The other dragon gave me an exasperated look and glanced at Riley. “I’m so glad we stayed behind to rescue her,” she said acidly. Frowning, she turned to the two vessels and pointed at the scientists. “Stay here. Guard the humans. If they step away from the wall, kill them.”
The clones moved forward obediently, herding the scientists into the corner and keeping their guns trained on them. The lead scientist glared at us as he was backed against the wall.
“You’ll never get out,” he said. “There are a dozen cameras between here and the ground floor. Not to mention the vessels, the guards and the rest of the security. All that has to happen is for one camera to spot you, one alarm to sound. Even with this traitor with you, you’ll never make it out alive.”
“You know, we could always kill you right now,” Riley growled, turning on the scientist and raising the gun back to his face. The human cringed away, futilely covering his head, as if that would stop a bullet, and Riley gave a grim smile. “Fortunately for you, everyone here is going to be a bit distracted in a few seconds. Mist?” He glanced at the second Basilisk, an evil smile crossing his face as he pulled out a phone. “Wes is in.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
“Roger that. Wes...” Riley put the phone to his ear, narrowing his eyes. “Now.”
RILEY
For a second, nothing happened. The scientist glared at me, tense and apprehensive, waiting.
Then a ringing alarm blared into the silence, making everyone start. The lead scientist jumped the highest of all and gazed around wildly as the shrill ringing continued to sound. I grinned at him smugly.
Hacked the fire alarm and disabled the cameras—nice job, Wes. Hopefully that will be enough of a distraction for us to sneak out unnoticed. I glanced at my companions and jerked my head at the door. “Time to go! Let’s get out of here.”
We ran, leaving the room and sprinting down the hallway to the elevators. The alarm was still blaring nonstop, and if I knew Wes, he’d probably called the fire department, too. Mist reached the doors at the end of the hall first and growled a curse.
“Elevators are down. We’ll have to take the stairs. This way!”
We followed her up the stairwell, our pounding footsteps echoing up the shaft as we climbed. Three flights later, we burst onto the ground floor and gazed around warily. From what I had pieced together, this was a private office campus, with buildings up top to act as a front, hiding the very secret, high-tech laboratories beneath. This floor was dark and empty, though the alarm still blared through the corridors, making my ears ring. It looked like most of the employees had already fled the building.
Abruptly, the fire alarm ceased, and silence throbbed in my ears.
“That’s not good,” Mist whispered, and started down a corridor that cut through various offices. No one appeared at the end of the hall, no footsteps echoed in pursuit, but my skin crawled in the sudden, disturbing stillness. “Come on,” she beckoned. “We’ll go through the loading dock where the trucks make the deliveries. No point in risking the main doors.”
Everything was quiet as we slipped through the offices, following Mist down several hallways until she opened a door that led into what looked like a storage space. The floors were cement, and boxes of varying size were stacked along the walls and in neat aisles down the center.
“Almost there,” I heard Mist say under her breath. As if she, too, was counting the steps to freedom. We trailed her along a wall of boxes, rounded the corner and froze.
A thin man stood before a line of guards, their assault rifles pointed in our direction. More than a dozen cold, silvery eyes stared at us across the cement floor as the row of vessels took aim, their faces blank. Behind them and the smiling form of Luther the Basilisk, the doors of the loading dock beckoned, tantalizingly close. But they might as well have been a million miles away.
“Well, well,” Luther said, his sibilant voice oozing with triumph. “And what have we here? Miss Anderson, haven’t you been the sneaky, sneaky agent. Going rogue? Helping Cobalt escape? I wouldn’t have expected it of you.”
Footsteps shuffled behind us, and another line of vessels stepped from behind a tower of boxes and hemmed us in. Luther’s smile was cold as he stared at me. “You thought I wouldn’t guess what was happening when the fire alarm sounded?” he asked. “When the security systems were abruptly jammed? I asked myself...if you—or any Basilisk,” he added, looking at Mist, “were to stage some kind of daring, miraculous escape, where would you most likely go? It was a gamble, between here and the sewer tunnels, but...” He raised his hands, as if to embrace us. “Here you are.”
Dammit. I shot a desperate look around the room, wondering if there was a way out of this. If there was, I didn’t see it. The soldier had his gun drawn, but by the grim look on his face, he knew he was going to die, as well.
“Miss Hill,” Luther said, his gaze shifting to Ember. “If you would kindly step away now. I would not want for you to accidentally come under fire. We will be returning to the Elder Wyrm presently, right after we destroy the traitors.”
Ember bared her teeth at him. “You want them, you’ll have to kill me, too.”
“Don’t be foolish, girl.” The Basilisk frowned. “They’re going to die one way or another, and you will be taken back to the Elder Wyrm where you belong. No need to make this harder on yourself.”
Ember stood her ground, though I saw her hands tremble before they clenched at her sides. My throat ached for her. The rest of us would die quickly, but she would be taken away, her memories extracted and probably destroyed. So that the ancient leader of Talon could achieve immortality.
The Elder Wyrm’s vessel. My stomach dropped, and I closed my eyes, realizing how we could get out of this. It was a gamble, and Ember might hate me—hell, she might kick my ass later—but there was nothing else I could think of.
I’m sorry, Firebrand, I thought, pulling out my pistol. I hope you can forgive me for this.
“Very well,” Luther said when Ember didn’t move. “Then I suppose we will do this the hard way. Vessels,” he ordered, his voice reverberating through the walls. “Kill them. All except Ember Hill. Destroy the rest and bring her to me.”
I surged up, snaked one arm around Ember’s waist from behind and pressed the muzzle of my gun below her chin.