Page 110 of The Queen

“Are we ever not?” Lex picked up the pace, jogging down the passage where Maddox was hauling himself out of the dirt.

The hunched over alpha hobbled along with us as we headed back through the darkness to the blast door. “You look like shit, Lex,” he wheezed.

“And yet, I still don’t look as bad as you.” Lex popped open the access control panel and punched in his code.

Nothing happened.

“Did you put it in wrong?” I shouldered him out of the way, aiming my torch at the pad and putting in my pin.

I waited. Three seconds passed. Four. Five. Still nothing. “What the fuck?” I tried again. Same thing.

Lex crossed his arms over his chest and leaned a shoulder against the wall, watching me. “Did you put it in wrong?”

I shimmied the panel cover off and checked the connectors. “No.” Everything was fine. I punched in the system administrator key and pulled up the network mainframe.

Interesting.

“Non-essential personnel quarters are locked down. All lower-level civilian areas are locked down, too.” Using my access, I routed the security feeds to the tiny display.

“I don’t see Saphyra or Shadow anywhere. I do see a shit ton of those new recruits milling around, though.” If this was a setup, those soldiers were going to be a problem. The clock was about to tick over for mess, and I knew just what to do.

A few keystrokes later, I slammed the panel closed, and the door groaned open. “Done.”

“What did you do?” Lex swung a borrowed rifle over his shoulder and followed me into the metal walled corridor.

“Oh, not much. I just put the military ward under quarantine. It’s shift change so everyone’s arriving for dinner, or finishing up. They’re fucked now.”

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Saphyra

Iwalked from the brig into the guard station, with Shadow watching over me. The room was full of men and women in plain clothes holding farm tools like weapons. Where I expected to find hollow eyed resignation, instead I found hope peering back at me from all those dirty, bedraggled faces.

Albion rummaged through cages where extra weaponry was stored, and handed out rifles to anyone that could claim a reasonable competence. The other alphas were already fully loaded up with armor and gear that I assumed had been salvaged from the same source.

The outer door was open, and more people milled in the wide corridor that led to the central hub of the level. branches split off into more holding areas, but they were all empty. This floor was just a half-finished prison. Considering the population, this seemed like wasted resources.

As I made my way further down the hall, citizens bowed with reverence when I passed. My stomach churned with nerves, and a cold sweat dampened my brow. This wasn’t a game. These people were counting on me to save them. I didn’t know if I could do that. The other pressing thought that hung over my head was that it was no longer an if, but a when, that I’d have to confront my mother’s murderer and any other traitors that backed her.

This was bigger than just me and it felt like more than I could handle alone. All these people were my responsibility now, and I wouldn’t stand by while they were being abused by the leadership that was meant to care for them.

I was the rightful queen by blood, but more than that. There was something in me that was driven to right the wrongs that had been done here, regardless of who my mother was. The planet chose me, and I chose it back.

But Stars… how was I going to do that? One step at a time, I supposed.

I caught up with Jared at the end of the plain-walled corridor. He had a small army of helpers gathered around him, holding electric torches and passing him tools. He was elbow deep in an open access panel in the wall next to a massive blast door.

“I’m sorry for the delay, Your Majesty. These doors are not designed to be opened once they’ve been sealed,” he said with a grimace.

I looked closer at what he was doing, but couldn’t make any sense of it. “But you know a way?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I do.” He smiled as something clunked, and gears groaned and rattled in the wall. “There’s a failsafe for emergencies. All you have to do is unlock the counter-weight and it should…”

The door creaked and popped open an inch.

Shadow shouldered the solid block of metal wide, the hinges protesting the whole way. “We may have a problem.”

My shoulders slumped. One step forward, two steps back. “What is it?”

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