“The gas is a type of tear gas,” Gary informed them. “It also serves to help eliminate the possible advantage of your invisibility by rendering us unable to see.”
We can’t see them anyway, thought Matthew. The invisibility blinds us as much as them, but then they don’t necessarily know that.
Swiping his hand across in front of him, he burned a blackened line into the floor and erected a stronger shield between them and the entrance. His action was just in time, as a powerful stream of bulets began firing from the new guard’s weapon. “Elaine!” he shouted, “Forget the veil; they can see us somehow. I can barely protect us. You need to go offensive.”
Even as he said the words, he felt the doors open to the elevators, which were filed with yet more robotic guards. Without access to an
external source of aythar, his shield would fail in seconds if they came under fire from al sides.
Light flooded in as Elaine released her invisibility veil and lifted her twin wands, one in each hand. They were pointed in opposite directions, one on either side, and a split second later actinic blue light filed their vision as lightning arced through the open spaces around them.
Unlike normal lightning, which seeks the most direct route to the ground, this lightning flashed through the air and sought out their enemies, like a hungry spirit searching for vengeance. It arced from one soldier to the next, creating a briliant web as it connected between the soldiers in front of them and on either side of the gate. It also lasted longer, burning the air for a ful two seconds before winking out. The soldiers colapsed, smoke rising from their metalic frames. Then, just as the soldiers behind began to fire, she turned and repeated her attack, destroying the newly arrived defenders.
As the last echoes of gunfire died away, Elaine holstered her wands and glanced at Matthew. “They don’t seem so bad.”
“Very funny,” Matthew replied dryly. “I’d like to see you shield us from what they were throwing at us just now.” His voice was calm, but he could feel an almost imperceptible tremor in his legs. He had used almost half of his available aythar in a span of seconds. It hadn’t been flashy, like Elaine’s lightning, but both of them knew she wouldn’t have been able to channel enough power to have sustained the shield that had kept them alive.
Gary spoke up before she could retort, “Take a look at the unit with the Gatling gun.”
Gatling? Matthew assumed he meant the black android that had carried the heavy weapon. Now that they could see with normal vision, he could make out a series of letters marked in silver across its chest: ANSIS.
“It was linked up with the other soldiers, providing them with your location for coordinated firing,” said the AGI, “or so I would guess. It probably was also what triggered the alarm.”
Matthew moved closer, examining the robot with his magesight. Unlike the others, there was something different about it. Within the central torso was something that wasn’t metal or electronic but organic. Focusing his senses, he discovered a soft spongy tissue encased there. “I think it has some sort of smal brain inside,” he announced.
“We need to figure out how we’re getting through the door.” Elaine was looking at the massive piece of solid metal blocking their way.
“Your attack shorted out the electronics controling both the elevator system and the blast door,” noted the AGI. “They wil have to send
reinforcements down via the stairwels, which wil give us a few minutes.”
“So, you can’t open the door,” said Matthew, eyeing it dubiously.
“I couldn’t have done so even if the electronics were working. It was isolated from the main network. I believe our mission has failed.” The machine didn’t sound particularly happy about his pronouncement.
“We aren’t giving up yet.” Matt reached into his pouch and drew out two smal iron bals.
Elaine frowned. “You think those can blow it open?”
“The door is impervious to any but the largest of explosions,” cautioned Gary.
Matthew handed Elaine one of the iron spheres. “Draw the aythar out of it slowly. Use it to replenish your reserves.”
“There’s an extra set of runes on this,” she observed.
He nodded. “I added a layer to the enchantment to help slow the release. The first time I tried it, I had to absorb it so fast it burned me. That should make it easier.”
“What are we doing?” asked Gary. “You don’t have the power to open that door. I’ve made a lot of rough estimations based on what you’ve
done before, so unless you have a hidden ability there’s no…”
The young man cut him off. “A wizard’s true power is in the limit of his imagination, not how much energy he commands.” Stepping forward, he put his hand on the outer surface of the door and directed his magesight into it.
Two feet of solid steel lay under his palm, but behind that was a holow space containing a variety of gears. One large gear in the center
connected to smaler ones that lay around the outside; those smaler gears were attached to a straight ratchet type mechanism that drove heavy steel pins, each several inches in diameter, from within the door into the frame, locking the door in place.
Reversing the direction that the central gear had moved should cause the smaler gears to retract the bolts, alowing the door to be roled back.
He attempted to do just that, but found that the central gear wouldn’t turn; it was locked in place. Searching farther, he found another lock, this one facing the inside of the door. A key could be inserted there to free the central gear.
As he studied it, he realized it must have been designed that way to alow someone inside to manualy open the door if necessary, for near the lock was a large wheel that would alow a strong man to release the bolts by turning the same central gear Matthew had tried to turn.
The smaler key lock was easy enough; it had a series of pins that had to be held back so he could turn it, and once that was done, the central gear was free to move. As he began to turn the main gear, metal hands gripped the interior wheel, fighting to keep him from turning it.
