He’d always had backup. Even after leaving the military, he had Kinetic Solutions with its seemingly endless budget and support backing him up. Hell, he had walkie-talkies! Now they were going in blind, unable to communicate, with no reinforcements. If they couldn’t get themselves out of the hot zone, they weren’t getting out.
Swallowing dryly, he looked over at Blake. Despite the bags under his eyes, there was a spark about him. It was so blinding, it was hard to believe Gabriel didn’t notice it was dimming. He would never forgive himself for that. Or if anything happened to him.
Blake’s nightmares weren’t any worse than his own, but they had taken on a new intensity after seeing the Monkey Cat eviscerate an Off Former. It didn’t have anything to do with the aliens killing each other; they’d seen enough of that. It had everything to do with Blake having difficulty ignoring the fact that the aliens were more than just mindless weapons.
Seeing their faces, thinking of them as apersonrather than just a human, it never sat easy. And there was something aboutknowing that your enemy sees you, knows you’re the same, and wants to kill you anyway. It makes it more personal.
It’s the kind of thing he used to try to drown out. Sterilize it with the burn from a stiff drink. Now, he crochets a fucking scarf.
Or sucks his boyfriend’s dick.
There was nothing Gabriel could say to ease Blake’s trauma, so he focused on trying to get information. Namely, what the hell that thing the Monkey Cat took was.
They guessed it was a battery or a heart. Victoria started calling it a Heart Cell, and the name stuck. She didn’t get a great picture of the thing—Polaroids weren’t known for clarity—but she got something. The blurry pic caught the side of the Monkey Cat; at a high enough angle, they could see part of the glowing Heart Cell hanging from the alien’s mouth.
Irving practically salivated when he saw it. Gabriel could see visions of necropsies dancing in his eyes. He shut that down quick.
Bringing back a dead Monkey Catmightbe possible, but an Off Former? No. They were too heavy. Too dangerous. Even if they did manage to catch a lone one, which was rare enough. But between their guns, their armor, and the propensity tomeltwhen exposed to the atmosphere? Insanity.
“As we suspected, all the electrical equipment was destroyed. But there was no physical damage. The lines are in good shape.” Judd circled the section they intended to activate. “Tommy and I will take point there, with Gabriel acting as lookout.”
Phin grunted. He didn’t like the idea of not being with Tommy. But he was too valuable to stick underground, where there would hopefully be no fighting.
“Are you sure this is even possible? A couple of generators don’t seem like enough to electrify a city street.” Beaumont’s question didn’t come across as critical. He was leaning againstthe chair Alvarez was stiffly sitting in, eyes furrowed as he processed the information on the boards.
“We’re not electrifying a whole street,” Tommy explained, his voice slurring with exhaustion. He’d explained the mechanics behind the plan dozens of times, and most of them still didn’t understand the exact details. “We’re bypassing the converter in a power substation, so we run current through the third rail. The power is coming from the multiple diesel generators we found. With step-up transformers, we can sort of…combine their power and hit it hard. After that, it’s just using copper wire to bring the current up to the street, where it’ll naturally electrify the metal rods and other detritus we’ve been scattering.”
“It would be better if it would rain,” Irving mused. “If the street were wet, the current would carry better.”
“Great,” Alvarez grumbled. “We get to die wet.”
Gabriel ignored him. “But it would be more difficult to assure our safety.”
“Of course,” Irving acquiesced.
Tommy began fidgeting with his oversized sleeves. “Beyond that, it’s actually pretty simple. Since we’re not concerned with the generators surviving, we don’t have to worry about fused links or overcurrent damage.”
“What aboutyoursafety?” Blake asked from where he’d been quietly zoning out. “This is DC current we’re talking about. It’s not cycling like AC. If you touch that rail, if anyone touches something hot, you’re literally cooked.”
“Blake’s right,” Gabriel said, raising his voice. He stepped closer to the whiteboard so he could point at the drawing Judd made of the street. It was crude, but effective. “Ground team is going to draw the Off Formers into this avenue. The street is covered in rebar, wire, and whatever else we could think to electrify.” He indicated the main thoroughfare before letting his hand drift to a thickened line at the northernmost end of thestreet. “Here is what we’re calling the Green Zone. It’s a wall of tires and the safest place to be once everything goes live.”
“But let me be clear, Green Zone does not mean safety. There is no safety. There is no cavalry. If you can’t get yourself out of the hot zone with your own two feet, then you’re not getting out. Do you understand?”
He let his words sink in, making sure he locked eyes with every person standing in the room. Most of them he knew well; some of them he didn’t know at all.
Alvarez rolled his eyes, standing up. “We know what the stakes are. You just live for these dramatic speeches, don’t you?”
Judd threw his marker down, taking a big step into Alvarez’s face. “Listen up, Gitmo?—”
“I’m Cuban!” Alvarez roared. “Guantanamo Bay is an American institutioninCuba. If you’re going to insult me, do it right.”
A manic smile crossed Judd’s face. “Gladly.” He began rolling up his sleeves, but Victoria stepped up, sliding a slender hand around his bicep. With the smallest tug, she pulled him back to his whiteboard, handing him a marker. Judd’s face had gone from thunderous to sappy, eyes shining at Victoria as she righted his sleeves.
Phin snorted. “If you could see your face right now.”
“I got laid last night, Phin. What did you do?”
The silence was telling.
