounds are enhanced in it, making every groan and shout seem as if it were coming from right next to you. Light is swallowed by it, leaving you encased in a dim halo that seems a thin barrier against it. Objects that you pass by every day become terrifying, looming up unexpectedly with sinister intent, and creating shadows in which the enemy could hide.
Every step we made was a dead giveaway of our presence. Every pass of the light down an open hall, a beacon to the enemy. There was a chance of imminent attack at every corner, and my body responded to it by flooding me with adrenaline and endorphins, trying to keep my senses sharp.
Even with Tony’s guidance, I felt hopelessly lost and confused. There was no way to tell what direction we were going, and the markings on the hallway were unhelpful without my pad to track my position. The halls were marked, of course, but I didn’t have every level memorized. If I had been trying to get us out alone, we would never have even
made it to the outer shell.
As it was, I was really surprised that we did without encountering a single person or sentinel. It seemed like an absolute impossibility, given what I had witnessed in the halls earlier, but when Tony announced, That’s the door to the outer part of the shell, my heart felt like it could’ve imploded in relief.
I made my way toward the pressure hatch he had indicated, but took pains to check the hall around it, making sure there wasn’t a sentinel lurking in the darkness. The light on my arm chased away the black inkiness, revealing a gray pipe running from the floor to the ceiling, followed by several more feet of wall, interrupted again by another pipe. Overhead, lights—useless now—and bundles of cables and pipes ran along the ceiling. I could imagine a sentinel hiding up there, like some sort of spider lying in wait, but my light revealed nothing. Not on the ceiling, nor on the other side of the hall.
I exhaled a breath I didn’t know I had been holding, and turned back to the others, lowering the light to the door. “It’s clear,” I said, keeping my voice whisper soft.
Dylan nodded and stepped up to the door, her hands going to the wheel. I took a step closer, not because I intended to help or take over, but because being too far away from her light made me feel vulnerable and exposed. Maybe it was fear, or a survival instinct, but either way, I did it.
She grunted as she tried to turn the handle, and to my surprise, really leaned into it, adding the strength of her legs and her body weight.
The wheel refused to budge.
Dylan pushed off of it and flashed me a confused look. “I don’t understand,” she whispered. “I’m not that weak. I can bench press two hundred and fifty pounds!”
I blinked at her, impressed by her physical prowess, and then looked back at the door. “I’m not sure,” I finally said. “Maybe it was damaged? Or someone realized there were sentinels in the inner shell and barricaded it from the other side?”
“May I try?” Rose asked, and I looked at the sentinel. Or rather, I looked up at her, past what seemed like miles and miles of robotic strength.
“Absolutely,” I replied, taking a step back to give her some room. Dylan followed suit.
Rose stepped up to the door, her wide form almost completely obscuring it. I couldn’t see what happened next, but there was a loud, heavy groan for several long seconds—time enough for me to turn around and scan the hallway behind us. There wasn’t any sign of movement, but I had to believe that if they were close enough to hear the sound, they’d be coming soon.
We needed to be gone before they got here.
“What’s wrong?” I heard Dylan whisper behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see that Rose had taken a step back, the door still unopened.
“I was able to move it several centimeters, but the locking mechanism is resisting me,” she reported. “With more leverage, I believe I can get the door open.”
More leverage? I considered the problem for a second, and the implications. If we couldn’t get this door open in the next thirty seconds, then we needed to get moving and find another one, or grab a cutter and cut our way through. We couldn’t afford to—
Your baton, Tony interjected into my thoughts, and then showed me a picture of Rose sliding it through the hand wheel and using it as a crank. Immediately, I felt stupid for not thinking of it, and quickly grabbed my baton and held it out to Rose.
“Use this to add torque to the wheel,” I told her, and her purple eyes lightened in what I could only assume was understanding before she grabbed it. I heard the sound as she slid it through, the rasp of it loud in my ears, and renewed my efforts in the hallway, keeping a wary eye out.
The heavy metallic groan returned moments later, periodically punctuated by a sharp squeal of movement. I swallowed, my nerves scrabbling against the noise, screaming for her to stop giving away our position, but I swallowed it down and kept panning the light around.
Pipe. Wall. Another pipe. Flooring. Non-functional lighting. More darkness that my light couldn’t penetrate. Wall. Pipe. Wall.
“Status,” I said, when the span of time grew intolerable.
“Halfway there,” Rose reported, and I writhed at the delay.
“Dylan?”
“This side is still clear,” she reported, but I could hear the thread of fear in her voice, telling me that she was feeling the exposure just as keenly as I was.
