Chapter Twenty-Nine
Thanh
“ J ax!” I shouted into the coms seconds before we were forced to dive around the corner and take cover.
“Switch your blasters to the maximum setting!” Brahn yelled. “It’s the only thing that will penetrate their armor.”
I did as he instructed and tried to steady myself.
“How about this?”
Warmth flooded me and my senses became sharp, heart rate stilling, as a sense of focus came over me. The Xenocor usually hit me like a fast injection; one minute I’m feeling normal, the next, super charged. But this time it was a natural, smooth transition and I was able to breathe while all my senses heightened.
I darted out of cover so I could shoot, my eyes picking the target, focusing and firing two to the chest and one to the head of the nearest droid in quick succession. I did the same to the next droid and then saw a third about to shoot me. I darted back behind cover as Brahn took out that one.
“Nice shooting,” he said.
I nodded and ducked as blaster fire struck nearby.
“We have to neutralize them before they set off the other droids,” I said.
Oontash and I darted out and took aim. She took out two more and I got one. There were at least three more, all in front of the vault.
“We’ve got to rush them, get in closer so we don’t accidentally shoot the vault. That would trigger more fail safes and that would be very bad,” Brahn said.
I peeked around the corner, narrowly missing getting hit by two bolts.
“I can get them,” I said, heart in my throat even though I knew the Xenocor would help me.
“Are you sure?” Brahn asked.
I nodded.
“Get ready to move.”
I breathed, and focused on the feel of the blaster in my hand, pictured the three droids that were left and their formation. With a final breath in, I popped up and fired.
One, two, three shots, and the droids were down. I shot again just to be sure and looked down the corridor to the other nine smoking droids.
My body was a mass of adrenaline and I bent forward at the waist, pressing my forearms into my thighs as Oontash smacked me on the back.
“Well done,” Brahn said, “now let’s —”
“Look out!”
Oontash pushed him out of the way and was hit with a bolt to her shoulder.
The droids in the corridor behind us were coming to life.
“Come on,” Brahn picked up Oontash, who had shifted back to her real form when she’d been injured.
“Wait, that’s a dead end, we’ll be trapped!”
“You want to go back? Fight our way through fifty droids?” Brahn asked, sweat dotting his bronze skin. “We might be able to take shelter inside the vault if Oontash can get it open.”
“I…I need to get there now,” she said, “I can’t hold a shift when I’m — I’m hurt.”
“I’ll cover you,” I said.
We ran down the short corridor, the sound of droids echoing toward us. There were at least twice as many in the hall behind us as there had been on this one. I fired at the first one that was making its way to us. It collapsed and the droid behind it simply stepped over its fallen comrade and kept coming, like some kind of nightmare.
Is there the same limit to the Xenocor?
“I have no idea but I don’t think it’s a good idea to cut you off right now. You okay with the possible consequences?”
I have to be.
My aim was still good, in spite of the panic choking me, but at some point that would have to change because my body would hit a limit on how much Xenocor it could take. It was just a question of when.
And with our luck, it will be the worst possible time.
We reached the vault door, a plain gray metal that had a vertical seam running down the middle. A bio scanner was to the right of it and there were lights above the door flashing red. Brahn set Oontash down beside the bio scanner and took up a defensive position in front of her.
The shape shifter’s teal skin was paler than it had been and her golden eyes were dilated with pain. With a shaking hand, she morphed into a short human male with thinning hair and a paunch, but the shift started to unravel almost immediately.
“Give me…a minute,” she gasped, leaning against the wall.
“I’m not sure we’ve got a minute,” I said.
There were four droids coming at us, and I heard more clanking their way down the hall.
Brahn and I raised our weapons and fired, trying to cover Oontash and give her the time she needed. We took down the closest four when I heard a beep behind me and the doors slid apart where the seam had been, retreating into the wall.
“Got it,” she said, her form fading back to her real body.
Brahn scooped her up, and I tried to cover them until the door opened all the way. I was shaking a bit now, and sweat was dripping into my eyes, but I managed to take down a droid right before the door opened enough for us to slip through and take cover behind the still closed portions. Problem was, it kept opening and soon we’d be exposed.
“We need to close the door,” Brahn said, helping me to my feet.
Oontash’s hand morphed quicker this time and she pressed it to a panel. It dinged and a clear door came down, instead of the thick, gray security door.
The droids halted the moment the door came down but they didn’t retreat; instead, they went to the wall and pressed their hands to different panels. I had no idea what they were doing but at least they weren’t attacking us anymore. It looked like the other droids had also stopped.
“Let’s get the engine and figure out how to escape,” Brahn said.
“You need…me again,” Oontash gasped. “Bring me to…that panel in the floor.”
