Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The east sector of the base was huge, clearly designed to accommodate celestial-sized beings. The chairs had low backs to account for wings, and everything was larger to fit the celestial frames.
Gabriel had done this. He’d made sure his troops had somewhere to go if need be.
The base went into the ground for several floors, and this sector was no different.
Our watchers and reapers barely filled the space, highlighting how ill-equipped we were to go up against the Dominion and their vast army.
But what choice did we have?
“Here and here,” Bastian said, pointing at spots on a schematic my brain struggled to make sense of. “Entry points that will probably be overlooked by security.”
“Is that a sewer pipe?” Kabiel asked.
“Yes, about a quarter mile away from the hub. I pulled maps of the area off the database they have here. This pipe links to the hub. I doubt they even realize it.”
“Okay, so we enter via the sewers?” Bee asked.
“Yes,” Bastian said. “This here is where they’ll be holding her.”
“How do you know that?” Kabiel asked.
Gabriel placed his hands on the table and leaned in to study the plans better. “Because this is where all the power is being funneled to.”
Bastian grinned across at him. “Exactly. It means that there’ll be heavy security around it. Locked doors, scanners, sentinels, the works.”
“Only authorized personnel will be able to get through,” Gabriel said.
“We’ll kill them all,” Kabiel said.
“A lovely sentiment,” Gabriel replied, “but the aim is to get to the hub undetected if possible.”
I stared at the schematic, noting the many corridors and the huge chamber in the center. “How do we do that? How do we make sure we’re not detected?”
“By creating a diversion,” Gabriel said.
“Yes. Here, on the outside of the hub,” Bastian replied. “We draw the celestials toward the attack. We hit them with such force that they’re forced to push the majority of their resources toward the activity.”
“We still have the problem of locked doors and scanners,” Kabiel pointed out.
“I have a solution to that,” Bastian said. “I can disable their systems. This room here is where the operating system of the hub is.”
“Are you sure?” Gabriel asked.
“These lines here, and these boxes indicate the flow of power. Electrical lines and something else…Some other power source which leads to this structure on top of the building…”
“What is it?” Bee asked.
“I…I’m not sure. But it’s built to hold this power…whatever it is.”
“If you cut off the power in the operations room, will it cut off power to that thing?”
“Not sure. I’d have to take a closer look once I’m inside.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Gabriel said. “As long as we can get into the central chamber, to Lucifer.”
I had her sword, Soul Reaper. I had a feeling she was going to need it. The damn thing was formidable, able to cut a doorway in the fabric of a world and transport us home. It was a mighty weapon, and I was sure Lucifer would need it in her fight against the Dominion once we freed her.
“We need to organize teams,” Bastian said. “Decoy team for the outside, and extraction team.”
Just two? “What about you? You need a team to get into the security room.”
“Not a team, maybe one or two people to keep watch. We need to be low-key.”
“I’ll come with you,” Bee said.
“And me,” Tumiel added.
He’d healed, but he still looked pale. I wasn’t sure he was up to this mission, and from the look on Bee’s face, neither was she. But I knew better than to question his fitness. Knew that he wasn’t so arrogant as to come along if he felt he might end up being a liability.
Bastian must have surmised the same because he didn’t protest. But Bee looked less than pleased, and even though she didn’t question him openly now, I was certain they’d have words later.
“The extraction team should be small too,” Gabriel said. “Grab Lucifer and head straight to the exit point.”
“I’ll lead the decoy team,” Kabiel said.
Gabriel dropped him a nod. “I’ll lead the extraction team. I’ll take Rue with me. She has a connection to the Morningstar power, and we might be able to locate the relics along the way.”
“Zaq and I will come with you,” Sarq said.
“The diversion will draw some fire, but not all,” Gabriel said.
“They may even send more security toward their asset as protocol. We won’t know until it happens.
So we need a few more watchers with us to act as defense on the corridors closest to the holding chamber.
” He pointed at the two spots on the map.
“Four of my watchers,” Kabiel said. “Two for each corridor. It’s all we can offer without making the decoy team look like less of a threat.” His silver eyes narrowed. “We have to hope they don’t call in reinforcements from the Golden City.”
“How far is the hub from the city?” Bee asked.
“Thirty miles,” Erelim said. “But that’s not far by air. Two decoy teams would have been better. One at the city and one at the hub. But our numbers are too low as it is. If we split them, we won’t pose a threat.”
“It’s a shame I won’t get to use my tunnel,” Gabriel said. “It was guarded when we broke out, but the Dominion will have tripled the security, maybe even collapsed it by now. We still have allies in the city. We could have shaken the celestials to the core by attacking from the inside.”
But Michael had put paid to that idea. The focus had to be on Lucifer anyway. “We can do this. We may not have the numbers, but we have the skill and the determination. We have a plan. We strike in the dead of night, and we take back the power.”
“Get some rest,” Gabriel said to everyone. “Find a bunk and sleep. Fuel up tomorrow and be ready to move at sunset.”
The next few hours would either fly by or drag. Either way, I doubted I’d be getting any sleep.