Fiona turned back to the man standing between the stacks. “Where is the courier?” she asked. She began to walk forward, and she sensed Trayla right behind her, shockgun raised.
He took another step back and glanced behind him again, and Fiona decided she’d had enough.
If someone was lurking back there, it was time she found out who it was.
She ran at the Balcoan, silver rod gripped tight, and he threw himself down on the ground, putting his arms over his head.
Something came at her, a light so bright she lifted her hand to shield her eyes, and she felt, for the first time since she’d worn the bracelet, a faint shudder in the air around her.
She actually staggered back.
The sound of the explosion that came a moment later was earsplitting.
As she raised her hands to her ears, the stacks immediately in view teetered, and somewhere deeper in the warehouse something large and heavy—probably also a stack—fell.
There was a smell of scorched metal overlayed by other foul odors.
Fiona felt the nausea rise as she guessed what some of those could be.
Trayla stepped around her and stood over the Balcoan, shockgun pointed at his head.
As he turned on his side and looked up, he stilled at the sight of them both. “How are you alive? That was a laser cannon.”
“Who shot at us with a laser cannon?” Trayla asked, her voice a little numb.
“Petrie.” The man pushed himself up to a seated position but didn’t try to stand.
Petrie had to be dead. Either that, or he was incredibly lucky.
Fee angled herself to look down the line where the shot had come from, but it was a blackened mess and utterly dark toward the far end.
“Anyone else back there?” Trayla prodded him with the shockgun.
“No.” He lifted his arms as if expecting her to shoot.
“Where’s the courier?” Trayla bent lower and pressed the shockgun against the Balcoan’s temple.
“Up there.” The man jerked his head, and Fiona moved around a stack and looked right. There was a set of stairs that led up to a small room supported above the stacks by metal poles.
“I’ll check it out.” Fiona glanced at Trayla.
She nodded. “I’ll keep watch. Hurry, though.”
The noise of the explosion was sure to have attracted attention. She didn’t want to talk to the authorities so she didn’t creep up the stairs, she ran up them.
The door to the tiny office was locked but there was a keypad, and she simply shifted so her lens feed would show it.
“That was a battleship laser shot, if I’m any judge,” Eazi said as he went to work unlocking it.
“Maybe it’s a cannon for Paxe’s new Class 5.” Fiona wouldn’t be surprised.
“Maybe,” Paxe chimed in. “If you have time to go looking for what shot at you, please do.”
“I’ll try.” It was better to know what their enemies had at their disposal than not, but not getting caught when she was here without permission was a priority.
The door opened with a faint click and she pushed inside, unconcerned about an attack.
If the bracelet could deflect a laser cannon, she was good to go.
