CHAPTER FIFTEEN
VESPER
I slid the detonator into my pants pocket, then stuffed the larger box of explosives into a cloth bag that was lying on a counter. I also made sure the dead Hammer’s blaster was set to its full, killing power, instead of stun. I slid the weapon onto my belt and grabbed my trusty trident again.
With the bag in one hand and my trident in the other, I left the transport garage and quickly returned to the upper level. I peered down the main corridor, just as I had a few minutes ago.
Everything was the same in the control room.
Jeffrey was still at the panel, swiping through screens and trying to locate me, while holograms of Kyrion and Roderick flickered in the air.
Asterin and Siya were still shackled to the table in the back and being guarded by four House Battis Hammers.
The warriors looked bored, but Asterin and Siya kept glancing at each other, having a whispered telepathic conversation I couldn’t hear.
First things first, I had to get the Hammers away from my friends. Once Asterin and Siya were safe, then I could deal with Jeffrey, take his place at the control panel, and figure out where Kyrion was in the maze.
Jeffrey froze, and his eyes widened, like he’d just had a startling revelation. He leaned forward, frantically typing on a holoscreen. Something beeped in response, and the technician let out a low, muttered curse.
“What is it?” one of the male Hammers asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Shut up and let me think,” Jeffrey snarled.
The technician paced back and forth in front of the control panel for the better part of a minute.
Then he sighed and flipped a switch, causing a bit of static to crackle through the air.
Jeffrey wet his lips and leaned forward over the microphone sticking up out of the panel.
“Sir, we have a problem. I’ve lost the woman . . .”
I stayed in my hiding spot and eavesdropped while Jeffrey told Roderick that I had escaped from the maze. I listened carefully, hoping to hear Kyrion talking in the background, but Roderick’s pissed voice drowned out everything else.
Kyrion? I sent out the thought.
I still didn’t hear his voice, but the sticky cobweb of him in my mind practically glowed with warm pride. Kyrion was happy I’d gotten out of the maze. Even more determination to save him roared through me.
Roderick ordered Jeffrey to find me. The technician agreed, then flipped the switch and turned off the microphone.
He looked over his shoulder at the four Hammers and snapped his fingers at them.
“You heard the boss. Find the woman. Now. And make sure you capture her. Roderick will take it out on all of us if you accidentally kill her and break the deal he’s made. ”
My eyes narrowed. What deal? And what did it have to do with me?
“What about them?” one of the female Hammers asked, jerking her chin at Asterin and Siya.
“What about them?” Jeffrey scoffed. “They’re shackled to a table with psionic dampeners clamped around their wrists. They’re no threat.”
Asterin and Siya both glared at the technician.
Then they looked at each other, once again having a whispered telepathic conversation.
Asterin raised her eyebrows in a silent question, and Siya gave her a grim nod.
Both women dropped their hands and gripped the edges of the table, their knuckles going white against their skin. My friends had a plan. Good. Me too.
“Go! Now!” Jeffrey made a shooing motion with his hand.
The four Hammers grumbled, but they left the control room and tromped along the corridor.
I tightened my grip on the trident and the bag containing the box of explosives. Then I drew in a breath and stepped out into the open where the other warriors could see me.
“Woo-woo.” I let out a loud whistle.
The Hammers froze. Startled, Jeffrey looked up from the control panel, and Asterin and Siya also stared in my direction.
I shook the bag in my hand, and the black box of explosives slid out of the cloth and tumbled to the floor. I tossed the cloth aside, then stepped forward and kicked the box as hard as I could. It slid to a stop right in front of the four Hammers.
“BOOM!” I screamed, and charged forward.
The Hammers’ eyes widened, and they all yelled, broke formation, and dove to opposite sides of the corridor, trying to get out of the blast radius, even though the box hadn’t exploded.
But that was part of my plan. As much as I wanted to blow my enemies sky-high, I didn’t know how powerful the explosives were, and I didn’t want to obliterate myself, Asterin, and Siya. Besides, I needed Jeffrey alive and the control panel intact so I could help Kyrion.
I raced toward the two Hammers on the right, both of whom had thrown themselves down onto the floor and covered their heads with their hands, as if that would have saved them from anything.
