Page 46 of Legacy of Chaos

“Make it quick.” Leaving Cyan to study the images, Stryke followed Taran to his office, just off the FOC. Once inside, Taran closed the door and turned to Stryke.

“I didn’t want to say this in front of the technomancer, but all our problems began after Quillax recertified the magic that’s sealing the breach.” He jammed his fingers through his wet, dark hair, flinging droplets onto the lockers behind him. “It could be a coincidence, but the day after Quillax left, we lost one of the sensors. Right after that, we started getting seismic readings from beneath us. They were small at first. We logged them but didn’t think too much about it. Geological activity has been reported in this area for decades.”

“You mentioned the seismic readings in your last report.”

“Yes, but then they got stronger. And each time, something weird would happen right afterward. The octopus, the sharks. Yesterday, when the demon-shark thing attacked, it followed an abnormally intense seismic event.”

“Do you still have the body?”

Taran shook his head. “It disintegrated after it died.”

“Which means it was a demon and not an Earth creature transmogrified by evil.”

“Yeah. Who knows how many have come through?” He made a come-with-me gesture. “The creature disintegrated, but it leftslime everywhere. We have samples in the lab-slash-secondary-emergency-care office.”

When they entered, Stryke frowned. “Where’s Dr. Arapago?”

Taran paused, then gestured to the covered body on one of the two exam tables. “He suffered a sudden catastrophic decapitation event.”

Stryke wasn’t sure he’d heard that right. “A what?”

Taran opened the door to the fridge. “The demon bit his head off.” He took a Petri dish off one of the shelves and slammed the door closed. “We need a new doctor. A medic, at least.”

“Where are the other injured?”

“They’re in their quarters. We didn’t have enough beds in here. Or a doctor who’s still alive.”

“The medical personnel were on that chopper,” Stryke said grimly. “But I can look at your staff’s injuries.”

“You get some medical training from your uncle?”

Everyone knew Stryke’s uncle was the famous—or infamous, depending on who was talking about him—founder of Underworld General Hospital. But most people didn’t know that their species possessed innate abilities that affected the body or the mind…for good or bad. Stryke’s ability was the same as his father’s, whose gift was well suited to his work as a paramedic.

“All Seminus demons have one of three abilities. Mine doesn’t heal, not like my uncle’s, but I can stop bleeding and reduce pain, and I can boost the body’s natural ability to heal.”

He could alsocausebleeding and pain, but he didn’t see any reason to point that out.

“We could sure use you then—”

Cyan burst inside. “Hey, sorry to interrupt.” She sounded breathless as she forced the door closed with her shoulder. It was an inner door, but two freshly torn openings in the outer doors created a wind funnel out there. Shoving her wet, windblownhair back from her face, she addressed Taran. “How did Quillax embed the spells on the drill casing?”

“He used the submersible pod.”

Closing her eyes, she let out a little groan. “I was afraid of that.” She turned to Stryke. “I need to go down there.”

“Why? Can’t it be fixed from here?”

She shook her head. “I tried.”

“There’s got to be another way.” Stryke gestured at the single, tiny window and the swirling fog. “Using the submersible while evil is bubbling around us is too risky.”

“We don’t have much time.” She wiped water from her cheek with the back of her hand. “The spell is disintegrating. And whoever wanted the rift open, wanted it to happen slowly. They weakened the mages’ ward as well.”

The rig rocked again, and Taran reached out to steady himself on the wall. “Sir, if the seal breaks wide open, thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of demonic monsters will flood into the human realm. These aren’t demons that can be rationed with. These are animalistic beasts. They give other demons nightmares. It’d be likeJurassic World, except with dinosaur-sized demons that make even the velociraptors look like house cats.”

Stryke knew all that. But he didn’t want to lose Cyan. DART would freak the hell out if they lost another of their people because of StryTech. Stryke might freak out a little too, but only because she was proving to be a great asset on the Reaper project.

Yep, that was the only reason.

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