I watch as Phiri makes note of one of the security cameras. She doesn’t seem concerned. “Surely they know we’re here by now,” she says, then turns to the Piken-Mog. “Go down there and say hello.”
The Piken-Mog replies with a moan, then pries open the elevator door and hops down the shaft.
Soon, through the floor, I hear gunfire and screaming.
With a smile, Phiri Dun-Ra looks at me.
“How many Garde are here, hmm?” she asks me. “How many of your friends do I get to eradicate today?”
“I’m not . . . I’m not telling you shit.”
Phiri rolls her eyes and pulls a blaster off her hip. She points it at the back of Mark’s head.
“Want to tell me now?” she asks me, jabbing the base of Mark’s skull with her gun.
When he feels the muzzle against his head, Mark manages to jerk away. Something inside him, a survival instinct, lets him fight the Thin Mog’s control. He drops the noose, fingers flexing like he’s finally got feeling back in his hands, and turns on Phiri Dun-Ra. He takes a halting step towards the woman. That’s all he can manage. Saliva flecks from his lips as he growls, the strain of battling against the Mogadorian mind control evident. Phiri doesn’t even flinch.
She glances at the Thin Mog. “He’s fighting you.”
“He will give his fragile brain an aneurysm before he overcomes my will,” the Thin Mog replies simply.
The Thin Mog’s eyes narrow, and Mark’s every muscle goes rigid, like he’s been electrocuted. He stands up on his tiptoes, unnaturally taut, joints popping and teeth clenched. He lets out a strangled cry.
“See?” the Thin Mog says.
Phiri Dun-Ra holsters her blaster and crouches over me. “Truth is, it doesn’t matter how many of your friends are down there. We’re going to kill them regardless. I just enjoy watching you squirm.”
Up close, the mass of ooze that’s replaced Phiri’s arm smells like rotten meat. If she’d only move a little closer, get a little more in my face . . .
“You know, John, our paths intersected once before,” she continues. “I was in charge of operations in West Virginia when you helped Number Nine escape. Did you know that? That . . . unfortunate incident got me sent down to Mexico as punishment. Forced to work on the impossible problem of the Sanctuary. Turns out, all I had to do was wait for you idiot Loric to show up.”
She stands back up and holds out her arms, the tentacles burrowed into me twisting and pulling. I’m glad for the pain; it makes it easy to hide my disappointment. I almost had a shot at her.
I’ve got one desperate play. One trick literally hidden up my sleeve. The Mogs were too confident in their control to check me for weapons. I’ve still got Five’s blade sheathed against my forearm.
I just need an opportune time to strike.
“What is it the humans love to say? Everything happens for a reason.” Phiri chuckles, going on. “Look at how far I’ve come, John. In a way, it’s all thanks to you.”
I grit my teeth and meet her eyes. “You won’t . . . you won’t win.”
“Mm-hmm, Mr. Big Hero. You’re going to find a way to save them all, right?” Phiri glances over at Mark, still frozen in that awkward position, still shaking lightly as he fights against the Thin Mog’s control. “Let’s see.”
The tentacle buried in my armpit yanks loose. It’s a momentary relief from the pain. I watch as Phiri’s writhing limb snaps through the air, its end sharpened like a dagger.
There’s nothing I can do. It happens too fast.
Phiri drives the tentacle into the underside of Mark’s jaw and through the top of his head. He spasms once, his eyes wide but unseeing. She holds him up there for a moment, pierced by her tentacle, so that I can get a look at him. Then she pulls free and lets Mark’s body drop to the floor next to me.
I scream. In rage, in pain, in terror.
“Oh-for-one,” Phiri says to me.
I clamp my mouth closed. I can’t take my eyes off Mark’s body, his dead eyes staring right at me. This is my fault.
Hell with this. If I’m going to die, it’s going to be on my terms.
With a burst of motion, I pop Five’s blade from its forearm sheath and slice it through the two tentacles still piercing me. She screams and recoils. The oozing appendages sizzle when they hit the floor. Already, barely seconds after I chop them off, the tentacles start to regenerate.
I had hoped that my Legacies would come flooding back to me. That’s not the case. There’s still remnants of Phiri Dun-Ra writhing inside me. I can feel my healing Legacy kick in, trying to fight them off. I scramble to my feet and attempt to generate a fireball or to turn on my stone-vision. Those powers don’t respond. They put too much physical strain on my body, which is still too drained from the attack.
A vatborn clocks me in the head with his blaster. I’m falling right back to the floor. Time seems to slow down.
My telepathy. I can at least use that. Even though my body is weakened, my mind is sound.
As soon as I open my mind, I shudder. There’s so much fear and pain radiating from the sublevels of Patience Creek that seep in when I use my telepathy. I steel myself, focus and reach towards a mind that I’m relieved is still out there.
Sam! I shout telepathically.
I can sense where he’s at. Running down a hallway, Malcolm next to him, a handful of scientists and soldiers on either side. Sam’s got a heavy weight on his back—a pack filled with random electronics, mostly cell phones.
His experiment with his tech Legacy. It must have worked. And now it could be doomed. . . .
John? Am I hallucinating this? Sam thinks back.
No, I’m upstairs.
Oh, thank God—
They’ve got me, I tell Sam. Mark led them here. Not by choice. They’ve got Leg—augmentations.
Holy shit—Mark—they’re trapping us down here. Sam’s thoughts come in a jumbled rush. I sense him skid to a stop, Malcolm grabbing him by the arm. I’m coming to help you, John. I’m coming!
No! I think back, weighing Sam’s chances against the Mogs versus the value of what he’s carrying, the importance of preserving his Legacy. It could be humanity’s best hope. You have to escape! There’s a mass of them at the underground exit, but I think most of the ones that have powers are with me. Find a way to get through and—
I don’t get to finish that thought. A fresh jolt of pain stabs through me, Phiri’s tentacles making three new holes in my back. Only seconds have passed. Once again, my Legacies feel out of reach. A group of vatborn pin me to the ground and rip away Five’s blade.
“Nice try,” Phiri says with a gloating smile. She picks up the end of the noose dropped by Mark, and I brace myself for what comes next. Phiri seems to know exactly what I’m expecting because her smile only widens. “Oh no, John. You don’t get to die yet.”
She drags me forward. I scramble along after her since the alternative is a slashed throat.
The elevator is waiting and open. There’s a pool of fresh blood on the floor and dents in its walls. Whoever was defending the elevator downstairs must have fallen prey to the Piken-Mog.
“Come on; let’s go say hello to your friends,” Phiri says.
Phiri, Thin Mog and a squadron of vatborn surround me in the elevator. We descend a few floors. I try to get a look at where exactly we are but can’t be sure. All the halls down here look alike. Where are Lawson and Walker? The human Garde? Sam and Malcolm?
I hope they’re on a different floor. I hope they’re finding a way out.
The vatborn take the lead, Phiri and the Thin Mog behind them, and me forced to crawl alongside Phiri. They don’t meet any resistance outside the elevator. We pass by a few bodies—soldiers—that have been practically ripped limb from limb.
“I hope he left some for us,” the Thin Mog says dryly.
The first shots are fired as we round a corner. A handful of marines are hunkered down in a kitchenette and manage to gun down a few vatborn. The Mogs return fire, but the soldiers have dumped furniture across the hallway and take cover behind it.