“There are guards inside trying to keep me from opening the door,” he told the others. “Step back for a second, and make sure you aren’t in contact with the metal.” He handed the PM to Elaine for safekeeping, and then added, “Once I get it open, be ready to repeat your lightning, since they’l probably be firing at us.”
Then he sent a powerful electric discharge through the metal. After a second, the hands left the manual crank on the other side as the guard colapsed. Working at speed, he turned the central gear and the locking bolts withdrew, but the massive door stil needed to be moved.
The entire thing was mounted on a notched rail, and there was a second mechanical system responsible for roling the door into position.
Another crank inside was there to alow someone to manualy rol the door back if necessary, which would likely be the case since the electric motor attached to it was now smoking from his latest attack.
More metal hands tried to prevent that crank from moving, but a second electric discharge forced them to withdraw. Moments later he had the blast door roling back, inch by inch.
Gunfire rang out and bulets began whizzing through the gap, but Elaine shielded her hand and stuck one of her wands through. A flash of light showed through the gap, and then the weapons fel silent.
There was blood dripping from her arm when she puled the wand back. “I don’t think the shield worked,” she mumbled as the color began to
drain from her face and she began to sway on her feet.
Matt stopped and grabbed her before she could fal. The bones in Elaine’s left forearm had been shattered, and a hole on either side indicated that a high-speed projectile had passed completely through her arm. It took him a long minute to seal the blood vessels and skin, as wel as damp the nerve signals transmitting pain. The bones would have to wait; they were in too many pieces to rush the job of aligning and fusing them.
&nbs
p; The color was returning to her features. It had been the pain rather than blood loss, that caused her to nearly faint.
“You al right now?” asked Matthew.
She nodded, and he returned to the door. Another minute passed, and he had increased the gap by slightly more than a foot, enough for them to squeeze through. Checking with his magesight to ensure there were no moving guards near it, he risked peeking around the edge.
Several bulets struck his shield, and a roar of gunfire gave him the answer he needed. There were more defenders farther back, too far away for his magesight to reveal. “These people are realy starting to tick me off,” he muttered.
“Not to give you too much good news, but the upper level door sensors indicate that both upper stairwel doors have been opened. The
cameras aren’t on the main network, but I would guess that means more soldiers are descending now. You probably have less than thirty seconds before they arrive,” Gary informed them.
“Thirty seconds?” exclaimed Matthew. “It took us a couple of minutes to get down al those stairs.”
“I’m assuming these are not organics. They can simply jump, rather than running down the stairs,” clarified the machine.
A loud boom announced the violent opening of the lower stairwel doors.
“Correction: my original estimate was too optimistic,” said the AGI.
The young wizard wasn’t paying attention. He had begun taking action during Gary’s first warning. Six iron spheres, unmodified ones, flew from his hands, and guided by his power they zoomed away and around two corners to strike the stairwel entrances. Three hit the area around each doorway and a thundering explosion filed their ears.
Unwiling to wait and see the results, he wrapped his body in the strongest shield he could manage and went through the gap in the blast door sideways. Multiple impacts slammed into his shield, but grinding his teeth against the strain, the shield held. More iron spheres shot away from him in multiple directions and more explosions folowed. A second later he caled back, “Now, Elaine, hurry!”
She was already beginning to regain her composure. Squeezing through, she was shocked at the destruction on the other side. Dozens of metal soldiers lay in heaps down a long corridor that led to the blast door, and two fortified gun emplacements were in shambles. “Lightning would have been more efficient and less destructive,” she commented.
“I didn’t have time to redesign the iron bombs before we came,” shot back Matthew, “and I wasn’t wasting my own aythar, but your concern
is duly noted .” Turning his attention to the manual crank inside, he began roling the blast door back into position. More bulets began coming through the gap, this time from the outside.
“That’s our only way out, isn’t it?” queried Elaine.
“We aren’t leaving the way we came,” said Matthew. “Once we find Karen, we’re going home immediately. I doubt we could survive fighting
our way out.” The door gave a subtle clang as it reached its final position, and Matthew then turned the central gear to send the locking bolts into their places. As an afterthought, he used some of his aythar to weld the central gear at its central axis. Their enemies wouldn’t be opening that door again any time soon.
Staring down the wide corridor that was their only way forward Matthew spoke again, “Which way now?” It was a weak attempt at humor
and neither Elaine nor Gary laughed.
Chapter 36
As they walked, Matthew drew out another of the modified iron bombs and began siphoning off its energy, trying to get his aythar reserve back to ful. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, but it didn’t burn him the way the first one had, back before he’d added the extra layer of enchantment to protect himself.
The corridor led them to a wide circular space with a shaft descending in the middle. Looking down, they could see a platform far below. It showed no signs of coming back up, and pushing the buttons that were mounted on the railing around the shaft did nothing. Whoever was down there had locked it in place to prevent the intruders from reaching the next level.
