“God help the Genjix,” he growled picking up his rifle. If his son and wife were dead, he would take that hollow vengeance and fill it with the bodies of their killers.
He sped down one of the other stairwells and then back up through the last stairwell. Then he looked down into the elevator shaft. The light wasn’t strong at the bottom. The cut panel at the ceiling of the elevator offered very little illumination. He thought he maybe saw a figure down there, but he couldn’t be sure. For all he knew, it could just be his imagination hoping against all hope. Still, Roen wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. He would tear this entire damn base apart panel by panel if he had to, in order to find his son. He looked at the metal cables hanging in the middle of the shaft. He frigging hated heights.
Well, there was nothing he wouldn’t do right now; he was desperate enough to try. Roen slung his rifle across his back, took a deep breath, and hesitated. He took a few more deep breaths, and had two more false starts before he decided “to hell with it” and jumped across the gap. His first attempt on the cable missed, and his second rope-burned his hand, and he almost fell. His third desperate grab succeeded, and he found himself dangling precariously in the middle of the shaft. He laughed a little crazily in relief and began to rappel down. Roen was two-thirds down the cable when he saw two bodies, one of them in Prophus armor. His breath caught in his throat when he landed on the top of the elevator. It was Cameron! He felt the panic set in as he felt for a pulse and for injuries.
Cameron’s eyes opened. “Roen, you found me.”
“Hey, buddy,” Roen choked the words out. “How are you feeling?”
Cameron sat up. “He is unconscious. I did not want to wake him yet. He might need rest. He has no broken bones or internal injuries. However, thank goodness he had a soft landing.” He turned and saw the body.
Roen turned the body over. “Is she…”
“…dead. One of Enzo’s Adonis lieutenants,” Tao said. “I saw her Quasing Szin leave. Let us hope he does not find a host in time.”
“Azumi is a big gun, and my son got her, huh?” Roen helped Tao to his feet. “Why don’t you stay here until all of this is over? I think he’s had enough.”
Tao shook his head. “No. You left him alone once, and he ended up at the bottom of an elevator shaft. I would prefer he stay by your side. Hang on, let me try to wake him up.”
Somehow, though Roen knew it was more dangerous for Cameron to come with him, he couldn’t find it in himself to object. He just couldn’t stand letting his son out of his sight. Cameron’s eyes became unfocused, and a few seconds later, his knees buckled and he groaned.
“Ow,” he mumbled. “Why do I feel like I just went five rounds with Lin?”
“Well,” Roen couldn’t help but smile. “You went toe-to-toe with an elevator car.”
“Did I win?”
“It didn’t kill you.”
“Makes me stronger?”
“Something like that. Can you stand?”
Roen helped Cameron to his feet and then checked the car below them, hanging upside down and looking at the hallway outside the half-opened elevator door. When he was sure it was clear, he dropped down and motioned for Cameron to follow. The two of them left the elevator and crept down the hallway. Roen noticed right away how Cameron fell in line, using the SWAT tactics he and Tao had drilled into him. His chest swelled with pride as they expertly scoped out each room and secured each intersection one by one.
They reached the entrance to the command center and found it a hulking mess. Roen motioned for Cameron to stay put while he peeked his head around the corner and scanned the interior. It was completely abandoned. He signaled for Cameron to follow as they checked inside. Bullet holes riddled everything, the walls, the consoles, the screens. A large battle had been waged here. Bodies from both sides were strewn across the floor, but none were Jill or the rest of the commanders.
“Dad,” Cameron said. “There’re people coming.”
The two scrambled to the far back of the room and hid behind a row of consoles as four Genjix passed. Two of them paid the room only a cursory glance before moving on. That could only mean one thing; they were behind enemy lines. The Prophus forces must have been pushed away from the center point. That couldn’t be good.
“Jill,” Roen whispered into his comm. “What’s your status?”
She clicked over, but the sounds of fighting in the background were so loud he could barely make out her words. “Roen!” Then it was garbled. Then he heard “east of” and “pinned” and then she was cut off. That was enough for him, though. He pulled on Cameron’s sleeve.
“Where to?” he asked.
“We’re going to save your mom.”
Cameron’s face scrunched up, and his exhausted and pained expression turned into determination as he caught his second wind. Roen saw true grit in his son’s eyes and realized for the first time that Cameron really was ready. He was ready now, inside as well as out.
Roen patted his son on the back. “Let’s rock this party.”
The two of them headed east from the command center down the main hallway. Jill’s message wasn’t much to work from, and Roen usually wouldn’t operate on such light information, but this was Jill, and he would go east until the end of the world for her.
They took out three Genjix, each roving by themselves, and avoided two full patrols of five. The sound of fighting intensified the further they moved away from the spine. Some of the enemy traffic became too heavy on this floor, so they went down a level to avoid patrols. They circumvented several blockades and continued generally east, sometimes going up or down a level when they hit an obstacle. Soon, they were completely lost.
Nonetheless, they continued moving in an easterly direction. Roen couldn’t be sure, but he could swear they were being stalked. There were always shadows and noise coming from somewhere, giving them only one path to move as they ventured deeper away from the spine.
“Dad, do you know where we’re going?” Cameron asked.
Roen shrugged. “I didn’t think too far ahead, besides heading toward your mother.”
His son rolled his eyes. “Tao says he can get us back to the command center. He also thinks we’re being corralled somehow.”
Roen frowned. “Why does he think that?”
“Something about how at every intersection, only one path seems open. Should we go back?”
“Screw it. We go east until we find your mom.”
The two entered a dimly-lit portion of the base filled with large cavernous rooms. Their progress slowed as visibility worsened. The sounds of fighting had died as well. Part of Roen was screaming at him that he was heading the wrong way. However, he knew that Jill wasn’t where he had just come from, so he continued to prod them forward, hoping to find a set of stairs back up to the higher levels. They had just passed a series of large empty rooms when Cameron stumbled upon a room with two dozen large pallets of containers about neck-height in the center.
“Dad,” Cameron whispered. He pointed at his eyes and then into the room.
Roen peeked inside and saw two men lounging among the pallets. One was leaning against a stack, while the other was tilting back in a chair.
“Let’s check it out,” Roen whispered.
They waited until the two worst guards in the world were too distracted by their conversation to notice them. They crept inside, staying in the shadow behind one of the pallets. They positioned themselves near the wall and Roen motioned to Cameron to take out the guard on the right. Then he counted down from five.
Before he reached two, Cameron tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the north wall at the far end. Wait, make that three of the world’s worst guards. Another was having a cigarette, watching the door on the north side. Roen paused. If there was a guard watching that door, then there should have been one… A second later, his question was answered. One more guard came in from the south, where they had just entered. Now they were trapped.