Brahn and I helped her and once again her hand transformed, though she was shaking so badly that we had to help her press her palm to the panel. It took longer for the bio lock to beep this time and when it did, we all three let out a sigh of relief. A square opened in the floor and up came a rectangular circuit box. It was small enough for one person to carry but also appeared to have some sharp edges. I could see inside where a dozen circuit boards and wires were surrounding a blue glowing cylinder.
“It’s still alive,” Brahn whispered.
“What is?” I asked.
“Nothing.” He took off his jacket and wrapped it around the engine.
“Brahn, if we’re dealing with some kind of bio hazard here, you need to tell me.”
“It’s none of your business. But I can assure you, this poses no threat to you. Now, we need to —”
“Vault breach in north bank,” said a deep computerized voice. “Catastrophic fail safe triggered. North bank will be submerged in five minutes. All personnel please proceed to the upper deck.”
“What the fuck?” I said.
“The attack, the droids must’ve triggered the fail safe,” Brahn nodded out into the corridor.
The droids once again stood ready to attack, only this time, the panels they’d been at were glowing red. A few seconds later, water started to come up from the floor, cold and salty.
“We need to get out of here before we are sent to the bottom of the ocean.”
“We have respirators –” I started.
“Which won’t matter if we’re trapped in a non-pressurized environment. We’ll be squashed like rotten fruit. Now, when the door opens,” Brahn said, Oontash supported by one of his arms while he balanced the engine in the other, “cover us and I’ll lead us to the hatch. We need to get out of here before the place floods.”
“I can hold…a blaster,” Oontash said.
“Are you certain?”
She nodded in a jerky motion. When my eyes met Brahn’s we were both thinking the same thing: she didn’t have long before shock was going to set in.
“What about Jax and Sherrod?” I asked.
“They were closer to the surface. With any luck, they will be making their way to the landing pad. We will pick them up after we meet Lorac.”
I wanted to fight him, but I knew he was right, this was the best plan and hopefully Jax and Sherrod were already on their way to safety.
“Okay…I’m ready.”
Oontash pushed the panel with her morphed hand and the clear door slid open. Stepping across the threshold, I took out the first droid easily enough, and Oontash was firing with less precision than before but, in this space, it didn’t much matter. Until one of the bolts ricocheted off the corridor wall and hit one of the droids just as it fired at me. The impact sent the shot wild and I tried to dodge out of the way, only managing to bring myself directly into its trajectory. The bolt hit me in the chest, propelling me back into the vault and onto my back in the water. It was just deep enough to cover my face and I flailed as I sat up, gulping in air. When I looked down, I expected charred flesh and instead saw a hole in my vest. The bolt had landed on my respirator, saving my life but destroying the device.
“Shit,” I scrambled up onto my feet, soaking wet and sore from the impact of falling on the floor.
I looked up and saw that the droids had all been destroyed, and that Jax was running down the hall. There was no time for relief, however, because the clear vault door had slammed down once again, shutting me inside the flooding vault.
“Hey, let me out!” I shouted, banging on the clear surface.
“The panel is shot,” Brahn said, holding up a barely conscious Oontash, “and I don’t think she can shift.”
Water was now up to my shins, as it was outside the vault.
“Thanh, are you alright?” Jax asked as he came to the door.
“Yeah, for the most part. My respirator took a hit, it’s toast.”
Jax’s eyes bugged out as he saw the blackened, twisted device.
“Brahn, is there any way to get this open?” he asked.
“You could look inside the floor vault where the engine was, there might be a hatch release in there.”
I ran as quickly as I could over to the open spot in the floor, the water now past my knee. It was dark inside the inner vault, I couldn’t see a damn thing. I took a deep breath and submerged. The hole was deep enough down that I was fully in the water and wide enough that I could fit down inside, but it was still far more snug that I was comfortable with. I felt along the sides of the interior vault, it was smooth except for one spot at the bottom, a handle. I yanked on it hard but it wouldn’t budge. My lungs were now screaming for air so I went back up and heaved in a giant breath.
“There’s something down there, but I couldn’t get it! I’m going to try again!”
“Where’s…oh, he betrayed us didn’t he?” Brahn asked.
Jax’s brows drew together and his mouth set in a tight line.
“That son of a bitch,” I seethed.
Oontash winced and started to shake.
“I don’t…feel so…good.”
“Get her to the hatch,” Jax said, taking off his duster and approaching the control panel that’d been shot to hell.
“Wait, you don’t want to experiment with circuits while you’re standing in salt water, it’s a conductor,” Brahn warned.
“Thanks, I know how electricity works,” Jax snapped, “get Oontash out of here. We’ll be right behind you.”
“No…I can…try,” Oontash said.