The first Hammer lifted his head. “What the—”
I rammed the trident into his back. The Hammer screamed, his arms and legs flailed wildly, and he twisted to the side.
I yanked the trident out of his body, then rammed it right back in again.
The Hammer screamed a second time and kept flailing around, so I kicked him in the head.
His screams cut off, and he slumped down to the floor.
Beside him, the second Hammer cursed and scrambled to her feet. I yanked the blaster off my belt and shot her in the chest.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
The woman shrieked and tumbled to the floor. Her war hammer fell out of her hand and slid to a stop at my feet.
Across the corridor, the remaining two warriors—a woman and a man—also cursed and got to their feet.
Since Kyrion was still in the maze and surrounded by psionic dampeners, the mental white fog was still wisping through my mind.
I stretched through the haze and plunged my hands into the sticky cobweb of his presence.
I grasped as many trickles of his telekinesis as I could, then used his power to sling the war hammer across the floor.
The woman easily sidestepped the skittering weapon, but the man stopped and lurched awkwardly to the side, coming closer to me.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
I also shot him in the chest with the blaster, and he screamed and dropped to the floor.
The woman growled and charged forward, lashing out with her own hammer. I ducked her first blow but not the second one, and she slammed the flat side of the weapon into my stomach.
“Oof!” The hard, bruising blow punched the air out of my lungs and tossed me back.
I bounced off the wall and staggered forward.
The trident slipped through my fingers and tumbled end over end down the corridor.
I lifted the blaster in my other hand, but the woman spun her hammer around and knocked the weapon out of my grasp.
Then she charged forward, put her shoulder down, and shoved me against the wall.
She drew her hammer back, then swung it toward my chest. I reached out and locked my hands around her forearms, stopping her strike.
The woman snarled. I did too, and we seesawed back and forth, with her trying to drive the sharp spike on one side of her hammer into my chest and me desperately trying to hold her off.
“Alive!” Jeffrey yelled. “We need her alive!”
But the Hammer wasn’t interested in keeping me alive. Not after I’d just killed three of her friends. She snarled again, dug her feet into the floor, and leaned forward, once again trying to drive the spike into my chest.
I braced my body against the wall and pushed back, but the Hammer was stronger than me, and it was only a matter of time before she shoved past my defenses. I needed a new plan right now.
As if she had heard my thoughts, the woman snarled and surged forward again . . . and this time I let her.
I released her arms and jerked out of the way. The woman yelped, surprised by the sudden lack of resistance, and her own momentum propelled her into the wall.
Bang!
The spike on the hammer punched into the wall right where my heart had been. The woman grunted and tried to yank the weapon free, but she’d put all her strength into the blow, and the hammer was deeply wedged in the concrete.
I scrambled around her, flung my hand out toward the blaster I’d dropped earlier, and reached for Kyrion’s telekinesis. Once again, I could only access trickles of his power. Instead of spinning through the air, the blaster merely skipped along the floor. Frustration pounded through me.
The Hammer finally wrenched her weapon free, spun around, and stormed toward me.
She clutched the hilt with both hands and raised the hammer high, ready to bring it down and crack my head open like a walnut.
I stretched my fingers out a little farther and grabbed a few more trickles of Kyrion’s power . . .
The blaster finally lifted off the ground and floated toward me. I stepped forward and scooped it up. The instant the weapon settled into my hand, I whirled to the side and fired.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
The bright red bolts slammed into the woman’s chest, knocking her back against the wall. Her body slumped to the floor, and the war hammer slipped out of her hands and tumbled away.
I stood there, breathing hard, my finger still curled around the trigger in case any of the four warriors weren’t as dead as I thought—
A small squeak sounded. I whirled in that direction.
Behind the control panel, Jeffrey let out another squeak of shock. I ran toward him, still clutching the blaster.
Jeffrey’s eyes widened. He lunged toward the panel, his fingers flying over the buttons. I kept running. I had to reach him before he activated some self-defense mechanism.
With a collective roar, Asterin and Siya lifted the table they were cuffed to off the ground, churned their legs, and surged forward.
Jeffrey spun toward them. He tried to dart out of the way, but his red jacket snagged on a switch sticking out of the control panel, pinning him in place.