Time to see if Rhys’s codebreaker was any good.
I attached the com-sized device to the door’s control panel and hit the override button. While not as rare as the prototype shield on my belt, codebreakers still were not easy to come by. Thirty seconds later, the door popped open with a click. I put away the codebreaker and unholstered a blaster.
“I’m heading inside,” I murmured into the helmet’s microphone. I didn’t know if Rhys and Loch were still in range or if they’d already taken the ship and disappeared, but I wasn’t going to ask them to drop stealth just to reassure me.
A quick peek revealed an empty room. A specialty airlock elevator took up the left half of the room and another heavy door lead to a stairwell on the right. The elevator had too many potential failure points. If the security forces overrode the commands from the codebreaker, I’d be trapped in a metal box.
I put a door stop on the room door. A piece of metal that clamped around the edge of the door, it prevented the door from closing and locking behind me. The part that touched the door was coated in an insta-weld compound that permanently secured it to the door.
The door stop would have to be cut off to be removed. Using them was kind of a dick move on an unterraformed planet, because if the atmospheric field fell, the intermediate doors wouldn’t seal properly and would allow unbreathable air to seep inside.
I hoped the people inside practiced their contingency plans.
The codebreaker cracked the stairwell door’s unlock code in ten seconds, which told me that either it was less secure than the previous door or their codes relied on a pattern that the breaker had picked up on.
I eased the door open. The landing was clear. Where was everyone? I put a door stop on the door then peeked over the side of the banister. The stairwell was square. The stairs hugged the wall, leaving a hole in the middle. It had to be at least ten stories down to the distant floor.
“Too bad I didn’t bring rappelling gear. Would’ve made this faster,” I muttered. I resigned myself to spiraling down the steps as quickly as possible. And I was not looking forward to hauling ass back up these steps.
There were no other exits on the way down. At the bottom, a closed door greeted me. It was on the same side of the stairwell as the door at the top, leading out under the rest of the bunker. The industrial lift should be just out and off to my left. The codebreaker made quick work of the lock.
I crouched down and barely cracked the door open to reveal a large, brightly lit warehouse. Farther in the distance, separated from the warehouse by a wall full of windows and a wide door, large tanks were connected to a production line with thick plastech pipes.
Nothing glowed pink.
And, more worryingly, the vast room waited in silence.
“I’ve found the warehouse entrance, but I haven’t confirmed they’re mining. Setup looks right, but no material is visible. And the whole place is dead. Watch your backs,” I said softly.
I put a door stop on the door. No one moved in the warehouse and nothing disturbed the silence. The amount of radio traffic from this location was too high for it to be abandoned. So were they working in another section of the building or had they fled when they spotted me?
Or, perhaps, they were drawing me in, luring me deeper, until the trap sprang closed.
On this end of the room there were no hiding places. The warehouse was empty and from what I could see, there weren’t any other rooms off of the main one. The production line room was another story. It had desks and lab tables scattered throughout, plus the low wall between the two rooms would allow an entire platoon to hide behind it.
“I’m going to check the next room. Be prepared to run,” I said, still talking to people who might’ve already left me.
Either way, I needed to get a closer look at the production room, so I opened the door and sauntered out into the warehouse. The rubber soles of my boots squeaked against the hard floor and my pulse pounded in my ears.
Nothing moved and I slipped through the door into the production room without getting jumped. Based on the setup, this was a research area. I brought up the nearest console, but it was locked. Snooping in desks was easier than cracking passwords because scientists liked to jot down notes while they worked.
“I’m seeing references to the element,” I said into my headset. “This planet is at least involved in the research.”
I crept deeper into the production facility. A low hum from the tanks on my left caused me to freeze. Perhaps they weren’t empty after all. I climbed the ladder of the nearest one. On the top, a circular observation window was covered by a sliding panel. I slid the panel aside to reveal a tank of glowing pink liquid.
Jackpot.
I whispered to Rhys and Loch, “They have vats of the element here. This is definitely—”
“Come down, Lady Ada. Slowly, if you please,” Richard said from behind me.
I nearly fell off the tank in shock. I clutched the ladder and waited for my heart to steady.
“Richard is here—abort, abort now!” I whispered frantically while making enough noise on the ladder to cover my conversation. “Get out of the system!”
I clicked on the shield generator and palmed a flash-bang grenade in my left hand while I descended. Once on solid ground, I turned to face Richard. He was in a space suit, but he had removed his helmet. He was flanked by four guards still in full space suits. The fact that I hadn’t heard them approach meant either I was losing my touch or they were using a silencer. I hoped it was the latter.
I pulled on my public persona like armor. “Hello, Richard,” I said.
“My wayward fiancée returns,” Richard said. “And you were kind enough to bring back my ship as a wedding present.”
“Richard, we were never engaged,” I said with exaggerated patience, as if explaining to a small child for the umpteenth time.
His mouth pressed into a flat line, but he recovered quickly. “Nevertheless, you will marry me. When you do, I’ll let your friends go and even give them a shuttle to get back to populated space,” he said. “Except for Loch. He’s mine.”
Because he hadn’t included specifics when he mentioned my “friends,” I doubted he had the ship. And even if he had, he wouldn’t be offering to let them go so easily if he’d gotten a glimpse of Lin. So there was hope, however slim, that they had escaped. Now I had to focus on my own escape.
“I do not think Loch swings that way, Richard. And planning an affair so soon after our wedding?” I tutted and shook my head.
Richard took an abrupt, furious step toward me before he pulled himself together. I’d pushed him close to the end of his patience, so I double clicked the button on the end of the flash-bang grenade. A subtle vibration counted down the seconds.
“Drop your weapons, Lady Ada,” Richard said.
“Why?”
“Because they’ll stun you if you don’t,” Richard said, waving an arm at his guards.
“Not man enough to do it yourself?” I asked, as the grenade’s pulsing sped up.
“For the love of—” Richard growled, but the grenade had reached constant vibration.
“Catch!” I yelled, launching the grenade at them and darting left, farther into the room. I heard the explosion behind me. It wouldn’t cause much damage, even if he was stupid enough to catch it, but it bought me precious seconds.
I dodged through the desks and tables, trying to prevent the soldiers following me from getting a clear shot. I slammed through the doors at the end of the room into a wide hallway.