Page 408 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘Is he secure?’ Riley asks.

‘For now, yeah.’

They head down to the Watch.

Riley locks both doors behind them, trapping Roman in his room above. Kade watches him carefully and sees him glance at the unused hatch in the corner of the Watch leading up to the flat roof.

‘You’re worried about them coming in that way?’ Kade asks, trying to anticipate his concerns. ‘It only opens from inside, but I can add—’

‘No, it’s fine.’ Riley looks away. ‘Boys, report on the tunnels.’

‘They’re gone,’ Cole says, shaking his head. ‘It was a controlled demolition using what we think were linear cutting charges fixed along the structural joints and detonated in sequence. The charges severed the reinforcement and brought the ceilings down.’

‘Both tunnel systems?’

‘Walkable and driveable are flattened,’ Finn confirms, bringing up the structural plans and marking a series of red points along each route. ‘They knew exactly where to place them.’

‘Have you pulled Mesh footage of the tunnels?’

‘Multiple times. There’s nothing there for the last few days. No skips, no flickers, no breaks. Whoever did this, I think it was a while ago.’

‘This was one of your people,’ Lachlan tells Riley quietly.

‘Maybe it was Seth,’ Cole suggests. ‘He did let a PMC in here.’

‘And he was on tunnel teams with Kade whenever there was an attack,’ Finn points out. ‘But we’re running a sweep of the whole Tower, searching for anything resembling those charges, and so far, nothing.’

‘What about the water?’

‘It has nowhere to go. The collapsed ceilings buried the drains, and the lake feed was designed to flood the tunnel fast. The garage rupture is below the lake line, so the water will keep forcing its way inside until the pressure equalises.’

‘How high?’

‘It should stop when it reaches the lake’s surface level. That puts every sub-level underwater, but it won’t reach the ground floor.’

‘Leaves us no way out but front gate,’ Kade says, looking at Riley.

They never come and go that way.

‘We were sealing off the tunnels anyway. Finn, I want a full three-sixty thermal Lighthouse sweep of the entire perimeter.’

‘Already on it.’

A tone sounds from Finn’s console.

‘Scheduled check-in from Céliane,’ he says. ‘Encrypted burst through the Last Light relay. Authentication matches.’

‘What’s her status?’

‘Team intact. No contact. Approaching the Estate.’

‘Good. Keep us updated on that,’ Kade tells them, looking at Lachlan.

‘Heard,’ the boys recite.

‘Let’s stay on dark band and keep running three-minute check-ins.’

Outside, the sun has set.