“Where is it?”
Clipboard Man shouted, “The signal is breaking up.”
The Chairman’s voice had grown distant again. “The coming of the Pathfinder woke me from my sleep, and already I can feel myself drifting away. It will arrive soon. The time is short. It is… confusing. I can no longer think clearly. My children, my Iron Guard.. I taught them how to search, but you must warn them. They will know what to do.”
“How much time do we have?”
“Weeks, perhaps months. Certainly not years. Time is different here.” The Chairman kept talking, but it was too faint. Sullivan didn’t understand. The background noise was louder. It sounded like a crowd of thousands screaming, until it all coalesced into one hoarse buzz.
“We’re losing the connection.”
“Sullivan, ask the questions!” shouted the Navy captain, pointed madly at the papers on the table. “The questions!”
But the Navy questionnaire was forgotten. It was about things like who tried to assassinate the president and Imperium weapon systems. Those things meant nothing compared to this. “How do I kill the Pathfinder?”
“Each one is different, but each… So very powerful.”
“Better than you were?”
“Yes.” The word trailed off into a hiss. “I was the first of our kind. The Power learned on me, but there are others like me, almost as old… If you can find them, convince them, they can hel-”
The line was nothing but the empty wailing of the damned. “Get him back.”
“We’re trying,” said Clipboard.
Suddenly, the Chairman’s voice returned. “-d. I think it has found me. I do not know how. A piece of the Pathfinder is here to silence me. Listen carefully. You must warn my children, my Iron Guard. They will know what to do.”
“Why would they trust me?”
“There is no time now. It is upon me. I leave you with a gift. Prepare your mind.”
A terrible pain struck him in the temple. Sullivan flinched and dropped the phone. The lights flickered and the tank of Power flashed. Then just as quickly as the pain had come, it was gone. He picked up the earpiece.
The line was silent for a time. Sullivan could hear his own pulse.
“Dark Ocean is the key. You are on your own now, Mr. Sullivan. Farewell.”
A horrible screeching noise came from the phone. Sullivan jerked it away from his ear.
Clipboard was running back and forth watching needles bounce and lights flash on the console. “The connection’s back, but there’s something-” A warning buzzer sounded. “Surge! We’ve got a surge. Oh no. Shut it down! Shut it down, now!” The lights flickered.
Pop.
Everyone in the room turned to look at the glass cube and the spider web of cracks spreading across its face. Pop. Poppoppop. The break grew wider. The Power contained inside licked the edges and tasted freedom.
POP.
“Run for your lives!” Clipboard screamed.
Knocking over the phone, Sullivan jumped from the table and followed the crowd toward the exit. An alarm Klaxon sounded. Red lights embedded in the ceiling began flashing. He had not noticed it before, but there was some sort of huge steel shield suspended over the door and it began to slide down on smooth hydraulics to seal the room.
He had been the closest to the cube and the furthest from safety. “Shit.” Sullivan sprinted for the rapidly shortening doorway. The others were going through, and the last few had to duck, but Hammer was waiting for him. “Hurry!” The blast door was closing behind her. She looked at it, then back at him, then went to her hands and knees and scurried through.
CRACK. Flakes of glass struck him in the back. The room shook. Sullivan had played a lot of baseball as a boy, and he slid like he was trying for home plate. He barely made it through on his side. The fat lip of descending steel nicked the side of his head. He rolled into the hallway, knocking down Hammer as the blast door sealed shut.
The red lights were flashing. Sullivan stood up, wincing at the bump on his forehead. “Will that hold?” Then he realized that was a dumb question, since all of the technical types who knew better were still running. He grabbed Hammer’s outstretched hand and pulled her up. “Come on!”
They had made it about twenty feet when the containment for the spirit phone failed. The release made a terrible WHUMP. The basement shook so hard that Sullivan and Hammer were knocked off their feet. Dust and concrete bits fell from the ceiling. The blast door had held, though it had been stretched and bowed like the edge of a steel bubble and the thick walls around it were cracked and steaming.
The alarm was still sounding. The lights in the hall were red as blood. Someone got on an intercom and told damage control teams to report to Room XIII and for everyone else to evacuate in an orderly fashion. Several scientists ran past screaming and crying. Hammer sat up and coughed. “Hope that isn’t coming out of my paycheck.”
Sullivan touched the cut on his scalp. It wasn’t too bad, nothing the Healing spell on his chest couldn’t handle. It would be just another beauty mark in no time. “I’d like to stay and shed a tear for your fancy phone, but I’ve got important business to attend to.”
Hammer stood up and cringed when she put weight on one leg. “Thanks for clipping me there, buddy. It was like getting run over by a car.”
“Sorry.” Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and he was a very big object. “I need to go. You heard what the Chairman said.”
“I didn’t understand any of it, but come on. The alarm has sounded so the second layer of security will lock this place down tight.”
Everyone else was ahead of them. He took one of Hammer’s arms and helped her walk. His clumsy slide had managed to twist her ankle. They went back the way they’d come in, past the doors marked with Roman numerals. After seeing the terrible thing that was behind one of the doors, it made him wonder what was behind the rest. Despite being an intensely curious man, he decided that he really didn’t want to know.. right this minute, anyway.
The red emergency lighting was dim, so he had to do a double take when something huge and misshapen clanked past in the intersection of hallways ahead. It was only visible for a second, but it had been a foot taller than Sullivan and twice as big around. He pulled Hammer to the side and took cover in the shadow of door IV. He squeezed her tight and watched. “Shhh. Demon.”
“That? It’s okay,” she reassured him. “That’s part of the second layer of security I was telling you about.”
He shook his head. “I don’t like Summoned. Especially a big one like that. I can’t believe you’d keep one of those things around.” The intersection seemed clear. “Greater demons are aggressive. Way too dangerous outside of a war zone. You better have a master Summoner babysitting it nonstop.”
Hammer chuckled. “Oh, Mr. Sullivan. That’s no demon. That’s a tele-automaton. EGE’s board just isn’t ready to unveil them to the public yet. They’re still working the bugs out. Come on. It won’t hurt us…” She looked up at him. “Seriously. Let go.”
Sullivan released her. “Sorry.”
“Thanks for trying to protect me from imaginary Summoned.” She stepped into the hallway and adjusted her dress. “But you’re rather rough with the ladies.”
“My last girlfriend was a Brute.” Sullivan grunted. He stepped out after her and froze. The four men that had been out of place at the spirit phone were heading their way. They had guns in their hands and the one in the lead was screwing something on to the end of his that could only be a sound muffler. They saw each other at the same time. They began running his way with murderous intent.
“You set me up,” Sullivan said to Hammer. “Should have known.”
“No wai-” Hammer began, but then she jumped back as a bullet struck the wall next to Sullivan. “Hell!” She ran the other way, but they weren’t shooting at her. The gunmen were aiming for him.