Page 100 of Call of the Fathoms

Breath shuddering in her lungs, she reached for the stun gun at her waist. More manual work, but at least they would drop.

The guards were trained to protect. So they’d ushered the other six scientists into a group at the back of the room, thinking they could keep them all safe with covering fire.

They couldn’t.

She stood and headed right for them. The stun gun made quick work of the remaining scientists, and she happened to catch one of the guards unaware as well.

But then pain bloomed in her chest. Wincing, she looked down at the red spreading through the blazer. Not good. Not good at all.

She had a job to do, a job to finish, and she would do it. With a harsh yell, she threw the stun gun at the head of one guard and spun for the other who had shot her. They assumed she was out, but she still had another stun gun in the back of her waistband, and she pulled that out quickly. One blast. Right in the head.

Spinning, it felt like the world slowed as she took her next shot. An answering shot rang out, and she jerked back as it struck her in the chest a second time.

They stared at each other, both breathing hard. She could feel her heart sluggishly complaining about the lack of blood. But then the guard staggered to his side, dropped onto his knees, and then fell to the floor.

Swallowing hard, she shuffled to the nearest console. “Computer, activation code xi rho tau.”

“Original Harlow access granted.”

Perfect.

She got to work. Tapping the screen, she left bloody fingerprints smeared across the glowing green as she dropped the shield first. Sparks flew down from the ceiling and a wiredropped through a damaged panel that crackled with white hot electricity.

“Shield’s down,” she said to Mira. “Send them in.”

“They’re already going. Which door?”

She opened three of them before the room went red. “Two in alpha quadrant and one on the eastern side.”

“You sound hurt.”

“Doesn’t matter.” She hit one more release, but her access had already been revoked. All those bloody fingerprints would give her away too easily. They’d know exactly where she had opened the gates .

Stepping back, she fired her gun and shattered the computer screen. Smoke billowed out of this one, and then flames burst to life. Soon enough, water would rain down from the ceiling to protect what little was left.

“Alexia, if you’re hurt, we need to abort the plan.” Mira almost sounded frantic. “This won’t work if you die.”

“I’m hard to kill,” she hissed. She grabbed two of the guards’ rifles as she limped out of the room. Turning, she fired at the door control and watched as it left a black hole in the wall. It would buy them some time before anyone could get into the room. “I don’t have to survive for this to work. I just have to get enough doors open.”

“Alexia—”

“Thank you, Mira. Your opinion has been noted. I will be working counterclockwise from here. All the gates I can manually open, will be open.”

And then she dropped the earpiece on the ground. The little droid rolled away from her, slipping underneath the damaged door to hack into the mainframe and do whatever it was the droids could do. Maybe they would open more doors, but some of them had to be opened manually.

The acrid bite of smoke filled her nose as she headed toward the first manual lock. Two guards careened around the corridor, but she shot them before they even realized what had happened.

She left a smear of blood on the floor behind her, but she reached the first hatch. It was a manual lever, and she needed to use her entire body weight to turn it. But it finally gave, and with a deep breath, she opened the hatch.

A gilled head appeared through it almost instantly. It was the yellow finned one. Maketes. She knew his name. She just... her mind was wandering.

He gave her a feral grin. “You look worse for wear.”

“Just get in here and kill some people, will you?”

“Sure.”

He crawled into the hall and flared all his spines wide. The deadly spikes gleamed in the white overhead lights. “Stay alive, Alexia,” he said.

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