“There’s a service ladder on the other side,” said Gary. “It starts just beneath the rim of the shaft.”
“Too slow,” said Matthew. “They know we’re here. I don’t want to give them any more time to prepare for us.” Tapping into his aythar, he
created a smal plane of force anchored to the side of the shaft and stepped onto it. Trying to be polite, he offered his hand to Elaine as she joined him. She took the proffered appendage but smiled as she did, raising one brow. She knew as wel as he did that it was a purely symbolic gesture.
Carefuly, he began lowering their aythar platform, using his power to grip the sides of the shaft and control their descent. Elaine took the time to carefuly begin fusing some of the bones in her forearm.
As they descended, Matthew studied the shaft below them, noting that there were four obvious places it opened onto at various points. “Which level do you think she’s on?” he asked.
“The lowest level houses independent power generation facilities, ventilation systems, and storage. The upper level is primarily military servers and equipment. The second and third levels are medical and biological research areas, so she is almost certainly on one of them. Besides this primary transport shaft, there are smaler stairwels at the outer corners of each level to facilitate personnel movement between levels, so if we choose the wrong one we have options for getting to the next level,” Gary informed them.
“Third level then,” decided Matt. “We’l go up if she isn’t there.” He was interrupted when bulets began flying up the shaft toward them, fired by cybernetic soldiers leaning out from the second level entrance below them.
Already preoccupied with coordinating their descent, Matthew fumbled to get more iron spheres out of his pouch, but Elaine put her wounded hand on his arm. “Let me.”
She drew out one of her wands with her good hand and pointed it downward. More lightning flashed, almost blinding them with its briliance as it snaked down to strike the enemy. It forked and branched from the first one it struck, until none of the enemy near the landing was stil standing.
“How are you doing on aythar?” Matthew asked her.
“Not good,” Elaine replied. “Everything seems harder here, and it doesn’t seem like I’m recovering my strength at al.”
He handed her another of the modified iron bals. “Here.”
She grimaced. Drawing power from the enchanted iron was unpleasant, almost painful, but she accepted it anyway. There was little else she
could do.
To prevent further attacks from the landing, Matthew drew out more of the unmodified iron bombs and sent four downward, guiding them so
they struck at evenly spaced points along the ceiling of the first landing. Some of it colapsed, but most didn’t. The structural supports in the facility were al composed of steel beams and reinforced concrete, which made them difficult to destroy.
In the aftermath of the explosions, he created a powerful shield around them and let their platform freefal past the stil open landing. His ploy worked, and they fel past the danger point before the enemy could respond with more gunfire. Elaine yelped involuntarily at the sudden drop, but she accepted the necessity of it after her initial surprise.
“Fry the ones at the next landing,” barked Matthew. He was too busy handling the shield and preparing for the moment he would have to try to slow their fal. More soldiers were beginning to lean out from the second opening that they were about to pass.
With her stomach in her throat from the fal, Elaine missed with her first lightning stroke, and she was forced to waste more aythar with a second and third attack before she was able to silence the enemy and their guns.
He struggled to make their stop at the third landing a gentle one. It wasn’t easy latching onto the wals without bringing them to an overly abrupt, and possibly fatal, stop. Despite his best efforts, he and Elaine were thrown hard against the a
ythar platform, sending shooting pains through their legs and jarring their teeth in their skuls.
The enemy had withdrawn from this landing; there were no foes in sight down the corridor that led from it and none near the corners of the hals that led away from it either. Perhaps they learned their lesson with the lightning, Matt thought. He started to step forward when a sudden vision made him stop. One more step would be sudden death; utter annihilation.
What was that? he wondered, but he didn’t ignore it. Grabbing Elaine’s arm to keep her from exiting, he raised their platform above the entrance and sent two more iron bombs flying into it. The resulting explosion was far beyond anything to be expected from just the bombs. It was a deafening roar. Metal and other debris sprayed from the opening, leaving deep impressions on the wal of the shaft opposite the entrance.
“Claymores,” noted Gary.
“Huh?”
“Antipersonnel mines,” clarified the AGI. “They’re rigged to explode in a specific direction, sending sharp metal fragments out in a pattern to shred flesh and bone. They were probably going to remote detonate them as soon as we were al on the landing.”
Matthew was surprised. “They’re wiling to blow up their own building, just to kil us?”
“Those mines were set in a way to kil us without doing too much colateral damage to the structure; but yes, they do seem to be taking you seriously.”
Elaine spoke up, “How did you know they were there?”
He frowned. “A feeling—maybe a premonition, I’m not sure.” It had felt like he was seeing double for a moment, as though his senses had
slipped, showing him two worlds at once. Was it his gift? He remembered the Ileniel krytek had had a way to avoid attacks before they were made, but it wasn’t something he had experienced personaly before.
It was also far too random. To be useful, he needed a way to control it.
***
Karen opened her eyes. The world was a blur of light and color and she couldn’t seem to focus properly.
“Can you hear me, Karen?”