Caleb didn’t have time to think. He simply charged, hoping Brielle and the others were smart enough to not do anything stupid. Well, at least not as stupid as him. No such luck. Brielle followed right behind him, Hudson and Genevieve on their heels.
When the Vandals caught sight of him, they didn’t step forward to meet him like he’d expected they would. Instead, they stayed where they were and poured all their fire in his direction, obviously recognizing him as the biggest threat.
Caleb closed on the first one, emptying an entire magazine into the man. Then he holstered his weapon, extended his claws, and started slashing. He grabbed one of the remaining three Vandals and punched him so hard in the face that he heard something break. Then he tossed him in Brielle’s general direction.
“This one’s alive this time,” he shouted without looking back.
A few seconds later, Brielle was at his side, smashing and shooting, ignoring the damage done to her own body by the last two Vandals. Caleb knew she could handle the injuries, but damn, it hurt to see anyway.
Under the cover he and Brielle provided, Craig and Genevieve peeled off, dragging the two injured federal agents from the warehouse back down the tunnel toward safety. With all the gunfire, it was impossible to make out individual heartbeats, and Caleb could only hope those two were still alive. He didn’t imagine Hudson would bother with them if they weren’t.
Two of the Vandals were down—maybe dead—while a third was bleeding badly. Julian and Kiara slipped out from behind the crates to help, and Caleb thought the fight was just about wrapped up. Then one of the Vandals pulled something from his belt—a black key fob thing with a couple buttons on it. He and his Vandal buddy backpedaled quickly, the one with the fob glancing up toward the roof of the tunnel.
Shit.
“They’re about to blow the tunnel!” Caleb shouted just as the man pushed the button and the whole world came apart.
He went down, barely getting his body over Brielle’s to shield her. He saw Julian do the same for Kiara, vaguely thinking that, even if he thought the guy was a complete jackass, at least he wasn’t a coward.
By the time the world—and the roof of the tunnel—stopped collapsing, the passage behind them was completely blocked. Caleb stared at the car-sized pieces of rock lying a few feet away. They would have all been crushed if they’d been only a little farther back that way.
Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs, he looked around, seeing that Brielle was okay and quickly figuring out that the two Vandals who’d still been fighting were now long gone. Kiara and Julian seemed okay, but it looked like the other two Vandals who’d been lying on the floor behind them were buried under all the rubble.
Caleb started to panic when he didn’t see Hudson and Genevieve, only then remembering that they’d been much farther back along the tunnel, trying to save the two federal agents from McKay’s backup force.
His radio had fallen off his tactical vest during the explosion, and he fumbled around on the ground for it.
“Hudson…Genevieve…come in,” he called, trying to stay calm as he realized he’d started liking the two newest members of the STAT team way more than he’d thought he would. “Are you guys okay? Where are you?”
There was no answer for an agonizingly long time. Brielle, Julian, and Kiara all moved closer, their faces full of worry. Then a burst of static came through his earpiece, followed by Hudson’s rough voice.
“We’re okay. But there’s no way we can get through that debris,” he said, the words difficult to make out even with Caleb’s keen hearing. “The best we can do is try to backtrack and find another way to reach you. But that’s going to take time and means we’ll have to leave the two injured agents behind. They probably won’t make it if we do that. They’re in really bad shape.”
Caleb glanced at Brielle, who was already shaking her head.
“Forget it then,” he told Hudson. “Get the hell out of these tunnels and find some help for them first, then come for us. This whole thing will probably be over by then, though. One way or another.”
Hudson and Genevieve didn’t even try to argue this time. They simply wished Caleb and Brielle good luck, and then they were off.
Caleb checked over Brielle one more time to make sure she was unharmed, reloaded his weapon, and gave Julian and Kiara a nod, then they were all moving again, with him taking point. Catching sight of the blood droplets on the floor from the Vandal who’d been injured, he followed the red trail, hoping it led somewhere good.
“We’ve taken out two more nukes,” Jake announced over the radio a few moments later, his voice nearly drowned out by the shouts and gunfire on that end. “But it’s taking us too long. There are still fourteen left, and Harrington’s people have already collapsed too many of the tunnels. If any of you are already blocked off by the debris from going any farther, head for the exits—now. There’s nothing you can do anyway, and it’s stupid for all of us to die down here for nothing.”
Caleb glanced over his shoulder at Brielle as he ran, desperately wanting to tell her to leave as well. But he knew she wouldn’t listen. She wouldn’t leave him any more than he would ever leave her. That knowledge filled a hole in his soul he hadn’t known was there. For the first time in his life, he had someone who would stay with him through it all. And the worst part was that he was going to lose her anyway. That thought hurt so effing much he wanted to scream.
He hadn’t realized how fast he and Brielle were running until he saw that Julian and Kiara were far behind and losing ground quickly. Borrowing the Vandal’s abilities had nearly made Brielle a match for his werewolf speed.
“Keep going,” Kiara yelled, waving them on. “We’ll catch up when we can.”
If it wasn’t for the nukes waiting somewhere ahead of them, Caleb would never have left the couple, but there was no time to slow down. So he simply ran faster, Brielle staying right there with him.
Time started to blur, but they were both running at full speed when they came into a large open area, the first they’d found in the entire complex. The room was more brightly lit than the rest of the tunnels they’d been in, with dozens of lights attached to the walls and ceiling overpowering even the red glow of the flashing alarms and emergency lighting.
Looking around, he decided it was almost like being in the middle of a wagon wheel, with the central atrium they were standing in acting as the hub of the wheel, and the spokes heading off in at least twenty-five or thirty different directions. Thick, heavy cables ran along the walls and ceilings of many of those tunnels, weaving back and forth across each other in a mad pattern as they converged in the middle of the open area where he and Brielle stood. Here and there, cables ran in and out of large metal boxes. They must have something to do with setting the nukes off. Or maybe harnessing their power for the lasers.
But while all the cables and control boxes were interesting, it was the rather harmless-looking metal cylinder positioned in the exact center of the room that grabbed Caleb’s attention. About four feet long, a little more than a foot in diameter, and practically buried under the mess of wires and cables running in and around it, the stainless tube didn’t look like much. Definitely not anywhere as dangerous as the warhead from a nuclear weapon should. But that was what it was.
Glancing at the branching tunnels leading off the central hub of the wagon wheel, Caleb realized it wouldn’t be very difficult to figure out where the nukes were. All they had to do was follow the cables. And that was what they’d do—as soon as they disarmed this one.
