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But as we continued down the shaft, Annah found nothing but severed wires,
smashed-in pressure plates, and molten messes which looked as if they'd once
been electronic. Sebastian's nanite friends had done a thorough job of
eliminating dangers... which meant we made our way without incident,
descending story after story until we came within sight of the bottom.
As expected, both elevator cars had been locked in place on the lowest level.
That might have put us in a quandary how to get into the cars or past them so
we could reach the floor itself but Sebastian and Jode had solved that problem
for us by blowing out the entire shaft wall just above the elevator doors.
It must have been a massive explosion. The wall was poured concrete,
reinforced with embedded steel rods. The edges of the concrete were charred
black; the ends of the rods were half-melted blobs.
Annah, leading the way, peeked through the wall's ragged hole. She quickly
pulled her head back again.
"What do you see?" Impervia whispered.
"Bodies." Annah took a breath to settle herself. "I think they were Keepers;
they're wearing brown robes like monks. The Keepers had set up a reception
party outside the elevators plenty of guns, fancy ones, not ordinary
firearms and I suppose they intended to shoot as soon as the elevator doors
opened. But the doors didn't open; the wall blew out on top of them like an
avalanche. The Keepers didn't have a chance."
"Stupid of them," Impervia said. "They should have positioned themselves
farther back. Given themselves plenty of safety range."
Annah shook her head. "They didn't have enough room. When the OldTechs built
this place, they didn't think to put in a proper kill-zone."
Impervia tsked her tongue at such lack of foresight. I decided it was
pointless to mention this plant had been a commercial installation, not a
military one; Impervia wouldn't have understood the distinction.
Instead, I continued down the ladder until I could see the carnage for
myself. The room in front of me was lit with electric lights, very bright
after the darkness of the elevator shaft. The place looked like a formal
reception area, a spot where visiting dignitaries might gather before a tour
of the generating machinery: high-ceilinged, with an ample supply of plush
chairs and sofas. At one time, the furniture must have been spaced around the
room... but now it was all drawn up in a barricade near the far wall. The
Keepers had hidden behind that line, waiting to open fire. Unfortunately for
them, their defenses had been no match for exploding rubble heavy chunks of
masonry had blasted out of the wall, smashing through chairs and couches,
crushing the people behind. Male and female Keepers lay bleeding beside the
barrier, most with fragments of concrete piercing their skulls.
"Jode must have known they'd be waiting here," the Caryatid said.
"Either that," I said, "or Sebastian just looked through the wall and saw
them." I thought about nanites filling the air ready to transmit remote images
into the boy's brain whenever he requested. "If Jode asked, 'What's ahead of
us?' Sebastian could easily find out."
Annah frowned. "If Sebastian knew people were out here, would he really cause
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an explosion to kill them all?"
"Why not?" Impervia asked. "Jode has convinced the boy this building is
headquarters for the Ring of Knives. Filled with vicious criminals, and
commanded by Rosalind's evil mother who wants to interfere with true love.
Then, what does Sebastian see when he gets here? People with guns, ready to
shoot first and ask questions later."
"Don't forget," I added, "Myoko constantly warned Sebastian about groups like
the Ring. She believed all such organizations enslaved psychics; she'd have
told the boy he mustn't pull his punches if he ever fought them. Be ruthless,
show no mercy you know how Myoko talked. So even without Jode urging him on,
Sebastian would be inclined to rip through anyone who stood in his way."
"He wouldn't listen to Pelinor," Impervia pointed out. "And he won't listen
to us the next time we meet him. He thinks we're doppelgängers working for
Rosalind's mother. Bags of skin filled with pus."
The Caryatid gave a soft sound that might have been a growl. "We'll show him
it's Jode who fits that description. Let's get moving."
Annah went first, still on the lookout for traps. She stepped down to the
roof of an elevator car and walked to the hole in the wall. Since the hole was
more than two meters above the next room's floor, Annah seated herself on the
edge of the broken concrete, then turned and lowered herself as far as she
could, hanging on to the lip of the hole with her hands. She still had to drop
the last half meter: landing without a sound, her black cloak billowing.
That's when the Keeper stirred and lifted his gun.
It was a young man, plump and bald, with blood smearing his face from where
his left eye had been pulped by hurtling debris. He must have been knocked out
by the initial blast, then left for dead by Jode and Sebastian. When he woke
again, his first thought was to fire on the closest target: Annah. Maybe he
was so dedicated to the Holy Lightning, he wanted to spend his last breath
destroying what he believed was an intruder; maybe he just wanted to make
someone pay for his ruined eye; maybe he was so dazed, he didn't know what he
was doing. But he hadn't lost his weapon when the wall blew out on top of him.
All he had to do was raise the muzzle.
I shouted to Annah, "Down, down, down!" The Keeper fired before I howled the
second, "Down!" but I kept yelling, unable to stop myself.
Annah began to drop flat to the floor... then all hell broke loose.
The Keeper's weapon was an Element gun a four-barreled monster of overkill
invented by Spark Royal. The guns were rare, but my grandmother had received
one as a gift the day she was anointed as governor. She'd let me examine it
many years later: a big chunky rifle with four barrels arranged in a diamond,
one for each of the classical Greek elements.
Earth: ordinary lead slugs, shot at high-velocity.
Fire: a gout of burning gas like a mini-flamethrower.
Air: a focused hypersonic barrage, causing no serious damage but able to
knock out a charging rhino for hours.
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Water: a stream of acid, corrosive enough to eat through steel.
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