The stench was something he recognized.No wonder Rowan hadn’t sensed anything.He glanced back at the hallway, lit by a soft red glowstick clutched in someone’s hand.
Someone’s dead, limp hand.
Corpses.
His gorge rose briefly, pointlessly.An assault like this took phenomenal resources to crack the shields, dampers, and countermeasures.Why hadn’t anyone been alerted?Why hadn’t the fail-safes gone off, and all team leaders been alerted?
Traitor.Someone must have shut down the grids.Either that or Sigma had sent a fucking army.
“General,” he said into the commlink, “I’m inside the south building.Looks like an abattoir.Everyone’s iced.”
“What?”
“Someone blew the safety grid from inside, sir, I bet you dollars to doughnuts.”He pitched his voice low.“I’m going to do a sweep, see if I can pick any?—”
Thwish.A spear of ice buried in his back.
What the?—
He reached with his free hand.A slim metal wand tipped with something very sharp.
The tranquilizer dart came free, and he stared at it for a moment, his entire body suddenly numb.
NO!Rowan’s horrified scream.
“Tranquilizer… dart… Get… her…” Delgado said, and passed out.
CHAPTERFORTY
“Well, isn’t this a fucked-up situation,”Henderson said, soft, tight humor tinting the words.
Rowan shuddered.Blackness, a claustrophobic trap even though the tunnel was wide enough for a transport and narrow walkway to either side.Henderson’s Brigade walked single file: Henderson, Brew, Cath, Rowan, Yoshi, Zeke.
Justin.Tears slicked her cheeks.Her head hurt frompushingboth the helicopter pilot and the other Sigma psychics.Now she knew she had fought off their combined mental weight, keeping them blind until it was too late.
Sobs rose in her chest.She stayed fiercely silent.
“What’s up?”Brew’s quiet voice.
“We have to decide.Go back toward the central hub and see what we can salvage, if they’ve cleared out, or take our luck with outside.”
Silence again.Rowan leaned against the wall.She had never felt so tired.Even herhairhurt.“Everyone they had,” she murmured.
“What, Rowan?”Henderson, suddenly attentive.
“Back there.After we saw the flashlight.It felt like they had a large group of psychics, trying to pin us down.”Her voice was flat, exhausted.
“Were they working through someone?A focus?”he asked.
“I don’t know.”Pinwheels and sparks of false light flared through the darkness.“I couldn’t tell.I was busy trying to hold them off.”
“Christ,” Brew said.“Bloody fucking hell.”
“Don’t freak out,” Cath hissed.
“Shut up.”This from Yoshi.They were all claustrophobic.Fear tainted the air, a sharp acrid smell.
Rowan dragged in a deep breath.“Let’s just calm down.”False serenity in her tone.It was hard to reach that place of tranquility that let her heal people, but she took another breath and prayed for it.
