Page 25

She was at the elevator bank now. She lifted her right hand over the sensor to make the elevator car come, but she didn’t indicate if she wished to go up or down.

I want you to save those people, Jace answered.

No shit. Do you need me, Jace?

She was rather proud of her swearing. She was really getting good at this. Jack would be awfully pleased. They’d exchanged swear words the first time they’d met. He liked the rather liquid tones of the Thaf’ell language and the flowery, almost poetic insults. But human was better. Short and to the point.

I’ve got more than enough people coming to my rescue, he told her.

Which means that there’s no one there with you now, she pointed out.

How far was she from the Compound? Should she get into her stolen ship and hightail it over there?

I’ve got Amana and Thadden here with me, plus some of the Control Crew. We’re good, Jace assured her, but she did not believe him. Get to those people, Thammah.

Thadden Voor? The Justiciar who has never in his bloody life fired a draagves except at a target?! She practically shouted. Or she hoped her words got that point across. And who the Hell is Amana?

Ah, Typhon’s sister. She’s quite impressive, he said.

She’s not a soldier though either, is she?

Ticks went by without Jace responding. The comm showed her that the Cetix was halfway to the 24th floor. She gritted her teeth. She had to make a decision. Jace or these people? Jace or--

You’re the only one that can help those people and stop the spread, Jace finally sent back and there was a rushed quality to his words. The letters appeared flowing over one another practically as if he were overwhelming the system’s ability to keep up. Please go, Thammah. Don’t wait. We already lost one.

She wanted to ask “who?” But she didn’t. There was no time. And if it were someone she knew and cared about, what then? It would just send her reeling. The damned Cetix was at floor 18. She stabbed the up sensor. The elevator doors shockingly opened immediately. She dashed in and punched the 24th and 25th floors. She wasn’t sure which floor the Cetix would start on. The one with the most targets or the nearest targets. Either way, she was planning exactly what she would do.

Jace, if you get yourself killed, I shall follow you into the afterlife--whatever that is for you--find you and kill you again, Thammah sent.

Understood. She thought she heard Jace’s laughter in her head.

And then she was solely focused on the red dot of the Cetix as it reached floor 20 then 21 then… The elevator doors opened with a soft whirring sound. She was sliding out between them just as soon as they were open enough to get her body through and pounding down the hall of floor 24.

The vent appeared to open up in the second room to the left of the entrance. She smashed into the door with her right shoulder and all of her body weight. The door groaned and split. Something in her shoulder might have given. She didn’t exactly feel it. But it didn’t matter. She hit it again. And again. And again. The door gave way and she was toppling over with it. She landed on her wounded shoulder and all of the air went out of her as pain spread like fire from her shoulder to her chest and neck. It burned the air right out of her.

“Momma!” a young female voice cried.

Thammah’s head shot up. There was a woman with a rahir in one hand and holding a young girl behind her. The woman’s eyes were huge.

“Cetix! Vent!” That was all Thammah had to say.

The woman’s hand convulsed over her daughter’s shoulder and thrust her further back behind her. Thammah hissed as she got up from the ground. Her shoulder had popped out. She needed it back in or there was no using that arm. It was an old injury. But there was no time. She grabbed her draagves with her other hand and charged into the room that the Cetix was just reaching.

It’s going up to 25, she realized as the red dot did not slow.

She brought the draagves up and fired along the height of the wall where the vent extended upwards behind the plaster. The sounds of the shots were muted and there was a faint metal sound as they ripped through the vent. Immediately, there was a smell and there was a series of thuds as something fell down the wall. But then plaster puffed as the Cetix must have caught itself.

Thammah saw the vent. It was painted white and was above a small bed. The girl’s bedroom. She aimed the draagves at the vent and fired and kept firing until the vent was cut in half. There was a sound. A scream. A terrible, wrenching scream. Something was spat out of the vent. Thammah dodged at the last minute. It splattered against the wall right where she had been standing.

She kept firing. Another scream. Then there were every softening thuds as something fell all the way down the vent. She checked her comm. The Cetix’s red dot was now at the bottom of the vent. It faded out. It was dead.

Thammah breathed. Deep, long breaths. Then she slowly turned. The woman and her daughter were standing in the threshold to the girl’s bedroom, eyes wide. Thammah then saw what had been spat at her. It was larva that wiggled and squirmed as the slime they were coated in slid down the wall. The woman and daughter moved in closer

“NO!” Thammah shouted.

They froze.

“No,” she said more softly, her stomach roiling, her skin crawling as she looked at the larvae that had almost hit her. She didn’t have her soft or hard suit on. If it had hit her… If the woman and her child touched it. “Back up slowly. Don’t touch anything. We need to get out of this building. It’s not clean.”