At least one of those was certainly true. I wanted to press ahead, but doing so when we didn’t know if more soldiers would come in behind us was a good way to end up dead, so I stared at the slice of the main room I could see and forced myself to stay put.
“This side is clear,” Kee said a few minutes later. “Checking the other side.”
The drones split and each one took a hallway on the other side of the room. The first one returned quickly and headed down the hallway that the telekinetic had taken.
“Front is empty,” Kee said. “Only one hallway left.”
Torran and I eased out of cover. Our team fell in behind us as we headed for the hallway in the back of the room.
When we reached the doorway, Kee groaned. “First drone is down. It registered three people before it died, but there might be more.”
“Do you have a map?”
She moved closer and held up the arm with the display attached. Reading drone maps was something of an art, but luckily, I’d had plenty of practice. The drones built a rough floor plan as they went, thanks to the scanners, but they were often incomplete.
For Torran’s benefit, Kee pointed at a large room that was the intersection of several of the lines. “We’re here, and the drone died here.” She pointed at the room where one of the lines ended. Only the first part of the room had been mapped, so I didn’t know how big it was, but it was at the end of the main hallway. We’d have one corner for cover, pretty far back, and that was it.
The other drone filled in a few of the missed spots, but it hadn’t reached the room with the people in it yet. “Any way you can get the second drone past the room? I’d like to know if they have another exit.”
Kee grunted and tapped on the screen. “I’ll try, but I doubt it, considering how fast they took down the first one. The telekinetic is likely in the room.”
I forced down the fear. Attacking a fortified telekinetic would be suicide without Torran’s assistance. But since he was going to be the first through the door, I assumed he knew what he was doing.
We entered the hallway with Torran’s nimtowiadwu leading the way. It seemed like scant protection, but it was better than nothing. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
We’d made it only a few meters when Kee cursed again. “Second drone is down. It registered four before failing.”
Four soldiers could probably hold the room, especially if they had cover. But were they merely buying time for the rest of their squad to escape, or were they fighting for their lives? The first meant they’d break and run if they met too much resistance, but if it was the second, they would be relentless.
At the final corner, Torran paused and peeked around the edge of the wall. I’d gotten used to the cool feel of his mind against mine, but the temperature dropped until it felt like I had an icicle in my brain. Torran jerked back and a plas pulse sailed by. It hit the far side of the hallway with a sizzle.
“Come out, General, and bring your humans with you,” the telekinetic woman called in heavily accented Common. A child cried out in pain. “Unless you want this one to die.”
“How many did you see?” I asked, directing my thoughts at him.
“The telekinetic, two humans, and Cien.”
Cien’s voice broke on a scream, and Torran’s fists clenched. “Stay here,” he ordered, then he surged around the corner, the nimtowiadwu floating in front of him.
Shit.
I couldn’t let him face the enemy alone. I muttered a string of curses and followed. The rest of the team fell in behind me. I didn’t want to give the telekinetic another chance to grab me, so I stayed behind Torran, my rifle covering his left. His broad shoulders blocked most of my view, but I quickly snuck a glance past him and wished I hadn’t.
The telekinetic wore a full set of Valovian armor, hiding her face. Two soldiers in human armor stood next to her with their plas rifles trained on Cien. Based on their height and thick builds, they were likely both men.
The child floated in front of them, his arms and legs splayed wide like the telekinetic was trying to tear him limb from limb. His clothes were filthy, and his dark hair was matted and unkempt. His head lolled on his neck like he was barely conscious, but even so, I could see the tears glistening on his face.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, a vest filled with explosives hugged his small torso.
My heart broke as his back bowed and he cried out again, but I couldn’t save him quite yet, so I turned my attention to the room. It was smaller than the one where we’d fought the telekinetic before, but it had just as many exits. Hallways led off both sides, and on the far wall, a heavy, reinforced door blocked our view.
The room itself looked like it had been set up for planning with long tables and displays on the walls, but everything had been pushed to the edges. A table on its side blocked the end of our hallway. It was meant to slow us down, but it also provided a tiny bit of cover. It wouldn’t stop any plas pulses, but it was better than nothing.
Marginally.
As soon as Torran reached the table, the telekinetic spoke, her voice amplified by the armor. “That’s close enough, General. Try anything and these men will kill the child—if the explosives don’t get to him first. I am keeping the trigger depressed. Kill me and you’ll kill him.”
The two men next to her didn’t remove their attention from the kid. If they weren’t trained soldiers, then they were at least trained mercenaries. Cien’s body didn’t cover them completely, so I could hit them somewhere fatal without hitting the kid, but we needed to keep the telekinetic alive long enough to get Cien out of the vest. I couldn’t do both at once, so I bided my time, discarding plans as quickly as I thought of them.
“Release the child immediately, and I will spare your life,” Torran said, his tone dangerous. His armor also amplified his voice. That was a neat trick that would’ve been useful to know about.
The telekinetic laughed. “You will spare my life anyway, unless you want the child to die.”
I tapped Torran’s back and directed my thoughts at him. “Can you break her hold?”
“Not without risking Cien.”
“Kee, can you jam the signal for the explosives?”
“I’m looking into it,” she said, “but it’ll be a temporary fix at best.”
Torran minutely shook his head. “The trigger will be on his vest somewhere. There may also be a remote detonator, but as soon as she lets go of the telekinetic pressure, it will trigger.”
“Find it,” I told him, then relayed the information to Kee.
“What do you want?” Torran demanded aloud. “Why are you working with the humans?”
“Why are you?” she countered, ignoring the first question.
“They are helping me retrieve something that was stolen from me.”
“It’s not like you to be so sentimental, General,” she taunted. “Or perhaps you just don’t care about anyone but yourself.” The bitter words hinted at deeper resentment, but she shook herself, and her tone returned to the light taunting she’d been using all along. “If you cooperate, you can have the child back in a little while. We no longer need him.”
Well, that sounded extremely ominous.