"It is a place where shifters are beaten, abused, and trained to kill," he said quietly. "I was a prisoner here, once."
Mira's eyes went wide with sympathetic horror, then narrowed, her face becoming set and businesslike. He liked that about her. There would be sympathy later, he was sure, and probably questions. But right now, she was all business.
A door opened somewhere below, the clang echoing through the large space. Dane touched his finger to his lips, although it was unnecessary; Mira had moved quietly back against the wall.
Below them, several armed men in tac gear poured into the room and began checking the cages, moving quickly and efficiently. The imprisoned shifters reacted variously. Some ignored them with aloof dignity and some cowered, while others snarled and tried to thrust their heads through the bars, teeth snapping.
Dane jerked his head at Mira. Moving as quietly as they could on the catwalk, they stealthily made their way down toward the end. Here they were stopped by another large, heavy metal door. Mira leaned close to his ear.
"Where are we going?" she whispered.
"Control room," he whispered back. "Cages have electronic locks. There'll be guards here. We'll have to take them out fast."
Mira nodded.
Dane tested the door. It was locked. He shook his head: they could wait for someone to come out, risking discovery all the time. Or, he could think of one sure way to get it open.
"Stand back," he whispered to Mira and handed her his gun.
She backed up against the wall, this time seeming to guess what was coming.
Dane jumped at the door.
It was a man who leaped off the ground, and six tons of orca that hit the door. It didn't stand a chance and collapsed under his bulk along with the doorframe.
Dane shifted back as soon as he felt it all start to go. He stumbled to a stop on top of what was left of the door, and found himself naked, unarmed, and confronting three very startled and hostile-looking guards who were turning around from a bank of cameras and controls.
Well, he'd lost his pants anyway. Dane shifted again.
He filled the space instantly. The guards screamed as they were smothered and flattened under his bulk. Dane shifted back to find the equipment slightly damaged and the guards groaning on the floor.
Mira sprang through the door, tossed him his gun, and immediately began tying up the injured men, using their jackets for makeshift bonds.
"Excellent use of land whale," she told him over her shoulder.
"I'm not really a whale," Dane said absently. He was looking over the controls. Every cage, it appeared, had its lock operated independently of the others, but therehadto be some kind of master control. He tried flipping some switches.
"Are any of them awake to answer questions?" he asked Mira, who had finished tying them up and moved to cover the door.
"Doesn't look like it." Shooting him a sly look, she added, "Maybe you shouldn't have whaled on them so hard."
"Very funny." He was running out of patience, and from the sound of clattering boots on the catwalk, they were out of time. Dane slammed his hands on all the buttons at once, running his palm across them.
From below, there was a loud series of clunks and metallic noises, followed by snarling and screams and gunfire.
"Dane, we're trapped!" Mira called urgent from the doorway.
Dane looked around. There was a breaker box on the wall. He hadn't wanted to mess with it earlier, since he knew from firsthand experience that in the absence of power the cages stayed locked, but now he threw the master switch.
They were plunged immediately into darkness.
"Dane!" Mira's voice gasped out of the dark.
It was utter and absolute darkness, with no windows or emergency lighting to relieve the oppressive blackness. Shifter eyes were sharper in the dark than human sight, but even a cat or a bat couldn't see in the dark with no light to see by.
There was a sudden stab of a flashlight beam out on the catwalk. Mira fired at it. Her gun was a burst of light and noise in the dark. There was a yell, and the flashlight went out.
Dane touched her shoulder. Mira jumped. "Come on," he whispered. "If we're lucky, we can slip by them."
