Page 72 of Shadow's Chosen

The corax's eyes widened. He looked over his shoulder then back at Nezka. "Vesra will have us hunted and killed."

"I know."

Vijnn stared him down, and Nezka didn't falter. "I thought I'd never see this day," he said in a shocked tone. "Nezka Voidstorm...is going rogue."

"I have a very serious reason for it," Nezka said, unwavering.

"That is?"

Nezka closed his eyes and opened them slowly. "To save my woman."

Vijnn took a step back in surprise. "That human?"

Nezka's eyes narrowed on him, making sure he understood how serious he was. "Do I have your word that you will do as I say or no?"

Vijnn rubbed at his neck then let out a soft hiss. "Fuck it. Yes. I'll do it. I have more respect for you, anyway, and I would see some payback for what Pyra did to me. Seeing as you aren't choosing to kill me for betraying you now, I'd say I owe you one."

"I'd say that is wise thinking. Let us hope it won't come down to a war. Once I find Elise and have her back with the rest of her team, I will prepare to take them far from here and from Xolis. You can join me, or you can stay and hide in the city, but until they are safely away, this will be the plan. Understood?"

Vijnn bowed his head. "Understood."

"Good." Nezka stepped around him and exited the room. "This mission is finished."

Twenty-five

It took Meg and Lo no time at all to assemble the parts for their bomb. Elise knew little about the kind they used—Bruce being her team's bomb expert—but it looked capable enough to do its job despite being as small as her forearm.

A blue light pulsed along its side as Lo carefully placed it inside her bag. They weren't going to wait for some better opportunity to arise. With Elise aiding them, the pair felt confident that no time was better than now to get to the reactor and set off the bomb. Elise couldn't agree more.

With the bomb packed, along with flashlights for each of them and a bag of tools at Meg's side, they were prepared to make their way down.

"One last thing," Meg said as she rummaged through a set of crates along the wall. She took out a long red rod that Elise recognized well enough as the same baton the Red Blade had used on her to force her down in her fight from the room. "Got real lucky, Lo did, in snagging this when one of the guards was sleeping. Bastards used this on my team a couple times. Hurts something awful. Might be hard to hit through their armor but I reckon you will make them feel it in some way."

Elise took it gladly. With her armor gone, she would need any and all help she could get. A gun would have been better, but even if she did acquire one somehow, she wouldn't be able to use it because of the Red Blades’ trigger-lock security system. Lo claimed she could hack such a program if need be, but she would be too busy with the bomb to do so. They needed to get in and set it up quick before Pyra found out and sent down more of her men, namely those Elise knew she wouldn't have a chance at beating such as Nezka and the demonic alien Meg called the vrisha—a name Elise now remembered hearing before.

Elise tied the baton to a tool belt also given to her by Meg and, using a clip, secured her flashlight to her shoulder. The two women followed suit, strapping their bags tight to their waists and fixing their lights to their suit collars. Lo placed a small tablet-looking pad into an inner pocket along with a device that looked like a metal bug. When Elise asked what it was, Lo gestured that it was a B-connector and Meg explained it was like a wireless USB used to connect her coder with other devices and computers. Lo had several other gadgets on her person that Elise could only wonder what they did. The only thing she didn't seem to have, to Elise's disappointment, was a Ulink that could communicate with others from the outside.

"That's it then," Meg said, tugging at her belt. "Let's get this over and done with."

Together, they crouched by the vent. As Lo popped the grate, she took the lead, followed by Meg then Elise at the back.

Clicking on their lights, they crawled the maze of vents, Elise trusting that Lo knew where she was going. They climbed their way down one central airway as large as Elise was tall and went a short distance along another vent until Lo finally stopped at a small grate and gestured for them to keep quiet. Through the narrow openings of the grate, Lo kept watch while, behind her, Elise and Meg waited until the small drogin deemed the area clear. Popping off the grate as quietly as possible, Lo set it down then slowly slipped out. Elise waited a few seconds longer for Meg to slide out next before she pushed herself out into the room beyond.

The room was an impressively large, round chamber with a high, domed ceiling. At its center, just up a set of steps, was the reactor, a giant tank with dozens if not hundreds of cables and pipes, some as thick as her body, others as tiny as her fist all fixed to the seal at the top. A rush of red light pulsated from the base and along the floor, as if fires burned underneath the ground. A dull roaring vibrated under Elise's feet from the loud hum of the reactor.

Meg tapped on her arm and signaled for her to follow. They crept up to the reactor's side, over to a small terminal and control panel. Meg crouched down while Lo brought out the bomb from her bag.

"We just need to fix the piece on to the panel and set the charge," Meg explained. "Shouldn't take too long." Her eyes shifted behind Elise, and she quickly ducked, pulling Lo and Elise down with her. "A guard!"

Elise looked around and saw one of the Red Blades entering the room from a doorway on the opposite end, crossing to the other side of the reactor.

Now was her moment. Keeping low, Elise crept down the steps, pulling the baton from her waist. As the Red Blade walked into her line of sight, Elise shot out in front of him and struck with all the speed and power that Nezka had taught her. The baton hit the side of his neck, and the guard barely had time to let out a shout in surprise before he was crumbling to the ground with a hand around his throat. As he lifted his gun, Elise snapped her leg out, contacting the side of his head with a loud crack. The guard went limp as he fell to his side and remained still. Elise kicked his gun away just in time for another guard to come sauntering into the room.

"What the hell—"

Elise moved. The Red Blade lifted his gun and fired in her direction, barely missing her arm and thigh just as Elise leaped and brought the baton down on the top of his head. The Red Blade fell to his knees, and Elise made another blow to his face, splitting his mask. He, too, went down and didn't get back up, and Elise kicked his gun away just like the other.

She circled the men, watching and waiting to see if they would move, and was thankful when they didn't. She heard the steps of another coming down the passageway and quickly moved to the side of the doorway, ready for a surprise attack. As the third Red Blade entered the room, Elise cut low, thinking she'd hit his neck, only to find him taller than she anticipated and catching his chest instead. The Red Blade jumped back in surprise and fired his gun across the door's frame, sending sparks flying. Elise dodged, shielding herself against the wall as the Red Blade backed out into the passage, letting off a few more shots. When his firing ceased, Elise dared to look around the doorway and caught him tapping the Ulink on his wrist.

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