Page 32 of True As Steel

“I’m looking for room F-48,” I said apologetically. “This is my first time delivering down here.”

“Ah, right,” the man said, his tone softening. “No wonder you didn’t look familiar. Come, it’s this way. You can bring them over here. I’ve been eager to get my hands on these little beauties.”

I followed the man a short way towards the reinforced doors. Just when Tamryn emerged from a connecting corridor and walked up to the guard post next to our destination, the wretched man turned into another hallway. Grinding my teeth, I continued trailing him, but not before casting a meaningful glance at Tamryn.

I was reflecting on my next course of action once I’d lost my excuse to roam the hallways when the man wavered on his feet.

Finally, the effects of the fucking gas are starting to kick in.

“Are you okay?” I asked with pretend concern as the man rested his palm on the wall for support.

“Y-yeah… I’m fine. I just got dizzy there for a minute,” he said, shaking his head as if to dispel the fogginess overtaking him.

He straightened and resumed walking with an attempted steadiness, but the hesitancy of his steps couldn’t be denied. He waved a card in front of the security lock of room F-48 and hurried inside.

“Hey, Toby! Perfect timing! Have you seen this craziness going on at the spaceport?” asked an attractive woman in her early forties from the desk where she sat at. “Come check this out!”

“Craziness?” repeated the man I’d been following—apparently named Toby.

But he didn’t come to her workstation, heading instead to the one I presumed to be his and letting himself fall in his chair. He looked pale, a little sweaty, and his eyes glossy.

“Yeah, there’s all kinds of alarms going off there,” she continued, still staring at her screen. “They’re talking about evacuating the damn place!”

She turned to look at her older colleague but was surprised to find he had not approached as she’d requested. Her excited expression faded as she took in Toby’s appearance.

“Evacuation?” I exclaimed, playing the curious gossiper. “Did another drunk idiot crash-land into one of the shuttle hangars, like that… Garelian was it… a few years back?”

“No… it’s some sort of…” The woman’s voice faded as she stood to approach her friend. “Toby, are you okay?”

“No, my head is spin—”

The poor man never finished his sentence. As he lost consciousness, his head hit the top of his desk with enough force that he’d likely get a solid headache and a nice bump when he came to.

“Toby!” the female exclaimed, rushing to his side.

She never reached him. If not for my quick reflexes, she would have collapsed to the floor as well.

“What… what’s happening?” she asked, looking a little disoriented.

Playing the part, I carried her back to her chair, placed her in it, then quickly stepped away, acting worried.

“Youtell me what the heck is going on!” I exclaimed, looking through the glass windows at the people in the other rooms also starting to display signs of dizziness. “What’s happening to all of you people? What kind of weapons are you developing down here?!”

“We don’t make those kinds of weapons,” she said, her words beginning to slur. “There must be something in the air.”

She fumbled towards her keyboard.

“The air and temperature control panel doesn’t show anything wrong,” I said, pointing at it on the wall by the door. “Did you guys eat something bad, or are you sick? Do I need to get out before it spreads to me?”

“I… I…”

She never finished her sentence, and I didn’t wait for her to do so. In the adjoining room, people were dropping left, right, and center. I just hoped they hadn’t set off any alarm, although I couldn’t hear any at the moment. That didn’t exclude the possibility of a silent one.

“Miko, status,” I spoke out loud through my com to the hacker, while heading out of the room.

“You only have a few minutes before they figure out something is going on,”Miko responded.“Right now, Grellik is sending most of his troops to the spaceport. But there have been multiple remote access requests to the basement’s camera feeds. I believe it’s coming from him. I’ve been replaying earlier footage, but it’s only going to fool them for so long. And… Fuck! I need to move. Hurry!”

Miko spoke those last words in an urgent and hushed voice. I couldn’t do anything for the operative, other than complete this mission as quickly as possible. If that Grellik was as cunning as Haelin believed him to be, his blossoming—and accurate—suspicion that the events at the spaceport were just a diversion meant we’d likely get company sooner than later.

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