Shutting down all fear and apprehension, Simone clasped it and joined him. This is no different from blitzing that military base back on Earth, she told herself. This time she just wore atypical clothing and would be fighting reptilian aliens instead of vampires and mind-controlled soldiers. She could do this.
They all could.
And she would make damned sure every one of them made it out alive.
“Ready?” Janwar asked.
She nodded. “Let’s go.”
They flew toward the base, the wind howling as it whipped around them.
Undeterred, Janwar expertly guided them down to the roof.
The ice was so slick and the wind so strong that they had to activate the spikes in their boots once they stepped off the kada to keep from skidding across the surface. The translucent map on their helmets then guided them over to a patch of thick ice that looked no different from the rest.
Simone bit her lip, wondering if she should draw her swords and start hacking away at it.
Janwar shifted the pack on his back, drawing it around to the front and opening it. He really did look kick-ass in his armor, which anchored him in place so well that he didn’t even sway as he withdrew what looked like four shining metal coins.
Simone, on the other hand, had to employ some of her preternatural strength to remain in place while hurricane-force winds pushed and shoved her. Sheesh, they were strong!
Kneeling, Janwar set the coins on the ice about a foot and a half beyond each corner of the lab’s vent. When he tapped one coin, a red laser shot from it, connected to the next, then to the next, and to the first again, forming a square.
Her eyes widened when dozens of red lines stretched across from the sides to form a grid pattern inside the shape. Seconds later, the ice inside the square began to melt, the coins sinking down yet maintaining a pristine quadrilateral shape. Steam rose as the meltwater heated up and boiled away.
Leaning forward to watch, Simone marveled over how quickly the ice separating them from the vent disappeared. There wasn’t even any water at the bottom when it finished.
She sent Janwar a smile. “You know what I’m going to say.”
He grinned. “That’s awesome?”
“Hell yes.”
He chuckled. “T, are you having any success with the atmospheric monitors?”
“Not yet. But I succeeded in scrambling their comms so the base can neither receive nor send messages.”
“Five hostiles incoming,” Elchan murmured.
Rustling, grunting, and a couple of yelps ensued.
“Targets down,” Soval muttered.
“Drek!” Krigara hissed.
More thuds and grunts.
“Report,” Janwar ordered.
“One of the grunark’s cries drew an officer out of his quarters,” Krigara said, “but we took care of him.”
Simone studied the ice around them. This close, the life-form scan provided a little more detail. Quite a few red figures inhabited the lab beneath them. When she listened intently for the thoughts of those below, a jumble of different alien languages bombarded her in a mass of masculine gibberish. “I’m picking up more than one alien language but don’t hear any English. Should I reach out telepathically to see if some of my friends are here?”
He shook his head. “We don’t want anyone down there to exhibit a reaction that might tip off the Gathendiens that we’re here.”
She pointed to several figures that were stationary. “Do those have tails?”
Janwar followed her gaze. “I don’t think so.”
Hope rose. “Why aren’t they moving?” Were they ill? Unconscious? Dead?
“I don’t know. Krigara, we may have found what we’re searching for. Do we wait, or do we move in?”
A pause ensued. “We’re looking at the code for the atmospheric monitors now. I think shutting them off would take too much time, but we may be able to send up false flags elsewhere to reduce suspicion.”
Janwar glanced toward the front of the base. “Send one up inside the primary entrance’s security checkpoint. It’s large enough that they would know instantly if there were an actual breach. So when the atmospheric monitor claims nitrogen levels have risen, they should assume it’s malfunctioning. On my mark, send another to one of the engineering rooms and a third to one of the barracks’ lavs.”
“Sending one to the security checkpoint,” Krigara confirmed.
Simone studied the front of the base, expecting an alarm to blare or a red light to flash.
Nothing happened.
“Anything?” Janwar asked.
T answered. “The security officers are contacting maintenance now and telling them the sensor is malfunctioning.”
Janwar met Simone’s gaze. “Let’s go.” He lowered himself into the hole in the ice.
Simone followed and had barely enough room to squeeze in next to him as he knelt and attached a gadget to a passcode entry pad next to the vent, which she thought looked more like an ordinary hatch.
Numbers and letters in an alien alphabet she couldn’t decipher scrolled across the surface of Janwar’s device.
While he waited, he turned to her. “According to the life-form scans, there are five almost directly beneath us. Four are unquestionably Gathendien. You can see their tails. That’ll be the scientists and their assistants. This one they’re clustered around may be a lab subject. The others you noticed that don’t appear to have tails are over there.” He motioned with his hand to an area about twenty feet away. “Their grouping suggests they’re likely being held separately in cells.” He pointed to the right. “And those are the guards.”
Simone pursed her lips. “That’s a hefty number.”
He nodded. “I’ll take out whoever stays in the corridor with a stun grenade but can’t use one in the lab without risking the welfare of anyone being held captive if they’re in poor health. So we’ll have to contend with the scientists and the guards who rush inside—”
“As quickly as possible to keep them from sounding the alarm,” she finished for him. “Got it.”
He touched her arm. “I know if you find some of your friends, you may want to remove your helmet, but keep it on and your visor sealed. We don’t know what viruses they may carry.”
She nodded, realizing that her first instinct would have been to yank off her helmet and put them at ease. “Thank you. I will.”
The text on the device ceased scrolling. The light on the passcode entry pad changed color.
Janwar gave her arm one last pat, then tucked the device back into one of his pockets. “Retract your spikes.”
Oh. Right.
They retracted the spikes on the bottoms of their boots.
“Krigara, send the other atmospheric alerts.”
“Sending them now.”
Simone backed up as much as she could to clear the hatch.
“There’s the one in engineering,” Krigara muttered. “And there’s the one in the lav. Done.”
Janwar met Simone’s gaze. “One. Two Three.” Quietly opening the hatch, he dropped inside.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Darkness swallowed Janwar.
Simone grabbed the inner handle on the hatch and slid in after him, her heart thumping as adrenaline flooded her veins. At the last second, she threw her free hand out, clutched the rim to slow her momentum, then closed the hatch silently behind them.