Gemma screamed again.
“Get back,” Finley yelled.
Ian grabbed Gemma. Her group started walking backward.
The assassin lifted its head. Its many eyes seemed to look right at Finley.
“Run!” she screamed.
She spun and ran. She sprinted down the hall, the others stumbling along. The security officer aimed behind them and fired.
Together, they turned a corner.
The assassin’s wild screech echoed off the walls.
Finley glanced back. The alien turned the corner, moving fast.
Dammit.
She looked around. A plant in a large, ceramic pot sat against the wall. Its leaves were brown and crispy, so she guessed no one had been looking after it.
She snatched it up. As the Kantos rushed at her, she tossed the plant.
The pot hit the assassin in the head, and the creature staggered. The security officer fired on it again.
Finley tried the nearest door. Locked.
Come on, give us a break.
She tried the next one, and it opened.
“In here!” It was a lab. There were several experiments lined up on the benches.
Her group hurried in and she slammed the door shut. “Quick, help me move this.”
She gripped a cabinet that was shoved against the wall, and Ian and the security officer moved up beside her. Together, they all pushed. They shoved it in front of the door.
Suddenly, the door shuddered under the weight of the impact of something massively heavy.
“Oh, God.” Gemma sagged against a bench. “It’ll slaughter us all.”
“Gemma, there will be no slaughtering.” Finley swallowed. The pounding on the door increased. It wouldn’t hold up much longer. “It’s after me. All of you, lock yourselves in the office.” She pointed to an open door on the other side of the room, through which they could see the corner of a desk covered in papers.
“No,” Ian said. “We aren’t leaving you to be bait.”
“There’s no need for all of us to die.”
“Fuck that,” Dr. Gregson bit out. “We need some weapons.”
“I’m out of ammunition,” the security officer said.
The door burst open, the cabinet crashing to the floor.
The assassin stalked in, wings snapping open.
Gemma whimpered.
Finley backed up, her hand running over the bench, searching for anything that she could use as a weapon. There were beakers, test tubes, a chunky machine for testing that was far too large to lift, a Bunsen burner.
Shit. The assassin leaped, its wings flapping.
Finley ducked and scrambled under the bench.
She leaped up on the other side, and spotted several scalpels and some other tools resting on the bench. She snatched them up and threw them at the Kantos assassin.
One scalpel pierced the creature’s wing, and it jerked.
“Hey, asshole.” Ian leaped up on top of a bench, clutching a bottle in his hand. He tossed it at the creature.
The glass smashed, and some sort of liquid chemical sprayed the alien.
The assassin screeched. The liquid was eating into the alien’s wings.
“Ian, more.” Finley grabbed all the vials she could. She pelted them at the assassin. The rest of the group started grabbing bottles and beakers, and throwing them at the alien.
“We’re probably going to kill ourselves,” Dr. Gregson yelled.
“Better to explode than death by that thing,” Ian answered.
The Kantos screeched again and slipped, crashing to the floor.
Gemma grunted. “Help me.”
Finley saw the younger woman pushing against the large testing machine. Finley raced to help her. If they tipped it off the bench, it would land directly on the assassin. The others rushed over to help. Together they all shoved hard, and the machine inched toward the edge of the bench.
“More,” Gemma urged between gritted teeth.
Finley strained.
The machine reached the edge of the workbench, and then gravity took over. The heavy machine dropped off the edge, right onto the assassin’s torso.
The creature went silent, its legs twitching, then it stilled.
Finley pressed her hands to her thighs, sucking in air.
“We did it,” Gemma said, incredulously.
Ian laughed. “Oh, my God.”
“We did it,” Dr. Gregson cried.
They all started laughing and hugging each other. Finley slapped Gemma on the back. Then she heard the sounds of screams and gunfire. Sabin. She yanked out her tablet.
“It’s right above us,” Kaira yelled.
“Kaira, look out!” Sabin shouted.
Finley’s heart leaped. Then she heard the crunch of glass and metal, and a man’s scream.
“Sabin? Sabin?” There was no answer. “Where are they?”
Dr. Gregson blinked. “I don’t know—”
“You have drones. We need the footage. Now.”
“Hang on.” The woman raced to the nearest computer, tapping some keys to wake the screen. She started clicking away. “Got it!”
The screen filled with aerial footage, tinged green by the night-vision setting. Finley’s pulse pounded madly.
The footage zoomed in, and she spotted the overturned SUV. It was on its roof.
“No.” It felt like the floor beneath her caved in.
She couldn’t see any sign of Sabin, or the others. Something flew between the drone and the SUV. An assassin.
“They’re five hundred meters away from the main building,” Dr. Gregson said.
Finley pressed a hand to her head, trying to think. Then she saw something move out of the darkness.
One of the stalkers. Then another. And another. They advanced on the wrecked SUV.
“We have to help them,” Finley said.
“Finley, it’s too dangerous,” Gemma said.
“Sabin wanted the base locked down,” Dr. Gregson added.
“Then you guys lock down. I’m going to help them.” Fear was alive in her belly, but she wouldn’t abandon Sabin, or the others.
“I’ll come with you,” Kaira’s security officer said.
“Me too.” Ian stepped forward, chin lifted.
Finley nodded. “Let’s move.”
Chapter Eleven
Pain rocketed through Sabin. He groaned.
He felt the wet slide of blood down his side. He was hanging upside-down in the vehicle, and the windshield was shattered. He turned his head and saw Kaira beside him, caught up in her own belt. She wasn’t moving. But when he strained, he heard the beat of her heart.
“Roberts?”
There was no answer from the back.
Then Sabin heard a low screech outside.
Cren.
He formed a knife on his arm but his helian was sluggish, too focused on healing his injuries. He clumsily slashed and cut the belt, and his body dropped. He shoved against the mangled door and managed to climb out.
He glanced down and saw metal sticking out of his skin. Cren. He was bleeding badly. He was about to pull the piece of debris out of his side when he detected movement.
Not far away, three stalkers eyed him, slinking closer, their antennae quivering.
Cren. He let the knife morph into a sword. He had to protect Kaira and Roberts.
The first bug leaped.
Sabin lunged and slashed with his sword across the Kantos. It hit the dirt with a spray of green blood.