Moving much more slowly, not quite sure if she was in one piece, she managed to get to her knees and then, with one hand on the wall next to her, to her feet.
Girard was nearby, a long, thin cut on one cheek where a shard of metal must have struck him. He said something to her that she couldn’t hear. She shook her head, ears ringing, and he repeated the word, mouthing it carefully. Even then it took a moment for her eyes and ears to make sense of what he was trying to say. “Grenades.”
It took her a moment to connect the word and the explosions and the rattling sounds that she’d heard just before the door had blown off. She shivered. She would never have considered such a thing. Despite the gun she now carried, she still wasn’t used to the technology of violence.
Then the team was moving, heading back the way they’d come, towards the parking area, moving fast, so that Hallie had to jog to keep up, breathing hard, the ringing in her head graduallyfading. She could feel the pull of energy on her body as it fought to heal her, reducing bruises and swelling, and the faint hum of thezauber. It sounded distressed. She put a hand over her pocket, where the artefact sat, and sent it a mentalthank youfor the warning. The distress faded, but it still seemed unsettled.
They burst out of the engineering section and the tac team kept going, heading for the nearest ramp at a full run.
Chapter twenty-six
Onthenextlevelup they met Caerleon and Dechtire on their way down, the pair out of breath.
“Commander is on his way,” Caerleon said.
“Never mind that, we need to evacuate the building,” Frollo said, and kept going, heading for the stairwell that Hallie assumed Caerleon and Dechtire had just come from.
“Grenades,” Modron told the pair as she ran past them.
“Grenades?” Dechtire asked, falling in beside Hallie.
“Big loud bangs,” Hallie said, breath coming in gasps as she tried to keep up with the others.
“We didn’t hear a thing,” Caerleon commented. He’d gone to the rear of the group, behind Hallie.
“Building is solid,” Girard said. He wasn’t breathing as heavily as Hallie, but he sounded like he was working hard to keep up with the tac team.
The armed men and women surged up the stairs and Hallie ignored everything else, having no attention to spare from theeffort it took to stay upright and moving forward, trying to keep the others in sight. To her relief, there were only a few flights before the team ahead of her went through another door, onto the level. She followed them out, gasping for air, into a different world.
From the heat and chaos and noise of the basement, they were now in a wide corridor full of quiet, hushed serenity. It seemed to intersect the building, the walls rising at least two-storeys on either side. The floor was pale, polished stone with a thick rug running along the centre, the muted, swirling patterns on the pale walls lit from narrow windows high overhead.
The arrival of the tac team, all of them breathing hard and bringing with them the scent of explosions, barely made a dent in the overall calm of the corridor.
Looking to one side, Hallie could see the enormous molten gold fountain she’d caught sight of from outside. To the other side, the corridor led to a huge pair of wooden doors that were currently standing open, giving her a glimpse of what could only be the Conclave meeting chamber. They had come out onto the main floor of the building, where the Conclave conducted its business and where, she was quite sure, no one from low city had ever set foot before.
Even as she realised that, a group of people came through the double doors and towards them at a jog. Hallie saw the director, a clutch of investigators, and what looked like the rest of the tac team, led by the commander.
“Frollo, we were just about to join you. Report.” The commander sounded tense.
“Sir, we need to evacuate the building,” Frollo said, standing straight as the commander approached. “We were in engineering section A and discovered motion sensors at the service door to the lift shaft. When we tried to gain access,someone dropped a bunch of grenades on us. We have armed hostiles in the building.”
“Grenades. Any injuries?” the director asked, voice sharp, concern clear as he looked around the group.
“A few scrapes and cuts. Nothing serious,” Modron reported with confidence. Hallie wondered just when the woman had been able to make that assessment while they were all running, but she had made it.
“How many hostiles?” the commander asked.
“Unknown. It would have needed only one person to drop the grenades, but we have evidence of two individuals entering the parking garage in a vehicle traced back to Findo Trask and Russet Welliver. They used a false ID of one of the security techs, a Brade Watkins,” Frollo said. “We didn’t see anyone in the parking areas or section A. Someone had accessed the lift controls in section A. We haven’t cleared section B.”
The commander’s brows were drawn together, gaze turned inwards as he absorbed the information Frollo had given him. No one around him spoke. After a moment, he nodded.
“Trask and Welliver could be anywhere in the building,” the commander summarised. “Roth, we need to call for a full evacuation.”
“I agree,” Peredur said, glancing over his shoulder to the Conclave meeting room, then turning back to the tac team. “With Welliver on site, we can’t take the risk of more explosions. Commander, you and your people clear and hold a path to the nearest exit. We’ll round up the Conclave.”
“The Conclave is already here, sir?” Girard asked, face reflecting Hallie’s own surprise.
“Yes.” There was a hint of irritation in Peredur’s face and voice. “Apparently, they all decided to get a head start on the day, so all of them, and their aides, are already in the chamber.”
