I’m not naive. Nor am I innocent. I’ve seen terrible things.
All I know is, what is being done here? It’s beyond evil. Peering around at the dozens of floating bodies, devoid of color, all fleshy masses barely resembling what I know nagas to be, I can’t believe this is humanity’s answer to defeating the Ketts. It’s diabolical and dangerous and if it had something to do with why the Lurkers killed everyone, I can almost empathize.
I turn away and lean against the bank of controls, crossing my arms as I let my chin drop to my chest. My hair tumbles forward over my shoulders, veiling my face and briefly hiding the atrocities.
Maybe I should leave and face the Boa. If I can find Krellix, he might know what to do.
Banging my fists on the table, the echoing thump makes me feel marginally better—but it’s not going to help me get through the brick wall I’ve metaphorically hit. I’ve already tried my keycard; it doesn’t have clearance to the power grid down here.
I’m not a mechanic. I’m not a programmer. I’m a combat-trained soldier who specializes in relief and humanitarian crisis management. I am far from an expert in any technical field, especially with anything so ancient. I’m not a respected leader like Gemma. I’m not a highranking operative like Celeste. I don’t have Shelby’s brilliant mind. I can’t fly a ship like Daisy or talk to people like Laura. My DNA isn’t special. Sadly, what I do best, the naga and the other women with them do better.
Though, I have one thing up my sleeve the others don’t.I’mexpendable.
And I know how to use explosives.
I have one option left to end this place. And while I’m not entirely keen on taking it, it might just cause enough damage to work.
Turning around, I follow the tubes to where they combine beneath the control panels. Dropping my pack on the floor beside them, I open it and reach in for the sealed, black case at the bottom, shuffling everything else aside. When my fingers brush the metal, I wrap my hand around it and carefully pull it out and put it on the floor beside me, then repack my bag.
When I’m done, I slide the box in front of me and open it.
Shaped like a ridged, silver egg, I pull the explosive grenade out of the box and grip it firmly in my hand. I only have the grenade because I’d taken it from the cache months prior when no one was aware. I knew what was in the small black boxes even if the others didn’t. It wasn’t hard to slip one past.
Keeping my composure, I head upstairs and shut off the lights. When it goes dark, I take out my flashlight. I return to the naga from earlier, flashing my beam up at him.
His eyes are closed and they remain that way. Relief fills me. This will be easier if he’s unconscious.Does he even have a consciousness?Still, my heart bleeds for the creature, for all that it has endured and for its fate. Hundreds of years of this, maybe even more. The least I can do, if I can’t save him, is ensure he’s not left like this.
I turn away, muttering, “I really hope this works.”
Returning halfway to the control bank, I take a deep breath before pulling out the grenade’s pin. I toss it underhand toward the largest grouping of panels and pipes between the stairs; the place where the majority of the tubing seems to collect before disappearing into the walls and the large machines above.
I hear thethudof the grenade hitting the ground and the clinking roll of it as it bangs the edge of the grates until it comes to a stop. Dropping off the pathway and to the side, I kneel between two vats and cover my head. The grenade isn’t powerful enough to do too much damage, it’s a low impact grenade. I just hope it’senough.
The airwooshespast, tugging at my hair. The roar of the explosion lights up the darkness before it flutters out into an array of colorful embers. Glass and metal sails past me through the air. I hear it whip as the lights brighten only to darken quickly again.
The smell of smoke and burning chemicals reaches me next and I lift my head to take a look at the destruction I’ve wrought. Billowing dust and electrical fire meets my eyes, some of it beginning to spread to the cylinders closest to the piping. Climbing back onto the grated pathway, I squint against the dust to see if I’ve destroyed enough of the place to make a difference. Checking the vats on either side of me, the little lights that oncespotted the machinery across them are out. The faces of the nagas within are slack and blank.
I reach down and touch the grate, testing for the power humming beneath my feet. It’s gone.
My shoulders slump as relief fills me.
I move back toward the stairs that will take me out of this nightmare, checking the next several cylinders as I pass. As I continue, I realize the sounds behind me aren’t stopping.
Spinning around, I discover the glow is getting brighter behind the dust and smoke cloud at the explosion site. I pick up my pace to put distance between myself and it, my boots thumping heavily over the grates until I get to the naga that had opened its eyes.
Just as I reach him, I’m suddenly thrown forward by another explosion. My training kicks in and, throwing my arms outward, I catch my body on my forearms and palms, wrenching my face to the side just in case. Curling my legs inward with a groan, I run my hands over my head, simultaneously protecting it from flying debris and checking for wounds.
Deafened and dazed, I glance over my shoulder at the fire that’s quickly spreading. A pounding zips through the pipes under me, vibrating the grates, and I rise up on my arms, hunting for my flashlight.
Somewhere out of sight, in the darkness, something pops, loud enough that I can hear it through my ringing ears. And then more popping builds off that, growing closer, soon followed by the splash of cascading liquid coming from all around me at once.
Abruptly, the vat to my left springs open, making me jerk aside. Finally spotting my flashlight on the pathway a few feet before me, I lurch forward and snatch it, aiming it at the large cylinder. In horror, I watch the rest of the solution drain awayuntil the creature floating within becomes a puddled, shapeless mass at the bottom.
As my hearing clears, I start to make out a low mumbling from the vats outside my sight and a subtle smacking, like lips opening and closing. Rising quickly to my feet, I glance behind me once more before stumbling down the path toward the exit.
Coughing as the smoke blooms, I hear another explosion and drop to my knees with a curse, covering my head.What the hell had my grenade hit?
Something whips past me and acrid smoke explodes in my face.
