“Look around. You each have one or two cats. Let them go in front of you. They’ll warn you of the positions of land mines and other passive explosive devices. They will also assist you in finding your entrance without setting off alarms.
“The moment my team is in position and the lead cats have the rats in motion as a diversion, Jolene will open access doors. Your cats may know before you do, so watch them. Access doors will stay open for thirty seconds. Get in fast, and get to cover. Then, when instructed, proceed according to the schematic on your Morphons, or for those of you in the new Dragon Scale, on your helmet faceplate readouts.
“I am activating my cats. Spy, Maul. You are a go.”
I triggered the screen that was attuned to Spy. She peeled into the air-duct opening and was halfway down the air access shaft in seconds.
“Spy and her mate, Maul, are wearing tac harnesses with comms and cams. The other cats are wearing only GPS devices so Jolene can track them. All the cats were given access to the floor plans, so your cat team can lead you in.
“My team. To me. We are designated as Alpha, and as first humans to go in. We will clear the way for the others. We are entering through the air shaft you should see on your face shields. For the rest of you, to all teams, good luck, bright sun, and try not to come back with your ass on fire.”
No one laughed. Those were the last words spoken before the Battle of Mobile. That had been a turning point in the war against the PRC.
A few meters behind, Cupcake waved at me, and she and Amos jogged away. They would be coordinating from the surface. The biker teams on site would cover us while we tried to extract Evelyn.
My team walked through the dry grass to me, armored and armed head to toe—Jagger, Jacopo, Mina, and Camilla. I switched my mic to our private team channel, nodded to them, and said, “I’m taking point, going down the air shaft after the cats. You are to stay on the surface until my okay because there’s one nonfunctioning fan in the way, which I’ll have to dismantle. The slope is sharp, about thirty degrees, so I’ll be on a line, head first. When the fan blade and its cowling are out of the way, I’ll secure it and continue down, taking it with me to the next air-shaft junction, where I’ll deposit it. At that point I’ll okay for you to follow. All security cameras and devices in the shaft have been deactivated or dismantled, but the defenses guarding the other accesses are unknown.”
“Won’t Warhammer hear us coming down the shaft?” Mina asked into the comms system.
Smiling grimly, I said, “Our team will access with armor on soft setting. As soon as we’re inside, the cats are going to provide a distraction and draw the rats into the human-occupied parts of the bunker. It should be quite a show.”
They were going to cause enough pandemonium to give me time to free Evelyn. Spy seemed sure she could direct the rats, but then Spy was young and certain she could do anything.
“Once the cats have created some havoc, your assigned access points will open, hopefully without alerting anyone inside, and you’ll move to your designated areas. With any luck they’ll panic and shoot themselves in their collective asses.”
My team laughed. We moved out.
* * *
I secured the high-tensile belaying rope to my armor and activated the Dragon Scale glove that Mateo had programed with a universal, auto-adjusting tool kit, which would fit any size nuts and bolts, both old US and metric.
Just before I ducked in, I glanced back at my team and met Jagger’s amused eyes. I shrugged, feeling odd leading others. I had always flown solo, and command did not come easily to me, but I did understand strategic goals and tactical positions. I was, after all, Pops’s daughter.
“We’ve never worked together as a team. I have point. Jagger, you’re my number one. Once I get the cowling disconnected, order of descent is me, Mina, Camilla, Jagger, and then Jacopo. Jacopo, if Jagger gets stuck, give him a hard kick or two.”
Jacopo’s dark eyes sparkled. Jagger grunted.
“If I go down, Mina will use my body and my armor as a shield to address any situation as needed.” Mina gave a faint nod. The psychopath would do just that and feel nothing using my dead body. She was very catlike in that regard. The best I could hope from her was that she could keep the others alive.
“If I’m out, whoever is left alive proceeds with the mission. Follow the cats’ schematics to the prison level where you will complete Objective One for this team—rescue Captain Evelyn Raymond. The code word for her is ‘Mateo.’ Hopefully she’ll respond to the name and go with you. Objective Two is to kill Warhammer. If you get that far, then clean out the nest and divide the spoils of war according to the agreement.”
I switched my mic over to our main channel, so I could hear what Jolene was saying.
“And then y’all best decontaminate all your clothing and weapons and bodies,” she said on the general channel. “Remember. You don’t have long to clean off the poison before you’ll all get sick.”
“But once Warhammer is dead,” I added, “even if you get sick, you won’t be under her command. You should be safe. Let that be the reminder to kill her.”
I checked the location of my cat team. They were inside the air shaft, waiting near the grill to the fermentation room. Steadying my warboots on the dirt, setting my armor to super soft and silent mode, I bent into the air duct and let myself slide into the dark, head and one Dragon Scale sleeve first. The shaft was smaller than I thought. I hoped Jagger’s shoulders would fit. I laughed softly at the thought of him stuck partway down, Jacopo kicking him. My laughter carried over the open channel. And I felt the collective response of the cats, of Mateo, Cupcake, Amos, and Jagger—my team. My laughter had been unexpected, oddly joyful, and it had steadied all the warriors.
Activating my telescoping helmet and my night-sight filters, I slid fast into the dark.
* * *
The fan cowling narrowed the air shaft into an opening maybe twenty-five centimeters wide. The rats had done a good job of clearing away the filter and mesh protection, and the cats had shoved the fan blades aside, but the screws I had to reach were on the other side of the cowling, so I was mostly working around a blind corner, my hand often close to a rat skeleton tangled into the fan blades. Fortunately, the Dragon Scale glove had a small camera I could activate.
As I worked, I tried not to touch the skeleton, thinking about the lockstep rats Spy and Maul would be facing. The skeleton had been a big-assed rat. Had to have weighed nine kilograms when alive. And its teeth were still razor sharp, long as my little finger. I hated to think about Spy and Maul taking on a rat. Or a bunch of rats.
With the glove’s camera and implements, it took me only a few seconds to get the cowling and its frame free. Working in a junkyard for so long had given me proficiency with a variety of tools.
