Page 82 of Legacy of Chaos

As if nothing had happened, the trio went back to arming themselves and discussing the mission.

Their ability to work together in sync, almost as a single organism, was practically legendary at DART. Now, Cyan saw why. Blade had gone off the rails, but Mace and Scotty had quickly gotten him back on track and on mission. Cyan had to admire the way he’d taken his teammates’ harsh criticism without getting angry or defensive.

“Well,” Twila said, bringing Cyan back to the unfolding crisis. “Where are you going to set up?”

Cyan pointed to a controller apparatus at the very center of the rig. It was two floors up, but it was directly above the deep-water glyphs.

“Right there.” She started toward the door. “Wish me luck!”

A chorus of well-wishes followed her as she hurried down the corridor to the outside exit. She used her comms to tell Stryke where she was going. To her surprise, he was there already,his dark hair slicked back and grooved by his fingers, an ivory column the size of a small banana in his hand.

“I figured you’d choose this spot,” he said.

Of course, he had. She gestured to the object. “So, what is it? And how does it work?”

“It’s an artifact I purchased from an underworld dealer who specializes in rare sources of power.” He hefted it in his hand. “This was carved from the horn of abrojibeast.”

“Wow.” She stared in awe at the smooth, featureless rod, a treasure so rare they were almost mythical. “Those are coveted by all magic users. With that, someone could turn a poison gas spell with a ten-foot radius into one that could engulf a full city block.” She looked up at him, her nerves quivering with excitement. “The mages could use it to push the fog back half a mile or more!”

“Which wouldn’t help us. We’d still have to get through the wall of mist. But as a last resort, they can use it to fight demons that get onto the platform.”

She didn’t like the last-resort talk. “So, what has StryTech been doing with it?”

“Mainly, we’re trying to replicate it. Imagine if DART spellcasters and Underworld General healers had access to something like this.”

Oh, the amazing things they could do. But powerful objects were often used in less honorable ways. Her excitement died a painful death.

“And imagine if the bad guys had access to it too.”

His gaze sharpened at that. “Like all of StryTech’s products, there would be strict controls.”

“Strict controls didn’t save Shanea and Draven,” she shot back before she could stop herself.

Shit. She’d just done exactly what Blade did; she’d brought a personal grievance into a dangerous situation. Swallowing her pride, if not her anger, she reluctantly apologized.

“Sorry. We should give this a try. I’ll warn you, though, my kind of magic doesn’t usually work with amplifiers that aren’t electronic.”

“Which is why,” he said as he turned it upside down, “we had a microchip embedded into it. This is what might have screwed up Quillax’s glyphs. We’ve done some upgrades to the chip since, but we haven’t tested it yet.”

“Yeah, you mentioned that. So, I’m the guinea pig?”

“Congratulations.”

The clang of multiple footsteps on the walkways joined the thrashing of the sea against the rig’s giant supports and the creepy noises coming from the fog and water. Several of the crewmembers, armed to the teeth, lined the railings to watch. At three of the corners, Blade, Mace, and Scotty looked on, their watchful gazes darting between Cyan and the surroundings.

“Good luck,” Mace shouted down. “No pressure. It’s only our lives and maybe the whole planet.”

As she took the device from Stryke, she considered rigging Mace’s comms with an electronic zapper like Blade’s.

“Taran, what is this thing?” She gestured to a big box with gauges and a control panel.

“That monitors oil flow, pressure, and emissions.”

“Do the power lines that run through it also run down to where the glyphs are?”

“The lines aren’t directly connected, but they’re on the same circuits.”

Okay, good. Maybe they had a shot at this. “Oh, one more thing. The rig isn’t operational, right? I won’t accidentally cause an oil spill or anything, right?”

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