Upon emerging from the service conduit, he’d thrown the metal hatch shut and melted the lock with his laser-blade.
Yet Malik and his companions hadn’t gone more than a couple of steps before a squad of soldiers stormed into the landing bay, boxing them in.
He’d seen Obsidian and its companions gain entry a short time later, had witnessed the battle-droid jam the door to the landing bay.
Jenna should have made her way toThe Passage, as agreed, but instead, she and Isla had provided a distraction.
Damn it, that wasn’t the plan.
Malik put his earplugs back in. He then reached down, his fingers closing over the last of his pyro-grenades. He hadn’t wasted the previous grenade, but this one really had to count.
He peered around the edge of the trolley, to see Jenna duck out from behind a column and fire upon the troops once more. She only just moved away in time to avoid a volley of laser bolts that tore into the panel behind her.
Malik’s pulse shot up. Gods, she was going to get herself killed.
Gaze sweeping left, he saw that Obsidian was still defending itself against a posse of soldiers who’d bailed it up against one of the hangar doors. Malik’s gaze narrowed. If he tossed his grenade just behind the soldiers, he’d likely cause enough damage to bring down a few Mir-Ferrins without harming anyone on the periphery—or without damaging the central core and potentially bringing the roof down on them.
Malik was sweating heavily now. He'd be taking a chance, but since they were still dramatically outnumbered, and that armored door wouldn’t hold forever, he had few other options.
Drawing in a deep breath, Malik waited until Vic had just launched a volley of shots at the soldiers and ducked back under cover as they returned fire.
He then pulled the pin on the grenade, launched himself to his feet, and tossed it over the heads of the soldiers.
He hit the concrete once more as an explosion rocked the landing bay.
A wave of heat barreled into him, so intense his breathing caught, yet Malik kept his head down, holding his breath through it. Then, as dust and mortar rained down on him, he scrambled to his feet and hoisted his laser-pistol high.
It was time to ensure any surviving Mir-Ferrin soldiers were dealt with.
Jenna peeled herself off the walkway. Her ears were ringing, and nausea rolled over her. She and Isla had been a decent distance from the blast, but even so, the heat and power of it had knocked them both off their feet.
It was a pyro-grenade, the same weapon that Malik had used to save their lives in that plaza on Aura Terminal.
Staggering to her feet, and bracing herself against the column to steady herself, she glanced down at where Isla sat on her backside rubbing her ears. Relieved her sister-in-law seemed unharmed, Jenna glanced down at the wreckage below.
Her breathing caught as she watched Malik, Vic, her brother, and Obsidian move through the rubble.
One wounded marine tried to rise from where he’d been thrown against a pallet. The soldier’s helmet had come off, revealing a young man with white-blond hair and pale skin. His face was set in a grimace as he reached for his weapon.
However, Cathal found him first. Her brother didn’t hesitate. Raising his pistol, he shot the man in the head.
Jenna looked away, bile stinging her throat.
She knew it was necessary—it was ‘kill or be killed’—but it was also brutal. Of course, her brother was a trained soldier. She’d forgotten that.
All the same, she hadn’t imagined he could act so ruthlessly.
Turning away once more, Jenna focused on helping Isla to her feet. And when she and her sister-in-law viewed the floor once more, all the Mir-Ferrin soldiers were dead.
29. EXTREME MEASURES
BREATHING HARD, MALIK looked up at the walkway, his gaze fusing with Jenna’s.
Her face was pale and tense, yet the resolved set of her jaw, the way she still gripped the laser-pistol at her side, told him she had it together.
Jenna was a warrior, but then she always had been.
Beside her, the clan-lord’s wife looked equally fierce.
