‘There’s no way.’
‘I saw it,’ Kade says, moving closer and watching again as the intruder faces up, slowing but not pausing before turning the correct way.‘He knows about the Touchtrail.’
‘This could be an insider.’
‘Then why not attack from inside?’
‘He knew how to read the Touchtrail, where to find it,’ Cole says, typing fast.‘No one’s ever—’
‘Flash him again,’ Kade commands.‘Brighter.’
‘Why isn’t the power out yet?’
‘Maybe it’s on a timer.’
‘There, flash himnow!’
The camera flashes and the screens burst with all different pictures of this man, but yet again he’s turned awayjustin time.
‘He’s almost to the hatch.’
‘Why hasn’t he dropped the power?’
They watch in silence as the man successfully reaches the hatch.
‘There’s no way,’ Cole mutters determinedly.
The hatch sits flush with the sewer ceiling; reinforced steel locked into a concrete collar by hydraulic bolts and sealed magnetically against upward force.There’s nothing beneath it to grip, nowhere to wedge leverage.You can’t cut through it, and the locks hold even under explosive pressure.
No amount of brute force on the planet will open it.
All three of them watch as he slaps something onto all four sides of the hatch, small and slender.‘C4?’Cole asks, squinting to see.‘That won’t work.’
‘That’s not C4,’ Finn says.‘No detonation cords and the placement’s wrong.’
Kade stares hard then glances at a different screen.‘Fucking hell.’
‘What?’
‘He’s using thermal warp.’
‘What the hell isthat?’
The thermal screen colours invert aggressively as a rush of heat is followed quickly by a flood of cold.‘He’s warping the hydraulics.’
‘I’ve never even heard of—’
The hatch unlocks.
‘Oh my God,’ Cole utters, horrified.‘He just… let himself in.’
‘Delta Team, take him out!’Kade instructs.
Through technology they hear gunfire and controlled yelling, watching the chaos unfold as Delta Team’s night-vision goggles stream everything that’s going down, but only for a few seconds, because then every single bubble of green and black bursts into searing white, and all streams go black.
Every single one.
The headsets are quiet and dead.