“Keep calm,” I told her, and it wasn’t just directed at her, but also at myself. We’d come too far already to give in to our baser instincts now, and I wasn’t about to set a precedent. “We’re almost—”
I stopped when my light caught something. Not the chromatic silver of the sentinels, but rather a flash of paleness that could only come from human flesh, showing from behind one of the pipes, just at the edge of my light. Whoever it was ducked back into the darkness before I could really make them out, and on instinct, I took a step toward them.
“Hello?” I called softly, keeping my voice calm so as not to scare them. “Don’t worry about the sentinel. She’s on our side, protecting us.”
My light cut deeper into the darkness, but there was no sign of movement, even as I panned it around. I paused, listening closely, and heard the faint rustle of someone moving away, trying to muffle the sound of their boots in their passing. For a second, it was in my heart to go after them, to reassure them that we were safe and that they should come with us, but then my mind kicked into high gear, reminding me it wasn’t possible. We didn’t have another lash harness for them, and carrying them up a sheer wall would only add stress to our gyros. I supposed they could hold on to Rose’s back, but it was still dangerous. He or she had better chances inside the shell, especially if my hypothesis about who the sentinels were targeting was correct, and they had a rank higher than six. If not, then I prayed they found somewhere safe to hide until this was over.
I retreated back to the others, keeping my light moving. The sound Rose was making with the door continued for several more long seconds, and then suddenly it stopped with a loud clang.
I nearly leapt out of my skin, the sound like a thunderclap erupting right in my ear, and whirled around in time to see her shoving the door open.
Water immediately began to spill into the hall, sluicing down from over the opening to create a thin waterfall and spattering against the bottom rim and onto the floor of the hall.
“What the—” I said out loud, my shock at seeing water in a place where it was not supposed to be overriding all internal thought. Maybe there was a leak coming from one of the greeneries above? It was possible, but it seemed unlikely, given how much water was pouring down.
Rose continued through the water, ignoring it even as the part of her chest where the sentinel had been damaged sparked, causing Dylan and me to dance back to avoid getting hit by the bright embers shooting toward us. For several seconds, I could see the vague outline of her on the platform beyond, through the sheet of water, as she looked around. Then she turned back and made a gesture with her hand, indicating that it was clear.
I exchanged glances with Dylan and then took a deep breath to calm myself. Whatever the problem was, it didn’t seem to involve the sentinels, so that, at least, was a relief. I could figure out the rest once I was inside. I motioned for Dylan to go, did one last check of the dark hall to make sure we weren’t being observed, and then stepped through the watery portal, lifting an arm to shield myself from the torrential spray.
I almost slipped on the flooring as I stepped onto the landing, and Dylan quickly grabbed an arm and stabilized me. I shot her a grateful look and then turned around. The water splashed under my feet. Holding my arm down to shine the light on it, I realized immediately that the leak was not a leak at all. Water was sluicing down the staircase and the walls, creating a steady stream that didn’t seem to be ending. I shone my light down the stairs and saw that not even twenty-five feet down, the water was collecting into a pool—and swallowing up the stairs and the levels under it.
?
??It’s the defenses,” Dylan said, just as I was coming to the same conclusion. One of the Tower’s defenses for repelling outside invaders was to flood the outer part of the shell to drown the enemies before they could get inside. I’d never seen it happen—never even heard of it being used—but here it was, coming true.
And my eyes widened as I realized that this wasn’t an accident, either. Water Treatment had ultimate control over this particular defense, and they would not have activated it heedlessly. This was why Sage had attacked Water Treatment, why it had fallen. He’d needed the power from the hydro-turbines—and he’d wanted this area flooded.
But why? To kill the people inside in an attempt to prevent them from thwarting him? Or something else?
Something else, Tony said gravely, and I took a step up the stairs, suddenly afraid.
“What?” I asked, causing Dylan and Rose to give me strange looks. I ignored them, focusing on Tony’s answer.
The outer shell needs to be filled with water if anyone is going to initiate a system purge of the Core. The endothermic heat generated by the power transfer is enough to melt its own components unless they are cooled rapidly. That’s mostly handled with hydrogen, but the water in the shell acts as both a reservoir and a cooling element to the power conduits running through the shell. It prevents them from burning out.
How much time does this give us before he’s ready to do that? I asked, my mind racing. Sage’s plan still required Leo and Tony, and the power from the Mechanics and Knights Departments, but if this was another element to it, I needed to know what kind of timeframe I had before Sage physically had what he needed to kill Scipio.
At this rate? Eight hours.
That wasn’t a lot of time. If Dylan and I were lucky, it would only take us four or five hours to get high enough to reenter the Tower. If Sage somehow managed to figure out how to flood the shell faster, though, he’d be able to cut us off before we could get back inside. We’d still have a few options for how to enter, but none that were good. It would have to be either through a greenery, which meant facing people who were probably against me at this point, or climbing to the very top of the Tower and entering through the door there.