Page 33 of Silver Fire

“There was a truck bomb.”

“A what!” Derek shouted into the phone as he vaguely heard Jack curse beside him. His friend must be getting the same news from whomever was on the other line.

“We’re trying to get out from the rear. Oh my god!”

The sound of rapid gun fire, shouting and screaming cracked over the phone. The last thing Derek heard was what sounded like Guerrero yelling for everyone to fall back and everything went muffled, like the phone had fallen to the floor.

“Sophie! Fuck!” Derek shouted as he honked his horn to get cars to move out of the way.

His eyes shot to Jack, who was arguing with someone on the phone. “The hell we’re turning back, Maia. You think Derek would abandon Sophie to those assholes?”

“Hell, no!” Derek growled.

“We’re going in,” Jack said firmly and hung up on his wife.

“The police have been alerted, the SWAT team is on its way. Maia is taking some Guardians with her and heading to Silver Fire.”

Derek contemplated what Jack said. “Neither the SWAT nor the Guardians will make it in time.”

“I know.”

“What do we have in the back?”

“This SUV isn’t fully equipped, but we have flak jackets and pistols.”

“Shit. We’re going up against assault rifles.”

“The odds never stopped us before,” Jack stated grimly.

“Damn straight.”

* * *

“Fall back!”Thalia ordered as a line of armed men rounded the corner before them. She could hear Braden’s voice shouting through comms as well. Stephen and Sophie were gripping each other’s hand tightly and started running back to the lab. Polly and Jan were a few steps ahead of them.

The assailants fired as Thalia crouched behind a wall and shot back at them to hold them off. All that was between them was a short expanse of hallway and they were outnumbered in terms of weapons and manpower. Gunfire erupted on the opposite side of the hallway. Polly was crying and screaming while Jan was trying to calm her down. Sophie’s two assistants stumbled back into the lab while she glanced back at Thalia, not wanting to leave the Guardian by herself.

“Sophie.” Stephen pulled at her arm.

“Thalia,” Sophie whispered and then gasped in horror when Thalia jerked spasmodically and sprawled to the ground on her back.

“No!” Sophie screamed as she tried to help the Guardian.

“Damn it, Sophie, you can’t help her,” Stephen choked. Blood was pooling from the back of Thalia’s head.

Before she could reply, she felt a steel-like band clamp around her waist as she was hauled into the lab.

“Stay here,” Braden ordered as he deposited her behind a row of aluminum tables. The attackers had rounded the second corner but retreated when they saw the other Guardian. Braden crouched just inside the sliding door to watch both ends of the hallway. One man stuck out his AK-47 and without aiming, just sprayed the hallway with bullets. Some scuffed the lab windows, which were bulletproof to a certain extent, and some riddled the floor with holes.

Sophie refused to give in to their desperate situation, her gaze taking in Polly and Jan huddled in a corner while Stephen paced nervously around the lab. They were her responsibility, and she was not going down without a fight. Her mind made up, she ran toward the heavy storage unit in the corner. Digging into her white coat for her keys, she pulled out the middle drawer and lifted out two spheres the size of an orange. Depositing the spheres on a work table, she pulled out the bottom drawer and lifted a block that was labeled ‘C-4’.

“Sophie, what are you doing?” Stephen asked in alarm.

“IED, Stephen,” Sophie replied tersely, not looking up from the gathering of materials before her.

“Oh my god, baby—” Stephen whispered, not saying anything else because he knew this was it. Help was not coming in time, and the bad guys were winning.

Sophie opened the sphere by twisting its halves in opposite directions and molded the clay-like material inside. The spherical blasting cap was one of her recent inventions and was activated by an electronic trigger. Melted zefinium was built into a layer of the sphere to deliver the shockwave and extreme heat necessary to activate the plastic explosive. Snapping the device close, she pressed a button on the front to synchronize the frequency with her handheld detonator.

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