So going in blind was it. “Plan?” I asked Torran.
“Same as before. Clear each room and find Cien. I can’t sense any of the humans even from here, so there’s at least a Valoff or two inside.”
“Are we going to cause a war if we kill them?”
Torran shook his head. “They’ve sided with the enemy.”
I updated my team and we moved closer to the door. I could feel Torran heavier in my mind, and I wondered if he’d increased my shielding, but there was no time to ask.
The door slid open and we entered a bright space. My helmet adjusted for the light and I could see we were in an entry with rooms to our right and left. In front of us, a hallway led to a larger room.
“Back already?” a gruff man asked from the left.
“Probably forgot his gun,” a woman taunted with a laugh.
We flowed into the room as if we’d been working together for weeks rather than hours. It was a rec room, with a sofa and chairs facing a vid screen. The man and woman, both human, sat with their backs to the door, a tactical mistake considering they were on guard duty.
Torran and I went right. I shot the woman before she could raise her weapon. Behind me, someone’s gun pulsed and the man fell dead.
“Whoever is shielding them is going to know we’re here,” Torran said. “Keep moving.”
The room on the other side of the entryway was empty, so we moved down the hall toward the main room. This area also had sofas and chairs surrounding a vid screen, but it was empty. Doors and hallways branched off on every wall. To the left, I could see a slice of what looked like a kitchen area.
I heard a faint whistling sound just before Torran’s nimtowiadwu jumped in front of my face. A heartbeat later, something heavy and metallic crashed into it, and Torran grunted.
“Telekinetic,” he warned, his mental voice strained. “Strong.”
I relayed the warning. I’d never seen two telekinetics fight, and I’d hoped to keep that streak going. I searched the part of the room that I could see, looking for a target, but no one was visible. “Where?” I asked.
“Right back,” he gritted out.
I focused on the area and ignored the immediate stab of a headache. Even though I couldn’t see the telekinetic, I could see the edge of a bright orange Valovian aura peeking out from the hallway in the back of the room.
I raised my rifle, trying to get a bead on the telekinetic while staying behind the cover Torran provided. Instead, my rifle jerked forward, dragging me with it by the sling.
Torran grabbed for me, but he was too late. Someone telelocked my armor and lifted me into the air. I felt like I was being held in a giant’s hand as their fingers tightened around me. I cursed and tried to move but nothing happened. At least I could still breathe—for now.
My team shouted over the comm, and a light, unfamiliar voice called something in Valovan.
I strained against the hold, remembering the lessons from Starlight. It might not save me, but it might keep the telekinetic busy enough that someone else could take them out.
The armor tightened around my body, and I groaned. Breathing wasn’t getting any easier. I panted, sucking in shallow breaths. I couldn’t believe I’d survived a decade of war just to die in an underground bunker on Valovia itself.
Clearly, the universe had a dark sense of humor.
Below me, I heard plas pulses ricocheting around the room. One hit the ceiling above me and fine dust rained down. Not being able to breathe properly wasn’t fun, but not being able to see what was happening was almost worse.
I kept straining against the hold, until my muscles trembled. If I was going to die like this, then I was going to fight until the end.
I felt a pop, and then I fell. Torran snagged an arm around me before I hit the ground and his support allowed me to get my feet under me. I felt bruised from head to toe, but I lifted my rifle and looked for a target. A soldier wearing full FHP armor was down at the far edge of the room. A dead man in Valovian armor—without a helmet—lay next to them.
My focus had snapped during the telelock, so I couldn’t see any auras. “Is the telekinetic dead?”
Torran shook his head. “I broke her hold on you, so she retreated, but she’s just licking her wounds until the next fight.”
He sounded weary in a way I’d never heard before. “Are you okay?”
His chin dipped. “I will protect you.”
That wasn’t what I’d asked, but now wasn’t the time to argue. “Can you sense Cien?”
“No.”
Delving deeper into an unknown structure where a telekinetic waited for us was a nightmare scenario, but I firmed my resolve and sucked in a deep breath, beyond glad that I could breathe. With the telekinetic pressure gone, my armor had returned to its previous shape. And without the armor, I would be dead.
It was a sobering thought. I’d skated close to death before, but it never got any easier. I let the adrenaline drown out the terror and signaled for my team to move to the left. We’d need to keep an eye on this main room, or the kidnappers could slip out while we cleared the rest of the building.
Unless they already had a secondary way out.
Unlike the rest of us, Kee carried a rifle and no other weapons. Instead of a pistol or blade, her slate was strapped to one leg and the other had a small case of gadgets that she thought might be helpful. On the inside of her left arm, a mini comm screen displayed real-time data from her linked slate. Varro, Nilo, and Lexi watched over her as she pulled a pair of tiny drones from the case she carried.
She unfolded the drones and activated them, and they hovered in the air, waiting for her command.
“Where do you want these?” she asked over the comm as she closed the case and returned it to its position on her thigh.
Presumably the telekinetic had retreated to the right, so I waved to the left. Kee tapped on the display strapped to her arm and the drones zoomed off in a searching pattern.
The drones had tiny cameras, but they flew so fast that watching the video was nauseating. Instead, Kee relied on their software to flag any potential enemies using a combination of heat signatures, sounds, and visual recognition.
Drones weren’t quite as good as an in-person search, but they were way, way faster. Of course, they also gave away the fact that someone was here searching, but in this case, that ship had already sailed.
While we waited on the drones to finish their sweep, we split up the team and took defensive positions in the rooms the drones had already cleared. Torran and I were in the kitchen, a spare room that was meant to feed soldiers, not win interior design contests.
The telekinetic did not return, and every second that ticked past brought more worry. Was she escaping? Was Torran’s nephew in danger? Were they setting up an ambush?