Her hand flexed, shifting to three different shapes and sizes in quick succession before she passed out.
“Damn it,” Brahn said, throwing her over his shoulder. “I really do hope we see you both up there.”
He took off down the corridor and I met Jax’s gaze.
“Jax —”
“Don’t say it.” He went back to the circuits. “Try whatever you found again and I’ll see what I can do from this end.”
I went back down faster this time since I knew what I was looking for. The space was just large enough for me to flip around so my head was up and I braced my feet on the floor as I pulled up. It still didn’t move. I tried until I started taking in water and had to surface. By the time I got up to air, the water was at my hips.
“I can’t get it to budge,” I gasped.
“Damn it!” he slammed his fist against the wall and sparks flew.
“Be careful!”
“I don’t give a damn about being careful.”
“Well I do!”
I sloshed through the water to the door where he was trying to hot wire the control panel and pressed my hand to the surface.
“Jax, look at me.”
“No.”
“Jax!”
“I said no! Not if you’re going to tell me good-bye because there’s no way this is good-bye, Thanh!”
The water was at my waist and Jax had what looked like half the circuits out in his trembling hands. I ached to touch him one more time, to reassure him that everything was going to be okay.
“I’ll try the –”
The room shook and shifted, throwing me off balance into the water. A few seconds later the lights started to flicker and half of them went out completely. Fear dug icy fingers into my gut as I realized that I was going to die here.
But Jax doesn’t have to.
I banged my hands on the door and screamed his name.
“You have to get out of here!”
“Not without you!”
“Yes, without me!”
He stopped, moisture on his face that I was sure was tears and not the water quickly rising around us. He pressed his huge hands to match up with mine, and the look of devastation nearly took me out.
I have to be strong for him.
“It’s okay,” I said, my voice cracking. “I…I need you to go now. I need to know you’ll be safe.”
“No, I’m not leaving you!” he pummeled the door, screaming out his rage.
Over and over he punched it until his knuckles started to bleed.
“Jax, stop!”
He leaned against the door and sobbed.
“I won’t let you die…I can’t lose you, Thanh. I love…I love you.”
The water was swirling around me, all the way up to my chest. It wouldn’t be long before I couldn’t breathe but there was something I needed to say to him, something I should’ve said last night but had been too afraid to admit.
“I love you too,” I cried, pressing my palms to the surface of the door where his face was, as if I could somehow touch his cheeks. “I love you, Jax.”
We were both crying now, the water nearly at my throat. I’d be able to float for a while, but I was worried about what Brahn had said about the pressure. Jax would be trapped, crushed to death.
“You have to leave,” I said, voice shaking.
“No,” he shook his head, “I’m not leaving you.”
“The bank is going to be crushed from the pressure, you have to go before that happens. Please, Jax! Please…I need you to live.”
I took in a gulp of water and coughed.
I’m scared…I’m so scared.
“I can knock you out, like I do when you’re in pain. You won’t feel it.”
But what about you?
“I…I’ll be fine. I promise.”
I kicked my feet, fighting to keep my head above the water. Jax was glued to the door, his eyes feverishly taking me in. I didn’t want him to watch me drown and I couldn’t stomach the thought of him dying. As long as I was here and alive, he would stay. The decision was clear, and it wrecked me.
“I love you,” I sobbed. “Now go, Jax!”
I stopped fighting to stay afloat and let myself sink.
“No! No, you have to keep trying! Thanh!”
He was kicking and punching the door, and I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t see it. Then he stopped and a sense of relief and profound loss struck me. He’d saved himself.
“Are you ready?”
Yeah…
Just as I braced for Tohm-Tohm to knock me out, hands grabbed me and I opened my eyes to see Jax. The door had somehow lifted enough for him to grab me. We swam out of the vault and into the corridor. It was almost completely flooded but there was just enough space for Jax to break the surface and kiss me violently.
“Don’t you ever fucking do that again, you hear me?” he demanded.
“I love you,” I gasped, kissing him quickly again. “I love you…”
“I love you too, now let’s get the fuck out of here.”
We passed his respirator back and forth between us as we followed the map on our wrist com to the hatch. When we were just a few feet away, the bank shook again and shifted, as if it were resting on a slant and we had to dodge the debris of destroyed droids and bits of metal. When we finally arrived at the hatch, I was relieved to see that Brahn had left it open for us and so all we had to do was follow the tunnel out of the bank. Halfway through, a part of the tunnel behind us broke off and we looked back to see the bank plummeting into a dark abyss. My stomach fell to my toes as I realized that was almost my grave.
Jax tugged on my sleeve and I looked up at him, my future. We made it through the rest of the tunnel quickly, cresting the surface of the water to find Lorac waiting for us with a ladder hanging down.